Name/Title
Deep In Pony Express Country News Article, 1960Entry/Object ID
AM1991.1.136Scope and Content
Deep In Pony Express Country News Article, April 10, 1960. Oklahoman Newspaper, byline: Kent Ruth
One hundred years ago was one of the Wests most exciting dramas as the Pony Express began. The Pony Express was short lived but intense. Some 1,975 miles to the west, a similar drama was unfolding. Rider James Randall left Alta Telegraph office in San Francisco about 4 p.m. that same April 3, The first mail each way was 10 days en route. The all-time record of 7 days 17 hours was set when Lincoln's inaugural address was carried. It bankrupted the company, even before completion of the transcontinental telegraph, in 1861, made horse-speed obsolete.
In the year and one-half it existed the Pony Express caught the fancy of an adventure-loving public and a generations of boys since have had their imagination stirred beyond reason as they relived the fabled derrin-do of those first riders.
Their wages were $25 a week, they faced danger and they took an oath.
In order for Majors to run his business he had to fulfill the government contract, some 190 relay and home stations had to be established and staffed with over 400 station keepers and horse tenders. The company bought 480 horses, kept as many as 80 riders on the payroll. One of the best known was William F "Buffalo Bill Cody who was signed April 1860 at the age of 14.
The article recommends the new Pony Express Stables Museum which opened on May 3, 1969. It is housed in the Pike's Stables from which Johnny Frye galloped away.
There is a picture in this newspaper of the life-size bronze statue Pony Express Rider which was dedicated at St. Joseph on April 20, 1940.Lexicon
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