Speaker 1: Hey, folks, erin here. I'm thrilled to bring to your
Speaker 1: ears a bonus episode from my newest audiobook, Cabinets of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: This audiobook isn't just a treasure trove of stories from
Speaker 1: the podcast though which many of you have a joined,
Speaker 1: but it also includes new tales never before shared. Plus,
Speaker 1: the audiobook also features an exclusive series of conversations between
Speaker 1: me and fellow history podcaster and author Dana Schwartz from
Speaker 1: the show Noble Blood. In our conversations, we dive deep
Speaker 1: into the process of researching and crafting these stories, share
Speaker 1: our own personal perspectives on storytelling, and discuss why certain
Speaker 1: stories from the Cabinets of Curiosities stand out to us.
Speaker 1: To what your appetite for the full audiobook experience. I'm
Speaker 1: pleased to share a preview of one of the stories,
Speaker 1: along with a bit of our behind the scenes discussion
Speaker 1: right now, so kick back and enjoy up. Its legacy
Speaker 1: is as American as baseball and apple pie. Its writers
Speaker 1: were fast, famous, and fearless. It has been the subject
Speaker 1: of over a dozen films and television shows, and it
Speaker 1: became the foundation of one of the largest banks in
Speaker 1: the world. When it came to speed and reliability. In
Speaker 1: the eighteen sixties, you couldn't beat the Pony Express. As
Speaker 1: California began to boom from the Gold Rush, business owners
Speaker 1: and settlers needed a faster way to communicate with folks
Speaker 1: farther east. At the time, letters and packages took roughly
Speaker 1: twenty five days to travel by stagecoach, even longer if
Speaker 1: going by ship. The Pony Express more than half that time,
Speaker 1: with an average delivery window of about ten days. Not
Speaker 1: everyone used the Pony Express, though it was really expensive
Speaker 1: for the average person to send a letter at five
Speaker 1: dollars per half ounce of mail. The service was primarily
Speaker 1: used as a delivery method for newspapers, business correspondents, and
Speaker 1: government bulletins. Gold Rush hopefuls just couldn't afford the speedy service,
Speaker 1: and speedy it was. Ten days may have been the
Speaker 1: average time it took to deliver a letter, but it
Speaker 1: certainly wasn't the fastest. That record belonged to Robert Haslam.
Speaker 1: He earned the nickname Pony Bob for a very good reason.
Speaker 1: He was responsible for the fastest delivery in Pony Express history.
Speaker 1: Bob had come to the United States from England as
Speaker 1: a teenager, just as the Pony Express was getting up
Speaker 1: and running. He'd gotten his start by building depot stations,
Speaker 1: but was soon given a route of his own from
Speaker 1: Lake Tahoe to Buckland Station, a seventy five mile stretch
Speaker 1: of Nevada Territory all his own. In May of eighteen sixty,
Speaker 1: with his deliveries in tow, Bob traveled on horseback from
Speaker 1: San Francisco to Buckland Station, where he got a taste
Speaker 1: of a growing war. Civil war, mind you, but one
Speaker 1: that must have seemed equally as terrifying. The Pyramid Lake
Speaker 1: Indian War had found its way to Buckland Station in
Speaker 1: a bad way. The relief rider who was supposed to
Speaker 1: carry Bob's mail east to Smith's Creek was too scared
Speaker 1: to ride due to the growing Native American threat. Bob
Speaker 1: couldn't let the letters he'd been carrying go undelivered. He
Speaker 1: had a decision to make and quick, or his trip
Speaker 1: would have been for nothing. So he mounted up and
Speaker 1: kept going one hundred and ninety miles on horseback in
Speaker 1: just under nine hours without rest, and he made it.
Speaker 1: Bob slept all night before traveling back to Buckland Station
Speaker 1: the next day. Once he reached the depot at Cold Springs,
Speaker 1: he noticed the war had finally arrived. The station keeper
Speaker 1: had been killed, and everything inside had been taken. There
Speaker 1: was no time to stop. The longer he lingered, the
Speaker 1: more danger he was putting himself in, so he just
Speaker 1: kept going. Three hundred and eighty miles later, pony Bob
Speaker 1: had done it. He'd completed the longest round trip on
Speaker 1: record for the Pony Express in less than two days.
Speaker 1: Bob Haslam rode for the Pony Express for months following
Speaker 1: his record breaking journey, but the most important ride of
Speaker 1: his life was still yet to come. In April of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one, a very special delivery had to get
Speaker 1: from Fort Kearney in the Nebraska Territory all the way
Speaker 1: to Placerville, California. If it didn't make it, the fate
Speaker 1: of the entire country might be at risk, and only
Speaker 1: one rider was fit to carry such precious cargo, pony
Speaker 1: Bob himself. He picked up the bundle, tucked it into
Speaker 1: his saddle bag, and rode for one hundred twenty miles.
Speaker 1: His route took him through Pyute, Indian Territory, and as
Speaker 1: he traveled, he encountered a handful of braves who didn't
Speaker 1: take kindly to him trespassing on their land. One of
Speaker 1: their arrows found its way into his arm, while another
Speaker 1: flew straight into his job, knocking out several of his teeth.
Speaker 1: The attack didn't deter him, though, and his horse galloped
Speaker 1: faster until they were out of danger. He made it
Speaker 1: to California in just eight hours and twenty minutes and
Speaker 1: then delivered his package. You see, that precious cargo he'd
Speaker 1: been carrying had been Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address, which was
Speaker 1: to be telegraphed to Sacramento for publication up and down
Speaker 1: the West coast. And if Bob hadn't made it in time,
Speaker 1: California might have chosen to side with the Confederacy at
Speaker 1: the start of the Civil War. What's most interesting about
Speaker 1: the Pony Express isn't the roster of riders like Pony
Speaker 1: Bob Haslam or Buffalo Bill Cody, nor the blistering speed
Speaker 1: with which mail was delivered across the country. It wasn't
Speaker 1: even the dangerous conditions its riders faced, like mounting threats
Speaker 1: from the Native Americans or the harsh weather. No, it's
Speaker 1: that this company, which has such an enduring legacy as
Speaker 1: an icon of American industry existed for only eighteen months.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed this first gallery in our exhibit
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. I've loved revisiting each of these wonders, but
Speaker 1: no curator works alone. So I've invited my friend and
Speaker 1: fellow story steward, Dana Schwartz, to join us for some
Speaker 1: special bonus conversations after each category in the collection. Welcome Dana.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me here. And it
Speaker 2: is so much fun a to explore at these treasures
Speaker 2: and also just to be chatting with you. I am
Speaker 2: so excited to discuss some of my favorites with you.
Speaker 2: So want to start with Pony Up.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, let's do it.
Speaker 2: Okay, So something like the Pony Express, which has such
Speaker 2: an enduring legacy in America. I feel like this outsize
Speaker 2: like pop culture effect. It's insane to discover that it was,
Speaker 2: in fact so short lived. In your research, do you
Speaker 2: often find certain events or characters that have left disproportionate footprints.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very common. I feel like so many of
Speaker 1: the stories that are part of the Cabinet of Curiosities
Speaker 1: are They're the kind of tales that hinge on a
Speaker 1: snap decision or a chance encounter, you know, something that's
Speaker 1: it's seconds long. It's just it took somebody a heartbeat
Speaker 1: to think I'm going to go this direction instead of
Speaker 1: that direction. And those kind of choices often change history.
Speaker 1: They certainly change the lives of the people who are
Speaker 1: making them. But so many of the stories that we
Speaker 1: tell often come down to those little, insignificant moments, and
Speaker 1: I think that's what gives them power. It shows that
Speaker 1: for this brief moment in time, anybody can be historically significant,
Speaker 1: which I love.
Speaker 2: What is it about the Pony Express specifically that you
Speaker 2: think captured the American imagination?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think that we've got this Western
Speaker 1: mythology at play. People jump on horseback and they ride
Speaker 1: around and the you know, the wilderness, the why open
Speaker 1: expanse of the West of America, and it feeds into
Speaker 1: that romanticism a lot. Also, there's just the utility of it,
Speaker 1: and there's a human endurance element to it as well,
Speaker 1: like the fact that they rode so far and so
Speaker 1: fast it boggles the mind. And again it was only
Speaker 1: in existence for such a short time that yet in
Speaker 1: our mind we think it was this long standing, ongoing tradition.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the way that information travels has changed pretty drastically
Speaker 2: since the days of the Pony express. Since you study
Speaker 2: folklore and history and stories that have traveled over time,
Speaker 2: does the way that information travels influence the way that
Speaker 2: you think about stories in this book?
Speaker 1: It does. You know, I don't know how you work
Speaker 1: for your show, but I tend to see the older
Speaker 1: the story, the more caution I have to take in
Speaker 1: the relay of detail and information. You know, it's the
Speaker 1: telephone game, right, It's the game we all grew up
Speaker 1: playing with spur a phrase into somebody's ear, and then
Speaker 1: they turn to the next person and the next person,
Speaker 1: and by the time you get to the end of
Speaker 1: the chain, you see that it's altered in some way.
Speaker 1: And you know, the older stories have that element that
Speaker 1: time and distance from the origin point have altered the
Speaker 1: tail a little bit, so you have to go on
Speaker 1: with a bit of caution, a little skepticism. Of course,
Speaker 1: modern technology today has sort of eliminated that, and there
Speaker 1: are some cultures that were a lot more like paper
Speaker 1: record oriented than other cultures as well, and that comes
Speaker 1: into play. But yeah, it's we live in a very
Speaker 1: evolving world of information transportation.
Speaker 2: But luckily today we never have to deal with the
Speaker 2: problem of misinformation.
Speaker 1: No, no, it never happens at all. And there you go.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for tuning in and letting me share
Speaker 1: that with you. If you're eager to hear the full
Speaker 1: Cabinet of Curiosities audiobook, it's available on leading platforms like Audible,
Speaker 1: Apple Books, and wherever else audiobooks are found. Thanks for
Speaker 1: helping make this book launch a big success and for
Speaker 1: letting me tell you these stories. And until next time,
Speaker 1: stay curious.