What are some of the obstacles a Pony Express rider could expect to encounter along his route?
In 1860 there was a vast, uninhabited expanse of America between the Missouri River and the Pacific slope. With the exception of Salt Lake City, there was virtually nothing out there. So you’re talking about a countryside that was inhospitable. It’s interesting to note that former Pony riders, who were interviewed during the twentieth century, always talked about the weather. They didn’t talk about having to fight their way through Indians or outrun desperados; they talked about it being forty below in Nebraska, riding a horse at night in January–riding in places where it was snowing so hard they had to get off and lead the horse. In terms of terrain, you’re talking about crossing lunar landscapes in Utah and Nevada, where there would be no water for tremendous distances. It was a hard world. Riding for the Pony Express was a difficult and dangerous thing to do. But in the mid-nineteenth century there were people who could do it because they were born in the saddle. Was there a partic
