Pony Express: An Illustrated History

by Carol Guthrie, Bart Smith

Overview

“Orphans preferred” was the call that went out to the daring of heart when the Pony Express was organized nearly 150 years ago in April 1860. Called “The Greatest Enterprise of Modern Times,” the endeavor—which lasted only nineteenth months—recruited young men willing to risk life and limb in a relay race that crossed the frontier on a route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, speeding the delivery of mail to an astonishing ten days.

The Pony Express combines the legends and lore of this remarkable mail service with contemporary photography and archival images and documents from the past, and celebrates the sesquicentennial of the start—and end—of those daring rides, which ended with the completion of the transcontinental railroad. It is a befitting tribute to an American icon whose legacy is marked to this day by Pony Express museums all along the route from Missouri to California.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762762026
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/22/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

C.W. Guthrie is a freelance writer living in Montana with her husband retired test pilot Joe Guthrie.  She grew up, unknowingly following the trail of the Pony Express as her family moved from mining town to mining town in the West.  She has written five other books: The First Ranger: Adventures of a Pioneer Forest Ranger?Glacier Country, 1902 to 1910; Glacier National Park Legends and Lore along the Going-to-the Sun Road; All Aboard for Glacier, The Great Northern Railway and Glacier National Park; Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park’s Highway to the Sky and Glacier National Park; The First 100 Years.

Photographer Bart Smith is hiking and photographing all of the national trails. His photographs have been published in such magazines as the Smithsonian, National Geographic Adventure, and Backpacker. His photographic books include The Appalachian Trail: Calling Me Back to the Hills, Along the Pacific Crest Trail, Along the Florida Trail and Along Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail.

Table of Contents

Introduction: "Perishable Horse and Human Flesh and Blood"; Chapter 1: Conquering the Great Expanse; Chapter 2: The "Greatest Enterprise of Modern Times"; Chapter 3: A Long Way to Go; Chapter 4: A Farewell to a Fabled Era; Chapter 5: Living the Legend; Appendix: Places to See Along the Pony Express Route; Bibliography; About the Author