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Page 2 of the January 1997 ISSUE OF PASS PATROL CAMPFIRE TALES

The January issue included here contains the stories and not the advertisements. Keep in mind, the stories here were written in 1997.  

This issue includes
Pony Express Trail

PONY EXPRESS TRAIL IN UTAH

Recruiting pony express riders during the year of 1860 was no easy task.  Can’t imagine why with such an appealing help wanted poster.

Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen.  Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily.  Orphans preferred.  Wages $25 a week.

Three notable figures of that era - Alexander Majors, William H. Russel and William B. Waddell - claimed a pony rider service could transport mail from the east in only nine to ten days.  With the establishment of the Pony Express in April of 1860, their claim became reality.

I don’t suppose we could have been hired by the Pony Express being over eighteen (well over) and not so skinny.  We are expert riders, however, (in our Toyota 4X4), but we could use a raise in pay.  It cost us nearly $25 just to gas up the rig.  Maybe that’s how you get to be skinny.  You put all your money into the steed.

 Since we had only a couple of days to explore, we selected a section of the trail across Utah’s Great Basin.  To get there, we headed west out of Salt Lake City on I-80 past Tooele and Grantsville.  We took the Dugway exit and drove south through Skull Valley.  About 30 miles down the road, we came to the entrance of Dugway Army Post.