Once upon a time...in the days when much of America
was still a vast, unsettled wilderness...
Image courtesy/Amazon.com
On this day in 1860, the first westbound Pony Express trip left St. Joseph, Missouri and
arrived 10 days later in Sacramento, California on April 14th. The letters delivered had been
sent undercover from the East to St. Joseph and never directly entered the U.S. Mail System.
Only one single letter from that first batch of westbound mail to California
is known to exist today.
Unfortunately, the Pony Express was not a financial success and went bankrupt
in 18th months when a faster telegraph service was established.
Nevertheless, this short-lived endeavor of transcontinental communications
proved that delivery of the mail could be established and operate year-round.
Although later romanticized in dime store novels and through radio, television
shows, and movies, the Pony Express remains a symbol of the gritty, self-reliant,
and courageous pioneer spirit of the men and women who set out to conquer
and tame the wilderness in the days of America's frontier past.
(1882-1945)
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