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Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you missed in history class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy. And Sarah, I

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Speaker 1: think our boss asked us to read a classified ad

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Speaker 1: for a new How Stuff Works position, didn't he Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Here those wanted young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen,

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Speaker 1: must be expert pony riders willing to risk death daily

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Speaker 1: orphans preferred. Oh wait, doesn't sound right, doesn't know. That's

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Speaker 1: actually a different ad. It's for the Pony Express. It's

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Speaker 1: a made up one, just f y I as often

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Speaker 1: as it's been printed. Katie didn't make it up, though.

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Speaker 1: And in the days of email, Sarah and I constantly

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Speaker 1: email each other, even though we sit in cubes right

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Speaker 1: next to each other. We often hear laments about the

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Speaker 1: death of the letter. And that's because, of course, letter

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Speaker 1: writing is a very romantic type of pursuit, and your

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Speaker 1: letters can get lost and perilous things can happen, as

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Speaker 1: Romeo and Juliet could attest. But if you wanted to

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Speaker 1: exchange messages in a fairly reliable way and do it quickly,

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Speaker 1: there was a mail service in the eighteen hundreds that

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Speaker 1: might have just worked for you the Pony Express. And

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Speaker 1: let's take a moment just to picture the life of

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Speaker 1: a Pony Express rider. You're a young, determined guy, and

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Speaker 1: you have a mission to traverse the wilds of the

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Speaker 1: West at breakneck speed to deliver history making news like

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Speaker 1: a Lincoln's inaugural address or the taking of Fort Sumter.

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Speaker 1: You have a very long way to go, and on

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Speaker 1: the way you might run into disaster, terrible weather, and

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Speaker 1: injury to you your horse, hostile Indians or thieves. But

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Speaker 1: this mission is necessary. So let's talk about why. So

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Speaker 1: we needed the Pony Express to connect the East coast

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Speaker 1: to californi Ania because California was quickly becoming a popular

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Speaker 1: place to live and with the gold and everything it was, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's got lots of good natural resources. It's

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Speaker 1: becoming a business destination as well. So having it stranded

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Speaker 1: all the way out there on the West coast is

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Speaker 1: not good for California or for the people back on

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Speaker 1: the East coast. Right as long as we can't communicate,

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Speaker 1: they're just in complete isolation. Also, in the late eighteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: the rumblings of an impending civil war were felt, and

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Speaker 1: the government felt it needed to be in contact with

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Speaker 1: those far away lest they accidentally get mixed up with

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Speaker 1: the South, say, and lines of communication need to be open.

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Speaker 1: So before the Pony Express, mail took a really, really

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Speaker 1: long time to get to the West coast, about three

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Speaker 1: or four weeks. And the route was incredible sounding. It

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Speaker 1: would go by steamship and then across Panama on horses

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Speaker 1: and by railroad, and then come back up again by ships.

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Speaker 1: So you can imagine what an effort to send one letter.

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Speaker 1: And we do have a stage coach system, but that

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Speaker 1: took forever to forever, as in twenty days forever. According

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Speaker 1: to the National Postal Museum, the citizens of Los Angeles

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Speaker 1: learned that California had been admitted to the Union six

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Speaker 1: weeks after it happened. They were essentially cut off from

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Speaker 1: the rest of the country. And we need to fix it.

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Speaker 1: At which point to enter Senator William M. Gwynn, And

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Speaker 1: he's very attuned to the threat of a civil war,

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Speaker 1: and so he suggests a news system, one that's going

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Speaker 1: to be faster and better than the stage coaches. And uh,

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Speaker 1: the men behind the Pony Express are all businessmen with

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Speaker 1: a lot of experience, and history sometimes paints them as

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Speaker 1: these tricky villain types, but that's not exactly true. We've

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Speaker 1: got William Hepburn Russell, who liked the finer things in

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Speaker 1: life and was later embroiled in an embezzlement scandal, William

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Speaker 1: Bradford Waddell, and Alexander Major Ers and our businessmen already

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Speaker 1: have a company that they can use to start up

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Speaker 1: this service. The jumps start from the Central Overland, California

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Speaker 1: and Pike's Peak Express company, which we all have to

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Speaker 1: admit isn't quite as catchy as the Pony Express and

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Speaker 1: has a good ring to it at all. And they

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Speaker 1: figure that if there's a war, their services will be

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Speaker 1: much more in demand and they can get rich. There's

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Speaker 1: also this really lucrative government contract that they're hoping they

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Speaker 1: can get. Whoever can set up a mail service and

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Speaker 1: take the business from the stage coach guys is going

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Speaker 1: to get a million dollars, and so our little group

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Speaker 1: of businessmen desperately want that million. So now it's time

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Speaker 1: to set up the Pony Express see if they can

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Speaker 1: win this contract. And they put their headquarters in St. Joseph, Missouri.

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Speaker 1: The idea is to get mail all the way to Sacramento,

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Speaker 1: covering Kansas and beyond, and the trail that their riders

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Speaker 1: will follow will cover about two thousand miles, and there's

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Speaker 1: two thousand miles are going to be interspersed with somewhere

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Speaker 1: between one hundred and sixty and one hundred ninety stagecoach stations,

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Speaker 1: and they're betting that the horses will need to be

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Speaker 1: changed every ten miles or so to stay really fresh

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Speaker 1: and to keep up that pace that will get the

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Speaker 1: mail there fast. And of course we'll need lots of personnel,

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Speaker 1: including riders, station hands and farriers. And perhaps we should

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Speaker 1: mention that they need to set up this entire operation

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Speaker 1: in two months, which is one of the first amazing

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Speaker 1: statistics about the pony. Very tight deadline. So the official

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Speaker 1: opening is on April third, eighteen sixty and the first

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Speaker 1: trip west takes about ten days, which is obviously a

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Speaker 1: huge improvement over the stagecoach route, and the riders greeted

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Speaker 1: by huge celebrating crowds. Everybody's glad. This is a new

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Speaker 1: era in in communication and talking about our riders, Mark

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Speaker 1: Twain called them the swift fan Ms of the Desert.

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Speaker 1: There were about five hundred horses that were part of

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Speaker 1: the Pony Express, and between eight and two hundred riders,

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Speaker 1: depending on which account you're reading. The horses were very

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Speaker 1: small and of different breeds, but they weren't actually ponies.

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Speaker 1: That's not completely accurate, and the app that we mentioned

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Speaker 1: uh wasn't actually ever circulated at the time of the Express.

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Speaker 1: But it's true that they really did need light riders

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Speaker 1: under a hundred and twenty five pounds or so, because

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Speaker 1: the horses are carrying mail and gear along with a

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Speaker 1: rider and they do have to be moving pretty quickly.

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Speaker 1: The riders were paid twenty five dollars a week, which

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Speaker 1: was a very handsome proposition, but it was well deserved.

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Speaker 1: After a one hundred and twenty five mile ride. Often

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Speaker 1: they were going seventy five to twenty five miles in

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Speaker 1: one trip with no stops. And this wasn't an ambling

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Speaker 1: sort of pace. They're riding really hard, but not actually galloping.

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Speaker 1: I think we all imagine them racing at top speed

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Speaker 1: across the West, but they're not galloping because that's a

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Speaker 1: really good way to break a horse's leg on rough terrain. Um.

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Speaker 1: But they had a lot of obstacles to avoid. You

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Speaker 1: another reason to not go at top speed. There were

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Speaker 1: Buffalo like back when Buffalo actually rode the West, and

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Speaker 1: they had a lot of rules from this company. There

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Speaker 1: was no swearing, which reminded us of our Vaudevillians. I

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Speaker 1: guess that means no son of a gun, no fighting,

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Speaker 1: no drinking. And they handed a bible to each of them.

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Speaker 1: All those supposedly those were later taken away to lighten

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Speaker 1: the load further, maybe take a pamphlet or something instead.

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Speaker 1: And their disputes about whether they carry guns or not.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, how surprising would it be if you

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Speaker 1: if you've got all these dangers out on the road

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Speaker 1: for them to be m attempted. Yeah, and some other

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Speaker 1: dangers were losing your trail when it was dark and

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Speaker 1: traveling through snowstorms. They did have places to stay along

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Speaker 1: the way. These home stations um into some accounts they're

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Speaker 1: absolutely disgusting, and according to others they were pretty awesome.

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Speaker 1: But part of our problem putting together a reliable story

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Speaker 1: is that our Express founders weren't into writing memoirs of

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Speaker 1: their business ventures, so it was left up to the

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Speaker 1: public imagination to fill in the details. So in case

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Speaker 1: you're wondering about how the actual transferring of the mail happened.

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Speaker 1: They carried all the mail in a mochila, which was

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Speaker 1: a type of leather saddle bag that could be really

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Speaker 1: quickly switched from horse to horse when one rider rode

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Speaker 1: into a station and either um finished his run entirely

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Speaker 1: or just switched horses. And um, it had all these

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Speaker 1: different pockets in it, and some of them were locked up.

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Speaker 1: They could didn't you say? They could only be could

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Speaker 1: only be opened at military station. Yeah, so maybe if

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Speaker 1: you have a really top secret government document, you don't

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Speaker 1: want it to get lost on the way. And um,

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Speaker 1: they actually wrapped the letters in oil silk, so nothing

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Speaker 1: bad what happened to them. And the backs also had

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Speaker 1: a time card just say you would know exactly how

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Speaker 1: fast the mail was getting to see you better hurry up.

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Speaker 1: It cost of five bucks to send a letter, so

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Speaker 1: only the rich and important we're sending mail diplomats and

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Speaker 1: bank officials for example. And later the price went down

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Speaker 1: to a dollar for a half ounce, which was still pricy.

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Speaker 1: But that's when the business was failing, which will discuss

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Speaker 1: a little bit later. We do want to talk about

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Speaker 1: some of the famous riders of the Pony Express. Probably

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Speaker 1: the most famous is Robert pony Boy haslum, which is

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Speaker 1: not We're not talking about outsiders here with pony Boy,

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Speaker 1: and he's known for his three hundred and eighty mile

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Speaker 1: ride straight through during which he comes across a station

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Speaker 1: hand who's been murdered by paiutes, and they had also

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Speaker 1: burned down the station, so I guess he was thinking

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Speaker 1: he better just keep on going facing imminent danger. He

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Speaker 1: was fearless, and he also carried Lincoln's inaugural address two

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Speaker 1: hundred miles and just over eight hours after he'd been

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Speaker 1: shot in the face with an arrow. Yeah, we're kind

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Speaker 1: of imagining one of those fake arrow hats, but it

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Speaker 1: must have been much more painful than that. Our next

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Speaker 1: one is Buffalo Bill Cody, who is of course known

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Speaker 1: for shooting a lot of buffalo shooting a lot of everything,

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Speaker 1: and setting up these Wild West shows, and he kept

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Speaker 1: the Pony Express alive through his Wild West show. Even

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Speaker 1: though he was never actually a rider, you will always

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Speaker 1: see his name connected to the Pony Express. And another

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Speaker 1: one who's in the same league is Buffalo Bill is

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Speaker 1: wild Bill Hickock, and again he may or may not

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Speaker 1: have actually been a rider for the Pony Express, probably not,

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Speaker 1: but either way, he was very famous for it and

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Speaker 1: uh again for shooting people. And yes, but nothing lasts,

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Speaker 1: and neither did the Pony Express. After eighteen months. It's

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Speaker 1: shut down in October eighteen sixty one. And we should

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Speaker 1: say that this whole thing was a financial disaster for

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Speaker 1: our business men. They didn't make a penny. In fact,

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Speaker 1: they lost a lot of pennies, two hundred thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: worth of them. I wonder if they had insurance for

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Speaker 1: this project, would hope, But I think they went bankrupt.

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Speaker 1: Um well. And the second thing that ends the Pony Express,

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Speaker 1: and I think we all know this is that new

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Speaker 1: technologies around the way. We have a railroad that crosses

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Speaker 1: the continent, and we have a telegraph system which makes

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Speaker 1: these reckless, expensive rides absolutely unnecessary. So how did the

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Speaker 1: Pony Express do all? In all, it lost money, but

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Speaker 1: it didn't lose mail. It said, only one or two

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Speaker 1: bags of mail were ever lost. And although it didn't

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Speaker 1: last long, in reality, it's lived for a long time

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Speaker 1: in the American consciousness. You've got this story of danger

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Speaker 1: and romance and the pioneering spirit, and of course that's

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Speaker 1: what we like, and people still ride the trail today,

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Speaker 1: so history lives. It sounds like kind of a fun

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Speaker 1: thing to do. It kind of reminds me of the

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Speaker 1: Natchez Trace and how this wild, dangerous highway becomes a

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Speaker 1: lovely scenic roadway. Well, I read another story about a writer,

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Speaker 1: a Pony Express writer who was killed and they found

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Speaker 1: his bag of letters later and one of them actually

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Speaker 1: made it to where it was supposed to go. But

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Speaker 1: that envelope is now at the National Postal Museum, if

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Speaker 1: you're looking for a tangible connection to the Pony Express.

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Speaker 1: And speaking of mail, it is time for listener mail.

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Speaker 1: Inappropriately enough, we're doing real mail today. First, we have

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Speaker 1: a really lovely original watercolor that's from Donna and Moldova

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Speaker 1: that was handmade by a local artist, and she also

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Speaker 1: wrote us a letter in really beautiful, beautiful plan writing

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Speaker 1: saying that she was a big fan and that she

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Speaker 1: recently moved to the Republic of Moldova due to her

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Speaker 1: husband's work and she was helping we could cover some

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Speaker 1: of those topics because it would be utterly fascinating to

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Speaker 1: walk the streets of the capital city listening to my

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Speaker 1: favorite podcast discuss the sites which surround me, so Donna

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Speaker 1: will add them to our list. In contrast to Donna's watercolor,

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Speaker 1: we have three postcards from Technical Sergeant Elkins who's based

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Speaker 1: in Kuwait, and one of them has a bodybuilder with

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Speaker 1: flames behind him, another has a ship, and another one

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Speaker 1: has hawk. So thank you for these lovely additions to

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Speaker 1: our wall of letters. Those bodybuilders totally going on the wall.

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Speaker 1: So if you'd like to send us some real mail,

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Speaker 1: please do. If you're more of an email person, where

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Speaker 1: at History podcast at how stuff works dot com, and

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Speaker 1: you can also keep an eye on what we're researching

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Speaker 1: and reading if you follow us on Twitter at Missed

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Speaker 1: in History or join our Facebook fan page, and as always,

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Speaker 1: check out our home page at www dot how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com. For more on this and thousands of

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Speaker 1: other topics, visit how stuff works dot com and be

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Speaker 1: sure to check out the Stuff you Missed in History

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Speaker 1: class blog on the how stuff works dot com home

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Speaker 1: page