The Need To Speak To California

The Transcontinental Telegraph was a United States milestone and was completed on October 24th 1861.

Once an efficient telegraph was developed in the 1830’s, and Samuel Morse’s experimental line between Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland was shown to be successful, telegraph exploded. Soon there were lines in all the eastern state. In 1850 California became a state, and the need for communication with the non-contiguous state and the eastern based government became priority. Congress made proposals for subsidies to build a telegraph line throughout the 1850’s.

With the passing of the Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860, a federal contract was awarded to the Western Union Company, whose president was Hiram Sibley. Sibley formed a constituency between his company and the telegraph companies operating in California. The newly created Overland Telegraph Company of California would build the line eastward while Sibley’s Pacific Telegraph Company of Nebraska would build westward. The lines were to meet in Salt Lake City, Utah. Construction began in 1861, and had to deal with constant shortages of telegraph poles crossing the Midwest and the Great Basin. The line moving westward from Omaha, Nebraska reached Salt Lake City on October 18th 1861. The line coming east from Carson City, Nevada reached the city and completed the line on October 24th 1861. [This made the Pony Express obsolete over night.]

The first telegram was sent to President Abraham Lincoln from San Francisco, California Chief Justice Stephen J Field ensuring California’s loyalty to the Union.

The Last Pony

Two days after the Transcontinental Telegraph reached Salt Lake City, on October 26th 1861 the Pony Express ended its run.

The Pony Express was founded by William H Russell, William B Waddell and Alexander Majors. It began moving the mail from ST Joseph Missouri to Sacramento California on April 3rd 1860. This mail service which operated for only 18 months; carried the mail on horseback across country in about ten days. From March 1861 the Pony Express only moved mail between Salt Lake City Utah and Sacramento. Once the telegraph reached Salt Lake City, it connected Sacramento with Omaha Nebraska, and the Pony Express stopped moving mail on October 26th 1861. The Pony Express lost over $200,000 while in operation. After the end of the Civil War in 1866 the assets of the Pony Express and the Butterfield Stage Company were sold to Wells Fargo for $1.5 million.

Other good web site for more information
Gold Rush Chronicles, The Pony Express

Pony Express History

The Faster Mail

A lone rider left the Pikes Peak Stable in St Joseph, Missouri on April 3rd 1860 carrying saddlebags filled with mail. Riders would carry these pieces of mail two thousand miles to Sacramento, California.

It took stage coaches some twenty days to travel from St Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. For the bankers and merchants on the West Coast this was just to long and so the Pony Express came into being. Feeling that the service would be greatly used Senator W M Gwin, Alexander Majors and Daniel E Phelps started the express. Six hundred horses were bought and seventy-five riders who could ride well, shoot straight and weighed under 110 pounds were hired. One of these men was Henry Wallace, who was the first rider on the Pony express. He carried a message from President James Buchanan to the Governeor of California. This message along with the other mail made the cross country trip in ten days.

The Pony Express would not have along life. Men were already string telegraph wire along the path the Express traveled. By 1862 the telegraph had reached California and the Pony Express was dead. Among the famous of the Pony Express riders were Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok.