BLM Land
"It was immediately clear that after nearly a thousand miles of travel across the trail we had found the one asshole in a hundred who lacked the hospitality we had found everywhere…
Government Road Building
"In places, the Lander Cutoff was a steep up-and-down ride, but the route offered cooler, high terrain and plentiful water, an advantage over the scorching desert of the main ruts to the south.…
Mile 642: Bridgeport
"After Bridgeport, Nebraska, the landscape changed dramatically, from grasslands to spare, dry sagebrush country, and the soil turned from sandy brown to pink. We were entering the magic, pastel geology…
Mile 1655: Rock Springs Pass
"Now comes the 2,000 foot climb up and over Rock Springs Pass, the highest point along the entire Pony Express Trail, higher even than South Pass in the Rockies, or…
The Antelope
Riding through Old Town Sacramento the other day, I came across a Pony Express memorial that somehow I'd never seen before. I happened to stop to adjust something on my…
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February 25, 2021
An Indian for Breakfast
"'An Indian for breakfast and a pony to ride' was their [105 men who volunteered under Major Ormsby after the killings at William's Station] slogan as the command started across…
Mile 1677: Egan Canyon
"Special recognition is given to this canyon simply because it is given so much notice by the literature. Egan Canyon was named for Howard Egan who pioneered Chorpenning's mail service through there in…
Mile 395: Cozad, NE
"In 1879 the explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell, later the director of the U.S. Geological Survey, established the 100th meridian as the "moisture line," often locally called the 'dry line,'…
Cholera Along the Platte
"The swampy drainage of the Platte extended several hundred yards from the main river channels. The expanse of standing pools of brackish water and salty, alkaline mudflats often began just a few…
The Oregon Trail
"There is such thing anymore as the Oregon Trail. There never was a single Oregon Trail. After Fort Kearny on the Platte in eastern Nebraska, some wagon trains hugged the north side…
Advantages of Mules
"The advantages of mules have been known since ancient times. Fully grown mules tend to have the height and musculature of their mother, while inheriting the leaner physique and more nimble legs…
Missouri Mules
"The early descendants of the Mount Vernon stock-tall, drafty, and weighing between a thousand and 1,200 pounds-were initially called 'American Mammoth' mules, but the breed name gradually changed as the frontier moved west.…
Pony’s Bob’s Account of His Ride
"Pony Bob” Haslam’s Account of the May 18 Express and Indian Attacks The following account was provided by Robert “Pony Bob” Haslam in Seventy Years on the Frontier, the memoirs…
Pony Bob Halsam’s Ride
"The first Pony Express rider going east after the attack upon Williams Station was "Pony Bob" Haslam, who set out for [from?] Friday's Station on May 9. If he was not aware…
Mile 1925: Edwards Creek Station
"Party and train decamped at 1 P.M., and continue northwardly up valley. After proceeding 11 miles [from Smith Creek] come to rapid stream of pure water [Edwards Creek], 2 feet wide, deep, flowing…