Pioneer: 2010 Vol.57 No.2

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Celebrating the by Patrick Hearty, NAT I O NAL PONY EXPRESS A SSOCIATION (NPEA), UTA H By 1860, approximately half a million people lived west of the Rocky Mountains. America was still a young country, with plenty of room for big ideas and bold enterprise. In the East, a well-organized postal system kept information flowing, but out West, the lines of communication were often stretched pretty thin. The U.S. mail traveled on the Butterfield Stage Line, following a route which made a huge arc from St. Louis, MO, south through Ft. Smith, AR; El Paso TX, and Yuma, AZ, with a branch that ran north to San Francisco. Mail for the California goldfields could take three or more weeks. In Utah, things were no more speedy or reliable, as a succession of express companies tried their hands at providing mail service. Something had to change. It is not known for certain just how the idea for the mail service we call the Pony Express developed, but it involved William H. Russell, partner in the giant freighting firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell. The company controlled a mammoth freight network hauling supplies for the United States Army throughout the West. Russell was the visionary and the entrepreneur, and it may have been during a stagecoach trip across the country with California Senator William M. Gwin that the idea originated. Russell had his eye on a lucrative mail contract, and Gwin had political aspirations. Although Russell’s business partners, Alexander Majors and William B. Waddell, had serious reservations about the new enterprise, Russell apparently had made a commitment to Gwin. Russell organized the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company 2 PIONEER Vol. 57, No.2 2010 Title art by Brad Boe, Rosendale, Missouri. ◆ ◆
“Mail for the California gold fields could take three or more weeks. In Utah, things were no more speedy or reliable, as a succession of express companies tried their hands at providing mail service. Something had to change.” 2010 Vol. 57, No.2 PIONEER 3 ◆ ◆
Page 1 and 2: 2010 ◆ Vol. 57, No. 2 Published b
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Page 43 and 44: Sons of Utah Pioneers 2010 NATIONAL

Pioneer: 2010 Vol.57 No.2

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