PONY EXPRESS IN NEBRASKA

THE PONY EXPRESS IN NEBRASKA

When I was in Nebraska recently, I was taking photos of Scott's Bluff and admiring replicas of Conestoga wagons. Suddenly the sound of hoofbeats thundered toward the area. As a lifetime horse owner, it could only be one thing.  But why? Within minutes two western-clad men on  horses in full gallop came into the grassy place where I was standing, along with several other startled visitors. 

As they skidded to a stop nearby, I realized they were 2015 Pony Express riders re-enacting a segment of their 1860-61 rides. The two children pictured above were overwhelmed by the spectacle, restrained by their father and mother from dashing to the horses. The little boy was speechless, but the two children soon ventured close enough to the horse that its dismounted rider said, "It's okay, you can pet him right there." For fully 30 minutes the two riders explained  the history of the Pony Express period to an ever-larger impromptu audience.

In 1860 the continental telegraph lines had not yet been completed. Mail across this vast nation of ours was slow. A westerner often did not learn what was happening "back East" for weeks.  Gold had been  discovered in California and a strong movement existed toward the Western states, especially California and Oregon. In Oregon  settlers in wagons aimed for good land along the Columbia River north of today's Portland,

A private firm in 1860 established what became known as the Pony Express, where brave young riders, mostly of minimal weight and experienced with horses rode in relays to bring the mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California (and on to San Francisco by river steamer) in half the time it had taken by stagecoach -- 10 days instead of 20. It operated  only from April 3, 1860, until October 24, 1861, but it won the romantic hearts of all Americans. By 1861, the telegraph wires had reached the far west.

The 2,000-mile Pony Express route ran through most of the state of Nebraska. No wonder the children pictured here would view the riders as their heroes of their home state.