Yellacat Ranch

Will Luce and the Pony Express

Posted on by Justin Durand

Family tradition says Wilford “Will” Luce (1838-1906) rode Pony Express. His daughter Nan (Luce) Leonard wrote in her autobiography:

“Before my Father married my Mother he carried mail on the Pony Express from Utah to Nevada. The ride was rough and dangerous, and I can remember him telling us children how in Skull Valley he would lie flat with his ear to the ground to hear if Indians were chasing him” (Leonard, 15).

There is no record of Will Luce riding Pony Express. No official list has ever been discovered, but the Pony Express National Museum has a list of known riders, “compiled from various sources including newspaper accounts, secondary sources and family histories.” Many riders are documented only once; others might have switched stations frequently. This list does not include Will Luce.

However, the time and place would be right for Will Luce. He appears, age 21, on the 1860 Census in Salt Lake’s 13th Ward in a household with his older brother, Martin. We don’t know the date of his marriage, but their first child was born in October 1862. Known riders include Luce associates William Hickman, Lot Huntington, and Porter Rockwell. Rockwell was Station Keeper at Rockwell’s Station, near Point of the Mountain in present-day Bluffdale, Utah.

When I lived in Salt Lake City (1977-1986), I liked to spend weekend afternoons driving west along back roads, trying to make out the actual trail. That was partly for the pure fun of it, partly because I was looking for the the part of the trail my ancestor rode. It was harder to find the trail back then. It wasn’t as well-marked and documented as it is today. It was easy to pick up the trail at Rockwell’s Station, near Point of the Mountain in present-day Bluffdale, Utah. It was harder to stay on the trail, even knowing it would head toward Skull Valley, then west to the Nevada border.

Aunt Nan’s account says Will Luce rode “from Utah to Nevada.” This would have been about 265 miles; too long for a single ride. The typical ride was between “home” stations. Along the way, riders changed out their mounts for a fresh horse every 12-15 miles at “relay” stations. At the home station, they handed off their mail pouch to another rider, then ate and slept before their next run. If Will rode from Utah to Nevada, he was riding different sections of the trail at different times.

Between Salt Lake City and the Nevada border, the home stations were: Salt Lake > about 65 miles to Rush Valley / Faust’s > about 40 miles, through Point Lookout and the beginning of the western desert, including about 15-20 miles through Skull Valley to Simpson’s Springs > about 45 miles to Fish Springs > about 50 miles to Deep Creek / Ibapah / Egans > about 65 miles to Schell Creek (about 40 miles north of Ely, Nevada), for a total stretch of about 265 miles.

Will Luce’s actual home at this time was probably Hickman’s Canyon in Rush Valley. Bill Hickman took his stock there to winter in 1855, then maintained a ranch there. Will Luce and his brothers Jason Luce and Matt Luce were members of the Bill Hickman gang, called Hickman’s Hounds , beginning about this time. From this, we can guess Will’s usual ride was from Rush Valley across Skull Valley to Simpson’s Springs, although he might at times have ridden other parts of the trail. He would have been riding about 40 miles total each way, across some of Utah’s harshest desert.

According to the story, Point Lookout got its name because an Indian took a shot at one of the riders, so new riders were warned to “look out.” The section after Point Lookout, beginning with Skull Valley, was colloquially called “Piute Hell,” because of the tension created from the 1860 Pah-Ute (Paiute) War, which shut down the trail In June and July 1860. The trail went across rough alkali flats and deep sand, made more difficult by a “severe lack of reliable water sources.” It was said to be “hot as the hinges of hell” in the summer and “cold as the polar regions” in the winter.

History

The idea of the Pony Express was to create a fast mail service across the American West, using riders on horseback carrying the mail and working in relays. There were 190 stations spread out along the 1,900 mile route. Riders carried a mochila (mail pouch). They had to be small and wiry, no more than 125 pounds including equipment. They were paid $100-125/month. Many were teenagers.

The Pony Express was a private venture, not part of the U.S. Postal Service. It was very expensive to send a letter, initially $5 for half an ounce versus 10 cents for overland mail or 40 cents for the faster steamship through Panama. The Pony Express rate was later reduced to $2.50, and reduced again to $1.

The Pony Express operated from April 3, 1860, to October 24, 1861. The first westbound rider left from St. Joseph, Missouri, and the first eastbound rider left from Sacramento, California, on April 3, 1860. The Pony Express ran each week in each direction, with an average time of 10 days. The mail averaged almost 250 miles a day. In the nineteen months the Pony Express existed, only one rider was killed by hostile Indians, and only one bag of mail was lost. 

Service ended in October 1861 shortly after the completion of the transcontinental telegraph, which made rapid overland mail delivery by horseback economically unnecessary.

Mark Twain said, “The pony-rider was usually a little bit of a man, brimful of spirit and endurance. No matter what time of the day or night his watch came on, and no matter whether it was winter or summer, raining, snowing, hailing, or sleeting, or whether his ‘beat’ was a level straight road or a crazy trail over mountain crags and precipices, or whether it led through peaceful regions or regions that swarmed with hostile Indians, he must bealways ready to leap into the saddle and be off like the wind! There was no idling-time for a pony-rider on duty. He rode fifty miles without stopping, by daylight, moonlight, starlight, or through the blackness of darkness–just as it happened. He rode a splendid horse that was born for a racer and fed and lodged like a gentleman; kept him at his utmost speed for ten miles, and then, as he came crashing up to the station where stood two men holding fast a fresh, impatient steed, the transfer of rider and mail-bag was made in the twinkling of an eye, and away flew the eager pair and were out of sight before the spectator could get hardly the ghost of a look. Both rider and horse went ‘flying light.’ The rider’s dress was thin, and fitted close; he wore a ’round-about,’ and a skull-cap, and tucked his pantaloons into his boot-tops like a race-rider. He carried no arms–he carried nothing that was not absolutely necessary, for even the postage on his literary freight was worth five dollars a letter . He got but little frivolous correspondence to carry–his bag had business letters in it, mostly. His horse was stripped of all unnecessary weight, too. He wore a little wafer of a racing-saddle, and no visible blanket. He wore light shoes, or none at all. The little flat mail-pockets strapped under the rider’s thighs would each hold about the bulk of a child’s primer. They held many and many an important business chapter and newspaper letter, but these were written on paper as airy and thin as gold-leaf, nearly, and thus bulk and weight were economized. The stage-coach traveled about a hundred to a hundred and twenty-five miles a day (twenty-four hours), the pony-rider about two hundred and fifty. There were about eighty pony-riders in the saddle all the time, night and day, stretching in a long, scattering procession from Missouri to California, forty flying eastward, and forty toward the west, and among them making four hundred gallant horses earn a stirring livelihood and see a deal of scenery every single day in the year” (Twain, pp. 70-71).

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