How the Pony Express Worked
The Pony Express was a massive undertaking. Here’s how it worked.
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain
When we were kids, many of us heard how important it is to dream big, set your goals high, and strive for your best. While this is good advice, it’s also important to remember that setting high goals can be risky business. After all, you don’t reach goals by just setting them. Goals are the ending point, and the time from setting the goal to the time of achievement can be filled with hard work and sacrifice. The higher the goal, the more work and sacrifice that will likely be required. This reality shouldn’t stop somebody from setting high goals. On the other hand, it should encourage people to set high goals and then remember to work like crazy to reach them. In that regard, the Pony Express would certainly be considered a lofty goal.
The Pony Express was one of the most ambitious undertakings of the 19th century. It was dreamed up at a time when America was struggling in the midst of a rapid expansion as a response to some growing pains. It was a massive undertaking, and although it was not long-lived, it was an endeavor meant to symbolize the potential that America could realize.
History of the Pony Express
In our modern world, we don’t fully appreciate the limits distance has always placed on societies. Traditionally, distance was a major barrier to how vast an empire could expand. This problem faced many conquerors in world history including Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and the Romans. In a world before steam power, travel was just too slow for people from a geographically large area to form the sort of enduring bonds that create a strong society. In fact, when the United States Constitution was written, one major objection was the idea that the nation was simply too large to be one country. James Madison touched on this topic in Federalist Paper #14. It’s important to realize that at this time what constituted the United States was only what in the Eastern time zone today.
During the middle part of the 19th century, America experienced a rapid phase of growth commonly called Manifest Destiny. Perhaps the greatest event during this period was the immigration over the Oregon Trail. During a roughly 20 year period, over 400,000 people are thought to have come west on the popular road. By 1860 there were enough people in Oregon and California to be admitted as states to the union. While this had its benefits, it did pose many challenges as well. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges was how to keep these two new states in communication with those in the east.
Image via wikicommons.
Linking the Nation
Due to the population expansion previously noted, there was a great demand for a service to link people in the east and west. While there were a few different examples of people trying to meet this demand, perhaps the most successful was the Butterfield Overland Mail Company. . Opened in 1858, the Butterfield Overland Mail Co. carried mail from St. Louis, Missouri to San Francisco, California. The route it took was often referred to as the “Oxbow Route” because of the shape of its course. From St. Louis, the mail swung south and west through Missouri, Indian Territory, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, before turning back north toward San Francisco. Although the trip took 25 days, it was a remarkalbe achievement. Keep in mind, it took Oregon Trail travelers around six months to make a similar trip.
Although the Butterfield Overland Mail Co. was a success, there were those who felt the Oxbow Route could be improved upon. One group of men who thought they could do better was the company know as Majors, Russell, & Waddell.
Majors, Russell, and Waddell was a company that had made fortunes hauling freight across the plains to the western cities that were popping up like mushrooms. Formed in 1854, the company had established a solid relationship with the US government and had a strong foundation of knowledge about western travel. When approached about creating a faster mail service, they decided to take a huge financial risk and establish what would be known as the Pony Express.
Origins of the Pony Express
In his book 70 Years on the Frontier, Alexander Majors himself describes the origins of the Pony Expres like this:
“…the requirements of California demanded a more direct route, which would make quicker passage than could be made on such a circuitous route as the Butterfield line.
“Knowing that Russell, Majors & Waddell were running a daily stage between the Missouri River and Salt Lake City, and that they were also heavily engaged in the transportation of Government stores on the same line, he asked Mr. Russell if his company could not be induced to start a pony express, to run over its stage line to Salt Lake City, and from thence to Sacramento; his object being to test the practicability of crossing the Sierra Nevadas, as well as the Rocky Mountains, with a daily line of communication.”
The company took on the challenge, and in 1860 Johnny Fry made his legendary first ride for the Pony Express.
How the Pony Express Worked
In reality, from the time Russell, Majors, & Waddell accepted the challenge, to the first tide, there was quite a lot of work involved. Part of this work went into the building of stations.
During this time, all of the overland services used a series of stations as locations to switch out their tired animals for fresh ones. Some of these stations had to be constructed, while others were already built. For example, road ranches had long been built along the Platte River in Nebraska to serve the passing trail traffic. Instead of building a new station, the company would just work out a deal with the ranch to serve their needs as well. In places where there were no stations, then the company had to build their own.
Before the Pony Express, Majors, Russell, & Waddell already had a series of stations from St. Joespn, Missouri to Salt Lake City to serve their stageoaches. Now it had to build new stations linking Salt Lake and Sacramento. While geography ultimately dictated how far apart the stations were, most were generally 12 to 15 miles apart.
When trying to understand Pony Express stations, it helps to remember there were two types. The most common stations were called swing stations. These stations were usually operated by one person and were places where a rider would come in, change horses, and then ride to the next station. Riders seldom stopped for more than a few minutes at a time. The other stations were home stations. Home stations had more employees and served as the homes for the riders between their mail runs. According to Majors, the Pony Express ended up with, “about one hundred and ninety stations” when all was said and done. Once you understand the Pony Express was linked with stations, you can better understand how the mail switch was made.
The method for changing mail along the line was rather ingenious and focused around a specially designed leather covering called a mochila. The mochila consisted of a square piece of leather that had four pockets sewn into each corner. These pockets carried the mail and were fitted with small locks while the mail was in route. The mochila also had two slits cut into it. One was cut from the front and was designed to slide over the saddle horn, while the other was near the rear and was designed to slide over the cantle of the saddle. Since the saddles were all the same, the mochila could simply be removed from one saddle, and placed on another. As long as the rider stayed in the seat, there was no fear that the mail would be lost.
This drawing from the time period shows a mochila sitting on top of the saddle. This simple device was an important tool that allowed the Pony Express to operate as quickly as it did.
When a rider left his home station with the mail, he would ride his horse at a fast pace toward the first swing station along his route. At the swing station, the station keeper was expected to have a horse saddled and waiting. When the rider came in, he simply dismounted, picked the mochila off his saddle, placed it on the saddle of the fresh horse, climbed on the horse, and rode to the next swing station. The whole exchange was supposed to take less than two minutes. Most riders would make between three and four switches before arriving at the next home station. At the home station, the mail was passed to a new rider who continued it down the trail. In this way, the Pony Express was able to carry mail across the country in about 10 days.
Coming and Going of the Pony Express by Fredrick Remington. Via wikicommons.
Although this system did provide remarkably fast mail service across the 1,800 miles, it did require a large number of horses and riders. Majors estimated the Pony Express required, “between four or five hundred horses…two hundred men for station-keepers, and eighty riders.” It was a massive undertaking and was popularized even during its own existence. Later in his book, Majors noted:
“As anticipated, the amount of business transacted over this line was not sufficient to pay one-tenth of the expenses, to say nothing about the amount of capital invested. In this, however, we were not disappointed, for we knew, as stated in the outset, that it could not be made a paying institution, and was undertaken solely to prove that the route over which it ran could be made a permanent thoroughfare for travel at all seasons of the year, proving, as far as the paramount object was concerned, a complete success.”
If you are reading History of the West with Sam Payne: Pony Boy, hopefully, you now have a better sense of how the Pony Express worked. Although it operated for only around 18 months, the Pony Express certainly left a lasting legacy in American history. If nothing else, it proved to the growing nation what it was capable of. It was an ambitious goal and required a tremendous amount of work and sacrifice like most worthy goals normally do.
