Today I Found Out:
Given that most have still heard of the Pony Express today, unlike so many other messaging companies long gone, you may think that the Pony Express was once an integral part of communication between the East and West in the United States. It turns out, this was never the case and the Pony Express was around only for an extremely short amount of time.
I love these stories of how things were done “in the old days”. One of my favourite non-fiction books is “American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age” about the first US government sponsored cross country trip. Future President Eisenhower was a member of the group.
I love reading about inventions and innovations in early transportation and specifically airplanes and automobiles. The number of garage based startups was incredible and the patent fights of today remind me eerily of the ones in the early 1900’s.
Also, most people in the Old West did not wear cowboy hats. They wore the European hats they arrived in. And guns were not allowed in most Old West towns, and especially not in the saloons.
I worked in the Pony Express’s hometown, St. Joseph, MO, for nine years at the newspaper. One of the senior reporters, Gry Chillcoat, was the manager of the Patee House, the hotel where the Pony Express was based. The stable was just down the street. It is quite a story and it is interesting that it lasted only 18 months before being killed off by the telegraph.
I believe a few of the TV shows about the Pony Express lasted longer than the subject of those shows! I highly recommend visiting the Patee House and the stables if you’re ever in the area.