Pony Express

National Monument

The Pony Express was in operation for only 18 months between April 1860 and October 1861. Nevertheless, the Pony Express has become synonymous with the Old West. In the era before easy mass communication, the Pony Express was the thread that tied East to West.

An ad from a San Francisco paper in 1860 read, “Wanted: Skinny, young, wiry fellows not over eighteen, must be expert riders willing to risk death daily, orphans preferred. Wages $25 a week. Apply Central Overland Express.

Running as fast as the mustang pony could run, Pony Express riders raced across nearly 1900 miles of wilderness carrying the U.S. Mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. The National Pony Express Monument honors the men who rode in all kinds of weather, across mountains, deserts, and prairies to deliver the mail.

The rugged action captured in this horse and rider honors the courageous adventure that was the short-lived Pony Express. Facing a multitude of dangers, pony express riders criss-crossed Utah until the coming of the telegraph made their services obsolete.

Thousands of people moved west on the Oregon and California Trails starting in the 1840s, followed by the 1847 Mormon exodus to Utah and the 1849 Gold Rush. The growing West needed fast mail communication beyond the Rocky Mountains. Learn more about the Pony Express at https://nationalponyexpress.org/

Dr. Avard T. Fairbanks, Sculptor