Pony Express rides again

Press, 6 May 1983, Page 13

Pony Express rides again

From

JOHN HUTCHISON,

in San Francisco

The Pony Express is back, and stamp collectors are riding hard to catch it before it goes out of business for the second time in about 120 years. When a recent giant earth slip blocked a major highway in California’s Sierra Nevada, it cut off a 65 km/h stretch serving several mountain towns. An historical society dedicated to preserving the memory of the famous mailcarriers of frontier days had been waiting long for such an opportunity. Its members are voluntarily carrying the United States mail to the isolated communities. Stamp and history buffs from far parts of the nation are sending hundreds of letters to be inked with a special cachet authorised by the Post Office Department. The original Pony Express was a 3200 km relay of hell-for-leather riders and tough horses formed in 1860 by a private company to cross the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada, from St Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento. California. Much of the trip was*

through hostile Indian territory and the riders, some of them teenagers, won a romantic place in the folklore of the American West.

Riders changed mounts every 15 or 20 kilometers along the route in those days and legend has it that they sometimes leaped from the back of one lathered mustang to the saddle on the next mount, to gallop away without setting foot on the ground. In a day before telegraph lines existed west of St Joseph, and letters to . and from California travelled by waggon train or by ship around South America, the Pony Express was a sensational improvement in communication. It declined when transcontinental telegraph service was established in 1861, and soon went out of business.

Nationwise publicity about the historic revival brought flurries of requests from enthusiasts seeking the special postmarks ahead of the imminent reopening of the road by the California Highway Department.