Musings by BJ Sibley
Happy Birthday to Us
Happy Birthday America! At 233 years old, we are still a very young country. Visit many foreign countries and they will show you roads built in 500 A.D. or pyramids built in 2630 B. C.
But, young as we are, we’ve accomplished some pretty amazing things. You probably have your own list of favorite things about America and her history, but let me share a couple of mine.
The Pony Express: It only operated for a total of 19 months from April 3, 1860 to October 24, 1861. Its route was from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. In a day when we can get instant information, it is hard to imagine that prior to the Pony Express there were only three ways in which mail was received on the West Coast. By sea, it took 22 days to get mail from the East Coast; by wagon it was about 21 days from Independence, Missouri or you could send your letter by the Butterfield Stage Line, which took about three weeks from Missouri. Pony Express riders brought the mail in just about 10 days. The first trip took 9 days and 23 hours going west and 11 days and 12 hours going east. The fastest trip ever took 7 days and 17 hours and it delivered President Lincoln’s Inaugural address.
Riders changed every 75 to 100 miles, but they acquired fresh horses every 10 to 15 miles. The length of the trail the traveled was about 2,000 miles. In those 19 months the Pony Express was in operation, only one rider was killed and one mailbag was lost.1 The Pony Express ended when the telegraph was completed in California in October, 1861. Next year, 2010, will mark the 150th Anniversary of the historic, yet short lived, accomplishment. The National Park Service has a website where you can download a brochure, listing the various events & persons to contact for more information regarding this 150th Anniversary celebration.
Route 66: When Congress executed its plan for national highway construction in 1925, the number 66 was given to the road which would wend its way from Chicago to Los Angeles. The road planners wanted to connect urban and rural communities because small towns had almost no access to a major national thoroughfare.2 The construction of U.S. Route 66 would enable farmers to take their goods to larger areas for distribution and was an abbreviated route, with better weather, which would be appreciated by long haul truckers. But the lasting allure of the highway was that Americans would come to embrace Route 66 in a way that no other roadway would.
Bobby Troup, a pianist and ex-Marine, wrote a song that would add even more allure to this now famous road. His song was first recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946 and “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” became the ballad of the “Mother Road”.
The road also gave birth to enterprise. Folks travelling the road would have to eat, sleep, gas up and take breaks. Route 66 had, and still does have, some of the most interesting roadside attractions and eateries in the country. By 1970 many segments of the original Route 66 were bypassed with a more modern four-lane highway. But the road has never been forgotten and many parts of it still exist.
Some years ago three of my sisters and I drove the whole 2,400 miles (those parts that still exist) from Santa Monica to Chicago. When we called AAA to see if they could help us with a map we were surprised to find that they had thousands of requests for this map every year. Route 66 goes beside, under, over and around today’s’ modern roadway. Parts are torn up but many parts still exist… even a piece of pink concrete road with “buggy bumpers” on the side. These were instituted to keep sleepy drivers on the road, but managed only to funnel rainwater and make parts of the road quite treacherous. The highway passes through some of the most interesting and intriguing places I’ve ever seen and along the way we saw some amazing things. Old fashioned, long abandoned, gas stations; tiny old motels and cabins; diners; teepee shaped restaurants and round barns. To travel Route 66 is to travel back in time and see America as it was and still is. It will introduce you to beautiful small towns and historic places.
The Mother Road is the perfect road trip through the heart of America.
So, let’s celebrate this country of ours. Let’s toast her with a glass of lemonade and a burger, a sippy cup of milk and a cracker, or a glass of merlot and a mista salad. Whatever your favorite…enjoy. And enjoy, too, this great country of ours…the home of the brave and the land of the free.
1 - americanwest.com/pages/ponyexp1.htm
2 - national66.org
