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324 S State St, Ste 250, PO Box 45155, National Park Service Long Distance Trails Office, Salt Lake City, UT 84145
Phone: 801-539-4095
Fax: 801-539-4098
Open All Year
Overview. Established by the freighting firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell in 1860, the Pony Express was a short-lived, long-remembered effort to deliver mail and news to the West Coast in a timely manner. Since the telegraph and railroad stopped short of the Missouri River at St. Joseph, MO, carrying mail overland to California and the Oregon Territory, and to points in between, was a lengthy process. Since 1858 the Butterfield Overland Mail Company had been making the run in a record 22 days, the Pony Express cut that record in half. The first run began at St. Joseph on April 3, 1860 at 7:15 PM, and delivered 49 letters, a few newspapers, and nine telegrams to San Francisco (via boat from Sacramento), a little after midnight on April 14. Pony Express riders regularly covered the 1,855 miles between St. Joseph and Sacramento in ten days time. Riders averaged 33 miles each, stopping twice at established Relay Stations, placed ten to 15 miles apart, to change horses, a process that took no more than two minutes. At the third Relay Station, a new rider took over. Despite its aura of western excitement and romance, the Pony Express lost money from the outset. Delivery charges were steep (on top of U.S. Postal rates, a letter cost as much as $5 and a ten-word telegram, $6.90), and so were expenses. By 1861, only 18 months after its inaugural run, the Pony Express went out of business. Both the railroads and telegraph service had extended far enough west to make the ten-day run, so amazing only a year before, commonplace and too expensive. But the Pony Express had become a symbol of the vigor and spirit of the West, part of the lore of that exciting era. What to see and do. Pony Express National Historic Trail, established in 1992, is one of the youngest trails in the park service, and is largely undeveloped. The basic route runs from St. Joseph, MO, to Sacramento, CA, through Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada. The only pristine portions of the trail are short segments in Utah and California; the rest of the original trail has been erased by time or more modern development. In the west, many portions of the original route are now used as private ranch roads or, on federal lands, as jeep trails. The National Park Service is currently developing a management plan for the trail, and hopes one day to include 120 historic sites and 50 existing Pony Express Stations or their ruins as part of the trail. As of this writing, affiliated agencies and sites along the trail corridor include Scotts Bluff National Monument in Gering, NE; Rock Creek Station and Fort Kearney State Historic Parks, both in Nebraska; Pony Express National Memorial and Patee House Museum, both in St. Joseph, MO; and other historic Pony Express Stations located in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado. For more up-to-date information as the trail develops, please contact the National Park Service office in Salt Lake City, UT.
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