Pioneer: 2010 Vol.57 No.2

enormous. Southern sympathizers in Congress protected
John Butterfield’s interests, and the big and eagerly anticipated
mail contract never materialized. These factors,
coupled with losses incurred by the umbrella company,
Russell, Majors and Waddell, during the Utah War, drove
that firm into bankruptcy. By summer of 1861, the company
had broken up, with the mail service in other hands,
but the ponies ran as long as the need existed.
Overlooking the financial aspect, the Pony accomplished
all that its backers had hoped, and more. The argument
by many in the East and the South that the direct
route across the American continent, the Central Route,
was not practical for year round travel was put to rest.
The Civil War was a period of greatest national turmoil.
The Pony Express provided a vital link between
California and the rest of the States in the months leading
up to the war and through the early months of the
conflict. Some historians have credited the Pony Expess
with helping to preserve California’s loyalty to the
Union. Surely all citizens of the West awaited with baited
breath the latest news of events which would determine
the future of the nation.
These accomplishments could be looked on with
pride by the men who made the Pony Express happen.
Could they have imagined that, 150 years later, its legend
would have grown to the present proportions? Children
in grade school hear the story of the Pony Express. People
around the world love the image of
the young man on his fast horse,
speeding his precious cargo in
spite of all obstacles. In 2010, we
celebrate
the sesquicentennial anniversary of what seems to us one
of the most thrilling and romantic episodes in the opening
of the American West. “Return with us now to those
thrilling days of yesteryear. . . .”
Utah and her people played a key role in the success
of the Pony Express. Salt Lake City was the largest
population center in almost 2000 miles of wilderness and
was important in every aspect of the Pony Express operation.
Utah Pony riders were prominent among the mail
carriers across the Intermountain West. Thomas Owen
King’s portrait hangs in the Daughters of Utah Pioneers
Museum in Salt Lake City. Elijah Nicholas Wilson has a
town in Wyoming named for him, and Jack Keetley has
one in Utah. Keetley and the Gilson brothers, Sam and
James, made their fortunes in mining after their Pony
Express days. Brothers John and William Frederick
Fisher became leaders in the LDS Church. James
Bromley, whose home was at Echo, was division superintendent
for a section of the line east of Salt Lake City.
Major Howard Egan was the man in charge from Salt
Lake City west to Roberts Creek, now central Nevada.
Bolivar Roberts had responsibility on the western end.
Although Roberts lived in California, he also had strong
Utah ties. Many other examples could be listed.
The trail crossed Utah Territory all the way from
western Wyoming to the Sierras. It followed the Mormon
Pioneer Trail, entering present-day Utah at the Needles
on Yellow Creek. Down Echo Canyon, stops included
Castle Rock and Halfway near the railroad siding at
Emory. A fair little town existed at Echo, where the
Express station was run by James Bromley, one of the division
superintendents on the line. After crossing
Hogback Summit, the rider made stops at Dixie Hollow
and at Bauchmann’s Station on East Canyon Creek, a location
now on the Clayton–McFarlane Ranch. On the
south side of Big Mountain, now near the head of Little
Dell Reservoir, Ephraim Hanks had an establishment for
travelers which served the Pony Express also. Crossing
Little Mountains and entering the Salt Lake Valley via
Emigration Canyon, the rider got a well-earned rest at
the Salt Lake House, a hotel and home station at 143
South Main. From downtown Salt Lake City, the mail
traveled south along the route of State Street to the area
of the Utah State Prison. Porter Rockwell’s Hot Springs
2010 ◆ Vol. 57, No.2 ◆ PIONEER 9