Skip to content
Pony Express Ride
  • Home
  • Route Info
    • Route Reports
      • Missouri
      • Kansas
      • Nebraska
      • Colorado
      • Wyoming
      • Utah
      • Nevada
      • California
    • Quick Facts
    • Online Sources
    • General Pony Express Info
    • Current Weather on the Route
  • Ride Prep
    • Scouting the Route in California
    • Scouting the Route in Nevada
    • Reading List
      • Articles
      • Books
      • Book Reports
  • Blog
    • St. Joseph to Salt Lake City: Daily Journal
    • All Blog Entries
  • FAQs
  • About
  • Home
  • Route Info
    • Route Reports
      • Missouri
      • Kansas
      • Nebraska
      • Colorado
      • Wyoming
      • Utah
      • Nevada
      • California
    • Quick Facts
    • Online Sources
    • General Pony Express Info
    • Current Weather on the Route
  • Ride Prep
    • Scouting the Route in California
    • Scouting the Route in Nevada
    • Reading List
      • Articles
      • Books
      • Book Reports
  • Blog
    • St. Joseph to Salt Lake City: Daily Journal
    • All Blog Entries
  • FAQs
  • About

Rivers

Upper California Crossing

The Upper Crossing of the South Fork of the Platte apparently went by several names including "Laramie Crossing," "Goodale's Crossing," "Morrell's Crossing," and later "Julesburg" or "Overland City," although Julesburg came to…

Majors on the Platte River Road

Alexander Majors of the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell termed the Fort Kearny route the best natural road on the continent and believed it the best in the world.

San Buenaventura River

Escalante could have reached [Great Salt Lake]  in less than two days' travel and that he did not make the journey is inexplicable. It is all the more so because,…

Platte River

Campbell's party reached the Platte well to the east of the forks, took the South Platte at the forks, and presently crossed to the North Platte. For a hundred miles the country…

First Trip Along the Platte River

In order to reach the interior West, the last untouched fur country in the United States, William Ashley had revolutionized the trade when the Arikaras and Blackfeet forced him away from the Missouri.…

Mile 238: The Narrows

“According to our maps, “the Narrows” was the next place of interest. It is mainly notable because, at this point on the Little Blue, the emigrants seemed to forget all…

Little Blue Valley

“For years Marysville, Kansas, marked the end of the truly settled country; but the Little Blue Valley, so, charming and so fertile, sheltered a sort of border zone of ranches…

The Big Blue

“Except under abnormal conditions the camp site under these old trees [by the Big Blue] was an oasis, comfortable and even luxurious with fresh-water clams from the river, berries from…

mIle 917: Fort Casper

Site of Fort Caspar/Platte Bridge Station, Fort Caspar Museum, 1847 Mormon Ferry, and Guinard Bridge. Fort Casper was a focus of 19th century emigration, commercial, and military activity. In 1847, Brigham…

Mile 753: Crossing Fort Laramie

"Most travelers approached Fort Laramie from the main Oregon and California roads along the south bank of the North Platte River. This required fording a tributary, the Laramie River, just…

Digger Indians

"And here [along the Humbolt River], if you were going to, you encountered the Diggers, their half-gram brains vibrating with the remembered murders of hundreds of kinsmen and with desire…

The Emigrant Trail

"In general, the route from Independence lay along the Santa Fe trail some forty miles, to the present site of Gardner, Kansas, where the famous sign pointed its finger northwest…

Drinking from Desert Wells

"the carson Route offered no advantage in crossing the Forty Mile Desert, though—in fact, it may have been worse. A few dug wells supplied some water ("intensely brackish, bitter with…

Period Rush

"As a channel evolves into ever more extreme loops, eventually two separate bends may approach one another and join. When this occurs, the river takes the shortcut and establishes a…

Rivers in the Great Basin

Scattter a few dozen stubby pencils onto a table. Turn each one in place so it points generally north or south. These are the mountain ranges of the Great Basin. Tempt…

Older Posts →

Quick Facts Tags

Army Butterfield Cholera Civil War Conflicts Descriptions Disease Emigration Finances Food Forts Freighting Geography Geology Great Plains History Idioms Jack Slade Legacy Lexicon Mail Mail Appropriations Majors & Waddell Mormon Conflict Mormons Native Americans Origins Oxen Paiute War Politics Pony Express Pony Express Mail Pony Express Riders Pony Express Route Rivers Routes Russell Russell-Majors-Waddell Schedule Slavery South Pass Stagecoach Stations Winter Conditions Women

Subscribe

Receive an email notice when I post a new blog entry on my Pony Express ride. Unsubscribe anytime.


 

Connect

  • Opens in a new tab
  • Opens in a new tab
  • Opens in a new tab

About

Scott AlumbaughIn early March 2020, I decided to bikepack the length of the Pony Express Trail in Summer 2021, following the Pony Express Bikepacking Route, a nearly all off-road route created by Jan Bennett. You can learn more here >

© Copyright 2023 - Pony Express Ride. All Rights Reserved
Search this website