On October 24, 1861, the transcontinental telegraph cable was brought online, allowing for near-instantaneous communication between the east and west coasts of the United States for the first time in history. It was fantastic news for nearly everyone in the growing nation, everyone except the Pony Express. One of America’s most fondly remembered institutions, the Pony Express delivered mail and messages across the great expanse between California and the east, faster than anyone had done before. It was a massive undertaking involving hundreds of riders and horses and significant organization and risk, and proved such an evocative notion that despite shutting down just 18 months after it had sent out its first rider, the Pony Express is cemented in American memory.
It was a bold business plan. William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Waddell, partners in a freight company, saw the opportunity for speedy mail delivery to the west coast, which had a rapidly growing population due largely to the California Gold Rush and California’s subsequent statehood. The current fastest method, stagecoaches, took around 24 days to deliver a letter from San Francisco to St. Louis. By getting rid of the bulky coach and using fast horses with fast riders, they believed they could dramatically shorten the trip. They settled on a system where riders, who were required to be small and strong, would travel the 2,000 mile route in sections. At the end of each section, which were between 10 and 25 miles long, sat a Pony Express station where the rider would switch to a fresh horse and continue on. By employing hundred of riders and purchasing over 400 horses, the partners managed to get the trip down to as little as 8 days; 1/3 of the time it took a stagecoach.
The Pony Express was a major achievement in American communication. We take for granted today the relative ease with which we communicate over distance. Until the telegraph, which began experimental use as late as the 1840’s, messages could not be reliably carried faster than a human could carry them. With automobiles the stuff of dreams at the time, a chain of top-tier riders and horses was conceivably the fastest way to get a message where it needed to go. As part of a promotion of the Pony Express, the company arranged to reserve their best riders and horses to relay the news of the election of 1860 to the west coast. It was a monumental achievement that Californians knew the outcome a blistering 7 days following the election.
Given the outsized cost of assembling and facilitating the operation, the price to send mail with the Pony Express was high. They charged by weight, with a price tag of $2 for each ounce a letter weighed. This doesn’t seem like too much money, but considering the daily wage for a well-paid laborer in 1860 was around $1, the Pony Express was mostly utilized by businesses and the wealthier set. This also meant that weight and space was at a premium in the specialized mochila bags used by Pony Express riders. While at the outset of the Express service riders carried a horn for alerting stations of their arrival and a bible (mandated by one of the very religious founders), by peak operations the riders carried only a small water container and a revolver in addition to their mail.
Ultimately, the short-lived Pony Express was a financial disaster. The founders had taken out massive loans to cover the setup costs, all with the assumption that by creating the fastest mail route between the coasts they would win the lucrative government contract to carry mail to California. When Congress instead awarded this contract to a stagecoach company in March of 1861, it was a huge blow to the Pony Express. The official name of the company was the Central Overland California & Pikes Peak Express Company, often shortened to C.O.C. & P.P., which employees started claiming stood for the “Clean Out of Cash and Poor Pay” company. Without the government income, and with the transcontinental telegraph now open for business, there was no choice but to shut down. The Pony Express officially ceased operations on October 26, 1861, just two days after the first telegraph was sent coast to coast. The founders endured losses estimated at over $100,000, a small fortune at the time.
While the Pony Express lasted fewer than two years, it occupies a permanent place in American historical memory. The image of the intrepid rider carrying important news across the arid plains and snowy mountains in the face of constant danger and nefarious bandits is emblematic of the American will, especially so in the early days of the frontier. America was obsessed with overcoming the bounds of distance and nature, and the Pony Express was the physical manifestation of this desire. No landscape would stand in the way of efficient communication, and the huddled rider galloping through the countryside, while never as quick as a telegraph, is a far more interesting and vivid as a symbol of American determination.
