150 years ago the latest technology in mail significantly decreased the time it took a message to get across the country. Using the new method a letter could get from Missouri to San Francisco in a mere 10 days. That really isn’t that long, even today, considering it took us 14 days to get a package from Salt Lake City, Utah to Hiawassee, Georgia.
All across the west, Pony Express Stations stood ready for the rider to come by carrying the mail pouch. About 8 to 10 miles apart, across mountains, plains, and deserts the rider would change horses as he sped on his way. At the end of the rider’s day, he would hand the mail pouch off to his replacement, and day by day, express station by express station the mail traversed the country.
After church yesterday Jen and I followed the Pony Express route across Western Utah to the Nevada Border. We found the location of every station along the route but one. The Dugway Gulch station is about a mile south of the road and we chose not to make that hike to search for the marker.
Back in the 1930’s the CCC of the depression era built a monument, (see picture) at the approximate location of each station. The monuments are about 8 feet high made out of rock with two plaques on them. One is the symbol of the pony express and the other tells about the station. Many of the plaques have been stolen but no one has carted off any of the stone pillars.
After 133 miles across the desert on the Pony Express Trail we reached pavement again on the Utah-Nevada border. We drove 45 minutes on the pavement to Wendover, Nevada where we ate a late dinner before heading across the Salt Flats on Interstate 80 to home.
