Pony Express Day 2024 is on Wednesday, April 3, 2024: what is a pony express?

Wednesday, April 3, 2024 is Pony Express Day 2024. Pony Express History‎ Pony Express Fast Facts, History & More! All From St. Joseph, MO.

The pony express was the way to get mail from the east coast to the west coast and vice versa really fast in the old west days. It only lasted about a year tho, before the train came along. A rider would gallop one horse/pony for about 20 or more miles, then he would stop at a rest station to trade horses, and continue on like this until nightfall, then he would stop and rest then continue on in the morning. And recently a man came up with Pony Xpression, Wayne Wolf of Marilla, New York. He takes messages to people, by horseback. He delivers flowers, wine, a ballon, candy, and a personalized framed pony xpression message is the most popular gift.

How fast did the pony express riders go?

The Pony Express consisted of relays of men riding horses carrying saddlebags of mail across a 2000-mile trail. The service opened officially on April 3, 1860, when riders left simultaneously from St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. The first westbound trip was made in 9 days and 23 hours and the eastbound journey in 11 days and 12 hours. The pony riders covered 250 miles in a 24-hour day.

The express route was extremely hazardous, but only one mail delivery was ever lost. The service lasted only 19 months until October 24, 1861, when the completion of the Pacific Telegraph line ended the need for its existence.

How did the Pony Express help early setalers?

Pony Express: A system of rapid mail transportation by relays of horses that operated from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in 1860-1861.It was abandoned when the transcontinental telegraph was finished in the fall of 1861.

Pony Express provided improved communication between east and west. Proved the central route could be traveled all winter. Supported the central route for the transcontinental railroad. Kept communication open to California at the beginning of the Civil War. Provided the fastest communication between east and west until the telegraph. Captured the hearts and the imagination of people all over the world. So Pony Express certainly helped early settlers.

More details:

The Pony Express was masterminded by a freight firm owner named William H. Russell. At the objection of his business partners of Russell, Majors and Waddell, Russell felt that mail service should continue on to the western United States from where the railroad tracks ended in the east. It was spring of 1860 and the onset of the Civil War was hindering the connections between the thousands of pioneers who were migrating westward and their counterparts in the east. The Pony Express would hire young riders and fast horses that could carry mail 1,860 miles in only ten days, less than half the time it took for a letter to reach California by stage Line.

The Pony, as it was called, started in St. Joseph, Missouri. The route traveled through the heartland, the rugged plains of Wyoming, down through Utah and on through Nevada to Sacramento, California. The business was successful for only 18 months however as the Transcontinental Telegraph was installed in 1861 making the Pony obsolete.Weber Station Pony Express Monument

Picture of Pony Express Monument, dedicated 2001The Pony Express Trail entered Utah through what was called the ‘Head of Echo Canyon’ near Castle Rock, Wyoming. Riders would travel anywhere between ten to fifteen miles between stops with no rests. The second station was called Hanging Rock located halfway down Echo Canyon. From there riders went to the Weber Station, or Bromley’s Station in the town of Echo.

James Bromley is a prominent figure in the town of Echo in fact he owned most of it and eventually sold all his land to one of Brigham Young’s sons for a mere $400.

Bromley ran the Pony Express division from the Pacific Spring (east of Rock Springs, Wyoming) all the way into Salt Lake City.

For the first six months of operation, the route had to travel up three-mile Canyon and down Parley’s Summit, which at the time a toll was charged to use the newly cut road. When spring snows finally melted and stations could be installed along a faster route, the trail went through East Canyon, over Big Mountain, and down Emigration Canyon into the center of Salt Lake City.

One of the buildings at Bromley’s Station, built in 1853, had stone walls that were 26 inches thick, most likely to keep rampant thieves from the U.S. Mail. When the building was torn down in 1931 the demolition crew found a five dollar gold piece dated 1847, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, a Pony Express Rider’s gun case and an old piece of parchment paper containing a love letter from a girl in the east to her sweetheart who was riding the Pony.