Stagecoaches on Sled Runners
"During the previous winter [1860] the company tried sled runners, the Leavenworth Conservative of February 8 asserting: 'The Pike's Peak Express Company made the lost trip from Denver to Leavenworth on runners…
Delivering Mail Over the Sierra Nevada
"Also in late 1858, Chorpenning attempted to dispel the prevalent attitude among congressmen and the postmaster general that scheduled service was impossible over the Sierra Nevada in winter. Accordingly, he negotiated a $2,000…
Winter Bivouac
"In constructing the nightly bivouac each set of two or three men would dig a hole seven or eight feet square down to the ground. A bed of soft pine twigs was…
Gunpowder Seasoning
"During the twelve ensuing days the men continued to live on the meat of starved or exhausted horses and mules. As the salt supply ran out they discovered that gunpowder sprinkled on…
Marcy Expedition Crossing the Rockies
"Marcy offered the [Ute] chief the value of three horses if he would guide the party to Cochetopa Pass, the only feasible route in miles over the continental divide. But the Indian…
Cooke’s March to Fort Bridger
"Although the expedition's desperate march to [Fort Bridger on] Black's Fork had brought it to a satisfactory haven for the winter, Johnson's command was still not safely united. One detachment…
March to Fort Bridger
"When [Colonel Albert S.] Johnson at last joined the army [at Camp Winfield in November], he saw immediately that its present location would not suffice for winter quarters. Its only…
Assault on Salt Lake Via Bear Valley
"On October 6 [1857], Alexander called a council of war . . . [T]he men debated the best strategy to pursue. they could retreat to the Wind River Mountains, about…
Two Weeks’ Hard Going Through the Snowbound Sierra
What does "two weeks" hard going mean? "The first week of May, 1851, George Chorpenning, with a party of seven picked up 200 pounds of sacked mail at the Sacramento…
Winter in South Pass
"Two of Caspar Collins’s men froze at South Pass in early spring 1865, 'though not very seriously,' he wrote. 'I have just returned from that abominable section of country. Dr. Rich…
Winter 1858
"Hockaday could hardly have chosen a worse year to launch his enterprise than 1858. The storms that fall 'in the neighborhood of the South Pass and the Sweetwater are pronounced by…
Woodson’s Mail Contract to Salt Lake City
"Samuel H. Woodson won the first federal postal contract to provide monthly mail service over South Pass to Great Salt Lake City for $19,500 per annum on July 1, 1850. .…
Winter Delays for the Pony
"Facing its first real test of operating in the winter, the C.O.C. & P.P. Express Co. backed away from its normal operating schedule. The company informed the public that after the 1st…
Mules to Pack Down the Snow
"Bolivar Roberts [Division Superintendent in Carson City, NV] was worried. The success or failure of the Pony Express might easily depend upon its first run. . . .On the first…
First Run over the Sierra Nevada
"Critics of the central overland route predicted that weather conditions (especially winter conditions) along the route would cause delays for the C.O.C. & P.P. Express Co. Perhaps to avoid an unsettling beginning…