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#8 in Series: Landmarks of American History ... Read more

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Describes the history of the Pony Express and the daring riders who risked their lives to deliver the mail. ... Read more

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Tells the history of the creation, operation, and demise of the mail service that linked the eastern and western United States from 1860 to 1861. ... Read more

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Learn how between 1820 and 1900 transportation developed from boats, horses, and wagons to stagecoaches, railroads, and cars. Follow the journey of stagecoach passengers between towns in the East, and the movement of goods by land and sea between the East

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"WANTED-Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen.Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily.Orphans preferred...Apply, Pony Express Stables, St. Joseph, Missouri" The Pony Express employed the most courageous and adventurous young men and the strongest horses to transport the mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California-a distance of almost 2,000 miles.The 19 months that this exceptional service lasted (before it was replaced by the telegraph) represents one of the most thrilling eras of western United States history. This is the story of Pony Bob, the brave young man who make the longest and most daring ride in the history of the Pony Express-covering more than 300 hot and dusty miles across Nevada, in just 2 days!Travel with Pony Bob and discover just what made his ride so treacherous-and learn the fate of those he left behind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Learn the other half of the Pony Express story.
I picked this book up as source material for a novel set on the Pony Express trail.I could hardly have picked a better one-stop-shop reference for everything a historical novelists needs.It's all in here.The names, the dates, the famous figures and the infamous ones.The tensions between whites and native Americans.Everything.

But what I found most fascinating is Di Certo's careful attention to the underbelly of the Pony Express, to the un-glamorous, but much more dangerous, role that the Express's hundreds of station-keepers played in the saga.Before reading this book, I knew as much about the Pony Express as anybody who grows up in America: orphans, fast horses, delivering the mail across hostile Indian territory.Blah blah blah.That stuff is true, as far as it goes, but I found so much intrigue and drama in the lives of the unsung station-keepers that it ended up totally changing the focus of my novel.

And I must say, it changed my book very much for the better.For that, I am ever grateful.

Fascinating Read!!!!
Knowing only what I had learned in school about the Pony Express, I began reading this book.Boy, do they leave a ton of stuff out in schools when they teach about this time period!!!!I could not put this book down.It is very well written and a fairly easy read.There were parts of this book that I couldn't catch my breath while reading.This book is a must read for anyone wanting to know more about this fascinating time in our country's history!

One Enjoyable Ride of a Read!
Joseph J. Di Certo's THE SAGA OF THE PONY EXPRESS is one of those historical gems that defies the notion that history can be as dry as the long lost dust of the past.
It is truly enjoyable reading with more than a few facts that will have you learning something in spite of yourself and maybe even get you ready for one of the categories on Jeopardy or at least a trivia contest! Like, did you know that Wild Bill Hickok worked for the Pony Express but was too tall to be a rider? Or that his roots could be traced back to a couple of tenant farmers who worked for Shakespeare? Or that before William Cody became Buffalo Bill Cody and a Pony Express Rider the then eleven year old was saved from getting beat up by a bully by Hickok?
There's a great deal more and Di Certo brings it all back to life in fine detail and style.
Russell, Waddell & Majors' PONY EXPRESS only lasted 18 months from April 1960 to October 1861 but left a legacy that endures. Along with some nice historical photos the book also provides a list of the stations involved and the young riders who made history taking the mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. Some of the riders- as young as 14- braved Indian attacks, robbers, and harsh weather and conditions on the difficult runs.
How difficult? Well, consider the recruiting poster that read: 'Wanted- Young Skinny, Wiry Fellows Not Over Eighteen. Must Be Expert Riders, Willing to Risk Death Daily. Orphans Preferred.'
In all of the runs and hazards they faced only one Mochila saddle bag of mail was ever lost.
This book is one for your bookshelf or at least mine.

Entertaining and informative
This book was very easy to read.The author did an outstanding job telling the story of the Pony Express.A definate read for anybody interested in this time period.

Engaging, insightful
Just like the Pony Express riders themselves, this is a fast-paced but at the same time enjoyable and meaningful read of a very significant period in American history.
Due to Hollywood, television, dime novels, etc. many have a misunderstanding that the Pony Express lasted for years, even decades, where in actuality it was for only eighteen months. DiCerto gives us a glimpse into the origin of how and why this mail service was initiated; who started it; the trials and tribulations of the politics involved; a brief history of every station along the route; and best of all, the hardships, perils, dangers and grit of the young riders themselves.
A very well written and informative book. ... Read more

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“WANTED. YOUNG, SKINNY, WIRY FELLOWS. NOT OVER 18. MUST BE EXPERT RIDERS. WILLING TO RISK DEATH DAILY. ORPHANS PREFERRED.”
—California newspaper help-wanted ad, 1860

The Pony Express is one of the most celebrated and enduring chapters in the history of the United States, a story of the all-American traits of bravery, bravado, and entrepreneurial risk that are part of the very fabric of the Old West. No image of the American West in the mid-1800s is more familiar, more beloved, and more powerful than that of the lone rider galloping the mail across hostile Indian territory. No image is more revered. And none is less understood. Orphans Preferred is both a revisionist history of this magnificent and ill-fated adventure and an entertaining look at the often larger-than-life individuals who created and perpetuated the myth of “the Pony,” as it is known along the Pony Express trail that runs from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. The Pony Express is a story that exists in the annals of Americana where fact and fable collide, a story as heroic as the journey of Lewis and Clark, as complex and revealing as the legacy of Custer’s Last Stand, and as muddled and freighted with yarns as Paul Revere’s midnight ride. Orphans Preferred is a fresh and exuberant reexamination of this great American story.

Customer Reviews (23)

Excellent historical look at a time that was.
I almost gave this just four stars because it does tend to jerk a bit and goes into topics that are not specifically related to the topic at hand.

Then, since I found myself purchasing several of those referenced titles I decided, what the heck, this author must really be doing one heckuva job!

I was a little displeased with his harping on Buffalo Bill for perhaps exaggerating or even lying about his pony express exploits.

All in all, though, I found this book to be invaluable as a research tool so I can better articulate how youngsters, in their late teens, were able to make their mark on the great frontier. Of greater import, though, was how those very souls would go on to be seen on a kin with the character in the Outlaws songtrack, Like Desperadoes Waitin' On A Train - C. William Anderson, aka Travis C. Ward.

exasperating
So, the story of the Pony Express is much bigger than the truth.The American frontier is fable land, and legends surround the westward expansion of the United States.America has a mythology about the west, and that's great.Cowboys, Indians, Pioneers, Gold Rush... it's the stuff of 1950's Hollywood.This book sets out to show how much of the Pony Express history is legend.

This is NOT a history of the Pony Express.This is a history of the STORIES surrounding the Pony Express, including those of Buffalo Bill, Horace Greeley, Indian wars, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), and the business owners and various riders who are not common household names.

There is value in exploring these legends, their origins, and the truth behind them, but this book did not deliver that value.

The writing style is tiresome, repetitive, contemptuous, and unilluminating.Often, it is like reading someone's note cards for a term paper, rather than a real book.I wanted to be charmed with the old west... I might as well have not read this book.One star.

Extra star for the interesting section on Samuel Clemens -- I plan to read Roughing It by Mark Twain next.

The truth becomes irrelevant when the legend is history.
While explaining the dichotomy of legend and fact surrounding a short-lived business venture which has come to dominate our national imagination, Christopher Corbett illuminates the entire myth of America's Old West. It is said that news is the first draft of history. Everyday we see how newspapers, television, radio and the internet bloggers convey their perspective as fact. So it was as the first Pony Express rider saddled the mochila for his ride west from Saint Joseph, Missouri on the evening of April 3, 1860. As Mr. Corbett demonstrates by use of the alternative realities available to his historical study, the sun shone brightly in the gathering darkness as a man of many names on a horse of many colors rode into history. Unlike some who engage such a task, Christopher Corbett does not endeavor to be an iconoclast. Rather, he renders a scholarly work presented in an entertaining, often humorous and easy to read style. I would highly recommend Orphans Preferred to any who would seek to better understand this singular period of individualism, freedom and hope in our human history.

The Truth and The Legend
A wonderful read.

The history of the pony express was fairly brief; for only about a year and a half did it do business.Author Corbett chooses to give this short history a sufficient writing, thankfully not stretching it past the point to which we would care.He then spends the rest of the book (over half of it, actually) exploring those who kept the legend alive and profited from it.Corbett does a stellar job of allowing the reader to enjoy each story (even when he's about to prove it to be bunk) and he gives the famous, infamous, and totally forgotten their due.Overall, Mr. Corbett has created a very good book about one of U. S. history's more interesting sidenotes.

When the legends become facts, who are we to know?
Just returning from a trip throught Nevada Highway 50, I read this book so I can have some more insight on the Pony Express saga since I visited the Cold Spring and Sand Spring Stations or what was left of them as well as Fort Churchill.

For an enterprise that lasted only for 18 months, the legends of the Pony Express will probably lived on forever. It was interesting to read how the Paiute War seem to dominate fate of the Pony Express. I found this book to be well research and easy to read book on this subject. I found the book to be insightful as well as interesting as the perception of the Pony Express in the American western saga easily outlived the reality of the real thing. The author took great pains to show that. I believed he was successful in reflecting Pony Express as it really was, as how it was remembered by veterans and wannabes, and as it was percieved by historians.

Good reading all around, story about a small part of United States that outgrew its short period of history and grown into a legendary status. ... Read more

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It operated less than two years and it lost an enormous amount of money but the Pony Express delivered the mail across a continent at a critical time and captured the imagination of people all over the world like few events in the history of the American West.William E. Hill tells the story of the Pony Express and takes us on a tour of the 2,000-mile route--now a National Historic Trail. ... Read more