Pony Express Rider Character
Despite occasional refuge in hyperbole, it is easily discerned that even routine life in the saddle was poorly calculated to attract applicants from the skittish or faint-hearted, or from the pampered sons of…
Pony Express Rider Bibliography
Interest in individual Pony Express riders began in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when genealogists, antiquarians, and amateur and professional historians conducted research to determine such questions as who…
Cause of Express Riders’ Deaths
One of the greatest dangers encountered by the pony-express riders was from immigrants and others who mistook them for Indians. In those days it was shoot first and investigate afterward, provided the shooter survived…
Pony Express Riders
All the riders were young men selected for their nerve, light weight, and general fitness. No effort was made to uniform them, and they dressed as their individual fancy dictated, the usual costume being…
A Gallant Figure
A gallant figure, that rider of long ago! Young, for the wise heads of the company, realized that only to daring, reckless youth did such an enterprise appeal! Brave, for there were Indian…
Post Rider Description
One job description for the position ordered that "in the selection of riders you must always take persons of integrity, sound health, firmness, perseverance and high ambition, and pride of character. Among these…
Express Rider’s Clothing
The riders wore their own clothing, perhaps a buckskin hunting shirt or one of red flannel, cloth trousers, high boots, a jockey cap or slouch hat. There were no uniforms. They carried…
Pony Express Rider’s Tales
Unverifiable boasts are rampant in the oral tales—it seems like no rider ever spoke about his experience without claiming he rode the longest stretch or did it in the quickest time. (Length…
Orphans Preferred
One measure of what the job was like is an advertisement for riders allegedly posted as the service geared up: Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing…
First Pony Express Rider from St. Jo
ABOUT THAT FIRST RIDER: MOST HISTORIANS HAVE SETTLED ON FRY, citing the memories of St. Joe residents, which were recorded years after the fact. But Alex Carlyle is another strong…
Pony Bob’s Silver Strike
"Often through pure dumb luck a rich strike is made. Pony Expressman Bob Haslam's horse unintentionally kicked a chip of silver from the Reese River field while fleeing from Indians.…
Pony Service During the Paiute War
"By the fall of 1860 more than half the Pony Express posts between Carson City and Utah Lake had been destroyed by Paiute ambushes set in every mountain pass along…
Highly Dangerous Work
Whatever the pay rate for riders, carrying the mail was highly dangerous work. They worked in a hard unsafe environment, where many of them suffered and/or were even killed by accidental occurrences…
The Rider’s Horn
"Billy Campbell commented about another item provided, 'Each rider at the outset was given a horn to blow as he approached the station. This was to warn the station keeper…
Orphans Preferred
"Perhaps one of the most recognized 'documents' of the Pony Express is the advertisement for riders with 'orphans preferred.' It is the basis for comments by writers how orphans were…