Russell hoped to prove that his company was an able competitor to John Butterfield's Overland Mail Company, and win away the exclusive government mail contract.
Russell agreed to establish a speedy and reliable express service over the Central Route, stretching from St. Gwin found the answer to his concerns in William Russell, a stage express company owner. This route would be about 800 miles shorter and was known as the "Central Route." Traveling from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., he was aware of the truth behind one of the jokes of the period-that the terms of the western members of Congress might expire before they even reached the District of Columbia.Įxpecting the Confederacy to cut off the only land-based source of communication between the Federal Government and California, Gwin persuaded Congress to consider the approval of an alternate route. Gwin of California was among those who saw the need to improve the timeliness of mail service to the West. The citizens of Los Angeles, for example, learned that California had been admitted to the Union fully six weeks after the fact. Such delays were keenly felt by Californians. Although the advertised traveling time was 24 days, as a practical matter cross-country stagecoach mail service was often delayed for months. Butterfield's stages used the 2,795-mile "Southern Route" between Tipton, Missouri, and San Francisco. Some mail also was hauled by stagecoach across country, beginning on September 15, 1858, when the Post Office Department issued a contract to the Overland Mail Company, operated by John Butterfield. The completion of a telegraph linking both coasts was close to becoming a reality, but it would still be more than a year before it could be completed. At that time, the railroads extended only as far west as the Mississippi River. The completion of a coast-to-coast railroad was years away. Those people were determined to have the delivery time of their mail improved. By 1860, almost 1/2 million people were living in the western states.
Both the North and the South desired California's vast resources. But, that schedule was optimistic.Īs the tensions of the approaching Civil War grew, the division between northern and southern states widened, exacerbating the problems of mail service to the western states. Under the best of conditions, a letter could be carried to the West Coast in three or four weeks. Under the terms of the contract, the mail was carried by ship from New York to Panama, where it was taken across the Isthmus of Panama by horseback or rail, and then put aboard ships bound for San Francisco. That same year, the Post Office Department awarded a contract to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to carry mail to California. After gold was discovered in 1848 in Sutter's Mill in California, prospectors joined with homesteaders flocking westward. The Pony Express grew out of a need for swifter mail service between the East and West prior to the Civil War. Riders continued even at night when the only illumination came from the moon or flashes of lightning. And, like so many legendary events of the "Old West," there have been wild exaggerations of the facts.ĭespite the braggadocio, these young horsemen faced numerous dangers, such as thieves, deserts, or blizzards. The name "Pony Express" evokes images of courageous young men crossing long stretches of country, frequently under harsh conditions, facing the constant threat of death. After crossing by ferry from Benicia to Martinez, the route followed what is now Pacheco Boulevard, Contra Costa Boulevard by Sun Valley Shopping Center, North Main Street through Walnut Creek, Mount Diablo Boulevard through Lafayette, and over Fish Ranch Road to Oakland, down Telegraph Avenue ending at Jack London Square.The Pony Express is one of the most colorful episodes in American history, one which can be used to measure not only the growth of the nation, but the pioneering spirit of our predecessors. The route passed through what is now the campus of the University of California, Davis, by the site of the abandoned Village of Silvey, through Vacaville, Fairfield, Rockville, Cordellia, and Benicia. The overland route between Sacramento and Oakland, generally followed Interstates 80 and 680 between Sacramento and Benicia. The Pony Express Ferry "Oakland" Marker was dedicated on Apin Jack London Square at the transfer point of the Pony Express route between Oakland and San Francisco. When the steamer was missed, riders took the mail via horseback to Oakland. Normally the mail was sent via steamer from Sacramento down the Sacramento River to San Francisco.
The Pony Express was a mail service delivering messages, newspapers, and mail using relays of horse-mounted riders that operated from April 3, 1860, to October 24, 1861.
0 kommentar(er)
