The fastest time ever thus far made on the “Butterfield Route” was twenty-one days between San Francisco and New York.  The Pony Express curtailed that time at once by eleven days, which was a marvel of rapid transit at that period.

The plant necessary to meet the heavy demand made on the originators of the fast mail route over the barren plains and through the dangerous mountains was nearly five hundred horses, one hundred and ninety stations, two hundred men to take care of these stations, and eighty experienced riders, each of whom was to make an average of thirty-three and one-third miles.  To accomplish this each man used three ponies on his route, but in cases of great emergency much longer distances were made.

The letters or despatches to be carried by the daring men were required to be written on the finest tissue paper, weighing half an ounce, five dollars being the charge for its transportation.

As suggested by two members of the firm, when they protested that the business would not begin to meet the expenses, their prophecies proved true; but they were not disappointed, for one of the main objects of the institution of the express was to learn whether the line through which the express was carried could be made a permanent one for travel during all the seasons of the year.  This was determined in the affirmative.

One of the most important transactions of the Pony Express was the transmittal of President Buchanan’s last message, in December, 1860, from the Missouri River to Sacramento, over two thousand miles, in eight days and a few hours, and the next in importance was the carrying of President Lincoln’s message, his inaugural of March 4, 1861, over the same route in seven days and seventeen hours.  This was the quickest time for horseback riding, considering the distance made, ever accomplished in this or any other country.

In the spring of 1860 Bolivar Roberts, superintendent of the western division of the Pony Express, came to Carson City, Nevada, to engage riders and station-agents for the Pony Express route across the Great Plains.  In a few days fifty or sixty were engaged—­men noted for their lithe, wiry physiques, bravery and coolness in moments of great personal danger, and endurance under the most trying circumstances of fatigue.  Particularly were these requirements necessary in those who were to ride over the lonely route.  It was no easy duty; horse and human flesh were strained to the limit of physical tension.  Day or night, in sunshine or in storm, under the darkest skies, in the pale moonlight and with only the stars at times to guide him, the brave rider must speed on.  Rain, hail, snow, or sleet, there was no delay; his precious burden of letters demanded his best efforts under the stern necessities of the hazardous service; it brooked no detention; on he must ride.  Sometimes his pathway led across level prairies, straight as the flight of an arrow.  It was oftener a zigzag trail hugging the brink of awful precipices, and dark, narrow canyons infested with watchful savages eager for the scalp of the daring man who had the temerity to enter their mountain fastnesses.