Pony Express started more than 100 years ago. A Pony Express Ride by members of Rogers County riding clubs started several years ago when the Will Rogers Trail was opened on Oologah Lake.
Scott Gouard, Will Rogers Roundup Club president, said this year’s ride would start at the Oologah Lake trail Saturday, Nov. 3, and arrives at Will Rogers Memorial in time for Pony Express riders to join the parade contingent at 4 p.m.
Pony Express started April 1860 and operated 18 months of fast mail service at the cost of many lives and a loss of money for the operators.
On April 3, 1860 in St. Joseph, Mo., the doors of the famous old Pike’s Peak livery barn were open and John W. “Billy” Richardson on a coal back horse came roaring out beginning a new means of communication.
It was a day of celebration in St. Jo as the first Pony Express rider headed into the wilderness. He carried the mail in a leather pouch across the pommel of his saddle. About every 10 miles a “way” station where the rider changed horses was located near a steam or spring. About every 50 miles, a “home” station provided a place to sleep, all the way across the western continent along the Old Oregon and California Trails.
Riders and horses were selected from the most hardy. Riders also took an oath not to swear, fight or to abuse their animals and conduct themselves honestly — and were presented with a Bible.
The first trip took just an hour short of 10 days before dashing into Sacramento, where the mailbag was put aboard a fast moving vessel, and in eight hours was shipped into San Francisco, less than half the time of the fastest stages.
The first mail east took the same route and arrived in St. Jo in 11 days and 12 hours.
The record run was made carrying Lincoln’s inaugural address over the western half of the continent in seven days, 17 hours.
Although it was costly — $5 for a half-ounce letter (later dropped to a dollar) — it was almost cost prohibitive. There was need for 500 horses, 200 men at the stations to care for them — and feed grain, which had to be brought over the Overland Trail.
When the Overland Telegraph was competed, the Pony Express was discontinued after 18 months of operation.
Gouard said Will Rogers Pony Express riders don’t try to break any records and for safety reasons will leave from the trail on the east side of the spillway rather than the birthplace because of the dam and spillway bridges.
Bobby Miller, a longtime Will Rogers Roundup Club member, has ridden about a dozen of the Pony Express rides and hopes to mount up again. Other riding groups are invited to join in the ride.
Horses will proceed down Highway 88 to Will Rogers Memorial so anyone who wants to be at the museum can see them top the hill on what was once was known as Cooweescoowee Road.
(Editor’s Note: Information about the history of Pony Express came from Pony Express Times, a souvenir edition printed at an original express station in Gothenburg, Neb., visited recently by Joe and Michelle Lebfevre-Carter, former Will Rogers Museums directors. Other riding groups are invited to join in the Pony Express Ride. For information contact Scott Gouard 918-857-6863.)