Pony Express 155 years old
- Thread starter IM469
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i like the part,
'willing to risk death daily'
thats pretty much a condition that still applies in the workforce today for every employee and in every company..
'willing to risk death daily'
thats pretty much a condition that still applies in the workforce today for every employee and in every company..
Short of the armed forces in combat, for only a tiny fraction anything like that of the Pony Express.
Yes it exactly the same as riding a horse across a country where you dont see anyone for hundreds of miles, while bandits, hostile natives, and animals are after you. You dont sleep for days at a time. If your horse dies so do you. Oh ya and most of the riders we young boys in their teens. So ya I can see how you made that correlation.
Story I read while googling the topic: "Buffalo Bill Cody, who later became famous for his Wild West Show, was a rider for the Pony Express ... - at the age of 15 - to ride a section of the trail that lies in modern-day Wyoming.Yes it exactly the same as riding a horse across a country where you dont see anyone for hundreds of miles, while bandits, hostile natives, and animals are after you. You dont sleep for days at a time. If your horse dies so do you. Oh ya and most of the riders we young boys in their teens. So ya I can see how you made that correlation.
As I was leaving Horse Creek one day, a party of fifteen Indians 'jumped me' in a sand ravine about a mile west of the station. They fired at me repeatedly, but missed their mark. I was mounted on a roan California horse - the fleetest steed I had. Putting spurs and whip to him, and lying flat on his back, I kept straight on for Sweetwater Bridge - eleven miles distant - instead of trying to turn back to Horse Creek. The Indians came on in hot pursuit, but my horse soon got away from them, and ran into the station two miles ahead of them. The stock-tender had been killed there that morning, and all the stock had been driven off by the Indians, and as I was therefore unable to change horses, I continued on to Ploutz's Station - twelve miles further - thus making twenty-four miles straight run with one horse. I told the people at Ploutz's what had happened at Sweetwater Bridge, and with a fresh horse went on and finished the trip without any further adventure."
Let's see.. at 15 I had a paper route ....
Bronco Charlie Miller claims to have been the youngest rider for the Pony Express. One day in Sacramento, a rider was needed. Miller says his father told the stationkeeper his 11-year old son knows the route and helped him on the horse ushering him off. Miller said he was then hired as a rider. Miller, along with Pony Bob Haslam and other riders, would go on to work in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. He claims to be the last Pony Express rider before it shut down and did outlive all other riders dying at the age of 105 in 1955.
http://ponyexpress.org/pony-express-historical-timeline/
http://ponyexpress.org/pony-express-historical-timeline/
I wonder what $25 was back then
Sounds like big money for an orphan under 18
I wonder if there were any benefits in case you got shot, fell of your horse etc
2000 miles in 10 days over the mountains
The distance was divided into a series of relays 75 to 100 miles in length over which a lone rider would race, changing his horse every 10 to 15 miles before handing his cargo off to the next rider. He would then wait for a rider from the opposite direction to arrive, take his mail, and return to his starting point.
Any weight other than the mail the horse carried was kept to a minimum. A specialized, light-weight saddle was developed that had built-in pouches to carry the mail. Hazards abounded, including weather, terrain, hostile Indians and bandits.
Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody were riders
Sounds like big money for an orphan under 18
I wonder if there were any benefits in case you got shot, fell of your horse etc
2000 miles in 10 days over the mountains
The distance was divided into a series of relays 75 to 100 miles in length over which a lone rider would race, changing his horse every 10 to 15 miles before handing his cargo off to the next rider. He would then wait for a rider from the opposite direction to arrive, take his mail, and return to his starting point.
Any weight other than the mail the horse carried was kept to a minimum. A specialized, light-weight saddle was developed that had built-in pouches to carry the mail. Hazards abounded, including weather, terrain, hostile Indians and bandits.
Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody were riders
The telegraph killed the Pony Express - - sad to say it doesn't really rhyme with "Video Killed the Radio Star."
Correct. The Civil War basically stopped the service and the telegraph was invented by the time the war was over. According to wiki they made about $75,000 but lost about $200,000 so it wasn't a financial success, however letters that have the Pony Express stamp have become quite the collectors item as very few exist.
