Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Pony Express to ride again... in West Texas?

A re-enactment of the Pony Express is scheduled for Midland, Texas next month according to the Midland Reporter Telegram in an on-line article at MyWestTexas.com. The organizers will be selling special Pony Express envelopes which bear a regular postage stamp and their own Pony Express cachet. According to the article, "Proceeds will go to feed the riders" and hopefully... their horses.

Please note... the route they are taking is not exactly historically accurate.

The Pony Express route actually went from from Missouri to California and not throughTexas. Horsemen carried the mail day and night to cut down the transit time by a third. Before the Pony Express, which begin in late 1859, stage coach cross-country mail delivery took 30 days. The advent of the telegraph ended the need for the Pony Express about two years after it started.

The Pony Express riders were typically young, unmarried men, and they were well-paid for their time. A Pony Express delivery rider could make $25 a week compared to the $30 a month a ranch cowboy received.

There is a new book (released March 2005) by Richard Frajola, George Kramer and Steve Walske called The Pony Express, A Postal History. Published by the Philatelic Foundation it has a photo census of the 250 known Pony Express covers and lots of other detailed philatelic information(route maps, markings and usages, etc.) If you would like to order a copy, contact Richard Frajola (email mailto:covers@rfrajola.com)There).
Bookmark and Share
posted by Don Schilling at 1:04 PM