Pony Express National Parks

The Pony Express: An Enduring American Legacy

Risky Business – Legendary Payoff

The Pony Express was as risky a venture as any taken on the frontier. Russell, Majors & Waddell had survived on loans made against its government debts since 1858, and the company was essentially bankrupt when it launched C.O.C. & P.P. Russell counted on winning the central overland mail contract to revive the company’s fortunes, but Congress adjourned in June 1860 without taking action. Russell tried to save the business by secretly borrowing bonds through a friend in a government agency. The story became public in December 1860, leading to a scandal and Russell’s arrest. He beat the embezzlement charges, but the troubles spelled disaster for the Pony Express. With the start of the Civil War in 1861 Congress appropriated money to support the overland mail, after the secession of Texas closed the southern routes. But the contract went to Butterfield’s Overland Mail Company not to the Pony Express.

Officially the Pony Express ceased operations with the completion of the transcontinental telegraph on October 26, 1861. The Pony made its last run on November 20, 1861. It completed some 300 runs each way over 600,000 miles and carried more than 33,000 pieces of mail.

The Pony’s achievements in spreading news and uniting the nation were significant. By early 1861 war between the North and South seemed certain. Whether California decided to remain in the Union depended, in part, on policies presented in Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address. The Pony delivered Lincoln’s March 4 message to California in the fastest time ever – seven days and 17 hours – bringing news that helped the state stay loyal. In April 1861 the Pony delivered word of the outbreak of the Civil War. Until the Pony’s last run in November 1861 it brought news of battles and lists of dead and wounded to anxious westerners.

In its 19 months the Pony Express captured the hearts and imagination of people around the world and marked a milestone in our nation’s communication system. The abiding fascination with the Pony’s story is one of its enduring legacies. The Pony Express lives on today – in books and movies and with thousands of people who love its history. Each year since 1978 the National Pony Express Association rides the trail in a 10-day, round-the-clock, non-stop event. More than 500 riders follow a 1,943-mile route that is close as possible to the original trail. Today Pony riders use shortwave radios and cell phones to spread the news of their journey.

In 1861 newspapers paid tribute to the Pony’s accomplishments: "You have served us well." The Sacramento Daily Bee bid "Farewell Pony!" and saluted the "staunch, wilderness-overcoming, swift-footed messenger" that had "dragged in your train the lighting itself."

History of Mail Delivery

For millions, email and the Internet have replaced letters and newspapers. But, how did we communicate 50, 100, or 600 years ago? Here are highlights of some key people, inventions, and technologies that changed how we spread the news.

1454 – Johannes Gutenburg invents a printing press with metal, movable type. The press enables the mass production of documents that spread news and exciting ideas of the Renaissance.

1769-1807 – James Watt perfects the steam engine. Benjamin Franklin becomes first Postmaster General under Continental Congress. Robert Fulton’s steamboat Clermont begins passenger and mail service on the Hudson River.

1830-1832 – U.S. rail service begins from Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, 16 miles west. Steam locomotive sets record speed of 30 miles per hour. Mail delivery by rail begins in Pennsylvania.

1837-1844 – Samuel Morse develops telegraphy, a method of sending electronic messages over wires. Morse patents dot-and-dash alphabetic code. First U.S. news sent by telegraph: Henry Clay is Whig party nominee for President.

1860-1861 – Pony Express begins mail service April 1860 between St. Joseph, Missouri and San Francisco, California. Transcontinental telegraph lines completed, October 1861. The Pony delivers last mail November 1861.

1868 – First successful telegraph cable operates between England and Canada, with land lines to U.S. Transcontinental news is delivered at speed of two words per minute, beating the next fastest method – 10 days by steamship.

1869 – Union Pacific and Central Pacific connect rails at Utah’s Promontory Summit. Transcontinental train service begins for passengers and mail.

1876-1877 – Alexander Bell invents telephone. Thomas Edison records and plays back sounds cut into grooves on a wax cylinder. First recorded words: "Mary had a little lamb." Eadweard Muybridge demonstrates high-speed photography.

1896-1901 – Guglielmo Marconi tests and patents wireless telegraphy (radio); transmits signals from England to Newfoundland. Proves messages can be sent on electromagnetic waves, roughly at speed of light. Valdemar Poulsen develops magnetic recordings, basis for today’s data storage on disk.

1903 – President Theodore Roosevelt sends first public wireless message (to England’s King Edward VII), sparking a revolution in global communication. Orville and Wilbur Wright take turns flying first motordriven airplane at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Last flight of the day: 852 feet in 59 seconds.

1906-1915 – Lee DeForest invents triode vacuum tube amplifier; makes possible long-distance telephone calls; paves way for sending voice by radio. Woodrow Wilson, calling San Francisco from White House, says, "It appeals to the imagination to speak across the continent."

1926-1927 – Sparton Corporation introduces electric radio. AT&T demonstrates television – team in New York hears and see Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover from Washington, D.C. Hoover says, "I am glad to welcome television as the latest product of scientific discovery."

1946-1948 – Researchers build ENIAC, the first all electronic digital computer with input, output, and memory; it has 18,000 vacuum tubes and fills several rooms. First live telecast of baseball’s World Series: New York Yankees beat Brooklyn Dodgers. Scientists invent transistor, setting stage for microelectronics.

1960s – "Live via satellite." Telstar 1, first active telecommunications satellite, ushers in era of real-time global TV transmissions. Department of Defense develops Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANet), and information networking system, precursor of the Internet.

1970-1980s – Altair Microcomputer Kit – first personal computer – is marketed to home enthusiasts. Radio Shack introduces first fully assembled personal computer with keyboard and monitor. BITNET (Because It’s Time NETwork) provides file transfers and email.

1990s – Computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee develops World Wide Web. Entire encyclopedia stored on CD-ROM. Wireless applications allow access to the Internet via cell phones. Instant messaging skyrockets. Millions worldwide use email and the Internet.

2002-2003 – In U.S. more email messages sent than postal mail. FCC reports 122.4 million wireless phone subscribers in U.S. Networks send more than six trillion bits of data per second over fiber-optic lines, about one million images per second.

The Pony Express National Historic Trail, authorized by Congress in 1992, is administered by the National Park Service and managed by the Bureau of Land Management, USDA Forest Service, other federal agencies, state and local governments, and private landowners.

To Learn About the History and Formation of the Pony Express Click Here

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