Pony Express, 1860 to 1861

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This page was last updated on October 10, 2026.

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Before The Pony Express (1850-1860)

(The focus of this page is to show a basic timeline of how the Pony Express moved through Utah prior to the completion of the railroad in 1869.)

The history of transporting U.S. Mail between the Missouri River, Salt Lake City, and California during the 1850s and 1860s evolved rapidly due to shifting geopolitics, winter weather obstacles, business rivalries, and technological breakthroughs.

By 1850, in the 61 years since the nation's independence in 1789, the population of the United States grew from 4 million to over 23 million. Until 1848, migration to California was initially just a trickle. Then two pivotal events in 1848 transformed it into a flood. First was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War and ceded the Southwest to the United States. Then second, just days before the treaty was signed, was the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento. News of the discovery sparked the California Gold Rush, and the region's population exploded, creating an urgent need to connect this rapid growth with the rest of the country through the U.S. Mail.

Beginning in 1850, the U.S. Post Office initially attempted mail delivery across the central route via early, under-funded mail contracts. The first were the Woodson and Brown contracts to the east (Salt Lake City to Independence) and the Chorpenning and Woodward contracts to the west (Salt Lake City to Sacramento).

The route east of Salt Lake City used by Woodson and Brown, between Independence and Salt Lake City, was along the traditional Oregon and Mormon trails across Nebraska following the Platte and North Platte rivers, and Wyoming's South Pass into Salt Lake City.

The route west of Salt Lake City used by Chorpenning and Woodward, between Salt Lake City and California, was north of the Great Salt Lake touching into extreme southern Idaho and across northern Nevada following the Humboldt River, then over the Sierra Nevada mountain passes into California. Heavy winter snows over South Pass in Wyoming, the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, the mountains of northwestern Utah and in northeastern Nevada, and the Sierra Nevada repeatedly stranded the wagons and mule trains carrying the mail, leading to months of lost mail and public outcry.

(View a map of these early mail routes, from Hafen's "The Overland Mail, 1849-1869")

(A common and regularly referenced source for early U.S. mail service and used and cited by numerous writers, is "The Overland Mail, 1849–1869" by LeRoy R. Hafen, published in 1926. The book entered the public domain on January 1, 2022. This is an excellent book, deeply researched and very complete in its coverage.)

(Archive.org - "The Overland Mail, 1849–1869" by LeRoy R. Hafen; digitized from the original 1926 edition)

Due to winter blockages along the northern path, in 1858 the Post Office changed to a southern route, creating a major change in how U. S. mail moved west. The new route used the Butterfield Overland Mail of the 1858-1861 period, when John Butterfield won a massive $600,000 annual contract to transport transcontinental mail via the Southern Route. This new southern route departed St. Louis, curving south through Arkansas and Oklahoma, and across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, passing through Tucson and Yuma, to Los Angeles before heading north to San Francisco. It bypassed Salt Lake City entirely to guarantee year-round, snow-free delivery within 25 days. Salt Lake City was forced to rely on secondary, local mail routes such as Chorpenning's reduced northern service or an extension of the Old Spanish Trail running south to Los Angeles by way of Las Vegas.

While Butterfield ran the southern route, explorers and stage operators were proving the benefits of a direct central passage. The surveys of Howard Egan in 1855, and Army Captain James H. Simpson in 1859 identified a direct route straight across the Great Basin. This "Central Overland Route" went south from Salt Lake City to where the military post at Camp Floyd was set up in 1858, then west to the Deep Creek mountains and across central Nevada directly to Carson City, cutting 280 miles off of Chorpenning's old Humboldt River trail.

(Read more about Egan's Route across Central Nevada) (Includes information about the survey by Captain James Simpson in 1859)

(Archive.org - Howard R. Egan, "Pioneering the West, 1846–1878," 1916)

With the Central Route across Nevada established in late 1858, the mail and passenger coaches began providing service that continued until the railroad was completed across Nevada in 1869.

(Read more about Stagecoaches in Utah)

Mail West From Salt Lake City

Route Summary:

Contract Summary:

The Chorpenning and Woodward mail route west from Salt Lake City represented the first formal overland mail contract linking California with Utah and the eastern states. Running between Sacramento and Salt Lake City, the service earned its popular but informal name of the "Jackass Mail" because operators relied on pack mules to navigate the high mountain snows and the arid desert basins of the Great Basin.

Mail East From Salt Lake City

Route Summary:

Contract Summary:

The mail route to the East connected Salt Lake City with Independence, on the Missouri River south of Kansas City. The route followed the established Mormon and Oregon emigrant trails eastward from Salt Lake City to Fort Bridger, to South Pass, then along the Platte River to Fort Laramie and eastward across Nebraska. The route took the path across the mountains of northeastern Utah and central Wyoming and across the Great Plains.

The Pony Express (1860-1861)

Pony Express Milestones:

Telegraph Milestones:

The Pony Express in 1860–1861 was operated by Russell, Majors and Waddell's Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company. The partners already operated the largest freighting company in the West. A trace of the central route used by the Pony Express took it from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Fort Kearney in western Nebraska, to Fort Laramie in eastern Wyoming, to South Pass, and on to Fort Bridger in southwestern Wyoming. From Fort Bridger, the route was to Salt Lake City across Nevada to Sacramento. Delivery took 10 days, proving the central route could handle rapid mail year-round.

"The partners (Russell, Majors and Waddell) intended to operate the Pony Express solely as a business undertaking until it was rendered obsolete by the completion of the transcontinental telegraph line. That plan, however, was disrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War and an act of Congress moving the Overland Mail line from the Southern to the Central route. It is, however, no discredit whatever to Russell, Majors & Waddell to say that the Pony Express was conceived and operated purely as a promotional business undertaking which amply fulfilled its purpose." (Raymond Settle and Mary Lund Settle, "War Drums and Wagon Wheels," 1966, page 115)

April 7, 1860
"The first Pony Express from the West left Sacramento city, Cal., at 12 p.m., on the night of the 3d inst., and arrived in this city at 11:45 p.m. of the 7th, inside of prospectus time. The roads were heavy and the weather stormy. The last 75 miles was made in 5 hours, 15 minutes, in a heavy rain. The Express from the East left St. Joseph, Missouri, at 6:30 p.m. on the evening of the 3d and arrived in this city at 6:25 p.m. on the evening of the 9th." (Deseret News, April 11, 1860)

(The Pony Express was a premium service for customers who wanted quicker delivery of their correspondence. This was usually businesses and government officials. Most individuals could not afford the fees being charged, which in many cases exceeded a person's income for an entire month.)

May 4, 1860
"The Pony Express. — At half past two p. m. on Friday last [May 4th], the overland express arrived from the East, inside of time, as usual. It travels swiftly whether it carries much news or not. We have been informed that there were only three or four letters for this place by the last trip." (Deseret News, May 9, 1860)

(Wikipedia - Pony Express)

(Wikipedia - Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company -- The article includes information about the Pony Express, its failure in 1861 and the collapse of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company itself in 1862.)

Pony Express, Echo To Salt Lake City

Although research has not yet found the specific route taken by the Pony Express riders between Echo and Salt Lake City, there are two possibilities, with some minor variation.

First is the original 1847 Pioneer trail from Echo to "Heneferville" then by way of East Canyon to Big Mountain Pass, then Little Mountain Pass, then Emigration Canyon.

A slight variation would be from Big Mountain Pass to Mountain Dell by way of Little Dell canyon, then by way of Parley Pratt's Golden Pass toll road through lower Big Kanyon Creek Canyon (Parley's Canyon). Pratt's toll road opened in July 1850 and was a recognized Territorial road by 1855. But it remained as a toll road.

The Pony Express likely was forced to use the "free" (no-toll) route by way of Emigration Canyon. But by this time, research suggests that the tolls of the Territorial tolls were not being collected.

(Read more about the Territorial toll road after 1860)

Pony Express Last Days

"There is a screw loose somewhere on this route. The St. Louis agents complain bitterly that not half of the newspapers put in the bags at are received here. Private newspaper packages to correspondents there and the City press are stolen, and it is presumed that it is the same with papers westward bound. There is great need of reform somewhere. Nothing short of new locks on the through hags seems likely to accomplish it." (Daily Alta California [San Francisco], January 1, 1861, citing a letter from St. Louis dated December 15, 1860, received via Pony Express)

September 11, 1861
"The Pony which arrived here from the East on Saturday evening, brought a dispatch dated 'Outer Station,' Sept. 9th. It is reported that the Pony now starts from a point only about one hundred and sixty [160] miles east of this city, to which the dispatches are brought by mail. We are inclined to believe the report, as circumstances certainly favor such conclusion. That being the case, dispatches by Express hereafter will not be much in advance of those brought by mail." (Deseret News, September 11, 1861)

- "Outer Station" refers to the temporary, advancing end-of-wire for the Pacific Telegraph. During the summer and autumn of 1861, Edward Creighton's Pacific Telegraph Company crew was building west from Fort Laramie, while James Gamble's crew was building east from California.

- As the telegraph wire advanced toward Salt Lake City from both directions, the distances covered by Pony Express route were reduced and the overall route shortened. Riders were no longer needed to cover the entire transcontinental trail; they were used solely to bridge the rapidly shrinking gap between the eastern and western telegraph construction heads.

- "Outer Station" at 160 miles east of Salt Lake City in mid-September 1861 places the head of eastern wire construction along the established South Pass route, in the vicinity of the crossing of the Green River.

- The Deseret News item does not indicate the abandonment of the South Pass route in favor of later Bridger Pass being developed by Butterfield for the Overland Mail coaches. Instead, it documents the final weeks of the Pony Express operating along its original South Pass alignment, acting as a high-speed relay between the advancing telegraph line workers until the two wires finally connected at Salt Lake City on October 24, 1861.

- The same changes took place in distance traveled by the Express riders from the west. By September 11, 1861, the Express was only carrying telegraphic messages from Diamond Springs, Nevada Territory, 25 miles west of Ruby, which itself is 228 miles west of Salt Lake City. The Pony Express was only carrying telegraphic messages eastward from that point, with regular mail traveling by mail coach. (Deseret News, September 11, 1861)

October 24, 1861
On this day, the transcontinental telegraph was completed when Edward Creighton's eastern division met James Gamble's western division in Salt Lake City. With electronic communication established, the Pony Express was officially discontinued.

October 26, 1861
The directors of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company issued the official order for the Pony Express to cease operations. But with numerous riders spread out along the 2,000-mile trail, riders continued finishing their relay legs to clear the route. The final eastbound and westbound mailbags passed through Salt Lake City in the closing days of October 1861, with the very last remaining mail arriving at St. Joseph in the east, and Sacramento in the west as late as mid-November.

The exact date of arrival for the "last" rider into Salt Lake City depends on either the connection of the wire for the telegraph, or when the last Pony Express mailbags were received.

(The reader is reminded that throughout this 1860-1861 period of the Pony Express and the 1861 completion of the transcontinental telegraph, the regular U. S. mail was traveling by regular mail coach, with only minor delays.)

Economic Factors of the Pony Express

Despite its legendary and romantic reputation, the Pony Express was a financial failure. Over its brief 18-month run from April 1860 to October 1861, the service reduced its postage rates four separate times trying to attract more business. Instead, each price reduction only dragged the service further into financial debt.

Standard U.S. domestic mail at the time cost just 2 to 3 cents per ounce. The initial Pony Express $5.00 fee was roughly 250 times the standard rate, equivalent to approximately $180 to $200 today to mail a single piece of mail. (For comparison, three sheets of today's most common 20-lb 8-1/2x11 paper used in copy machines and printers weigh about 1/2 ounce, so one ounce is equivalent to six sheets of paper.)

Levi Young wrote in his 1923 book, "The Founding of Utah," page 403, "The letters were light, as they were written on tissue-paper and enclosed in a ten-cent Government-stamped envelope. It is known that some of the letters cost $27.50 to transmit them by pony to San Francisco." (For comparison, $27.50 in 1860 is equivalent today to just over $1,100. When FedEx started its overnight express service in 1973, its fee was $16.00, or about $115 today.)

Because of the exorbitant cost, average citizens simply could not afford to use the service. It was utilized predominantly by government officials, newspapers, financial institutions, and wealthy merchants who required fast communication between California and the East Coast.

Despite high postage fees, the enterprise was a massive financial failure. High operational expenses (maintaining over 180 stations, hundreds of personnel, and 400-plus horses) caused the operation to lose up to $13 per letter delivered, ultimately leading to its bankruptcy.

Pony Express Information

(Archive.org - "Saddles and Spurs: The Pony Express Saga," by Raymond W. Settle; Mary Lund Settle; digital version from 1955 edition)

Anthony Godfrey, "Pony Express National Historic Trail," 1992 -- An excellent history completed for the National Park Service to serve as a resource for the Pony Express National Historic Trail, established in August 1992. (Google Books) (PDF; 298 pages; 8MB)

Utah and the Pony Express -- Produced by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1960 on the occasion of the centennial of the Pony Express, this digital version is preserved at the HathiTrust.

(Wikipedia - Pony Express)

(National Park Service - Pony Express Trail; includes links to several documents)

(Richard E. Fike and John W. Headley, The Pony Express Stations of Utah, BLM, 1979)

Maps

National Park Service Interactive Historic Trails Map -- Map shows the routes of all the trails mentioned on this page (except Parley Pratt's Golden Pass Route from Echo to Salt Lake City).

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