Saddle up for Pony Express

GOTHENBURG, Neb. — A half-century ago, teenage horseback rider Lyle Gronewold won a kids Pony Express race in his hometown.

Now this retired Gothenburg farmer has the reins of the Nebraska division of the National Pony Express Association during the 150th anniversary of the historic, short-lived mail route across the American West.

“There's still something very romantic about the Pony Express,'' Gronewold said. “When you ride the trail at Courthouse Rock and Jail Rock, you know they're like they were 150 years ago. They haven't changed.''

Re-enactors carrying reproductions of a pair of 1860 mail pouches slung across saddles will gallop past the western Nebraska landmarks Friday as they hustle to one of the country's major celebrations commemorating this year's sesquicentennial of the Pony Express.

The first national monument dedicated to the Pony Express will be dedicated in Sidney that evening. Then riders will continue down the trail, leaving a free public barbecue, street dance and fireworks in their dust.

“We have to average 11 miles per hour while on the trail to make our schedule,'' Gronewold said.

The eastbound mail pouches left Sacramento, Calif., six days ago with the first of 550 re-enactors on a 20-day, nearly 2,000-mile journey to St. Joseph, Mo. Dozens of riders will accompany the official re-enactors in Nebraska and elsewhere along the route.

Sidney's celebration will be the first of five community events across Nebraska sharing the saddle with one of the iconic symbols of the frontier West. Other events are planned at Ogallala, Gothenburg and near Kearney and Fairbury.

St. Joseph to Sacramento on horseback — and then on to San Francisco via boat or rider — was a daunting task during the Pony Express years of 1860 and 1861. A letter mailed in Missouri arrived 1,966 miles and 10 to 16 days later in California.

Nebraska had more miles of Pony Express trail than any other territory or state. The Nebraska route had 53 posts where riders changed horses.

Nebraska still has four original Pony Express stations, more than any other state, Gronewold said.

Two are at Gothenburg, which bills itself as Nebraska's Pony Express capital. The Sam Macchette Station, originally a fur trading post and ranch house, was built on the Oregon Trail four miles east of Fort McPherson in 1854. It now is a museum in Gothenburg's Ehmen Park. Midway Station is at its original location one mile south of Gothenburg.

In Cozad, Willow Island Station, built in 1849, sits in a city park. In Minden, a cabin that served as a stage and Pony Express station on Pumpkin Creek near Courthouse and Jail Rocks south of Bridgeport now stands in Pioneer Village.

The station at Rock Creek State Historical Park is a reproduction built on the exact site of the original.

“Very few stations needed to be built for the Pony Express,'' Gronewold said. “Most were road ranches already selling goods and services to emigrants going west. The Pony Express founders simply hired these folks to keep and feed Pony Express horses and house their riders.''

The mail service played a significant role in American history. Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address March 4, 1861, was delivered to the West Coast in a record seven days, 17 hours. The news influenced California's decision to remain loyal to the Union. A copy of the address is riding back across the country with re-enactors this year.

The completion of the transcontinental telegraph in October 1861 doomed the Pony Express.

The annual re-ride normally is a 24-hour-a-day, nonstop event between St. Joseph and Sacramento. This year's event is largely being run during daytime hours to provide opportunities for community celebrations.

This year's noon arrival of riders in Ogallala thrills Mary Cone, the trail captain for re-riders between Big Springs and Paxton.

“Usually we're riding between midnight and 3 o'clock in the morning, and no one knows we're out there,'' Cone said. “This year we're going to have a little hoopla out here.''

Riders will bump into a long-standing Nebraska tradition when they arrive in North Platte early Saturday evening. The big Nebraskaland Days Parade, which begins at 1 p.m., will be done before Pony Express riders arrive south of town.

The riders plan to be headed out of North Platte by 7 p.m., an hour before the final performance this year of the Buffalo Bill Rodeo.

Cone, like Gronewold, was inspired as a child by the Pony Express. During Nebraska's centennial in 1967, she rode with other Lexington 4-H'ers in a Pony Express re-ride across the state.

“Who knew that we'd be involved in this so many years later?'' Cone said. “It's good fun.''

Contact the writer:

444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com

« Metro/Region

Share