The Pony Express rides again

The National Pony Express Association annual re-ride came through Churchill County June 25-26 making stops along the way which included Cold Springs Station, Sand Mountain and Fort Churchill.

The original Pony Express began April 3, 1860, and ended Oct. 24, 1861, when the transcontinental telegraph lines were completed. The NPEA was founded in 1977 to “re-establish, identify and re-ride the Pony Express National Historic Trail.”

As part of the spring lecture series in April, the Churchill County Museum hosted independent filmmaker Gwendolyn Clancy and a viewing of her original short film documenting the re-enactment, “Pony Express: Living the Ride.” NPEA Nevada chapter past-presidents Arthur Johnson and Samantha DiMuzio, who have participated in the re-ride and make an appearance in the film, also talked about their experiences and answered questions.

Numa Elementary School student Piper Humphrey said she attended the museum’s lecture as part of the research process for her project about the Pony Express for the annual Numaseum event. The school’s fifth grade students research an historically significant personality, landmark or event and create a tabletop display, short speech and costume. The community is then invited for a one-night-only walkthrough event to observe the presentations.

A video replay of the complete spring lecture series is available to museum members.

Every June hundreds of volunteers work together 24 hours a day over a whirlwind 10 days to bring the leather mochila pouch filled with commemorative mail on its 1,966 mile journey. This year’s re-ride started June 17 in St. Joseph, Missouri and continued through Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada before reaching Old Sacramento, California on June 27. The mochila, which weighs about 50 pounds and carries approximately 1,300 letters, now also carried a GPS tracker that sent updates every five minutes to an interactive map on the nationalponyexpress.org website.