he United States of America may be turning 250 years old on the 4th of July, but an 18-month span delivered a large enough piece of history for this country that its still celebrated and re-enacted today.
The Pony Express ensured letters would get to their destination in the early days of mail delivery, and it was also a priority when it came to keeping parts of the country from siding with the South during the Civil War.
“California could have went either in the direction that they took part of the Yankees, a lot of Texas went to the Confederate,” said Gene Hunt.
It wasn’t just California that had to make a decision as to either join the North or the South, but even some people in the Nebraska territory made choices you may not think of today.
“That 18 months was very, very critical, a critical because it was the Civil War, the election, Abraham Lincoln. It was just there was a division of some of the officers at Fort Kearny, when the Civil War broke out, they left the Union and went and went south to be part of the Confederate Army.”
Gene Hunt has been involved in the Pony Express Re-ride for decades. The event commemorates a time in our history in ‘real time’ by having mail delivered from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California in the same number of days it took riders back in 1860.
“At one time I was a rider, at one time I was a trail captain, and so now I’m more like a home station where we go ahead and invite the people to come. We’ll have, breakfast here for the riders. And quite often now, whoever shows up, they’ll get a sandwich or a pancake.”
Hunt may not be saddling up with the mochila anymore, but he’s still heavily involved, and working to continue the tradition for the next generation of horsemen and horsewomen.