Farson, Wyoming

On our way to spending the night in Alpine, we went through the small town of Farson. Everyone says you have to go there for two reasons...one is that this is basically where the Pony Express riders coming from the east and the west passed each other. The monuments below are to celebrate that. This is where Joe and I stopped to have our picnic lunch. It was the town park located across the street from the only school in town and next to the community ballpark.

This is Joe after having checked out the park restroom facilities...

Oh, the number two (and most important reason) to visit Farson lies in this old building... It is the home of "The Big Cone" which is truly a very large ice cream cone in a waffle cone. You dON't need more than one scoop - it's that big!

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BTW...the Pony Express monument mentioned about the eastbound riders using saddlebags and the westbound riders using a "mochila". Read on about that...

The telegrams and letters transported by the Pony Express were carried in a mochila. The word "mochila" came from the Spanish word for knapsack.

Although there have been other riders to carry the mail by horseback (Benjamin Franklin established post riders that carried mail in the East), it was the mochila that made the Pony Express unique. Mail pouches were never in use on the Overland Pony Express because of their size and shape, they would be difficult to attach to the saddle, and would cause undue delay in changing mounts. To get around this difficulty, a mochila, or covering of leather, was thrown over the saddle. The saddle horn and cantle projected through holes which were cut in the mochila. Attached to the broad leather skirt of the mochila were four cantinas, or boxes of hard leather. When the rider was in the saddle, his legs came between these boxes. The mail was put in these cantinas, which were locked with small padlocks. Station keepers at either end of the line, or at designated way stations, had keys to these boxes.

Through the use of the mochila, it was not necessary to change saddles at all, properly speaking. When a rider arrived at a relay station, a fresh horse, saddled and bridled, was waiting for him. The rider changed the mochila from one saddle to another and was away, inside the two-minute limit allowed for changing horses. If a horse fell and was killed or injured, the rider could strip the mochila from the saddle and walk to the next station with the mail.

The saddles were made by the famous saddlery firm, headed by Israel Landis. They were light even to the stirrups. The saddle horn was short and broad and the entire saddle weighed about one-third of the ordinary frontier used saddle.

Since the riders only had two minutes to exchange horses, this design allowed for easy and quick removal and placement on a fresh horse at Remount Stations. The rider's weight kept the mochila in place during the rugged rides. The mochila, saddle and bridle together weighed 13 pounds.

The National Pony Express Association uses a mochila designed to carry a greater number of letters and to fit over a western saddle, yet can easily be transferred to a fresh horse at rider and mochila exchange points during the annual Re-Run.