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What was it really like to ride for the Pony Express? In September 1861, the Weekly Trinity Journal of Weaverville, California, reprinted a short interview — first published by the Grass Valley National — with a rider on one of the longest runs on the line.
A page of an 1861 newspaper. Image from the University of California, Riverside
The route
The rider covered the stretch from the Goose Creek mountains to the sink of the Carson — 104 miles, "about the longest route on the road." His account, the paper said, "may be taken as a fair sample of the rest."
How the job worked
| Horses | each rider had absolute control of the horses on his stretch, kept in top condition by the station men — usually two per station. The horses were of Spanish breed |
| Handoffs | he could predict to within minutes when he'd reach the end of his run; approaching riders blew a horn about three-quarters of a mile out so the next man was ready |
| Clothing | buckskin suits with the hair left on the outside, so rain and snow ran off the naturally oily hair instead of soaking in and weighing down the horse |
| carried in four pockets under the saddle horn, next to the horse | |
| Pay | good, paid monthly, with provisions sold by the company at reasonable prices |
Armed for the road
The rider's defense, as the paper described it:
"Four eight-inch six shooting Colts are so arranged as to be half cocked, so that with the impression of the hammers, each is ready for its deadly work. These, and a knife of some eighteen inches in length, with mercury in a tube formed in the back of the same, so that when used the mercury rushes to the point of the blade … constitute the rider's means of defense."
The pace
Each rider rode about 100 miles per run and was allowed eleven hours — "and as much sooner as possible":
"therefore each rider has four hundred miles to ride every week in the short space of forty-four hours!"
Image from the National Park Service's page
The route is commemorated by the Pony Express National Historic Trail. The full 1861 page is on Chronicling America.
Sources
Based on "Weekly Trinity Journal Interview with a Pony Express Rider," Pony Express National Historic Trail, National Park Service, reproducing the Weekly Trinity Journal of September 21, 1861; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Quotations are from the 1861 article.
В изданияхPony Express National Historic Trail
Лицензия: CC0 1.0 (общественное достояние) · По материалам www.nps.gov
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