 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2012) |
National Pony Express Association (NPEA) is a non-profit, volunteer-led historical organization. Its purpose is to preserve the original Pony Express trail and to continue the memory and importance of Pony Express in American history in partnership with the National Park Service, Pony Express Trail Association, and the Oregon-California Trails Association.
The first re-ride of the Pony Express was held in 1923. 60 participants rode across the eight states that had originally made up the Pony Express trail: California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. [1] [2]
In April through October 1935, a Pony Express re-ride was held to commemorate the Pony Express' Diamond Jubilee. This date coincided the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Boy Scouts of America and 300 Boy Scouts were participants. [2] Pieces of mail carried by the riders were delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during a ceremony held on the White House lawn. [3]
The National Pony Express Centennial Association was created in 1960 and worked with committees within each of the trail states to organize and conduct a 100th anniversary re-ride. This event attracted state and national attention with included the participation of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the issuing of a commemorative coin by the United States Department of Treasury and the United States Postal Service. [4] [5]
In 1966, National Pony Express Association (NPEA) was organized and received official corporate on March 3, 1978. Its national headquarters is located in Pollock Pines, California. [5]
Since 1980, the National Pony Express Association had held a re-ride every year in June, [5] except in 2020. [6] NPEA members ride across the 1,966 mile route non-stop over 10 days. Beginning in St. Joseph, Missouri and ending in Sacramento, California (alternating beginning and end destinations yearly), riders carry commemorative mail in mochillas. [5] Each rider covers one to ten miles and must be able to change horses and/or mochillas in less than 15 minutes. [7]
Postal services were delayed following an avalanche that shut down U.S. Highway 50 between Whitehall and Kyburz, California on April 9, 1983. A contract was drawn up between the U.S. Postal Service and the National Pony Express Association in which riders agreed to carry the mail around the landslide for $2 a day. Riders from the California and Nevada NPEA divisions carried 60,000 pieces of mail (including tax returns) over six weeks. [8] [9]
On May 13–16, 1996, 325 National Pony Express Association riders from all eight state divisions carried the Olympic Torch during the Torch Relay for the 1996 Summer Olympics. Each rider covered 1 to 2 miles across a 544-mile route from Julesburg, Colorado, to St. Joseph, Missouri. The NPEA was the only group of Torchbearers who carried the Torch by horseback and it was also one of a few groups to carry the Torch 24-hours a day. [4]
Celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express began April 1, 2010. This year's annual re-ride will begin in San Francisco, California on June 6 and end in St. Joseph, Missouri on June 26. This re-ride is longer this year and will only be conducted during daytime hours to give local communities and state Divisions the opportunity to hold celebrations and memorial dedications. [4]
The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company.
The Oregon Trail was a 2,170-mile (3,490 km) east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what is now the state of Kansas and nearly all of what are now the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. The western half of the trail spanned most of the current states of Idaho and Oregon.
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about 1,600 mi (2,600 km) across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail followed the same corridor of networked river valley trails as the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, namely the valleys of the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers to Wyoming. The trail has several splits and cutoffs for alternative routes around major landforms and to different destinations, with a combined length of over 5,000 mi (8,000 km).
Butterfield Overland Mail was a stagecoach service in the United States operating from 1858 to 1861. It carried passengers and U.S. Mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California. The routes from each eastern terminus met at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then continued through Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico, and California ending in San Francisco. On March 3, 1857, Congress authorized the U.S. postmaster general, at that time Aaron V. Brown, to contract for delivery of the U.S. mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. Prior to this, U.S. Mail bound for the Far West had been delivered by the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line since June 1857.
The Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company was a stagecoach line that operated in the American West in the early 1860s, but it is most well known as the parent company of the Pony Express. It was formed as a subsidiary of the freighting company Russell, Majors, and Waddell, after the latter two partners bought out Russell's stage line, the Leavenworth and Pikes Peak Express Company. The stage line had made its first journey from Westport, Missouri, to Denver on March 9, 1859.
William Hepburn Russell (1812–1872) was a United States businessman. He was a partner, along with Alexander Majors and William B. Waddell, in the freighting firm Russell, Majors, and Waddell and the stagecoach company the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company which was the parent company of the Pony Express. His public life is one of numerous business ventures, some successful and some failed. While Russell, described as a good-looking man, lived the majority of his life on the edge on the western frontier, he was always more at home in the upper-class settings of the East coast.
Alexander Majors was an American businessman, who along with William Hepburn Russell and William B. Waddell founded the Pony Express, based in St. Joseph, Missouri. This was one of the westernmost points east of the Missouri River from its upper portion beyond that state. It was a major supply point for migrants and pioneers headed west to Oregon Country.
The Pony Express Museum is a transport museum in Saint Joseph, Missouri, documenting the history of the Pony Express, the first fast mail line across the North American continent from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast. The museum is housed in a surviving portion of the Pike's Peak Stables, from which westward-bound Pony Express riders set out on their journey.
U.S. Route 50 (US 50) is a transcontinental highway in the United States, stretching from West Sacramento, California, in the west to Ocean City, Maryland, on the east coast. The Nevada portion crosses the center of the state and was named "The Loneliest Road in America" by Life magazine in July 1986. The name was intended as a pejorative, but Nevada officials seized it as a marketing slogan. The name originates from large desolate areas traversed by the route, with few or no signs of civilization. The highway crosses several large desert valleys separated by numerous mountain ranges towering over the valley floors, in what is known as the Basin and Range province of the Great Basin.
John Fry Jr. was the closing rider on the first westbound Pony Express and later a soldier in the United States Cavalry who was killed in action during the American Civil War.
Johnson William Richardson (1834–1862) was a Pony Express rider. He was a native of Virginia and at a fairly young age he was shanghaied onto a seagoing freighter where he sailed the icy seas of the North Atlantic. It was a number of years before he found an opportunity to make a successful escape. He ventured to St. Joseph, Missouri where he was employed as a hostler by Fish and Robidoux in 1859. During that time he also rode race horses at a popular track on Sparta Road.
The Central Overland Route was a transportation route from Salt Lake City, Utah south of the Great Salt Lake through the mountains of central Nevada to Carson City, Nevada. For a decade after 1859, until the first Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, it served a vital role in the transport of emigrants, mail, freight, and passengers between California, Nevada, and Utah.
The Hollenberg Pony Express Station, also known as Cottonwood Pony Express Station, is the most intact surviving station of the Pony Express in the United States. It was built by Gerat H. Hollenberg in 1858, to serve travelers on the Oregon and California Trails, and was used by the Pony Express when it was established in 1860. The station is owned by the state of Kansas and is operated by the Kansas Historical Society as Hollenberg Pony Express Station State Historic Site. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
The Overland Trail was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American West during the 19th century. While portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as a route alternative to the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails through central Wyoming. The Overland Trail was famously used by the Overland Stage Company owned by Ben Holladay to run mail and passengers to Salt Lake City, Utah, via stagecoaches in the early 1860s. Starting from Atchison, Kansas, the trail descended into Colorado before looping back up to southern Wyoming and rejoining the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger. The stage line operated until 1869 when the completion of the First transcontinental railroad eliminated the need for mail service via stagecoach.
Trail Course is a rodeo event in which a horse and rider attempt to complete a series of obstacles in the fastest time. It combines the horse's athletic ability and the horsemanship skills of a rider in order to safely and successfully maneuver a horse through a series of five obstacles. The rider must remain mounted the entire time. It is similar to Trail competition at horse shows, but with emphasis on speed rather than style.
Jacobsville is a ghost town located in Lander County, Nevada, six miles west of Austin, on the east bank of Reese River, 0.7 mi N of US 50. Jacobsville was also known as Jacobs Spring, Jacobsville Station, Reese River and Reese River Station.
The protected areas of the Sierra Nevada, a major mountain range located in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, are numerous and highly diverse. Like the mountain range itself, these areas span hundreds of miles along the length of the range, and over 14,000 feet of elevation from the lowest foothills to the summit of Mount Whitney.