After crossing the Missouri River, out of St. Joseph, the official route[2] of the west-bound Pony Express ran at first west and south through Kansas to Kennekuk; then northwest, across the Kickapoo Indian reservation, to Granada, Log Chain, Seneca, Ash Point, Guittards, Marysville, and Hollenberg.  Here the valley of the Little Blue River was followed, still in a northwest direction.  The trail crossed into Nebraska near Rock Creek and pushed on through Big Sandy and Liberty Farm, to Thirty-two-mile Creek.  From thence it passed over the prairie divide to the Platte River, the valley of which was followed to Fort Kearney.  This route had already been made famous by the Mormons when they journeyed to Utah in 1847.  It had also been followed by many of the California gold-seekers in 1848-49 and by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and his army when they marched west from Fort Leavenworth to suppress the “Mormon War” of 1857-58.

For about three hundred miles out of Fort Kearney, the trail followed the prairies; for two thirds of this distance, it clung to the south bank of the Platte, passing through Plum Creek and Midway[3].  At Cottonwood Springs the junction of the North and South branches of the Platte was reached.  From here the course moved steadily westward, through Fremont’s Springs, O’Fallon’s Bluffs, Alkali, Beauvais Ranch, and Diamond Springs to Julesburg, on the South fork of the Platte.  Here the stream was forded and the rider then followed the course of Lodge Pole Creek in a northwesterly direction to Thirty Mile Ridge.  Thence he journeyed to Mud Springs, Court-House Rock, Chimney Rock, and Scott’s Bluffs to Fort Laramie.  From this point he passed through the foot-hills to the base of the Rockies, then over the mountains through South Pass and to Fort Bridger.  Then to Salt Lake City, Camp Floyd, Ruby Valley, Mountain Wells, across the Humboldt River in Nevada to Bisbys’, Carson City, and to Placerville, California; thence to Folsom and Sacramento.  Here the mail was taken by a fast steamer down the Sacramento River to San Francisco.

A large part of this route traversed the wildest regions of the Continent.  Along the entire course there were but four military posts and they were strung along at intervals of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty miles from each other.  Over most of the journey there were only small way stations to break the awful monotony.  Topographically, the trail covered nearly six hundred miles of rolling prairie, intersected here and there by streams fringed with timber.  The nature of the mountainous regions, the deserts, and alkali plains as avenues of horseback travel is well understood.  Throughout these areas the men and horses had to endure such risks as rocky chasms, snow slides, and treacherous streams, as well as storms of sand and snow.  The worst part of the journey lay between Salt Lake City and Sacramento, where for several hundred miles the route ran through a desert, much of it a bed of alkali dust where no living creature could long survive.  It was not merely these dangers of dire exposure and privation that threatened, for wherever the country permitted of human life, Indians abounded.  From the Platte River valley westward, the old route sped over by the Pony Express is today substantially that of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads.