(The following story by Zoe Rose appeared on the Fallon Star Press website on June 29.)
RENO, Nevada — The posters, so they say, read “Wanted, wiry young men, preferably orphans, to ride 20 miles . . .”
Although no proof of that ad has ever been found in any research on the Pony Express, the image it conjures up is a true one–youthful riders who braved the elements and other dangers of the newly expanding West to bring the mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco. At that time, mail usually took a month by boat and about 24 days when carried by overland stagecoaches. Early Pony Express trip got it there in 10 days and later trips trimmed the time to eight or nine days.
Although the horseback relay mail service–which began on April 3, 1860– lasted less than two years, ended by the completion of the transcontinental telegraph, the Pony Express did prove to the East that the central route could be used by the railroads to bind the country together. Just 10 years later, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroad companies met in Promontory, Utah to form the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.
Today the spirit and memory of the Pony Express is kept alive by the National Pony Express Association, an all-volunteer, nonprofit historical organization for the purpose of identifying, reestablishing and marking the original pony express trail through the eight states it served: California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri.
For the past decade, Zip and Nancy Upham of Fallon have participated in the Association’s reenactment. This year’s took place a few weeks ago.
“We ride as a team, with one of us carrying the mochilla (saddle mailbag) for half of the way and then it’s passed off to the other person for the rest of the trip,” said Zip, who is the public affairs officer for the Fallon Naval Air Station. Nancy is the manager of the Churchill County Mosquito, Weed and Vector Control division.
Their assigned route took the couple from the Fairview historic marker in Dixie Valley on Highway 50, over Frenchman’s Pass to Sand Mountain, a distance of about 11 miles.
“It was hot, about 98 degrees but some years we’ve had to ride the route at 4:30 in the morning, with only moonlight to guide us,” he said.
“That makes it tough when you’re trying to avoid gopher holes.”
The relay is set up just like the historic one, with riders covering the miles 24 hours a day. It’s a bit of a challenge, he said, to judge just when you might have to take delivery.
“But, it helps that we get a bit more technological support here in Nevada,” he said.
“Besides the Pony Express hotline that updates where riders are, we have ham radio operators here who follow the progress and provide updates to us.”
Like the posters, the image of riders galloping hell-bent-for-leather and making skidding stops to change horses might be just a tad exaggerated.
“But it really was the style for one rider to come riding up to the exchange point for the handoff to the next rider who would mount up and take off,” he said.
“The mail was pretty much on the move continuously all the way across.”