PONY EXPRESS & ALEXANDER MAJORS

On April 3, 1860, the Pony Express began operating when riders in St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif., left simutamously to transport saddlebags of mail between the two cities.

In today’s age of FedEx, instant messaging and Twitter, it’s difficult to image how isolated California was from the rest of the country. Fueled by the Gold Rush of 1848 and California’s subsequent statehood, more than a half million people had migrated to the Golden State by 1860. The population boom in the West and growing political tensions in the East that would eventually lead to the Civil War highlighted a critical need for faster communications. At the time, mail delivery between St. Louis and San Francisco took about 24 days.

Alexander Majors, William H. Russell and William B. Waddell, operated a freight and passenger service company that ran between Missouri and Salt Lake City, Utah. Hoping to secure a government contract to provide mail service to the West, they created the Pony Express.

Starting at St. Joseph, which at the time was the western most point for rail and telegraph service, Russell devised a relay system in which a series of riders and horses would travel 1,900 miles to Sacramento. Pony Express stations were set up about every 10 miles, which was the distance a horse could cover at full gallop before reaching exhaustion. Riders were changed every 60 to 100 miles.

“Didn’t the Indians bother you a good deal in those early days of freighting?” Majors was once asked. “They annoyed us some,” he replied, but the outfit was never attacked when I happened to be along. I was always extremely cautious, never took any chances of a surprise, and was careful to treat the Indians well on all occasions, which may account for their attitude toward me. I regret to say that they were not to be so considerate when I was absent, for many a good teamster lies buried on the Santa Fe Trail and on the plains between the Missouri and Old Fort Laramie whom the savages shot from ambush.”

The Pony Express proved successful at reducing mail delivery from 24 days to about 10 days. However, as a business it was a failure. The service had gross revenues of about $90,000 but was in the red by $200,000 when it ceased operation. Competition from other companies vying for government contracts and conflicts between Native Americans and settlers cut into the company’s revenues. In addition, Russell, Majors & Waddell were near bankruptcy when they began the Pony Express. The completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph line on Oct. 24, 1861 was the final nail in the coffin. Two days later the Pony Express closed.

Despite being in operation for only 19 months, the Pony Express has become as much a part of the legend of the American West as Billy the Kid and the O.K Corral.