Historic Heroic Statue of the Pony Express Rider - 1961

 
Pony Express - Galloping Rider, for Lake Tahoe, Nevada

This historic statue of the Pony Express Rider was created by Avard T. Fairbanks, Ph.D., Sculptor, in 1962.

It was commissioned by William Harrah. Two statues were erected, one at Harrah’s Club on the Pony Express Route at Lake Tahoe, and the other in Reno, Nevada. The Lake Tahoe statue was unveiled in April of 1963. The dedication was presided by Nevada Governor, Grant Sawyer, William Harrah, and Judge Sherrill Halbert, before thousands of spectators.

There were representatives from California, as well as Nevada. The ceremony was highlighted by a Pony Express Rider, Randy Steffan, who arrived at the dedication site on schedule with a message from California, Governor Brown to Nevada’s Governor Sawyer. The original statues were cast in bronze in Pietrasanta, Italy, and shipped to San Francisco, California, and from there to Nevada. The statue weighs 8,000 pounds, and the 9-foot rider is astride a saddle with a mochila (lightweight leather saddle cover with mail pouches) on a typical Pony Express quarter horse.

The Pony Express route extended from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. There were horse exchange stations at specific intervals along the entire route. Although the Pony Express provided the most rapid mail communication system between east and the west at the time, it lasted for only 18 months after which the mail was transported by train following the completion of the transcontinental railway. It is remembered as an exciting moment of glory in the pages of American History.

A smaller model of the Pony Express cast in bronze can be made available in bronze for interested parties.