Pony Express

September 2017 - Gothenburg NE

The Sam Macchette Station was erected in 1854 on the Oregon Trail and was used as a Fur Trading Post & Ranch House. From 1860-1861 the station was used as a Pony Express Station. After the Pony Express ended, the station was used as an Overland Trail Stage Station, bunk house, storage house, and dwelling until 1931. In 1931 Mrs. C.A. Williams donated the station to the city of Gothenburg. The city had it moved from its original site to Ehmen Park inside Gothenburg city limits. The station was dedicated to "All Pioneers Who Passed This Way, To Win and Hold the West."

In the late 1850s, William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Waddell were the three founders of the Pony Express.

By utilizing a short route and using mounted riders rather than traditional stagecoaches, they proposed to establish a fast mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, with letters delivered in 10 days, a duration many said was impossible. The initial price was set at $5 per 1⁄2 ounce (14 g), then $2.50, and by July 1861 to $1. The founders of the Pony Express hoped to win an exclusive government mail contract, but that did not come about.

To perform these services required 190 relay and home stations, and over 400 employees including station keepers, stock or horse tenders, blacksmiths and cooks.

At each station stop the express rider would change to a fresh horse, taking only the mail pouch called a mochila (from the Spanish for pouch or backpack) with him.

The employers stressed the importance of the pouch. They often said that, if it came to be, the horse and rider should perish before the mochila did. The mochila was thrown over the saddle and held in place by the weight of the rider sitting on it. Each corner had a cantina, or pocket. Bundles of mail were placed in these cantinas, which were padlocked for safety. The mochila could hold 20 pounds (9 kg) of mail along with the 20 pounds (9 kg) of material carried on the horse.[16] Eventually, everything except one revolver and a water sack was removed, allowing for a total of 165 pounds (75 kg) on the horse's back. Riders, who could not weigh over 125 pounds (57 kg), changed about every 75–100 miles (120–160 km), and rode day and night. In emergencies, a given rider might ride two stages back to back, over 20 hours on a quickly moving horse.

The approximately 1,900-mile-long (3,100 km) route roughly followed the Oregon and California Trails to Fort Bridger in Wyoming, and then the Mormon Trail (known as the Hastings Cutoff) to Salt Lake City, Utah. From there it followed the Central Nevada Route to Carson City, Nevada before passing over the Sierra into Sacramento, California.

From its beginning, when it was established and supported by Russell, Majors and Waddell to its end when it was owned by Wells Fargo and Co., the Pony Express was a financial failure. The deficit was over $200,000. But what a glorious failure.