Pony Express

Pony Express

On April 3rd, 1860, the Pony Express started. The first rider named Henry Wallace left St. Joseph, Missouri. On April 13th the last rider reached Sacramento, California. To become a rider you had to be a brave young man, and an orphan, because it was a dangerous job. They had to be very good riders, and able to shoot good. And they must not fear Indian attacks. Every rider had to ride sixty miles at very high speed. He had to travel the 60 miles with six different ponies and in six hours. Every day except on Sundays a rider left Missouri at 12 o’clock. The rider in Sacramento arrived at 8 o’clock in the morning. The pony express lasted only for one and a half year. The completion of the transcontinental telegraph line between Missouri and California was the reason the pony express ended. “Tele” means distant and “graphein” means to write, in greek. They could send messages and news over long distance. The first inventor of the telegraph was Samuel Finley Breese Morse. Groups working to finish the transcontinental telegraph meet at Fort Bridger in Utah territory. The first transcontinental telegraph was sent from San Fransico to Washington. The message was from the states Chief Justice to President Lincoln. http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/gen_act/travel/pony1.html The telegraph line only went as far west as St. Joseph, Missouri in 1860. It was 2,000 miles from St. Joseph to the west coast as Sacramento, California. It took over months for messages to be carried by ships, wagon trains, or stage coaches to reach California. They needed a faster way for mail and messages to get to the west coast. A system of horse riders, called the Pony Express was started. The riders would bring the mail quicker. The first rider of the Pony Express left St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 3, 1860. The stations where the riders could stop were 10 to 15 miles apart from each other. At some stations, a rider could get a new horse. Each rider had to ride about 75 miles before the mail was passed on to another rider. The schedule allowed eight days for mail to be carried from Missouri to California. The Pony Express was much faster than carrying mail and messages by ships, wagon trains, or stage coach. The man who managed the Pony Express system was Alexander Majors, from Kentucky. At one time it cost $5 to send a letter weighing half an ounce to California. Later on it c...

... middle of paper ...

...s staffed by 400 station men.

Twenty-five of the stations were for the riders to change horses. These twenty-five stations were called “home” for the riders. Some 500 fast, wiry horses were bought and 80 riders were hired. The riders had to be at least 18 years of age, not weigh too much or too little. They had to be strong. They sworn to be sober, descent in speech and gentlemanly in conduct. They had to be brave, because if they got attacked by Indians, and weren’t brave, they would try to escape and get killed. The famous sign for the Pony Express read: “Wanted- young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over 18. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 a week” Seventy five horses was used in each direction for a run. At every station, the rider would have two minutes to throw his saddle bags with the mail in it onto his next mount and race again. The first rider left St. Joseph on April 3, 1860 to Sacramento. The young riders usually survived attacks by Indians, blizzards, raging rivers and wild animals. The Pony Express ended in Oct of 1861. The reason of the ending was because of the completion of the first transcontinental telegraph line.