Show I The Pony Express RELEASED RELEASED- T TilE THE COURTESY COURTESY COUR COUR- TESY OF THE TilE UTAH UTi HISTORICAL LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION i NEWHOUSE BUILDING SALT LAKE LAUE CITY UTAH The settlement of Oregon and Ut Ut- ah alt and the discovery of gold bold in C Cal Cal- l- l pul pulse e of the thc country Speed in hau hand hand- l- l pulse of C the Speed in hand hand- Hug ling communications' communications brou brought ht int into existence exIstence ex ex- a n romantic figure of the early West West the the Pon Pony Express rider No o old time celebration is complete today unless a Pony Express rider figures fi fi- fi gures in the parade It is well that the owners o of the Pony P ny Express dk did lIa h not provide de a pension system for enough riders Have Jinye appeared in dif dif- ferent parts of the countr country during the past two decades to wreck the United States Steel Corporation Quite a harmless armless Ii role tole however er compared ity its with other cn current forms form of public pUblic- The history of f the pony ex express ress s tem leui is lot lost o t in antiquity The old Tartar Tar tar tar kings this method of communication centuries ago agol Marco Mareo Polo relates that the stations stations' were five twenty miles apart and as ns man many as three J Hundred miles Jile were were covered ered by lIy a n rider in one cla day Then similar enterprises were Wele inaugurated in Europe Eu Eu- Europe rope rope- long before they were were dreamed of of in the western world None of this old history however howe detracts from front the romance of the western western wes wes- tern Pony Express which was as the largest and most dnn dangerous crous from fromn the viewpoint of mone money invested and per per- risk ill involved in olt ed of any similar undertaking un un- e ever er attempted in America Americas American speed was shown in this organization and a n little more than nian four months after the project t was contemplated and the plans carried out with presumed secrecy riders were dashing over the plains deserts and mountains William II Russell a leading lending citi zen of Len Leavenworth orth Kans Kansas s was the prime mover mo he he was assisted by Majors Ma jors and his former partners in the freighting The rue first purchase se of Pony Express horses was made in Salt Lake City where Russell picked up two hundred carefully selected animals at two Vo hundred hundred hun hun- dred dollars each The riders likewise selected elected ith 4 were grear- grear ar ara aril a aery very ery few were chosen choson who weighed hed more than one hundred and thirty thirty- five fire pounds Saddles bridles and leather pouches poaches were especially a 11 con- con Continued on page 5 |