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| George M. Ottinger, The Last Ride of the Pony Express, 1874; courtesy of Denver Art Museum In Ottinger’s painting, a Pony Express rider passes a work crew installing lines for the transcontinental telegraph, which initiated the demise of an icon of the Western frontier. |
Like today,
in 1860 communications mattered. California’s population had reached about
380,000, and with this growth came the demand for faster ways to get news and
letters to and from the state. From April
3, 1860 to October 26, 1861, the Pony Express was the West’s fastest means of
communication. And as with today’s advances in technology, it soon became
obsolete.