Civil and religious institutions quickly arose,
and, in the summer of 1850, a little more than a year after the big rush
had started, California entered the Union as a free state.

The boom went on and the census of 1860 revealed a population of 380,000
in the new commonwealth. And when to these figures were added those of
Oregon and Washington Territory, an aggregate of 444,000 citizens of the
United States were found to be living on the Pacific Slope. Crossing the
Sierras eastward and into the Great Basin, 47,000 more were located in
the Territories of Nevada and Utah,--thus making a grand total of
nearly a half million people beyond the Rocky Mountains in 1860. And
these figures did not include Indians nor Chinese.

Without reference to any military phase of the problem, this detached
population obviously demanded and deserved adequate mail and
transportation facilities. How to secure the quickest and most
dependable communication with the populous sections of the East had long
been a serious proposition. Private corporations and Congress had not
been wholly insensible to the needs of the West. Subsidized stage routes
had for some years been in operation, and by the close of 1858 several
lines were well-equipped and doing much business over the so-called
Southern and Central routes. Perhaps the most common route for sending
mail from the East to the Pacific Coast was by steamship from New York
to Panama where it was unloaded, hurried across the Isthmus, and again
shipped by water to San Francisco. All these lines of traffic were slow
and tedious, a letter in any case requiring from three to four weeks to
reach its destination. The need of a more rapid system of communication
between the East and West at once became apparent and it was to supply
this need that the Pony Express really came into existence.

The story goes that in the autumn of 1854, United States Senator William
Gwin of California was making an overland trip on horseback from San
Francisco to Washington, D. C. He was following the Central route via
Salt Lake and South Pass, and during a portion of his journey he had for
a traveling companion, Mr. B. F. Ficklin, then General Superintendent
for the big freighting and stage firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell of
Leavenworth. Ficklin, it seems, was a resourceful and progressive man,
and had long been engaged in the overland transportation business. He
had already conceived an idea for establishing a much