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Show TEey re Off! line - Pony Express Blazes Trail riders who lasted the entire 18 months of the operation. BUFFALO BILL GOES 384 MILES William Frederick 'Buffalo Bill' Cody made the longest ride in Express history at the age of 15. He ran his regular run and at the end finding the rider after him had been killed the niaht before, rode his route too. Tlien picking up more mail, rerode the route back the way he had come, to cover a distance of 384 miles in one unbroken un-broken ride, only stopping to change horses. ing snow in front of it. Upson's first ride stands in a class by itself for sheer courage and determination in the face of natural obstacles. The East bound mail arrived in Salt Lake City at 7:45 p.m. April 7th, 1860 at the Pony Express offices on State Street. It was now 103 hours 45 minutes out of Sacramento. Sac-ramento. 110 hours were granted for this portion of the ride. Somehere Eas t of Salt Lake City the unrecorded meeting of the two opposite bound riders occurred on Sunday, April 8th. At that moment and at that point, wherever it was, the purpose of the promoters of the Pony Express was technically N achieved and their faith in the On the afternoon of March 30, 1860, a special messenger, carrying carry-ing a pouch, boarded a train in Washington, D. C. In the pouch were the letters that were to be the first carried on the long ride by Pony Express, from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. Califor-nia. Pausing in New' York City on the next day to pick up more letters, the messenger sped on his way to Detroit where he missed, his train connections by two hours. Company agents hearing of this had a special train made up for him in Hannibal, Missouri, which he caught on his arrival there. In St. Joseph a holiday mood prevailed. pre-vailed. There is some doubt about the identity of the first rider and his exact starting place, but most sources name Johnson William Richardson. He waited anxiously for his letters and when they arrived, now 2 12 hours late, he mounted his pony, a "bright bay mare", and galloped West. When his ride was completed he-had he-had reduced the time lost to 1 and 34 hours. At 6:25 p.m. on April 9th the mail arrived in Salt Lake City after being 143 hours on the trail. The schedule called for 124 hours. We can only speculate as to the reason for the delay but it must have been due to weather conditions. con-ditions. At Salt Lake City, Richard Ras' Egan took over and carried the mail to the Rush Valley station sta-tion 75 miles away in 4 12 hours. In the West the action started in San Francisco where an announcement an-nouncement was made that at 4:00 p.m. on April 3rd, 1860, a rider would leave the Alta Telegraph Company office with the first East bound consignment. Actually a rider who was not a real Express rider, James Randall, mounting his horse (from the wrong side), and cheered by a crowd of San Franciscans, Fran-ciscans, rode down to the waterfront water-front where the steamer "Antelope" "An-telope" waited to carry the mail to Sacramento. At 2.00 a.m. on April 4th the 4 'Antelope" docked at Sacramento in a driving rain. Here William 'Billy Hamilton grabbed the mochila, the device the mail was carried in, and headed East, with no crowd to cheer him on, due to the weather and hour of the morning. He rode down a rain sodden trail to Sportsman's Hall 45 miles from Sacramento where the mail was picked up by Warren Upson, who started out on the most hazardous ride of the entire 18 months the Pony Express was in existence. Upson rode onto a snow bound trail where his little mustanghadtopickatrail which had not been trod for days. On the path they encountered an Arctic wind which blew dry sting- MORMONS MAKE GOOD RIDERS Most of the riders stationed in our area of the West were Mormon boys whose parents had settled in Utah after 1847. Since they had grown to manhood under unbelievably un-believably severe conditions the idea of making a continuous ride on horseback of a 100 miles did not seem extraordinary to them. A more important factor is that they knew and respected the Indians In-dians and on their routes they had to go through the most dangerous dan-gerous section of the trail, through age-old Indian hunting grounds , PONY EXPRESS BIBLES The riders upon being hirea were required to take an oath and after signing it were presented with a Bible from the American Bible Society. These Bibles are now very famous and rare, as only about 11 remain in existence. They are called the "Pony Express Bibles" and are valued at around $3000 apiece. Every one of the riders in the Centennial Celebration Celebra-tion will take an oath, swearing not to useprofanityordrinkor fight as the original riders did. Each will be given a Bible like the old ones, but they will be inscribed in-scribed in gold in commemoration commemora-tion of the Pony Express rerun. by Pat Bushman possiDuity ot it jus titled. At 5:00 April 13th, 1860, the Eastbound rider arrived at the Pattee House, where the riders from St. Joseph lived. 2000 miles had been covered and the mail had reached its destination on time. The last 100 miles had been covered in 8 hours. The mail reached Sacramento from the East at 5:25 p.m. on April 13th, and this time Billy Hamilton rode into a wildly cheer-, cheer-, ing crowd. The San Francisco mail was hurriedly rushed aboard the "Antelope" again and after a record re-cord breaking run she reached San Francisco at 12:38 a.m. on April 14th, clanging her bells and flaring rockets. SWIFTEST RUN The swiftest run ever made was early in 1861. 15 miles an hour was announced as a schedule to carry Lincoln's Inaugural address to the West. Haste was necessary for on this Address hung the issue of peace or war. The mochila reached San Francisco in record time, 2000 miles covered in just a little over 7 days. The fastest rider on this trip was William J 'Billy' Cates, who ran the fastest trip recorded in the Pony Express historv. He was one of the few |