I’ve produced a series of videos for the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA) about my 2021 Pony Express ride. There are ten episodes total. Each will go live once per week…
On the Pony Express Trail is set to be published on June 1, 2023. between now and then, you can pre-order a copy. A few links for ordering online are…
Bikepacking Roots is publishing Jan Bennett's Pony Express Bikepacking Guide. It was due to be out in January 2023, but had some last minute hiccups. It should be out soon.…
On the Pony Express Trail, an account of my bikepacking trip in 2021 from St. Joseph, Missouri to Salt Lake City, Utah, is due out from TwoDot Books in June…
Their goods [emigrants from Ottowa, Illinois], consisting of plows, scythes, clothing, and in fact articles of agriculture and domestic use of all kinds, together with arms, were taken, and are now…
I recently came across a Pony Express marker way off the Pony Express Trail. It sits in Rio Vista, California, and commemorates the New World, the river steamer that may…
. . . and, as I said before, they should not be made to travel faster than a walk unless absolutely necessary; neither should they be taken off the road…
In some localities 50 or 60 miles, and even greater distances, are frequently traversed without water; these long stretches are called by the Mexicans "journdas," or day's journeys. There is…
One of the greatest problems of the Bulletin and associated newspapers at this time was how to prevent the less prosperous and less enterprising papers from stealing their costly news dispatches. The…
Indian raids in the summer of that year [1860] forced the pony to suspend operations for a month or more, and news of Lincoln's nomination, which took place on May 18, was…
The Bulletin and Union had no sooner put their new system into working order than a further improvement in communication with the East made it more or less obsolete. This was the…
The two papers combined their resources to maintain correspondents in the more important cities of the East who were to wire important news to the telegraph point farthest west on the overland…
From 1849 to 1858 the California press depended on the Panama Mail steamers for its eastern and European news. A great improvement came with the beginning of the overland mail service over…
The four important centers of news for the Pacific Coast press before the establishment of the overland mail in 1858 were Washington, New York, New Orleans, and Panama.
A change came with the beginning in February, 1849, of the semimonthly steamer service of the Panama Mail Steamship Company between Panama and San Francisco. This first great improvement in communication with the…