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Archive 1 |
The Pony express was not the first unified transcontinental postal service in Europe since the time of the roman empire; among other systems, there is a link in this article to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_delivery_by_animal that describes the Thurn und Taxis' private system in Europe. This is only one of many. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.167.108.49 ( talk) 06:39, 18 August 2009 (UTC)
"The Pony Express was the first rapid transit"
This isn't really my area but I don't see what the Pony Express has to do with rapid transit. Cjrother 17:43, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)
How can you not see how it is related to rapid transit??? That is what the pony express was about, being rapid transit of messages/packages!
Mathmo
I have attempted to remove the more biased statements in this article. I also added two sentences on how the PE has entered American myth, though its skewed treatment in American history classes should be elaborated on. - Acjelen 17:48, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
New International Encyclopedia contains some figures about the fees and the salaries earned by the riders.
Shouldn't we rename the article so it won't cause confusion with New Jersey Transit's Pony Express? I Am Ri¢h 15:54, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
no i dont think it will cause confusion i think that everyone knows what the pony express is. user:unicornsareawesome — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2014 67.244.141.48 ( talk • contribs) 13 November
http://www.umbc.edu/corbett/ This looks interesting. The "Orphans preferred" ad line would be cool in the article. Phr 07:43, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
I noticed the "citation needed" tag about the relay stations every 10 miles. On this website it says:
So it confirms the 10 mile thing, but suggests that ponies were changed only every 30 miles. I say "suggests" because it seems ambiguous to me--if "extra ponies" were only kept at the home stations, then it would seem like that's where you would change them, but if you changed riders and ponies at the home stations, why wouldn't you say so? What do you do at the regular stations if not change ponies? Maybe there's one pony at the relay station and not "extra ponies"?
Anyway, seems worth clarifying. Nareek 11:30, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
I took out this sentence:
If that claim is (which I doubt) in needs some citations and deserves its own section. The Pony Express had major infrastructure requirements (e.g., the frequent stations/horses/riders, etc.). It's hard to believe their could be "feeder" routes just arbitrarily spinning off. Even if it is true this article is about the St. Joseph-Sacramento route. Americasroof 02:35, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
I Firefox, the image in the Route section appears above a portion of the text. In MS Internet Explorer, the label appears above an image on the margin (Post Office running logo). I did not manage to fix this using wiki tools, and I would rather avoid resorting to html. Can someone please help me? Thanks. Cema 03:10, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
The article is inconsistent on whether a weapon was carried. The earlier entry says they were paid well because they were subject to attack (which I think was an unsubstantiated POV addition). A recent edit today says they carried either a rifle or revolver. I knocked off the earlier comment but applied a fact template on the weapon. Americasroof 21:16, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
Agreed. But i think they might have had shotguns and revolvers..... i still need something to back that up....... Robinhood754 ( talk) 14:00, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
For those of you who are interested in adding to this topic, perhaps you would like to include something about a run in Canada. Lots of information has been compiled at this site, including photos of a monument and scans of newspaper clippings from the time period.
http://ns1763.ca/annapco/ponyexmon.html
The interesting thing about this pony express is that it did not carry mail, only news from overseas! 200.140.129.208 15:13, 28 April 2007 (UTC) Scotian Gold
They really should have shotguns and revolvers....
Cheesemaster123 (
talk) 23:57, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
Hello, i've found this web page and feel that several mentioned aspects from there arent reflected in the article. see
http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/pioneers_and_cowboys/theponyexpressaddedacolorfulchapterinutah.html
--
Alexander.stohr (
talk) 01:34, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
Hello, I'm french. Are you sure about this date: By 1860, the fastest route was the Butterfield Stage
It's by 1860 or 1850? Pony was in 1860, so it must be before...-- 90.44.92.209 ( talk) 11:07, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
I removed this text from the introductory paragraph:
they looked for young skinny wiry men who were in good health and were willing to risk their lives to transport mail
I dare say it's a true statement, but it doesn't fit in the introductory paragraph, at least not as it was positioned. The point is made, though in other words, later on in the article. The text appears to have originated with the anonymous poster 70.129.180.113. Jackrepenning ( talk) 14:41, 8 May 2008 (UTC) ~hmmm... I thought there was an ad that said something like that? Mathmo Talk 09:45, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
hello, i am writing a paragraph about the pony express and are there any other good websites that would help? to awnser your question i think they would deliver evrey other day and i think they would switch from horse to horse so the other rider could have a rest. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.12.190.134 ( talk) 16:15, 7 December 2009 (UTC)
I removed "for a 12-hour day's labor", because it's not really a relevant point, & because it makes for an awkward construction. (It's also not clear how it relates to the week in question, which IIRC would've been 6 days, or a 72h wk.)
On an unrelated point, the entire "Westbound" section has the smell of a copyvio.... TREKphiler any time you're ready, Uhura 15:59, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
As I post this, there is no mention in the article of the Pony Express's bankruptcy, and what year that happened. See this New York Public Library site: www.nypl.org/blog/2010/02/01/pony-express-history-and-myth or do a Google search. Needs attention by an expert, particularly the year, since apparently the assets were sold long after the line closed. 5Q5 ( talk) 18:25, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
Just wondering about this, because I could swear there was - possibly still is - a motorcycle courier operation in the UK using the name. Maybe actually as part of the company that owns the trademark, or operating under license from it... That or they were strictly small time and confined to my local area, but very visible. (Regular small plane flights have probably erased any need for them long-distance... but in most other ways they'd be the direct equivalent. Not carrying much more weight in total, and possibly operating a similar relay system in some places, and needing younger, fitter riders (to deal quickly with stairs at delivery points, for example!) but a heck of a lot faster overall... certainly more than the 7.5 - 15mph or so as stated in the text for the originals) 193.63.174.10 ( talk) 12:28, 6 July 2010 (UTC)
This is the initial comment to create the GA review page. Please bear with me as I have little time at the moment but I still want to do the review properly :) :)
Reviewer: km5 ( talk) 18:58, 8 July 2010 (UTC)
GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria
This article is in quite good shape, not much work to be done before it becomes a Good Article.
--
km5 (
talk) 21:27, 11 July 2010 (UTC)
Review suspended until July 21, I'll be back from vacation ;) -- km5 ( talk) 22:44, 17 July 2010 (UTC)
Review resumed. -- km5 ( talk) 22:24, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
GA review passed. -- km5 ( talk) 22:12, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
Several points here:
I say this image needs to be removed until/unless RS can be found for it. Wilsonchas ( talk) 16:34, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
Followup:
I've deleted the image. Wilsonchas ( talk) 14:18, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
I support the deletion. The overwhelming majority of references I've seen to this advertisement are that it came from a newspaper. The poster appears to be a fake and likely spawned later references to the ad being a "poster." Being very familiar with mid 19th century advertising, the layout, graphics and fonts are not at all convincing. I, and others apparently, have not found this ad in San Francisco papers of 1860, suggesting this is fiction based on fiction. The footnote about this should be deleted and the text perhaps edited to say "supposedly" rather than "reportedly" to make it clear there is no proof it existed. Declair ( talk) 00:05, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
I would think that an ad with /some/ historic backing could be used in its place? maybe (pg 7)? Or at least replace the alleged text for the ad?
There's something weird about the layout of this article, with acres of empty whitespace. Floating some images and removing the Clear and TOC left templates might help. Justlettersandnumbers ( talk) 13:43, 2 July 2011 (UTC)
"On November 7, 1860, a Pony Express rider departed Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory (the eastern end of the telegraph line) with the election results. Riders sped along the route, over snow-covered trails and into Fort Churchill, Nevada Territory (the western end of the telegraph line). California’s newspapers received word of Lincoln’s election only seven days and 17 hours after the East Coast papers, an unrivaled feat at the time."
First: like Nebraska would be the western end of the eastern line and nevada would be the eastern end of the western line. The wording is confusing. Second (out of scope ?): How was it that (popular) election results (national ?) from a November 6th election were known on November 7th ? Even assuming california's popular vote was same day tallied, how did that information get to the east coast ? (the electoral college met on february 11, 1861 and voted on february 13, 1861)
OK sorry i have answered my own question about election results. With early returns form 14 states teh new yourk tribune calculated that lincoln was expected to have enough electoral votes for victory. California and oregon were also expected to go to lincoln, but he already had enough electoral votes without them. Here is a link to the new york tribune, november 7, 1860 page 4. Results are near top of second column. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030213/1860-11-07/ed-1/seq-4/;words=New+York+7+new
I would still like to know how they counted and tabulated and reported results but that is not the scope of pony express
Pony Express as an idiom for a very slow postal service ("you've been waiting for your package for a week? Did they send it by Pony Express?"), would it warrant a mention? 125.253.96.160 ( talk) 13:25, 17 July 2013 (UTC)
I've fixed references to books - changed to simple ref with isbn from the previous linkage to websites selling books. I've also removed a large image of Pony Express postmarks which had a reference link to the website of stamp collector/dealer who sells such material. We don't need that image and certainly don't promote commercial interests. Vsmith ( talk) 01:18, 1 October 2013 (UTC)