The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express
ByFollowing-up the previous post of April 23, 2013, I offer this fascinating link to a great lecture on the colorful legend of the Pony Express. Author Christopher Corbett [ CLICK HERE ] spoke about his book “Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express” His 54 minute YouTube video shares humorous stories of Buffalo Bill, Pony Express, and research findings. The presentation includes questions from the audience, as well.
The Pony Express at St Joseph, Missouri. Dan Leininger, webmaster, has visited it many times as a small boy. Now it is part of his ongoing research on Hermon MacNeil.
Hermon MacNeil’s last sculpture was the Pony Express Rider erected in 1940 in Saint Joseph, Missouri. A skit of the Pony Express was a feature of every show given by Buffalo Bill Cody. We can thank Buffalo Bill for infecting American History with the Pony Express legend. He even infected world history with images of the Pony Express. Hermon MacNeil became captivated by the images of the Native American Indians (Black Pipe and others) in head. He was first introduced to those visions in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show outside of the front gates of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. After this MacNeil traveled to the Southwestern United States. That experience affected him profoundly. From then on, he produced sculptures and returned to those images of Native Americans and Indian themes throughout his life.
In 1890 Buffalo Bill rode his troop around Vatican City for the Pope. I never rode with the Pony Express, and neither did Buffalo Bill, though he was the right age to do it in 1860 (He did ride as a courier as a very young boy). However, I almost got a Pony Express ornament for my 1939 LaSalle in 2012 (see below). The statue is MacNeil’s. The LaSalle is mine. (The trailer belongs to Chris Carlsen.) The location is Saint Joseph, Missouri. Enough foolishness, already. Below are more Pony Express images from St. Joe.
BELOW IS MORE OF THE LEGEND AS CAPTURED BY HERMON ATKINS MACNEIL
Details of the mail bags as MacNeil modeled them after Dr. S. Mededith Strong’s authentic Pony express gear, spurs, saddle, mail bags, from the 1930’s.
