Podcast #126-S5 -Pony Express National Museum - Dec 11 2023

April 3, 1860: The first rider was to leave St. Joseph at 5:00 pm. However, the mail had been slowed up in Chicago for transfer to Hannibal, Missouri. A train was stripped down with no passenger cars at Hannibal. Once the mail arrived there, the train rolled across the state at a record speed to St. Joseph. It finally arrived around 7:00 pm and the mail was rushed to the stables where the first rider, Johnny Fry awaited. The mail was placed into the specially made mochilla saddle and at 7:15 pm a cannon was fired alerting everyone Fry was on his way to the river. Cheering crowds waived at Fry as he made his way through streets of St. Joseph. Once at the river, Fry boarded a ferry which took him and his horse Sylph across the river to Kansas where he rode at breakneck speeds for 90 miles before another rider took over. In Sacramento, at noon, the first rider, Harry Roff, took off with the eastbound mail.