Pony Express
William Hunse, CIS-270
Help Received:
- Introduction
Over the past couple of centuries, communication has become significantly easier. Today, we can send a text message or an email and the intended recipient can see it instantly. We can call someone that is on the other side of the world and talk to them instantly. This was not the case one hundred and fifty years ago. In the 1800s communication was very slow and not as common. Sending a message to someone in another state could take weeks. Not only did communication take so long, it was also expensive for anyone but the wealthy few. The railways and telegraph system had not yet been made accessible for everyone. There was one method of communication in the 1800s that stands out; The Pony Express. The Pony Express was a system of riders on horseback that would deliver mail across the western part of the United States. They would ride for lengthy periods of time stopping at outposts to either get a new horse or switch riders when one got tired. Although the Pony Express was short lived, it was one of the most unique and successful methods of communication. This essay will describe the unique aspects of the Pony Express and why it was effective.
- History of the Pony Express
The Pony Express started in April 1860. Due to the Gold Rush in 1849 and the thousands of people that moved west of the Oregon Trail in the 1840s, a need for a mail delivery system was obvious. The need for a new mail delivery system was made even more prominent when the postmaster general at the time, Joseph Holt, moved the overland mail service back to California and to the central part of the United States. The Leavenworth and Pike’s Peak Express Company by William H. Russell, Alexander Majors and William B. Waddell was then created in April 1860 to answer this problem. This company later became known as the Pony Express. [1]
2.1
The route that the Pony Express riders would take started in St. Joseph, Missouri and end in Sacramento, California. The riders could make this journey in as little as ten days. This was the fastest mail had been able to travel that far up to that point. The company had an estimated eighty riders along with roughly four hundred horses. The riders were paid an average of fifty dollars per month. Fifty dollars per month was good wages in the 1800s. In order to ensure quick delivery, the riders would stop numerous times along their route at posts and change to a fresh horse. With fresh horses every twenty miles or so and new riders every day, the mail could be delivered quickly and efficiently. [2]
2.2
Congress passed the bill that authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to subsidize the building of a transcontinental telegraph system that would connect the country from the Missouri River to the west coast on June 16, 1860. The Pony Express had only been operational for ten weeks before this bill was passed. While this new method of communication was being built, the Pony Express operated normally and was unrivaled by any other competitors. When the Transcontinental Telegraph system was finished and San Francisco was put into direct contact with New York City on October 26, 1861, the Pony Express was official terminated. The Pony Express only lasted for eighteen months. [1]
- Conclusion
The Pony Express was created out of a need for a better and faster overland mail delivery system. The Gold rush in 1849 and the great migration of thousands of people west of the Oregon Trail in the 1840s made clear this need. The Pony express was created by William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell in April of 1860. Until the completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph System in June of 1861, the Pony Express was unrivaled by any other mail system. The Pony Express was an incredible accomplishment. The Pony Express was a revolutionary method of communication for its time. The Pony Express was by far the greatest way that mail had been delivered before the transcontinental railroad was built. Without the Pony Express, our country would not have been able to grow the way that it did. Although the Pony Express was short lived, it was one of the most unique and successful methods of communication.
- References
https://www.nps.gov/poex/learn/historyculture/index.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express