This Is Wyoming

This is Wyoming is the history of the state of Wyoming from the dinosaurs to the space age. It covers the events and people who helped build this great state and also shows Wyoming’s part in the winning of the American West.
Wyoming is a state filled with the traditions of the Old West. It is still a land of wide-open spaces and sparse population. A land of rugged mountains, rolling prairies, and sage-covered deserts. A land that abounds with wildlife.
I hope you enjoy this trip through the Cowboy State’s past and present with me. . . So let’s saddle up some gentle horses and start down the trail!

Book sample from Page 16: THE PONY EXPRESS

The ad in the newspaper read  “Wanted:  Small, daring young men. Orphans preferred.”  The job was to carry the mail horseback from Independence, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, across deserts, prairies, and mountains, much of it through hostile Indian country.

The Pony Express was the idea of a freighter named William H. Russell, who persuaded his partners Alexander Majors and William Waddell to go along with the venture.

One hundred and ninety relay stations were built along the route, 39 of them through Wyoming.  They purchased 500 of the finest horses available.  The riders chosen were small, wiry, and excellent horsemen.  The pay was good, but the risks were high.

They carried the mail in a saddle covering called a mochila.  It had two mail pockets in front and two behind.  The letters, which were written on thin paper, cost five dollars for half an ounce.
The Pony Express horses were changed every ten or fifteen miles, and the riders relieved at 75 miles.   The average time of delivery was 10 days, but a record time of seven days and 17 hours was set in March 1861 to deliver President Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address to California.

The endurance and courage of the pony riders were legendary.  One 14-year-old rider named William F. Cody, later to be known as Buffalo Bill, after finding his relief rider had been killed, rode a total of 322 miles between the Wyoming stations of Red Butte and Rocky Ridge and back in 21 hours and 40 minutes.

The Pony Express was short lived.  It lasted only from April 1860 to October 1861.  The transcontinental telegraph line put it out of business. But in that short time, the daring pony riders cut the communication time across the country from weeks to just days.  From all the letters carried by the Pony Express, only one mail sack was lost.