animals, rolling stock, stations, and incidental equipment, Wells Fargo
and Co. had to pay full market value for all grain, hay and provisions
along the line, amounting to nearly six hundred thousand dollars more.




Chapter IX



Passing of the Pony Express



When Edward Creighton completed the Pacific telegraph, and, on October
24, 1861, began sending messages; by wire from coast to coast, the
California Pony Express formally went out of existence. For over three
months since July 1, it had been paralleled by the daily overland stage;
yet the great efficiency of the semi-weekly pony line in offering quick
letter service won and retained its popularity to the very end of its
career. And this was in spite of the fact that for several weeks before
its discontinuance the pony men had ridden only between the ends of the
fast building telegraph which was constructed in two divisions - from
the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Missouri River - at the same time,
the lines meeting near the Great Salt Lake.

The people of the far West strongly protested against the elimination of
the pony line service. Early in the winter of 1862 it became rumored -
perhaps wildly - that the Committee on Finance in the House of