Alden the Pony Express rider

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

The two resumed their riding in advance of the company, and after a few minutes’ silence the guide, speaking with his briarwood between his lips said:

“Thar’s one thing that may comfort ye, younker.”

“What’s that?”

“Most of the companies that’s tramping ’cross the plains do as we done,—that is they don’t hurry, which ain’t never a good thing unless thar’s no help fur it. Them folks that ye want to see will stop to rest while we’re pushing on, jest as we done.”

“That being so,” said the pleased Alden; “we stand a fair chance of coming up with them between here and Salt Lake?”

“Yas; long afore we get that fur.”

“I am glad to hear you say that.”

“And I’m mighty glad that ye are glad,” grimly commented Shagbark, who proceeded to explain that the Laramie Range would be crossed some fifty miles to the south of Fort Laramie. A depression there made an easy passage through the rugged spur, whose western slope would be followed northward to the military post named. The same direction was to be held before turning westward again. This was the route of the trains and Pony Express riders, who followed the line of the least resistance as may be said.

By that time they would be well into the prodigious mountainous region which would confront them for a thousand miles or more, for it is the foothills of the Rockies. The present state of Colorado is traversed by the main axis or continental divide of the Rocky Mountains which there finds its greatest northern development. The culminating crest of the main range is the Wind River Mountains in the west-central part of the State, which is traversed by numerous other ranges, including the Big Horn in the north-central section, the Laramie Mountains already mentioned, the Medicine Bow in the south; north of them the Sweetwater and Rattlesnake ranges, and in the west the Teton, Shoshone and Gros Ventres mountains. The extreme northeast is penetrated by the Black Hills from South Dakota. The loftiest peak is Fremont’s in the Wind River Mountains, two and a half miles high, with others of almost as great elevation.