Pony Express Re-ride hits the trail June 15 - 25
Submitted by Danielle Cook on Wed, 06/08/2016 - 9:12pm
Event Date:
June 16, 2016 (All day)
The National Pony Express Association will be conducting its Annual Re-Ride of the Pony Express Trail from Sacramento, California, to St. Joseph, Missouri, June 15 - 25, 2016. It is expected to pass through Carson City at approximately 2 p.m. Thursday, June 16.
This Re-Ride is a 10-day, 24-hour a day, non-stop event by over 600 riders and horses over the 1,966 mile route of the Pony Express National Historic Trail from California through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas to Missouri. It is the longest event held annually on a historical trail in the nation.
The event commemorates the 1860-1861 Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company which carried letters and telegrams for 19 months to prove the Central Route through Salt Lake passable year round. The owners hoped to win a federal mail contract on that route. Pony Express history is preserved in the federally designated Historic Trail, administered by the National Park Service, in museums, Pony Rider monuments, books, and the annual recreations by the NPEA.
Riders will be carrying Commemorative Letters in a Mochila, Pony Express style. This year Pony Express history in Nevada is being highlighted. The envelopes show they were carried by the Pony Express and the first class postage has a special US Postal service cancellation and is available for purchase by NPEA members, historians, and philatelists. Only the number of letters purchased are being carried.
Every year Ham Radio plays a very important part of the Re-Ride by providing communications over parts of the trail where communication by other means is not available. This gives those personnel responsible for that part of the Re-Ride information as to where the rider is and if the mail is on time. Communications between Riders and Ride Captains will be provided by amateur radio operators in the states of California, Nevada, Utah, eastern Wyoming, Nebraska, and Kansas.
The Nevada Telephone Hotline number will be 1-855-809-8589 and will be active June 16-18, 24 hours per day. Recorded messages from Mobile Radio teams will announce time and location of the mail as it travels across Nevada. This service is a service of the Sierra Inter-Mountain Emergency Radio Association. The Hotline is provided by Churchill Communications, Fallon, Nevada.
A GPS unit will be carried in the mochila along with the letter and personal mail. The unit will transmit the location of the mail all the way to St. Joseph, pinging every 20 minutes. The device is the size of a small cell phone. You can follow the progress of the mail on the trail on this Pony Express Tracking Map.
National President Lyle Ladner will be posting photos from the Re-Ride on his Facebook Page. Additional reports can be found on the National Pony Express Association and the Nevada Division Facebook Pages.
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