Speaker 1: Hey, says dad, Mom. Come on your story, hours on
Speaker 1: presenting your story, hour building for a better tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Hi there everyone, This is Aunt Carroll.
Speaker 3: And I'm Uncle Dane. We welcome each one of you
Speaker 3: to our program. I think we have a very interesting
Speaker 3: story to share with all of you today.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more, Uncle Dan, because today's story is
Speaker 2: a continuation of the one we started last time.
Speaker 3: About the California gold Rush and the Pony Express, Right,
Speaker 3: Aunt Carroll.
Speaker 2: Yes, And in our previous story, William Russell, the senior
Speaker 2: partner of Russell Major's and Waddell, had just promised California
Speaker 2: Senator that his company would take on the challenge of
Speaker 2: providing lightning fast mail delivery to California.
Speaker 3: It was an amazing bold idea, as we learned in
Speaker 3: our last story. At that time, mail delivery between Eastern
Speaker 3: America and the West took many days, weeks, or even months.
Speaker 2: But now William Russell planned on using the fastest riders
Speaker 2: on the swiftest horses to carry mail via the Central
Speaker 2: overland route, which was much shorter than the one used
Speaker 2: for mail delivery by the Butterfield stage.
Speaker 3: Line, but a more difficult route. If I remember right,
Speaker 3: Aunt Carroll, actually Uncle Dan.
Speaker 2: In today's story, I think we'll discover that the entire
Speaker 2: venture was very difficult and very exciting.
Speaker 3: I can't wait to get started. What do you call
Speaker 3: this episode?
Speaker 2: I call it thundering hoofies. When William Russell returned from
Speaker 2: Washington to share Senator Gwynn's bold plan with his business
Speaker 2: partners Alexander Majors and William Waddell, his eyes were bright
Speaker 2: with the possibilities and the challenge.
Speaker 4: Just thing, mail service to and from California and ten days,
Speaker 4: ten days.
Speaker 5: I know we can do it. Whoa now, yeah, just
Speaker 5: a second there, William.
Speaker 6: As keeper of this company's books, I can tell you
Speaker 6: we're already over extended, way over extended, and now you're
Speaker 6: proposing that we build more was stations, hire more men,
Speaker 6: and buy hundreds of horses.
Speaker 4: Bill Waddell always the worry Roy.
Speaker 5: Maybe so, but I'm the one who pays the bills.
Speaker 4: Well, rest easy, my friend. Senator Gwynn has all but
Speaker 4: promised us a generous grant from the government to cover
Speaker 4: our expenses once we've proven ourselves.
Speaker 1: That is.
Speaker 4: Look at the huge grant they extended to the Butterfield
Speaker 4: line to deliver mail. Their delivery takes twice the time
Speaker 4: that we're planning.
Speaker 5: Am I right?
Speaker 4: Alexander helped me out here.
Speaker 7: Well, you're right that the Butterfield line was mightily favored
Speaker 7: by Washington.
Speaker 5: But go ahead tell them all your butts. He needs
Speaker 5: to hear them.
Speaker 8: Let me put it this way.
Speaker 7: While you're off in Washington making deals, William, I'm faced
Speaker 7: with the logistics of keeping supplies running to the government
Speaker 7: outposts across the Western Exactly.
Speaker 4: We already have the network. It's just a matter of
Speaker 4: adding to it. We're the biggest trading company west of
Speaker 4: the Mississippi.
Speaker 7: But I know the land, I know the problems. I
Speaker 7: know what we're facing with this idea. Have you given
Speaker 7: your absolute word?
Speaker 5: Will do it? My solemn promise, and there's no backing out.
Speaker 5: We can't back out Bill out.
Speaker 7: If Williams given his word, man's word is his bond.
Speaker 5: We'll just have to I know, I know, a company
Speaker 5: will just have to carry through.
Speaker 6: I suppose you already have a name picked out for
Speaker 6: this crazy scheme.
Speaker 4: How about the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company.
Speaker 7: Will William, I'd have to say that if shaky finances
Speaker 7: don't kill the idea.
Speaker 5: The name will. We could just use the initials the
Speaker 5: COC and PPEC.
Speaker 8: How about just calling it the Pony Express.
Speaker 4: A grand idea, capital It'll work. You'll see the Pony
Speaker 4: Express will be a resounding success.
Speaker 2: Once the decision had been made, the company of Russell,
Speaker 2: Majors and Waddell lost no time in organizing the venture.
Speaker 2: Although they already owned seventy five thousand oxen and six
Speaker 2: thousand wagons for hauling supplies, they would now need horses.
Speaker 4: Mister Finnie, your job will be to select horses for
Speaker 4: the western end of the line. Yes, sir, I've already
Speaker 4: instructed my agents on this end, handpicked only the best.
Speaker 4: They need not be thoroughbreds. We need the toughest, most rugged,
Speaker 4: long distance horses available.
Speaker 5: I understand, sir.
Speaker 9: We will need sure footed mounts with spunk and spirit
Speaker 9: to go over the mountain trails, through the snow and
Speaker 9: across the salt flats the half wild mustangs of the
Speaker 9: West and to the train.
Speaker 2: Not only the horses would need determination and spirit, the
Speaker 2: riders would need to be a tough minded breed as well.
Speaker 2: Soon notices began to appear in western newspapers.
Speaker 10: Wanted young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen, must be
Speaker 10: expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred wages
Speaker 10: twenty five dollars per week.
Speaker 5: WHOA wait, where do I sign up? Twenty five dollars
Speaker 5: a week.
Speaker 2: In actual fact, not all of the riders hired were
Speaker 2: of jockey stature under eighteen, or for that matter, orphans.
Speaker 2: But they were cool headed, brave, and range hardened, and
Speaker 2: they would meet every ounce of grit they possessed for
Speaker 2: the task before them. In just over two months, five
Speaker 2: hundred horses were purchased, eighty riders hired, and a series
Speaker 2: of new stations built between those already existing on the
Speaker 2: company's line, for a total of nearly one hundred ninety stops.
Speaker 2: When the big day arrived Tuesday, April third, eighteen sixty,
Speaker 2: crowds gathered to celebrate on both ends of the Pony
Speaker 2: Express line, one of which was in Saint Joseph, Missouri.
Speaker 11: Fairly are my first tory of riding Saft Tennis Ryder,
Speaker 11: Johnny Prime.
Speaker 3: Loan.
Speaker 12: I wonder where the train is. It's bringing the mail
Speaker 12: from Amable.
Speaker 5: All the days to be late. Why is it gentle do.
Speaker 12: Maybe we'll find out what's happening.
Speaker 5: Maybe so the train is all it's why.
Speaker 11: We've just received a telegraph message that it is traveling
Speaker 11: at a record speed to bring the mail from the
Speaker 11: east nearly sixty miles an hour before it rides, let's
Speaker 11: hear from Alexander Majors, who has worked so hard to
Speaker 11: make this day possible.
Speaker 2: After several speeches have been delivered by various dignitaries, the
Speaker 2: mail train arrived and Johnny Fry rode his pony right
Speaker 2: inside the lobby of the famous Petee House hotel, where
Speaker 2: the field office of Russell Major's and Waddell was located.
Speaker 11: Make way for the Pony Express.
Speaker 9: Here is the male Mochila Johnny Fry, the very first
Speaker 9: of the Pony Express mail from East to West.
Speaker 5: Cannon to signal the ferry boat.
Speaker 11: J P to the Pony Express.
Speaker 2: Johnny Fry galloped out of Petee House and down to
Speaker 2: the landing a mile away, where the ferry took him
Speaker 2: and his steed across the Missouri River. From there he
Speaker 2: headed west, his horse's hoofbeats thundering across the plains. The Mochila,
Speaker 2: which carried mail in four pockets on each of its
Speaker 2: corners had been especially designed from leather to fit over
Speaker 2: a saddle. The rider sat on it his legs, fitting
Speaker 2: between the front and back mail pockets on each side.
Speaker 2: Special opening at the front fits securely over the saddle horn.
Speaker 2: The entire mochila could be transferred in seconds to a
Speaker 2: fresh horse when the riders came to their relay stations.
Speaker 2: These were placed every ten or fifteen miles along the trail.
Speaker 2: On the other side of the continent. In San Francisco, California,
Speaker 2: a celebration similar to that in Saint Joseph, Missouri, cheered
Speaker 2: for James Randall on a cotton colored pony. He clip
Speaker 2: clopped onto a steamer named the Antelope, which would take
Speaker 2: them upstream to Sacramento. This was only a ceremonial send off.
Speaker 2: The first real rider from the west was Billy Hamilton,
Speaker 2: who received the mail from James Randall and Sacramento and
Speaker 2: charged off into the black, rainy night.
Speaker 5: Yeah give me a boy.
Speaker 2: Five horses and fifty seven miles later, Hamilton handed off
Speaker 2: the mochila to Warren Upson. Warren was soon heading straight
Speaker 2: into the teeth of a driving snowstorm in the Sierra
Speaker 2: Nevada mountains.
Speaker 5: Come on more, you.
Speaker 10: Can do it here.
Speaker 4: I guess you think these drifts have to be ten
Speaker 4: feet deep. And if we slip off the path into the.
Speaker 5: Canyon, Come on, boy, the mail must go through.
Speaker 1: Yeah, come on.
Speaker 2: Over the next few days, riders from the east rode
Speaker 2: at break neck speed across the prairie toward the west,
Speaker 2: and riders from the west crossed mountains and thundered across
Speaker 2: the Great American Desert towards the east. Horses were exchanged
Speaker 2: at relay stations very quickly, in a matter of seconds
Speaker 2: in some cases, and new riders grabbed the mochila from
Speaker 2: those who tired and dusty had ridden their section of
Speaker 2: the trail over there.
Speaker 9: Hold steady, you were wild one aites. Ok, you take
Speaker 9: the reins here, but wait to my no, and you
Speaker 9: be careful. Listen here still halfway to three of us
Speaker 9: to see him this morning. Don't you worry none. I've
Speaker 9: been riding wild brons for years. Well then you must
Speaker 9: have been riding on your mama's knee.
Speaker 5: How old are you?
Speaker 1: Anyway?
Speaker 5: Old enough? Look there he comes. He's a fly like
Speaker 5: the wings. It's like I'm gonna be in a minute.
Speaker 5: Oh boy, this is gonna be so much fun. Hold
Speaker 5: there here she is, all safe and sound. Mail bow
Speaker 5: for San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Got it.
Speaker 5: Mochila's cost my saddle. Now ah, I'll be on the way.
Speaker 5: Get me up. Come on, well, liesel.
Speaker 9: See you Okay, your nose is bleeding.
Speaker 7: It was a terring rough ride, I gotta tell you,
Speaker 7: But little blood don't hurt nothing.
Speaker 5: I'll get your shoe it soon enough. Be sure of that.
Speaker 2: Even the most experienced riders needed a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: to toughen up, as they said for the grueling Pony
Speaker 2: Express relays. But on that first run across the country,
Speaker 2: the excitement of the adventure overcame all pain. After only
Speaker 2: ten days, on April thirteenth, eighteen sixty, Billy Hamilton was
Speaker 2: once again in the saddle, thundering westward, this time back
Speaker 2: towards Sacramento with the first male Mochila from the east.
Speaker 2: As he neared down, he could see horses and riders
Speaker 2: lining the road awaiting his arrival.
Speaker 11: He look, look there, it's Justice Bac But I'll wager
Speaker 11: that's him.
Speaker 13: Oh it's him, all right.
Speaker 5: Just look at that cloud of dust. Here he comes.
Speaker 13: Come on, everybody.
Speaker 5: We're ridding with him clear into town. Let's go.
Speaker 12: Where they come.
Speaker 14: It's Billy heady times.
Speaker 13: On the.
Speaker 2: After handing off the eight letters that had been sent
Speaker 2: to recipients in Sacramento, Billy Hamilton and his pony clambered
Speaker 2: onto the Antelope steamer for the trip back down the
Speaker 2: river to San Francisco, where eager crowds awaited.
Speaker 1: Oh Jonas, that bonfire feels mighty good.
Speaker 2: What time is it anyway?
Speaker 5: Just after midnight? Ellie, here come closer to the fire.
Speaker 11: What a nice this is?
Speaker 1: Bonfires all over town, people all over the place.
Speaker 5: It's history in the making, that's what. Yep.
Speaker 12: Nothing is great has happened since we got to California.
Speaker 2: It's not just the letters he's bringing. It's like, well,
Speaker 2: like home is closer.
Speaker 12: Now, you know?
Speaker 5: Do I ever with the Pony Express?
Speaker 4: Seems like New England's just a few days a week.
Speaker 5: I say this, Faver, just a war make way for
Speaker 5: Billy Hamilton for the Pony Express.
Speaker 2: Billy, watch out, what are you doing.
Speaker 14: I'm tying my.
Speaker 3: Bonnet to the neck of the pony, the first pony
Speaker 3: to come with our mail from the East Coast the
Speaker 3: United States of amerthon wooy, Aunt Carol, talk about excitement.
Speaker 3: Why listening to this story is the next best thing
Speaker 3: to actually being there.
Speaker 2: We do get many letters from you, boys and girls,
Speaker 2: your parents and teachers, which tell us that our stories
Speaker 2: make history come alive.
Speaker 3: If you haven't taken a look through our catalog yet,
Speaker 3: why not visit our website at your storyour dot org.
Speaker 3: That's your storyour dot org. N take a look, or.
Speaker 2: Call us and we'll be glad to send you our
Speaker 2: catalog free of charge. Our number is one eight hundred
Speaker 2: nine eight seven seven eight seventy nine. That's one eight
Speaker 2: hundred nine eight seven seventy eight seventy nine.
Speaker 3: But right now, let's get back to our story. Thundering hoofbeats.
Speaker 2: In the twenty first century, when men have already walked
Speaker 2: on the moon and built space stations, it's hard for
Speaker 2: us to imagine just what the Pony Express meant to
Speaker 2: Americans in eighteen sixty, especially to those living in California.
Speaker 2: Upon the arrival of that first Pony Express rider, the
Speaker 2: San Francisco Herald described the populous as being electrified by
Speaker 2: the success of the daring adventure. Newspapers in both San
Speaker 2: Francisco and Sacramento encourage their readers to support the venture enthusiastically.
Speaker 12: Listen to this Manda. The Daily b is certainly on
Speaker 12: the bandwagon for the Pony Express.
Speaker 13: Oh yeah, non, does it say?
Speaker 12: Well? Of course, it is an experiment, it says, which
Speaker 12: will not be kept up many months at a loss,
Speaker 12: without a hope of remuneration in the not distant future.
Speaker 12: And if we would keep it going, we must do
Speaker 12: at least our share in its support. Let Sacramento tonight
Speaker 12: give the Pony forty to fifty letters and show its spirit.
Speaker 13: Oh dear Jason, does this mean the Pony Express might
Speaker 13: not survive financially?
Speaker 12: Now, if the government grant comes through, it might, but
Speaker 12: it certainly won't on just a few letters back and forth.
Speaker 12: They limit the wait for each mail Mochila pounds, and
Speaker 12: that's not much mail, even when the letters are written
Speaker 12: on the thinnest of tissue paper. I fear for the
Speaker 12: survival of the Pony Express unless some source of fun
Speaker 12: thing comes through. Really, Oh well, think about it. Russell,
Speaker 12: Majors and Waddell paid up to two hundred dollars a horse,
Speaker 12: and I'm told they bought hundreds of them. And then
Speaker 12: they have to pay the riders and the station masters.
Speaker 12: Why it wouldn't surprise me if they sunk one hundred
Speaker 12: thousand dollars or more into the venture already.
Speaker 3: But it can't fail.
Speaker 5: We need the Pony Express.
Speaker 2: From the very beginning, the Pony Express was financially challenged.
Speaker 2: At first, the cost of sending a half ounce letter
Speaker 2: was five dollars in gold, which would be about one
Speaker 2: hundred dollars in today's money. So obviously many folks didn't
Speaker 2: have the resources to send even a single letter. Many newspapers,
Speaker 2: eager for fact news from the East, couldn't even afford
Speaker 2: to pay for messages to be sent because of the
Speaker 2: high cost. But praise for the adventure carried it along,
Speaker 2: and as the month slipped by, the stories of danger
Speaker 2: faced by the riders, the floods, blizzards, indians, stampeding buffalo
Speaker 2: and more were the topic of everyone's conversation. The tales
Speaker 2: of courage and daring were not forgotten for many years
Speaker 2: decades later. For example, at the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago,
Speaker 2: as a family was just checking in for the night.
Speaker 8: That will be Room one O five, mister Smith, and
Speaker 8: here's your key, thank you.
Speaker 1: Just a moment and I'll get some help to take
Speaker 1: your bags upstairs.
Speaker 14: Thank you very much, mister Haslan.
Speaker 13: Yes, sir, oh oh, I see if we have new
Speaker 13: guests here, let me take your bags for you.
Speaker 8: Thank you, Haslan, was it, yes, sir? That name seems
Speaker 8: familiar to me, Haslan. Yeah, here's my card, so much obliged.
Speaker 7: My sons and I are traveling to Saint Louis and
Speaker 7: then to points west for a little vacation.
Speaker 13: I see, and these two fine looking boys are your sons.
Speaker 5: I take it.
Speaker 8: Oh, yes, indeed, David, Hello and Andrew.
Speaker 5: Hi.
Speaker 13: Well, welcome to the Auditorium hotel, gentlemen, and now we
Speaker 13: best get your baggage upstairs so you can settle it in.
Speaker 8: Wait, wait, wait a minute, your card?
Speaker 13: Yes, well, well, Hasling.
Speaker 8: Now I know who you are.
Speaker 7: Look, boys, you see this pony and the rider on
Speaker 7: mister Haslin's card.
Speaker 15: Yes, I see it, mister Haslin.
Speaker 8: Here is none other than pony Bob.
Speaker 15: Pony Bob.
Speaker 8: Really, am I correct, mister Haslin. Pony Bob Haslin.
Speaker 13: Sir, I guess you've found me out.
Speaker 15: Pony Bob. Wow, if we come down to the lobby later,
Speaker 15: will you tell us about the Pony Express and your
Speaker 15: famous ride.
Speaker 8: No, now, boys, I'm sure mister Haslin doesn't have time.
Speaker 13: Now, I'll tell you what you boys come on down about,
Speaker 13: oh say, eight o'clock to night. I'm on break then,
Speaker 13: and I'll be glad to tell you a few tales.
Speaker 15: Oh boy, we'll be here.
Speaker 13: Okay, boys, what is it you want to know?
Speaker 15: I want to know about the Piout War and how
Speaker 15: you rode all those miles. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 13: All right then, well, I was only twenty years old
Speaker 13: when I started working for the Pony Express. Oh it
Speaker 13: was an exciting time. Let me tell you. Lots of adventure,
Speaker 13: but mostly just hard riding. Now, the Indians didn't give
Speaker 13: us so much trouble really well, sometimes, yes, of course,
Speaker 13: but mostly they didn't bother us. Besides, our horses were
Speaker 13: so good and so fast we could outrun em unless
Speaker 13: they ambushed us. Anyways, one day, after the Pony Express
Speaker 13: had been in operation for only five weeks, one of
Speaker 13: the station keepers at Williams Station arride back home to
Speaker 13: find an awful scene.
Speaker 14: Whoa no, oh, no, the station has burned to the ground.
Speaker 5: Daniel, Daniel Oscar, Where are they anybody?
Speaker 14: No, no, Daniel murdered Oscar Oscar. There's other bodies here too.
Speaker 14: The Indians have done this. It's the Paiutes. They've murdered
Speaker 14: and burned my brothers. I've got to warn the other stations,
Speaker 14: the Indians on the warpath.
Speaker 13: Well, James Williams road west with the news. And when
Speaker 13: I arrived in Virginia City on my run east from
Speaker 13: Friday Station, I could see Indian smoke signals from all
Speaker 13: the hills around town.
Speaker 15: Wow, had they attacked Virginia City?
Speaker 13: Nope, but the town had put all their women and
Speaker 13: children in a stone hotel downtown to keep safe. Anyways,
Speaker 13: I rode on to Read Station, only to discover that
Speaker 13: all the fresh horses had been taken by the townsfolk
Speaker 13: for the upcoming battle. So I fed my horse and
Speaker 13: we rode on to Buckland Station, which was supposed to
Speaker 13: be the end of my ride. But the relay rider
Speaker 13: there was so scared Indians that he wouldn't take the mochila.
Speaker 15: Well, I don't exactly blame him.
Speaker 13: Maybe not, but we'd all pledge before we became riders
Speaker 13: that we would not get drunk, or use bad language, gamble,
Speaker 13: or do anything that wasn't befitting a gentleman. And we'd
Speaker 13: also taken an oath to bravely take the mail through
Speaker 13: no matter what. We could quit after we'd made a
Speaker 13: run if we wanted, but not before. So what happened, Well,
Speaker 13: mister Marley, the station deeper there, told me he'd give
Speaker 13: me fifty dollars if i'd take the mail of East.
Speaker 13: And really there wasn't anything else to do. So I
Speaker 13: grabbed a rifle and a revolver and rode out to
Speaker 13: the sink of Carson Station and then across the Alkali
Speaker 13: Bottoms to Sand Springs, where I changed horses, and then
Speaker 13: on for thirty more miles to Cold Springs, where I
Speaker 13: changed horses again, and finally to Smith's Creek, where I
Speaker 13: just about fell off my horse from exhaustion.
Speaker 5: Oh, study, study there.
Speaker 8: Why you're not the usual rider.
Speaker 5: Haines, I'm pony Bar and I've ridden all the way
Speaker 5: from Friday Station in Sierras.
Speaker 13: Friday Station, my word, man, that's why that's one hundred
Speaker 13: and ninety miles away.
Speaker 5: I know it's a long story, believe me, a very
Speaker 5: long story. Jay.
Speaker 10: You ready, h already, Hey, I recognize you, your pony
Speaker 10: Bob hassling, ain't you.
Speaker 1: It's him all right?
Speaker 5: This, here's J Kelly. He's the relay rider from here.
Speaker 5: You have no my dear, how glad I am to
Speaker 5: see you J Kelly.
Speaker 13: Well, boys, I think I was asleep even before I
Speaker 13: hit the bed at Smith's Creek, and I slept like
Speaker 13: I was a dead man for nine hours straight. And
Speaker 13: wouldn't you know, after I woke up, the rider from
Speaker 13: the east had arrived and I was the only one
Speaker 13: on hand to take that mail pouch to the west.
Speaker 13: So I started back down the trail. When I arrived
Speaker 13: in Cold Springs.
Speaker 16: Easy, oh no, what a horrible, horrible.
Speaker 5: Say Ah, it's the Indians.
Speaker 16: They've attacked the station, killed the station master, run off
Speaker 16: all the horses. Ah well, there's nothing else to do
Speaker 16: but keep going on, old Black It's up to you
Speaker 16: and me once again.
Speaker 13: I watered my horse and was soon thundering through the
Speaker 13: sage brush towards Sand Springs.
Speaker 16: Easy, simmon down, old bird dog, simme down. I'll keep
Speaker 16: that head up and them here's a work I'll need
Speaker 16: to know right where those Indian environments is at.
Speaker 13: I made it to Sand Springs and talked the station
Speaker 13: keeper into coming with me, since I knew it would
Speaker 13: be only a matter of time before he was killed
Speaker 13: by the Indians too.
Speaker 5: Then I just.
Speaker 13: Kept riding west till I got back to Buckland Station,
Speaker 13: and there mister Marley told me if i'd keep going,
Speaker 13: he'd give me one hundred dollars instead of the fifty
Speaker 13: he promised me before. I was so plumb tuckered out,
Speaker 13: I rested for about an hour and a half. Then
Speaker 13: I rode on back to Friday Station where I'd started
Speaker 13: thirty six hours before.
Speaker 15: Wow, what a ride. I'm glad you weren't killed by
Speaker 15: the Indians.
Speaker 13: Me too. I found out years later that the Indians
Speaker 13: were upset because someone at Williams Station had kidnapped several
Speaker 13: of their squaws and held them hostage for a few days.
Speaker 13: That's why they attacked. But the whole thing sure did
Speaker 13: make my life a little more interesting for a while.
Speaker 15: I'll bet you were saddlesare after that long ride, Well.
Speaker 13: Bloody tired out for sure. It was the longest ride
Speaker 13: ever made by one person for the Pony Express. But
Speaker 13: even then it wasn't my most important.
Speaker 15: Ride really, what was it?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 13: My most important ride was when the Pony Express took
Speaker 13: President Abraham Lee Lincoln's inaugural address to the people of California.
Speaker 13: On my leg of the journey, which was one hundred
Speaker 13: and twenty miles long, I rode twelve horses in eight
Speaker 13: hours and ten minutes. They say I set a speed
Speaker 13: record on that run, and maybe I did. But altogether
Speaker 13: we delivered that address in seven days and seventeen hours,
Speaker 13: the fastest run ever made from one end of the
Speaker 13: line to the other. Yes, sir, that was one fine run,
Speaker 13: all right, the Pony Express's finest hour ever. I'd have
Speaker 13: to say.
Speaker 2: It's hard to believe that the Pony Express existed for
Speaker 2: only eighteen months, from April of eighteen sixty to October
Speaker 2: of eighteen sixty one. Its end didn't come from the
Speaker 2: danger of the adventure, and it didn't come because of
Speaker 2: financial difficulties either, since the expected grant from the government
Speaker 2: never came through. Didn't have continued much longer. Anyway, it
Speaker 2: came because of progress, namely the telegraph. Once telegraph polls
Speaker 2: were strung across the Great American West, messages could be
Speaker 2: sent like lightning across the wires, and the Pony Express,
Speaker 2: which had been the fastest connection between East and West
Speaker 2: was now very slow by comparison. For many years, Buffalo
Speaker 2: Bill Cody, a famous figure of the Old West, traveled
Speaker 2: across the United States with a Wild West show that
Speaker 2: featured the history of the Pony Express, just so folks
Speaker 2: wouldn't forget about the bold, brave riders, their trusty ponies,
Speaker 2: and the wonderful, audacious adventure. But even today we have
Speaker 2: not forgotten. We look back on the amazing days of
Speaker 2: those thundering hoof beats across the American West, the glorious
Speaker 2: days of the Pony Express, and our hearts are filled
Speaker 2: with a true sense of wonder and awe.
Speaker 3: Wow, ain't Carol, those were the days.
Speaker 2: It was an exciting time, Uncle Dan. But I'm glad
Speaker 2: we have email now.
Speaker 3: Staying in touch is a lot easier thanks to all
Speaker 3: the enterprising people who've gone before us and improved things,
Speaker 3: folks like the Wright brothers, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison,
Speaker 3: to name just a few.
Speaker 2: Yes, and we have very dramatized stories available as well.
Speaker 3: So visit our website at your storyour dot org and
Speaker 3: take a look at our catalog, or give us a
Speaker 3: call at one eight hundred ninety seven seven eight seven nine,
Speaker 3: and we'll send you one free of charge.
Speaker 2: Well, it's time for us to go, but be sure
Speaker 2: to tune in again next time.
Speaker 1: See you then, this has been your story hour building
Speaker 1: for a better tomorrow.
Speaker 2: This is Ann Carroll.
Speaker 3: And Uncle DNN saying good bye everyone, See you again
Speaker 3: next time.
Speaker 4: A