Pioneer postmen recalled

Riders reenacting a 34-mile Pony Express ride from Pahrump to Amargosa Valley last Saturday delivered the mail two hours late, but when they arrived at the LongStreet Inn and Casino they had a better appreciation for the hardy pioneers.

The reenactment was the first of its kind in Pahrump, a prelude to the 37th Annual Pahrump Harvest Festival this weekend. The Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce reported selling more than 400 stamps at $5 apiece, to be sent along on horseback. Half of the proceeds will go to the 4-H Club of Southern Nye County, the remainder will go to the chamber.

The cost of mailing letters on the original Pony Express was $5 when it was first formed in 1860, it was later reduced to $2 per half-ounce and eventually $1. Pahrump Postmaster Bob Philpot was canceling the souvenir stamp designed by Michelle Phillips on a drum at the entrance to McCullough Arena Saturday morning.

Philpot said the post office often commemorates special events with a stamp and cancellation, like the unveiling of a monument to the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, at West Wendover. Pilots for the training mission trained at Wendover Air Force Base.

"There's a publication called the Postal Bulletin with special cancellations from throughout the country," Philpot said. "I've seen quite a few of them and this is a decent-looking stamp. I've seen a lot of cancellations, this is a good-looking design."

The riders departed 15 minutes late, at 9:15 a.m. One rider, Kathleen Weber, had a rough start, as she was bucked off her horse -- a frisky, 7-year-old appaloosa named Spot, before the riders finished the inaugural lap around McCullough Arena. But the ride went smoother after that.

"I'm sure plenty of Pony Express riders got bucked off too. He's just a little excited," Weber said.

When she climbed back on another horse, a spectator in the bleachers yelled out, "attagirl, get back on!" Weber herself remarked, "I know this horse, if they start running, I'm off (the horse)."

Donna Jasperson, Sharon Wehrly and George Wehrly, part of a Nye County Sheriff's Department team, carried the mail the first leg of the trip. Jasperson continued on the second leg, from the west end of Bell Vista Road to the intersection of the high road to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

Steve Garrett carried the flag accompanied by trail boss Debbie Strickland as they trotted out of the arena, followed by the rest of the riders who walked their horses. Strickland said it was meant to be a leisurely trail ride, although she admitted some riders would treat it like a relay race.

Unlike most teams, where four people took turns riding the distance, Basil Dille, 68, of Pahrump, said he was riding the entire 34 miles by himself.

"I'm going to switch off one horse to another," Dille said. "If they (the horses) can't walk 34 miles, they aren't worth having."

Dille said he just got a 4-year-old colt he was riding named Sundance. Another painted quarter horse named King, 7 years old, would switch duties.

"I just want to do it, just to show 'em I can," Dille said of the ride. Dille said he showed horses for 25 years until he moved to Pahrump in 1993.

"These horses aren't used to that much, you can't take a horse and walk them 34 miles, they'll have a heart attack," he said.

Riders arrived at the first stopover on the far northwest end of Pahrump Valley at Alvin and Bell Vista Road, about 11:30 a.m., eight and a half miles into the 34-mile ride. From there they paralleled Bell Vista Road the next segment, escorted by a sheriff's department Community Action Team squad car. Dale Leis took over the flag from Garrett, as the contingent dwindled to about half as many riders for the second leg over the pass into Amargosa Valley.

"All right, saddle up, we're heading out!" Strickland yelled out exhorting riders to hit the trail again after a short rest.

It wasn't as tough as the original Pony Express rides though, Ken Bolling was driving a support vehicle with a portable bathroom, cell phones, water and signs to post on the highway pointing the way. Unlike the 18-month history of the Pony Express, riders didn't have to battle the weather in the high country of Central Nevada and the outbreak of the Paiute War in 1861.

"It was exciting, horses jumping up and down, traffic going around us," said Brooke Prather, about the first leg of the ride through Pahrump. "People came out on their porches and took pictures of us. We felt like we had our own parade."

Prather said she's taken trail rides before. But she added, "this might be the longest one through, hopefully I'll make it."

While riders left Pahrump as one big group, the Pahrump Cowboy Shooters team and the Bill Heard Chevrolet group arrived at the LongStreet Inn and Casino about 5 p.m., two hours ahead of the rest. Nye County Sheriff Wade A. Lieseke Jr. arrived with the mail with the second group at 7 p.m. He picked up the mail bag about 3 p.m. or 4 p.m., for the final 10-mile leg through Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

"It was a real hot day and the horses were moving a lot slower. But it went fine, we got in there about dusk, I rode about 10, 12 miles," Lieseke said.

The festivities continued at the LongStreet with a barbecue and dance Saturday night. The next morning, many participants in the ride took part in a monthly shootout by the Single Action Shooting Society behind the LongStreet, with members of the Pahrump Cowboy Shooters, who have their own mock western village at Purgatory Flats.

Unlike the original Pony Express, which became obsolete with the completion of the transcontinental telegraph line in Utah on Oct. 26, 1861, the Pahrump Pony Express reenactment will continue next year.

Strickland said when they hold the event again next year, they'll probably have shorter relay segments to switch riders and run at more of a trot to complete the journey in one day. The first two legs of the ride were about eight miles each, but the last two were about 10 miles. In the original Pony Express, the plan was to have 500 horses, 190 stations and 80 experienced riders, who were to average 33 1/3 miles, each rider used three ponies. They were paid $120 to $125 per month.

"That's a doable ride, one horse can make it the entire way, but do we want to go at that pace?" Strickland asked. "We can't start it out earlier because from my understanding, the mail has to be canceled, it has to be canceled by a postmaster and they have to do it by regular hours."

Amargosa Valley postal clerk Lynda Blewett and interim Nye County Manager Geneva Hollis called out the names of the recipients of the mail at the LongStreet Inn.

"We didn't move along as quickly as we could've, should've," Strickland said. "There was a group that was moving faster, they did the same changeover at the same time as us at the lake, but they were at the LongStreet at 5 (p.m.)"

Some Pahrump riders weren't used to trail rides, she said.

"We used to do a 24-miler, that was nothing, we'd do that on the weekends, there's not been much of that lately. We've lost some of our trail bosses, John Champion, Mike Hennessey, people who used to do trail rides darn near every weekend," Strickland said.

Kathy Pallares, executive director of the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the ride, used one word to describe it: awesome.

"There are bugs we need to work out. All in all, LongStreet was very pleased with the turnout out there. It was fun. I didn't hear anything negative about it and we're planning an after action meeting, but probably not until after the Harvest Festival," Pallares said. "I thought it was a great event. We're obviously going to do it again next year. I just thank everybody who participated and supported it."

The original Pony Express actually never traveled through Southern Nevada. U.S. Sen. W.M. Gwin of California sponsored legislation providing for a weekly express mail service. The first Pony Express riders departed St. Joseph, Mo., on April 3, 1860. It cut the time for mail delivery from New York to San Francisco from 21 days via the isthmus of Panama, to 10 days. However news of the attack on Fort Sumter, S.C., that started the Civil War reached the West Coast in eight days, 14 hours, while the fastest time was when riders carried news of President Lincoln's inauguration in seven days and 17 hours.

The National Pony Express Association, recreates the ride from St. Joseph to Sacramento every June, including a 60-hour ride across Central Nevada. The association has a Web site: www.cnet.com/~xptom.


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