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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The first re-ride of the Pony Express was held in 1923. 60 participants rode across the eight states that had originally made up the Pony Express trail: California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri.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 between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company.
Pollock Pines is a census-designated place (CDP) in El Dorado County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. Pollock Pines lies at an elevation of 3,980 feet (1,210 m) in the Sierra Nevada. The population was 7,112 at the 2020 census, up from 6,871 at the 2010 census.
Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of the use of postage stamps and covers and associated postal artifacts illustrating historical episodes in the development of postal systems. The term is attributed to Robson Lowe, a professional philatelist, stamp dealer and stamp auctioneer, who made the first organised study of the subject in the 1930s and described philatelists as "students of science", but postal historians as "students of humanity". More precisely, philatelists describe postal history as the study of rates, routes, markings, and means.
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 Missouri Fox Trotter is a horse breed that originated in the state of Missouri in the United States. It was developed in the Ozark Mountains by settlers in the early 19th century, and quickly developed into a gaited breed appreciated for its stock horse abilities, stamina and smooth gaits. It performs an ambling gait known as the "fox trot", a four-beat broken diagonal gait in which the front foot of the diagonal pair lands before the hind, eliminating the moment of suspension and increasing smoothness. The main breed registry was begun in 1948 and as of 2012 registers almost 100,000 horses. A European registry was begun in 1992, and as of 2009 recognizes around 600 Fox Trotters living in Europe. In 2006, a smaller registry, focused on the preservation of the original, historic type, was begun in the United States. The Fox Trotter is a mid-sized, muscular breed, used mainly for trail riding and ranch work.
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 an American 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.
El Dorado is an unincorporated community in El Dorado County, California. It is located 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Placerville, at an elevation of 1608 feet. The population was 4,096 at the 2000 census. The town is registered as California Historical Landmark #486. The ZIP code is 95623. The community is inside area code 530.
The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was the first railroad to cross Missouri starting in Hannibal in the northeast and going to St. Joseph, Missouri, in the northwest. It is said to have carried the first letter to the Pony Express on April 3, 1860, from a train pulled behind the locomotive Missouri.
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 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 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.
The 1996 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from April 27, 1996, until July 19, 1996, prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The route covered 26,875 kilometers (16,699 mi) across the United States and featured a wide variety in the methods of transport used, including bicycles, boats, and trains. The National Pony Express Association participated in the journey, with riders carrying the torch for over 56 continuous hours. The torch was taken on board a replica of a 19th-century packet boat and pulled for 3.2 kilometers (2.0 mi) along the Erie Canal by mule. The torch was also carried into space for the first time, with astronauts taking an unlit torch with them aboard Space Shuttle Columbia as part of STS-78. The relay involved over 12,000 torchbearers, including Muhammad Ali, who was chosen to ignite the Olympic cauldron.
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.