Pony Express

On April 3rd, 1860, the Pony Express started. The

first rider named Henry Wallace left St. Joseph,

Missouri. On April 13th the last rider reached

Sacramento, California. To become a rider you had to

be a brave young man, and an orphan, because it was a

dangerous job. They had to be very good riders, and

able to shoot well. And they must not fear Indian

attacks. Every rider had to ride sixty miles at very

high speed. He had to travel the 60 miles with six

different ponies and in six hours. Every day except on

Sundays a rider left Missouri at 12 o'clock. The rider

in Sacramento arrived at 8 o'clock in the morning. The

pony express lasted only for one and a half-year. The

completion of the transcontinental telegraph line

between Missouri and California was the reason the

pony express ended. "Tele" means distant and

"graphein" means to write, in Greek. They could send

messages and news over long distance. The first

inventor of the telegraph was Samuel Finley Breese

Morse. Groups working to finish the transcontinental

telegraph meet at Fort Bridger in Utah territory. The

first transcontinental telegraph was sent from San

Francisco to Washington. The message was from the

states Chief Justice to President Lincoln. The

telegraph line only went as far west as St. Joseph,

Missouri in 1860. It was 2,000 miles from St. Joseph

to the West Coast as Sacramento, California. It took

over months for messages to be carried by ships, wagon

trains, or stagecoaches to reach California. They

needed a faster way for mail and messages to get to

the West Coast. A system of horse riders, called the

Pony Express was started. The riders would bring the

mail quicker. The first rider of the Pony Express left

St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 3, 1860. The stations

where the riders could stop were 10 to 15 miles apart

from each other. At some stations, a rider could get a

new horse. Each rider had to ride about 75 miles

before the mail was passed on to another rider. The

schedule allowed eight days for mail to be carried

from Missouri to California. The Pony Express was much

faster than carrying mail and messages by ships, wagon

trains, or stagecoach. The man who managed the Pony

Express system was Alexander Majors, from Kentucky. At

one time it cost $5 to send a letter weighing half an

ounce to California. Later on it cost $1 per half

ounce. The fastest Pony Express run was in 1861 when

President Lincoln was inaugurated. His speech for the

inaugural was carried to California in seven days and

seventeen hours. One of the most famous riders was

Buffalo Bill Cody. In October of 1861 the first

telegraph line was completed. It connected through

California. With the telegraph line, messages could be

sent in minutes not days. In two days, the Pony

Express began to lose business, and it ended. The Pony

Express riders had given the United States a vital

service for eighteen months. What Affects Did the

Transcontinental Telegraph have On the Pony Express?

By: Laura Simonetti 1003 "Pony Express", Comptons

Interactive Encyclopedia. Soft key Multimedia Inc.

1996 The Southern Overland mail where Wells Fargo came

to own a controlling interest was founded on Sept. 15,

1858 by John Butterfield. Butterfield was an American

Express Company director. The Overland Mail

stagecoaches went from St. Louis to San Francisco in

24 days through desert, mountains and bands of hostile

Indians. There were little Pony Expresses before 1860.

The Pony Express that rode its way into American

legend was started by Russell, Majors, and Waddell on

April 3, 1860. Russell, Majors, and Waddell had its

Pony Express riders travel over a central route 2,000

miles between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento,

California in ten days. If it did do it in ten days,

it would beat the time taken by Butter fields Southern

Overland to cross the continent. The Pony Express was

successful at a time, but it was a financial failure.

It lost its owners more than $200,000 in eighteen

months of its existence. It played a big role in

establishing rapid communications between the north

and