THE STARTING POINT St. Joseph, Missouri changed into famous inside the mid-1800’s as the “jumping off vicinity” for human beings going west. If you desired to experience the stagecoach or if you had been searching out an organized wagon teach to connect with, you started in St. Joseph. But the metropolis was additionally the place to begin for a famous commercial enterprise task called the Pony Express.
At the time of its founding there had been no western railroads and no telegraph lines. If you wanted to get a message to the west coast and do it over land, your choice was the Butterfield Stage Company, and you can determine it’d take 23-25 days to cowl the 2795 miles between St. Joe and San Francisco. American Innovation Dollars The Butterfield Stage had the respectable mail agreement, however the looming Civil War intended that human beings desired a quicker way to communicate. Enter one of the owners of the stage line, William Russell, who satisfied his two companions they might higher meet customer requirements with unmarried riders on speedy horses wearing most effective a small saddlebag.
CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS Potential customers wanted pace and reliability, length. At the time the level turned into the handiest recreation on the town, and its 2800 mile course become meant to skirt around adverse Indians and obstructing snow, retaining its passengers lives (and hair), and incidentally getting the mail introduced. Russell’s new mission promised transport in 10 days or much less, charging $5 for letters weighing less a 1/2-ounce, plus the everyday 10 cent postage. According to Mark Twain in his e book Roughing It, “…Both rider and horse went flying mild. The rider’s get dressed become skinny, and outfitted close; he wore a roundabout, and a skull cap, and tucked his pantaloons into his boot-tops like a race-rider. He carried no hands – he carried not anything that was now not absolutely necessary, for even the postage on his literary freight became worth five dollars a letter. He got but little frivolous correspondence to hold – his bag had commercial enterprise letter in it, commonly. His horse become stripped of all pointless weight, too. He wore a little wafer of a racing saddle, and no visible blanket. He wore mild footwear, or none in any respect. The little flat mail wallet strapped underneath the rider’s thighs might each preserve approximately the bulk of a baby’s primer. They held many an important commercial enterprise bankruptcy and newspaper letter, but these had been written on paper as airy and skinny as gold-leaf, almost, and for that reason bulk and weight had been economized…”
DELIVERING ON PROMISES The Pony Express hired eighty small men from the loads who carried out, the most famous of them William Cody, later called Buffalo Bill. The commercial enterprise lasted most effective 19 months – until the telegraph became finished and supplied a good deal quicker shipping of messages. During it’s quick existence Pony Express riders effectively delivered 34,743 pieces of mail, with most effective one mail delivery ever being misplaced.
The writer of this article, Tim Connor, is president and founder of Rodeo! Performance Group, Inc., an Ocala, Florida-primarily based group of facilitators running with businesses and executives who want to make their groups competitive on a international scale. You can also join up for Rodeo’s monthly newsletter,