The Role of the Traitor
"The traitor-whose presence will be foregrounded if he exists, and invented if he does not-serves at least two purposes. First, he is a foil created to further heighten the noble…
The Custer Paradigm
"The Custer paradigm has nearly twenty segments, or motifs, within it. Yet the likelihood is that the creation of this paradigm was polygenetic; that is, each society, each author or…
The Vehicle of Liminality
"The train had other dramatic possibilities for use in folk and popular culture. It seems to have been for some observers in the nineteenth century in many ways like the…
Speed, Endurance, Commitment
"Though the range of these [Pony Express] stories is narrow, and the variants few, they are expressive of the public's perception of the Pony Express. Speed, endurance, commitment. Tales of…
Pony Express Role in the Central Route
"Some historians have spuriously argued that the Pony Express established the feasibility of the central route across the continent and hastened the building of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads. Alexander Majors…
Significance of the Pony Express
"At this point, any criticism of the Pony Express might be considered by many Americans as unpatriotic to say the least. Nonetheless, an assessment of the significance of the C.O.C. & P.P.…
National Pony Express Association
"In 1966, the National Pony Express Association (NPEA) was founded. This organization, with 700 current members, incorporated in 1978. Outside the United States, members also come from Germany, England, and the Czech Republic. In…
Pony Express Re-Rides
"[I]n 1923, the first re-ride of the Pony Express was organized. Sixty riders traversed eight states in a celebration commemorating the C.O.C. & P.P. Express Co. that was formed sixty-three years earlier. Authenticity…
Pony Express as Icon
"Though William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody demonstrated the Pony Express in his Wild West shows in the 1880s, recognition of the significance of the Pony Express came at the turn of the…
Paying Tributes
"As at St. Joe and in the west bottoms the emigrants had been pestered by 'dirty looking redskins' looking for handouts. These were the more shiftless members of the Kickapoo,…
The Elephant
"It was not the river alone which demanded its pound of flesh. 'The Elephant'—that fantastic name for the heaped-up terror of the trail—took its share as well. the horror of…
‘Tis Better Thus
"Perhaps, as the lady journalists of the fifties would have phrased it, 'Tis better thus.' If the hundreds of persons who kept trail diaries could have an inkling of the…
Alexander Majors’ Life
"Alexander Majors was truly a remarkable man in many respects. His eighty-six years spanned the most critical period in American history. Born ten years after the Louisiana Purchase and only…
Failure of Russell, Majors & Waddell
"It has been said again and again that the Pony Express ruined Russell, Majors & Waddell. That is not true. It was a failure as a financial asset from the…
Stage Line and Settlement
"In founding the [Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express] stage line, locating home stations, and opening regular traffic between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, Jones and Russell made an…