History Made: The Pony Express exchange in Carson City
A lone rider on a stout draft horse trotted down Curry Street to the claps and cheers of a welcoming committee a little after 2:15 Thursday afternoon.
As the rider approached Eagle Mountain Trading Post at the corner of Second and Curry streets, Anne Martins reigned in her 12 year-old Shoshone mustang mare, Rosie, preparing to receive the leather Mochila that bore 900 letters eastbound to St. Joseph, Missouri.
In under two minutes, the Mochila was exchanged and fastened over Rosie's saddle. Then Anne Martins of Stagecoach mounted her adopted Indian mustang and started off north on Curry Street before heading east on William Street.
Horse and rider followed the original Pony Express route along what is now Highway 50, passing Mills Park, trotting under the new I-580 underpass, and on eastward to Arrowhead Drive, where they exchanged the Mochila with Diane Garland of Reno and her appendix quarterhorse gelding, Louie.
Garland and Louie then took the Mochila on up the hill out of Carson City through Mound House. Another exchange was then to take place at the Highway 341 junction at Highway 50 before the historic trail moved away from road noise and traffic, coming in from the northwest into old town Dayton at Pike Street.
From there, riders will follow the historic route along the Carson River to Ft. Churchill State Park, site of an original Pony Express Station.
Dozens more exchanges will occur through the Silver State as the Mochila moves steadily eastward en route to its final destination at St. Joseph, Missouri.
Mail is scheduled to arrive by Pony Express on the afternoon of June 25 in western Missouri, ten days after it left Sacramento, California, on June 15.
More than 400 miles must be covered by the Nevada Division over 60 hours to reach Ibapah, Utah.
NPEA National President Lyle Ladner, on hand for the ceremonial exchange at Eagle Mountain Trading Post, said the annual re-ride is something special to be a part of, because it is living history in motion.
"This is what we do," he said. "We want to generate interest in this period by bringing history to life, and showing how it was really done."
NPEA Nevada Division President Ron Bell said the Pony Express Re-ride honors the efforts and the sacrifices of the real men to made the treacherous 2,000-mile ride to deliver the mail in 10 days.
"To me, it's about honoring the riders, and respecting what they went through," he said.
The Pony Express operated only 19 months, running Mochilas stuffed with thousands of pieces of mail from April 1860 until November 1861 when the service was discontinued following the completion of the transcontinental telegraph.
At that time, telegraph wires were being erected coast to coast, signaling the dawn of a new age of communication.
In the brief period in which it existed, the Pony Express had revolutionized mail delivery by transporting letters across half the continent in a matter of days instead of weeks or months by wagon.
Nevada and its capital played key roles in the Pony Express, an idea brought to life by the firm Russell, Majors and Waddell. Carson City was home to a Pony Express office along downtown Carson Street.
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