The Story of the Pony Express | Page 8

large part of this route traversed the wildest regions of the Continent.
Along the entire course there were but four military posts and they
were strung along at intervals of from two hundred and fifty to three
hundred and fifty miles from each other. Over most of the journey there
were only small way stations to break the awful monotony.
Topographically, the trail covered nearly six hundred miles of rolling
prairie, intersected here and there by streams fringed with timber. The
nature of the mountainous regions, the deserts, and alkali plains as
avenues of horseback travel is well understood. Throughout these areas
the men and horses had to endure such risks as rocky chasms, snow
slides, and treacherous streams, as well as storms of sand and snow.
The worst part of the journey lay between Salt Lake City and
Sacramento, where for several hundred miles the route ran through a
desert, much of it a bed of alkali dust where no living creature could
long survive. It was not merely these dangers of dire exposure and
privation that threatened, for wherever the country permitted of human
life, Indians abounded. From the Platte River valley westward, the old
route sped over by the Pony Express is today substantially that of the
Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads.
In California, the region most benefited by the express, the opening of
the line was likewise awaited with the keenest anticipation. Of course
there had been at the outset a few dissenting opinions, the gist of the

opposing sentiment being that the Indians would make the operation of
the route impossible. One newspaper went so far as to say that it was
"Simply inviting slaughter upon all the foolhardy young men who had
been engaged as riders". But the California spirit would not down. A
vast majority of the people favored the enterprise and clamored for it;
and before the express had been long in operation, all classes were
united in the conviction that they could not do without it.
At San Francisco and Sacramento, then the two most important towns
in the far West, great preparations were made to celebrate the first
outgoing and incoming mails. On April 3rd, at the same hour the
express started from St. Joseph[4], the eastbound mail was placed on
board a steamer at San Francisco and sent up the river, accompanied by
an enthusiastic delegation of business men. On the arrival of the pouch
and its escort at Sacramento, the capital city, they were greeted with the
blare of bands, the firing of guns, and the clanging of gongs. Flags were
unfurled and floral decorations lined the streets. That night the first
rider for the East, Harry Roff, left the city on a white broncho. He rode
the first twenty miles in fifty-nine minutes, changing mounts once. He
next took a fresh horse at Folsom and pushed on fifty-five miles farther
to Placerville. Here he was relieved by "Boston," who carried the mail
to Friday Station, crossing the Sierras en route. Next came Sam
Hamilton who rode through Geneva, Carson City, Dayton, and Reed's
Station to Fort Churchill, seventy-five miles in all. This point, one
hundred and eighty-five miles out of Sacramento had been reached in
fifteen hours and twenty minutes, in spite of the Sierra Divide where
the snow drifts were thirty feet deep and where the Company had to
keep a drove of pack mules moving in order to keep the passageway
clear. From Fort Churchill into Ruby Valley went H. J. Faust; from
Ruby Valley to Shell Creek the courier was "Josh" Perkins; then came
Jim Gentry who carried the mail to Deep Creek, and he was followed
by "Let" Huntington who pushed on to Simpson's Springs. From
Simpson's to Camp Floyd rode John Fisher, and from the latter place
Major Egan carried the mail into Salt Lake City, arriving April 7, at
11:45 P. M.[5] The obstacles to fast travel had been numerous because
of snow in the mountains, and stormy spring weather with its attendant
discomfort and bad going. Yet the schedule had been maintained, and
the last seventy-five miles into Salt Lake City had been ridden in five

hours and fifteen minutes.
At that time Placerville and Carson City were the terminals of a local
telegraph line. News had been flashed back from Carson on April 4 that
the rider had passed that point safely. After that came an anxious wait
until April 12 when the arrival of the west-bound express announced
that all was well.
The first trip of the Pony Express westbound from St. Joseph to
Sacramento was made in nine days and twenty-three hours. East-bound,
the run was covered in eleven days and twelve hours. The average time
of these two performances was barely half that required by the
Butterfield