1. The Pony Express
By: Amy Sadler
English 102
The mail must go through

2. A black speck appears against the sky, and it is plain that it moves. . . . Another instant . . . and man and horse burst past our excited faces and go winging away like the belated fragment of a storm. Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
goldmountaintrading.com
3. Slavery and the CaliforniaGold Rush
The Pony Express solved an urgent problem for the U.S. government. In the late 1850s political tensions had increased between North and South over slavery and other issues. The government feared losing control over mail along the Southern Route and contact with gold-rich California.
4. Three business partnersWilliam Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Waddellfounded the Pony Express as a private company.
5. The Pony Express was founded to compete with the regular mail delivery, which took six months by ship to reach the West Coast from the East Coast, and three weeks to cross the West overland by stagecoach.
6. The Pony Express mail service was set up under the name of the Central Overland California & Pikes Peak Express Company.
7. frontiertrails.com
To ensure Union control over cargo and mail carried between East and West, a route outside the Southern states was needed. The route was set up for travel from Missouri to California.
Length of entire route: 1,966 miles.
8. Benjamin Ficklin was hired as superintendent of all of the Pony Express Routes. Ficklin set up the route into five divisions and hired superintendents to run each division.
9. danthemantrivia.wordpress.com
10. The service opened officially on April 3, 1860, when riders left simultaneously from St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.
http://cprr.org/Museum/Maps/Pony_Express.html
11. The first rider was Johnny Fry. The mail was placed into a mochilla saddle, and at 7:15 pm a cannon was fired alerting everyone Fry that he was on his way. Cheering crowds waived at Fry as he made his way through streets of St. Joseph.
legendsofamerica.com
postalmuseum.si.edu
12. 13. Along
the
Route
kshs.org
14. Riders arrived in both St. Joseph and Sacramento with the mail. Proving the mail could be delivered in ten days, on April 14th the first round of mail was delivered.
www.sodahead.com
postalmuseum.si.edu
15. Pony Bob Haslam, a Pony Express rider, makes a historic run of 380 miles back and forth once between Friday's station and Smith's Creek station.
xphomestation.com
anchinfotech.in
16. On November 7, 1860, Pony Express riders carried word of Abraham Lincoln's election as President from Fort Kearney, Nebraska to Placerville, California in a record 5 days. This was considered one of the most significant accomplishments by the Pony Express.
illuminati-news.com
17. Frank E. Webner
Bronco Charlie
Famous Riders
www.eyewitnesstohistory.com
delmardustpan.blogspot.com
Wild Bill Hickok
Richard Egan
Buffalo Bill
digitaldeadwood.com
us.history.wisc.edu
www.eyewitnesstohistory.com
18. The Pony Express only operated for 17 months, in 1860 and 1861; it officially ended operation on October 26, 1861.
The invention and creation of the telegraph made a faster and cheaper method to send information across the nation, The Pony Express ended because of an advance in technology
davies-linguistics.byu.edu
19. 20. Were the RidersBy: Dave Rhodes
It's a thankless life we lead
cause nobody knows our names.
We are silhouettes on the hills
and shadows on the plains.
What we carry runs the nation
and we execute our duty well.
We're the Pony Express riders,
the boys that carry the mail.
We've been shot at and ambushed,
chased down and almost kilt,
soaked through and frozed,
survived heat that made us wilt.
The food is a little scarce
and the pay is hardly scale.
We're the Pony Express riders,
the boys that carry the mail.
We're all excellent horsemen
and the mustang is our ride . . .
the wilder and faster the better
to get the job done in stride.
An oath we all took in earnest
and made a promise not to fail.
We're the Pony Express riders,
the boys that carry the mail.
You could say that we are brave
and we have all been scared,
but mostly we're just too young
to know what should be feared.
Racing time and the telegraph
out here on the lonely trail . . .
we're the Pony Express riders,
the boys that carry the mail.
21. Bibliography
Carpenter, Larry. XP Pony Express Home Station. March 1993. 14 March 2011 .
Communications, Pheonix JC. Pony Express History. 2 July 2010. 14 March 2011 .
Comspark. Gold Rush Chronicles. 6 April 2003. 12 March 2011 .
History of the Pony Express. 2009. 13 March 2011 .
Museum, Pony Express National. Pony Express Historical Timeline. 2010. 18 March 2011 .
Pony Express Answers. 12 March 2011 .
Pony Express Historic Resource Study Guide. 12 November 2002. 18 March 2011
.
Service, National Park. Pony Express Historical Trail. 08 March 2008. 12 March 2011 .
The City of St. Joseph Missouri. 2010. 13 March 2011 .
Wikipedia. The Pony Express. 18 March 2011 .