In 1860 and 1861, the Pony Express delivered mail and packages from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco, a distance of roughly 1,800 miles. The first westbound trip left St. Joseph on April 3, 1860 and reached San Francisco ten days later.
The mail was carried by riders on horseback. Each rider rode a shift of up to 100 miles, changing horses every ten miles or so, depending on the terrain, which influenced the distance a horse could be expected to cover at a gallop. When the rider completed his shift, he handed the mail off to the next rider, who was waiting at a relay station.
In the most remote parts of the country, relay stations were built for the purpose. One such station was at Sand Springs, Nevada. Its remains are shown in the photo below.
Horses were vital to the success of the Pony Express and the survival of the riders. The floor plan of the Sand Springs station shows how much room was devoted to those horses, and how much to the humans who rode and took care of them. (The “telegraph battery room” shown in the plan was added after the completion of the telegraph.)
When a rider emerged from his quarters at Sand Springs and prepared to mount up, no doubt he scanned his surroundings. The photo below shows what he saw — nothing but desert, relieved by a mountain or two and possibly some hostile Native Americans. Little wonder that a recruiting poster for riders specified, “Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”
Famous riders included Robert “Pony Bob” Haslam. When he was carrying eastbound mail in 1860, Pony Bob found his relief rider at the Cold Springs station too frightened of Native American unrest to take the mail, so he continued on for a total distance of 190 miles. After resting for nine hours, he retraced his route. Returning to Cold Springs, he found the frightened rider had been right: the station had been raided and the station keeper killed. Pony Bob once again carried on. Despite being shot through the jaw with an arrow, he successfully reached his original starting point. His round trip of 380 miles was the Pony Express’s longest.
Another rider, Jack Keetley, once rode 310 miles without rest or food. When he finished that ride, relay station workers had to lift him from the saddle, because he was sound asleep on his horse.
William “Buffalo Bill” Cody also rode. He later popularized the Pony Express through his Wild West show.
During its eighteen-month lifetime, the Pony Express delivered an estimated 35,000 letters. It had competition, including the Butterfield Overland Mail, which also left from Missouri, but there was one competitor it couldn’t overcome.
The Pony Express closed on October 26, 1861, two days after telegraph wires reached Salt Lake City.
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Highway 50 follows part of the route taken through Nevada by the Pony Express riders. It passes both the Sand Springs and Cold Springs stations.