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At the westernmost edge of Nevada's rural outback, Churchill County is a region deep in history-- history often forgotten by many of today's Nevadans. "Churchill", a name given to a post office and fort (actually located in Lyon County), honored General Sylvester Churchill of Vermont. The Utah territory created "Churchill" on October 9, 1860, a land that is, and has always been, used as a bustling travel corridor. Fate would see that places like Churchill, never change, and some places never die.
"Orphans Preferred" and "Pony Bob"
Letters delivered in ten days was a timeframe many said was impossible. The goal of three men, William H. Russell, Alexander Majors and William Waddell, organized and put together the Pony Express Trail in just two months during the winter of 1860; the operation was an enormous undertaking with several hundred head of personnel, and 184 stations strewn across the American West, along with four hundred horses and 120 riders to make things possible! Their idea of having a shorter route, using mounted riders rather than stagecoaches, would establish a mail service that was faster and more reliable for the mail system (or so they thought). Ultimately, their hope was to win an exclusive government mail contract-- something that was unheard of and not present at the time. The Pony Express Trail would demonstrate that a unified transcontinental system could be built and could operate continuously year round.
However, the actual operation of the Pony Express was one of trial and error, tragedy and unmistakable danger. History fails to record the exact number of Pony Express stations across America, but a general concensus places the total around at 184 stations placed at intervals of about ten miles along the approximately two thousand mile (3,200 km) route. Ten miles is roughly the maximum distance a horse could travel at full gallop, so the rider changed to a fresh horse at each station; here, the rider would take the mail pouch, called a mochila (the Spanish word for pouch or backpack), and throw it over the saddle, held in place only by the weight of the rider. The employers at the station stressed the importance of the pouch. If it came to be, the horse and rider should perish before the mochila did. The pouch held twenty pounds of material, along with bundles of mail stuffed into pouch pockets, then padlocked for safety. Included in that twenty pounds was a water sack, a Bible, a horn for alerting the relay station master to prepare the next horse, a revolver, and some jerky. In general, the operation allowed for a total of 165 pounds on the horse's back, the reason why all riders of Pony Express had to be "wiry, skinny fellows", not to exceed 125 pounds. Although the horse and rider were changed about every seventy five to one hundred miles, time and weather could not be setbacks. Riders rode day and night, rain or shine. In emergencies, a given rider rode two stages back to back sometimes equalling over twenty hours on a galloping horse. "Pony Bob" (Robert) Haslam sits in the record books for making the longest ride of any Pony Express rider; his monumental ride of 120 miles in just 8 hours and 20 minutes while wounded, became the fastest trip ever made on the Pony Express. The message was important enough to warrant life and limb: Lincoln's Inaugural Address. Pony Bob's ride was the result of Indian problems in 1860. Bob received the east-bound mail from San Francisco at Friday's Station (present day Stateline-Tahoe), but his relief rider at Buckland's Station (Fort Churchill) was so badly frightened over the Indian threat that he refused to take the mail any further. Haslam agreed to take the mail all the way to Smith's Creek (near Austin) for a total distance of 190 miles without a rest. After an eventual rest of nine hours, he retraced his route with the westbound mail, but when he arrived at Cold Springs (near Middlegate), he found that Indians had raided the station, killing the station keeper and running off all of the stock and supplies. Ultimately, he reached Buckland's Station, a 380-mile round trip on horseback and the longest on record.
History in Waiting
So yes, Churchill County shares a strong following with history seekers of all ages, and yet ironically, thousands of people are unaware of the county's immense historical roots. Viewing Churchill's stark vastness from an air-conditioned vehicle is a hard parallelism to the young men who were fastened to a horse and mailbag; the riders in Churchill's landscape, remote and rugged, would have loved a piece of blacktop like US 50-- a solid line of direction cutting through a sea of sagebrush. Indeed, Churchill resembles a neglected book, easily judged on the exterior, with a juicy story waiting to be discovered on the interior. If a person gave Churchill County a chance, he or she could spend their entire life just wandering its open hills and finding its hidden oases, frolicking about wildly among its forgotten pieces of ground many still unclaimed by today's cartographers. After all, time is patient.
The Markers
"Pony Express! St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California... in 10 days or less"
This was the trademark for a route that was to become the great Pony Express Trail, christened in legend as one of America's shortest, but most intriguing tales of Manifest Destiny.
The trademark continued with: "Wanted: young, skilly, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages, $25 per week."
With the replacement of the telegraph in 1861, the Pony Express became just another saga felled short. The need for riders to risk Indian attack, weather out storms, or suffer from exhaustion, became unnecessary. Despite its short life, the Pony Express Trail left behind a lasting legacy. Today, the fabled trail invokes a storybook-like emotion. Such images images are gained when visiting Churchill County's austere vistas and open landscapes; a mail system reliant on the ability and endurance of young men riding out into an unknown terrain is nothing short of haunting, romantic, and fascinating. Today, US 50 roughly parallels the Pony Express Trail and visitors who drive "America's Loneliest Road" too can appreciate the long, but not forgotten route. Hints of the Trail's past still lingers in the desert air of Churchill; remnants of the very same telegraph line, the Overland Mail Route that ended the riders' careers, sit weathered in states of arrested decay. After the Mail Route came railroad lines, then fortune seekers, many men who were war deserters with "color" on their minds. Handfuls of camps in almost every gully in the desert sprang up seemingly overnight. Some riches were made, but most were not. Hype occurred as quickly as a spring-time jack in the sagebrush! Then suddenly, everybody was gone. The synomous leaving behind a cutout serenade of wooden storefronts, ruins and unimportant junk is an all-too familiarity in Churchill County's history. Indeed, the county is blessed with an abundance of mining camps and its numbers are nothing to scoff at. Towns like La Plata, the first ever seat of Churchill County, sit alone and forgotten accessible only by sturdy four-wheel-drive rigs; other obscure camps like Bolivia, Clan Alpine, Buffalo, and Dixie continue to lie in the hands of mercy and time. The former seat of Stillwater is now an Indian Reservation, a town still slightly bitter after the state gave the seat away to nearby Fallon. Much later, the turn of the century brought hope for Churchill County's arid Lahontan Basin land when the Newlands Water Project of 1902 created a system of canals and dams, now responsible for diverting water from the Truckee River to the Lahontan Valley. The Project is largely responsible for creating what is known as "Nevada's Salad Bowl." In turn, the Lahontan Valley has become Nevada's agriculture capitol, home to thousands of acres of farmland in ironically, one of the driest portions of Nevada! The state's largest source of agriculture encircles Fallon, one of the only towns in Nevada founded strictly on farming.
In terms of markers, Churchill unfortunately doesn't offer much in terms of variety. Most of the markers in Churchill County are accessed via US 50 - "America's Loneliest Road." Needless to say, Fallon will most likely be your base of operations. What was then a sleepy farming town of a few thousand has become a fast-growing bedroom community of ten-thousand residents. Fallon provides a comfortable base to work from complete with numerous motels, casinos and restaurants, grocery stores, auto repair shops, a hospital, a few sporting goods stores. The Newlands Project brought not only greenery, but concrete as well to the Lahontan Valley! Whether you favor or disfavor of the Water Project (brought on part by stiff controversy concerning Pyramid Lake to the north), the Project has helped shaped Fallon into a full-fledged "oasis" in the middle of an arid desert. Why is all this significant? Fallon is the only true town of significance within the county's five thousand square miles! The town's wonderful "Hearts O Gold" cantaloupes, local farmers' markets, spectacular sunsets, and friendly atmosphere are typified versions of down-home Americana, while maintaining just enough of a bustling metropolis to satisfy residents and visitors alike. From the Forty Mile Desert (#26) to the county courthouse (#161), to New Pass Station (#135) and Wagon Jack Shelter (#110), prepare for lots of fun in this wild county. The adventures await in solidarity. After all, time is patient.
