With his two horses, Badger and Chicken Fry, loaded with supplies, a cowboy
turned journalist undertook riding the length of the Pony Express trail – from
St Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA. Will Grant had a mission: a large-scale
exercise in horsemanship. He had goals: (1) a boots on the ground
understanding of the Pony Express mail service, (2) to meet and learn about
the lives of the people along the route, and (3) to get an understanding of the
American West. He wrote:
..the Pony Express is an apex of American horsemanship and to trace
its course would be northing short of transcendental… Some people
look for answers in a library: I’d look for mine between the ears of a
horse.
REFLECT:
What frontier characteristics / traits do you think this “modern cowboy” had
to under take this trip?
From April 3, 1860 to October 26, 1861, the Pony Express operated as a
twice-weekly frontier mail service – via ten day 2,000 mile horse relay system.
Each rider rode four relays a week, averaged 11 – 12 miles per hour, covered
up to 100 miles – riding day and night – and changed horses every 10-20 miles
at one of the 190 stocked way stations. Way stations ranged from a hole dug
in the side of the hill in Utah to a populated center like a fortress. It is
estimated the Pony Express carried 39,500 pieces of mail and used 1,500 –
2,000 horses. The logistics were daunting.
Postage cost $1 – $35 a piece, based on weight (equivalent to $35-$160
today). During its run, only one delivery was lost — when a rider and his
horse plunged off the bridge crossing the North Platte River in Wyoming. The
rider survived: the horse was never seen again: the mail pouch turned up
two years later.
With all the information he could find on the Pony Express, Grant began the
detailed planning for his adventure. He packed minimal gear: a light weight
one person tent, two small camping stoves, an ultraviolet light to purify
water, a basic medical kit, a harness repairs kit, a couple of layers of
insulation, a hard shell rain jacket, one pair of jeans, one shirt, one pair of
underwear, six pair of heavyweight wool socks, a toothbrush, toothpaste,
and a bar of soap. (Along the way, he restocked a shirt, a pair of underwear,
and six pairs of sox).
Also a headlamp, a flashlight, a pari of fencing pliers which would serve as a
hammer, wire cutter, horseshoe puller, and pliers. And 6 notebooks. And
based on his research on the safest way to restrain his horses during stops,
he decided on and packed a portable electric fence.
Plus a cell phone for keeping contact with Claire (his partner and support for
the trip), for getting permissions of passage, for making/ confirming camp
sites on private property, for weather conditions, etc.
Grant laded eight days of food at a time. For the first half, the trail went
through settled areas, making restocking food easy. For the second half,
especially across vast expanses of desert, he arranged for buried caches of
food and water along the way.
For the route, he planned to make 20-25 miles a day, riding four consecutive
days and stopping for a day’s rest. When not camping at pre-arranged sites,
including ranches and parks along the way, the horses would determine sites
based on the availability of grass and water.
While Grant contemplated the things that could go wrong — being thrown
from a horse that then ran away, a horse getting injured, an accident along a
populated road / highway — he did not factor the scenarios into his planning
to change his projected timeline. For instance, he did not have a back-up
horse, or an alternate route, or different timelines.
REFLECT:
What other scenarios could Grant have contemplated?
Extreme weather? Getting injured? A horse getting injured? Delaying events
along the route? His horses being worn out toward the end? Him being worn
out toward the end?
APPLY:
How would you have made his planning “strategic” – addressing the possible
scenarios?
For instance, with many days “leeway” would you have planned for such
scenarios?
(All of these happened).
Grant ultimately arrived at the Pony Express statue in Sacramento 141 days
after his departure. He missed his projected timeframe by 41 days, but
accomplished his other goals. He experienced the trail, met and was
befriended by old west characters, and developed an innate knowing of the
vast country. About halfway in the journey, he stopped at the Willow Springs
Station, the only intact in situ station in the country.
It was like being in a church… and having covered more than a
thousand miles on the old mail route, having considered everyday
what workaday constitution the riders must have needed, having
weathered storms of similar circumstance, I was moved to a hallowed
place.
Through grit, determination, some bouts of good luck, and detailed planning,
Grant accomplished his mission and achieved his goals. Nonetheless, I would
have been more comfortable with the planning if he had strategically had a
spare horse!
Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000 Mile Horseback Journey Into the Old
West, Will Grant, Little, Brown & Co, NY, 2023.
