Pony Express Stations: How More Than 190 Relay Posts Kept the Mail Moving

The Pony Express depended on more than 190 stations strung across the West, usually 5 to 20 miles apart — closer or farther depending on how hard the terrain was on horses.

Where stations came from

• Existing stagecoach stations were used where they stood.
• Ranches on the route were used when they fit. In Pony Express days a "ranch" or road ranch wasn't a big cattle spread but a watering stop, small store, emigrant hostel or stopover — sometimes just a house whose owner would sell or trade water, food and goods to travelers.
• New stations filled the gaps.

They were built of whatever was at hand: sod on the plains, timber in forests, stone or adobe in the deserts, or dugouts cut into hillsides and roofed with timber hauled in.

Relay and home stations

Each rider covered about 75–100 miles a shift, changing horses 5–8 times. That relay system carried the mail across the country in record time.

The unsung heroes

The riders earned their fame, but none of it would have worked without the station keepers and stock tenders. Their lives were isolated, primitive and dangerous. Stations were attacked, horses stolen, buildings burned and keepers killed — especially after the Paiute War broke out in May 1860. In June 1860, the company, Russell, Majors and Waddell, suspended service between Carson City and Salt Lake City for about a month.

Stations by state

The route changed over time to suit ground, weather and circumstance, so not every station was in use at once; names also varied between sources. Of today's states, only Missouri and California existed then — the rest were territories.

Sources

Based on "Pony Express Stations," Pony Express National Historic Trail, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source's "Pauite" is corrected to Paiute.