INDIANS LYING IN WAIT
FOR THE “PONY EXPRESS”
TWO thousand miles of waste land lay between the western frontier and California and the long wagon trains sent out by the various companies did very well for carrying freight. But as the settlements grew in number there came a demand for a speedier method of communication by which letters and money might be sent to the Pacific Coast and other points. The long journey of the slowly moving wagons did not interfere very much in matters of freight, but the settlers soon realized that business arrangements and papers needed better and quicker means of transportation.
The great freight transporters, therefore, conceived the idea of a scheme for carrying letters at a much faster rate to San Francisco by means of a single horseman riding a pony at full speed. Their idea was that a man should mount a swift pony, capable of great endurance, and ride straight out into the open desert, where, at the end of fifteen miles, there would be a station with several men in it, who would have ready another fresh pony. This horseman was to slow up at this shanty, jump to the ground with his bag of letters, immediately jump on the fresh pony and ride fast and furiously for another fifteen miles to the next similar station. It happened that some of these stations were in towns and settlements, but more often they were on the bleak prairies or in the hills of the Rocky Mountains. This pony express followed the same trail as that used by the wagon trains, but since the wagon train stations were usually forty-five miles apart of course many more stations had to be built. A man who rode one of these divisions rode fifteen miles on one pony, fifteen miles on the second, and fifteen miles on the third. Then he began his return trip of forty-five miles.
Sometimes it would be easy riding over open country, then again it might be up rocky gulches or through forests difficult to traverse. Men of the hardest sort of physique and endurance were required, and the ponies had to be sure-footed and swift. The wages paid for this work were liberal, so the companies owning the route were able to procure the best men on the frontier.
Over the saddle hung mail pouches that weighed about twenty pounds. This was really a very small part of the amount of mail to be sent, but the ponies could not carry a heavier load, so to increase the number of letters and lessen the weight, people later wrote on tissue paper. Paper money was carried because gold and silver were too heavy and bulky. One of the enterprising eastern newspapers printed a special edition of their news on tissue paper for transportation only on this famous pony express.
It was an exciting time when the fast mail left St. Joseph, the starting place. At the moment of leaving a frontiersman came hurriedly out of the post-office, threw the mail bags over the saddle, leaped on the pony and started off at full speed, leaving a curious crowd to gaze wonderingly after his dusty trail. The average distance covered in a day by this queer express was two hundred miles, a speed of about eight miles an hour.
It took great endurance for these men to be in the saddle for seventy or more miles a day. But, endurance was not the only quality the rider needed. Over the whole route there was constant danger of being held up, either by Indians or by outlaws, who were eager to get the money that was often carried. So the rider had to be a courageous and skilled frontiersman who had keen knowledge of Indian warfare.