Pony Express Statue, Sacramento, Ghid vizitatori și ce de văzut în apropiere

The Pony Express Statue stands at 2nd and J Streets in Old Sacramento, California, and marks the western end of the Pony Express, the horseback mail relay that linked Missouri and California in 1860 and 1861. The service lasted only about eighteen months, yet it became one of the most lasting images of the American West.

The story behind it

The Pony Express began on 3 April 1860. Riders passed mail in relays between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, a journey of close to 2,000 miles that took about ten days, a speed nobody had managed before. Sacramento was the western terminus, and from here the mail continued to San Francisco by riverboat. The work was hard, and the riders were famously young and light, chosen to get the most out of their horses.

It was also a commercial failure. The firm behind it, Russell, Majors and Waddell, lost heavily, and the service was made obsolete when the transcontinental telegraph was completed in October 1861. What lasted was the picture of a lone rider crossing empty country, and that picture is what the statue commemorates. The corner itself has a deeper story: the B.F. Hastings Building, built in 1853, housed the Pony Express office and Wells Fargo, and from 1855 to 1869 the California Supreme Court met there.

What to look for

• The rider and horse are shown in full motion, a good way to picture how little time each rider had before handing the mail on.
• The B.F. Hastings Building stands on the same corner, and its history ties together the mail, the telegraph and the early courts of California.
• The streets of Old Sacramento sit above the original ground level, because the city raised itself in the 1800s after repeated floods.
• The nearby wooden boardwalks and period facades show the kind of business district the riders arrived in.

Tips for your visit

• The statue is on a public street, so you can see it outdoors at any time. Allow 15 to 20 minutes here, or an hour or more if you explore the rest of Old Sacramento.
• Morning is usually quieter, and the light on the bronze is good for photos.
• The Sacramento River waterfront and the railroad museum area are a short walk away. Check current opening hours for any museum or building you want to enter.
• Wear comfortable shoes, as the boardwalks and older paving can be uneven.

See it on a quest

The Oz Escape in Sacramento is a way to see this corner as one stop on a longer walk through the area. The app tells you about each place when you arrive and gives you a puzzle to solve on the spot. One ticket covers the whole group.

Murder Mystery: Death in the Shadows in Sacramento suits you if you like a mystery with your history. You walk between the sights on foot, hear about each one as you reach it and puzzle over what is in front of you. One ticket covers the whole group.

Sacramento Detective Mystery: Infiltrate a Secret Society. is a detective-themed route through the streets of the city. The app brings you to each place, tells you its story and sets a puzzle there. You start whenever you like, with no guide and no group to join, and one ticket covers everyone you play with.