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| Landmark #696 | San Francisco County | Visited: February 23, 2013 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | A plaque on a pedestal! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: This was the site of the western business headquarters of Russell, Majors, and Waddell—founders, owners, and operators of the Pony Express, 1860-1861. The firm’s main office was in Leavenworth, Kansas. W. W. Finney was the western representative in San Francisco.
OTHER TIDBITS: William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell were freight shippers who got contracted by the War Department in 1854 to provide freight service to new army posts in New Mexico. They ran tons of freight for three years until the Mormon War broke out in Utah, and the government needed to ship 2.5 million pounds of freight to Salt Lake City! To make the trip, the firm had to take out big loans and suffered big losses along the way. As they slipped further and further into ruin, Mr. Russell got his partners to take one last gamble: to create a mail service along a central route that would compete with the popular Butterfield Overland Mail! That became the Pony Express, which could deliver mail between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California in just ten days! That was made possible through a relay system of riders trading horses at different relief stops along the way. It wasn’t the kind of service most folks could afford, though. It cost $5 to send half an ounce of mail by Pony Express, about $130 by today’s standards! At that rate, and with the new installation of the transcontinental telegraph, the whole system was doomed from the start! After a year and a half of service, the firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell, and the Pony Express, closed down. |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: 601 Montgomery St at Clay San Francisco, CA 94111 ANNOTATIONS: 601 Merchant St From Los Angeles: ~380mi (612km) — 6.4hrs |
| When should I go? | Whenever the mood strikes you! |