Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye,
Speaker 1: welcome to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 1: If you are a resident of these United States, you
Speaker 1: may be familiar with something we call the U. S.
Speaker 1: Postal Service. Uh. There, there's still a big deal. It's
Speaker 1: a crazy operation when you think about it. And just
Speaker 1: for a quick statistic, every single day they process and
Speaker 1: deliver one eight seven point eight million pieces of just
Speaker 1: first class mail every twenty four hours. Hi, I'm Ben Bullin.
Speaker 1: Hey I'm Noel Brown, And I'll tell you I didn't
Speaker 1: realize until he dug into this subject, uh, that the U. S.
Speaker 1: Postal Service wasn't even established officially until the seventies. That's correct.
Speaker 1: It's insane to me. I figured it was just something
Speaker 1: that was around since time immemorial. You hear about Benjamin
Speaker 1: Franklin being uh, you know, the first official postmaster General. Um,
Speaker 1: but that they did not have a government body. It
Speaker 1: was more of like an ad hoc kind of situation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a department, the post Office department, not the
Speaker 1: Postal Service. Right, that's right. So we also would be
Speaker 1: remiss if we didn't send an audible shout out in
Speaker 1: the I guess the ear mail to our super producer,
Speaker 1: Casey Pegram And speaking of you know, I like that
Speaker 1: you bring up the surprising recent origin of this, uh,
Speaker 1: this modern postal service, because I was thinking about this
Speaker 1: off air. Is it easier or more difficult to run
Speaker 1: a postal service today? Because we know that there's this
Speaker 1: amazing technology, right, we have GPS, we have tracking system
Speaker 1: school or but we also have many many more people,
Speaker 1: millions more addresses. Still, I think it's easier to run
Speaker 1: a postal service or a package service now than it
Speaker 1: was back in the day. That is our topic for
Speaker 1: this episode, the weird, weird, weird history of shipping just
Speaker 1: in general. You know who I was ship, Casey Pegram
Speaker 1: and Pikachu and that's a that's a fandom reference, it is,
Speaker 1: That's not what we're talking about today. This is a
Speaker 1: different kind of shipping, oh, like shipping and receiving. Got it,
Speaker 1: Casey uh seems to approve of my my shipping choice.
Speaker 1: Do yes, Casey on the case, Casey on the case.
Speaker 1: So let's let's think about it, Like, what's the weirdest
Speaker 1: thing you guys have ever mailed or received in the mail?
Speaker 1: You know, I once received a single floor tom drum
Speaker 1: like a like a like from a Yamaha drum kit,
Speaker 1: like just the tom, and then I ended up meeting
Speaker 1: the guy who I bought it from on eBay completely randomly.
Speaker 1: I was in the market for a single drum, found
Speaker 1: one to my liking, and then it ended up at
Speaker 1: a guy from Athens, where I eventually moved, and his
Speaker 1: name is Taker the drum or the guy, the guy. Okay,
Speaker 1: what did you name the drum Yamaha with the factory
Speaker 1: name exactly? Because some people name their instruments. That's the
Speaker 1: real thing. Yeah, I wonder if you have a drum
Speaker 1: kit in your drummer, do you name each individual drum
Speaker 1: or do you give the whole kid a single name? Casey,
Speaker 1: you're a drummer, what do you think. I think it's
Speaker 1: more of a kid thing, yeah, than the individual drums.
Speaker 1: Maybe if you have like a I don't know, special
Speaker 1: symbol or something, maybe give it a name. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like old Zilji or something. Yeah. So the responsive question
Speaker 1: did I ask? I I have a weird shipping story.
Speaker 1: It's very short. Uh, it won't take too long. So
Speaker 1: I used to live out in the hinterlands, very small
Speaker 1: area in Central America, and I had to get some medication.
Speaker 1: Ship to medication itself is not unusual. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's sent through the post all the time. But I
Speaker 1: was so far away from the U West and so
Speaker 1: far away from regular shipping routes that this had to come.
Speaker 1: Let's see, picked up at a pharmacy, put in international mail,
Speaker 1: carried by a private carrier. Once it got in country,
Speaker 1: and then the last two stops, uh, it went on
Speaker 1: the back of a pickup truck. There was a guy
Speaker 1: in the back of a pickup truck. It went about
Speaker 1: ten miles that way, and then it was handed off
Speaker 1: to a courier on a dirt bike. And there wasn't
Speaker 1: really an address, so I had to go stand in
Speaker 1: front of this building, which is like the main drag
Speaker 1: of town, and just wait till I see the right
Speaker 1: looking guy in the dirt bike. I am the only one,
Speaker 1: by the way in this scenario who is who looks
Speaker 1: like I do. So I'm pretty recognized. So but did
Speaker 1: you flag him down or did he just he his
Speaker 1: made a bee line right for you. He recognized he
Speaker 1: saw it from a distance. And I was so weird
Speaker 1: because I could see through the stamps and the markings,
Speaker 1: how many different kind of systems this had gone through.
Speaker 1: And that's that's what I am still baffled by. You know,
Speaker 1: when you when you have something very delicate, for instance,
Speaker 1: like a drum shipped through the mail, where you have
Speaker 1: something even normal shipped through you know, to the ends
Speaker 1: of the earth, how can we do that? It's impressive
Speaker 1: as a species. It's really funny. Been the the situation
Speaker 1: that you just described is not too far removed for
Speaker 1: what became the order of the day for shipping. It
Speaker 1: would be this kind of like going around your asked
Speaker 1: to get to your elbow situation where uh, steamships would
Speaker 1: go down to Panama and then they would you know,
Speaker 1: transfer the deliveries to horses who would then make a
Speaker 1: journey over the very very treacherous isthmus of Panama and
Speaker 1: then picked up again by new ships and taken up
Speaker 1: the Pacific coast um. And that that that that was
Speaker 1: how it was done until eighteen fifty eight, when over
Speaker 1: land delivery became much more of a thing and a
Speaker 1: bidding war ensuit. Or we're getting a little ahead of ourselves,
Speaker 1: but I really like your story. It really sets the
Speaker 1: tone for this uh this topic now, thanks man, I
Speaker 1: mean yours as well. The more things change, right, the
Speaker 1: more they stay the same. History doesn't repeat, but it
Speaker 1: tends to rhyme. It's true. I like that you brought
Speaker 1: up the phrase ad hawk at the top of the
Speaker 1: show because before the eighteen hundreds, what we would call
Speaker 1: a package a courier delivery service was pretty unorganized. There
Speaker 1: wasn't a huge central authority. You would say, okay, I
Speaker 1: need to send uh duke casey pegram a uh not
Speaker 1: a balustrade. That's too big a loot. For some reason,
Speaker 1: you're saying you a loot l U t E. Sorry.
Speaker 1: What is a balustrade? Ben? I've always wondered that it
Speaker 1: was in an Amy Man song and I never knew
Speaker 1: what it was. Is it like a banister, It's a
Speaker 1: it's a kind of it's a railing, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of an ornamental thing. Like if you ever drive by
Speaker 1: an apartment building and you see maybe a nice one
Speaker 1: with like a stone railing around one of the balconies,
Speaker 1: that is a balustrade. That railing and the things a
Speaker 1: little stems those are ballusters? Is that right? That is true?
Speaker 1: Those would be hard to ship, though those would be
Speaker 1: hard to ship. Shipping and balustrade at that time seems weird,
Speaker 1: so we send him a loot instead, l U t E.
Speaker 1: I would ship a balustrade with Casey pegram. I'm like
Speaker 1: in the package. Now, you guys are just having a
Speaker 1: relationship to go oh I with an inanimate object. That
Speaker 1: people do that fine, I think so Casey on the case.
Speaker 1: It is almost after all, lest people be judgmental. But
Speaker 1: back to before the mid eighteen hundreds, I would need
Speaker 1: to find a courrier of physical person or crew, and
Speaker 1: I would say, get this loot to the duke, and
Speaker 1: then the courrier would say, okay, we're gonna go to
Speaker 1: the closest village near you know, the Duke's of the
Speaker 1: Duke's palace or his fortress or whatever. And then and
Speaker 1: of taking it to a specific address, the corrier would
Speaker 1: probably just drop it off in whatever the common area
Speaker 1: of town was. And mind you, zero protection for you
Speaker 1: as the sender, to the recipient, or to the guaranteed
Speaker 1: safety of the goods being transported or the you know,
Speaker 1: the message or whatever. This is. This is an advance
Speaker 1: of the idea of shipping larger things, which will come
Speaker 1: to fruition as a thing called parcel post. But that
Speaker 1: comes a yeah, and it's a it's a huge trust fall,
Speaker 1: right because the courrier could literally disappear, you would never
Speaker 1: see your loot again, and your loots will become the
Speaker 1: courriers loot. And how funny is it that we've kind
Speaker 1: of come full circle to that now where we put
Speaker 1: all of our trust in this ride share and just
Speaker 1: kind of like sharing economy where we don't really need
Speaker 1: guarantees so much as long as they you know, had
Speaker 1: the past the test to get on the app, then
Speaker 1: we sort of trust them or we just aren't really
Speaker 1: that concern. It's just kind of interesting. It's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a full circle. You got stuff like task
Speaker 1: Rabbit where people pick up stuff and do it for
Speaker 1: you or as if they or you know whatever, all
Speaker 1: of those absurdly named uh services. But it's true, Ben,
Speaker 1: that is the very definition of ad hawc. You would
Speaker 1: hire these individuals, you might get your stuff, you might not.
Speaker 1: And it became, you know, there was a gap that
Speaker 1: needed to be filled, and that specifically happened during the
Speaker 1: California Gold Rush in the eighteen sixties when a lot
Speaker 1: of folks were settling going west, young young men and women. Um,
Speaker 1: and they really wanted to you know that it was
Speaker 1: a time of technological boom, the idea of the telegraph,
Speaker 1: and you know, being able to get things much more
Speaker 1: quickly and by much more quickly. We're talking about you know,
Speaker 1: weeks as opposed to months. Right, Yeah, but that still
Speaker 1: looks great in comparison, it does. And uh, and you're right,
Speaker 1: there's this, there's this what Malcolm Gladwell would call it
Speaker 1: tipping point in the eighteen sixties, and it coincides with
Speaker 1: the California Gold Rush. Part of it goes back to
Speaker 1: the geographical fact that the United States is huge. It's massive,
Speaker 1: it's very very wide exactly. And those ad howc methods
Speaker 1: of shipping and receiving might have worked in a more
Speaker 1: regional setup where you didn't have to travel as far,
Speaker 1: but once you start going from sea to shining sea,
Speaker 1: that becomes completely, um, just untenable. Um. And and by
Speaker 1: the way, we're getting a lot of this chronology um
Speaker 1: from a wonderful article from Atlas Obscura called From Pony
Speaker 1: Express to Amazon Drone, The Strange History of Delivering Packages
Speaker 1: by Dan Nosowitz. That's right, and in this shipping free
Speaker 1: in this gap in the series of opportunity, we see
Speaker 1: two incredible players emerge. One is called the Pony Express,
Speaker 1: the other is called Wells Fargo. And the Pony Express
Speaker 1: had a real missed opportunity by not adopting the tagline
Speaker 1: let those ponies run. That's the Scott Benjamin quote, Scott
Speaker 1: Benjamin quote at the lifetime let those ponies or ride.
Speaker 1: I think he said run. I think it's run. Okay,
Speaker 1: let him loose. So the Pony Express is what it
Speaker 1: sounds like. They were, uh, letter transporting cavalry. They would
Speaker 1: jump on these horses and they would deliver mail and
Speaker 1: newspapers and important messages through a system like a relay
Speaker 1: race of different mounted riders. So of course you would say, well,
Speaker 1: it's ridiculous that I would write a letter in New
Speaker 1: York and then hand it to some guy on a
Speaker 1: horse and he would ride across the country. He wouldn't
Speaker 1: he would ride a certain distance, he would link up
Speaker 1: with someone else and they would ride along. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: what would have taken twenty five days by stagecoach um,
Speaker 1: or perhaps many many months on a on a sea
Speaker 1: voyage um, the Pony Express could get it done in
Speaker 1: about ten days from east coast to west coast, and
Speaker 1: they operated between the operating between Missouri and California. But
Speaker 1: they didn't operate that long. It might surprise some people
Speaker 1: because the Pony Express after it went the way of
Speaker 1: the Dodo due to the telegraph. The Pony Express was
Speaker 1: very romanticized in the American zeitgeist, but it was only
Speaker 1: an operation from April third, eighteen sixty two October of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one, so just a little more than a year.
Speaker 1: But in those eighteen months of operation, the Pony Express
Speaker 1: changed history, it changed shipping, and it remains an impressive
Speaker 1: endeavor today. Wouldn't you say, I absolutely would say, Um,
Speaker 1: one thing that I didn't know about in that time
Speaker 1: that it operated that very limited time. It did not
Speaker 1: turn a profit. And in fact, there was a war
Speaker 1: between the United States and the Paiute Indians called the
Speaker 1: Pyramid Lake War that caused a temporary shutdown of the
Speaker 1: company and cost them seventy five thousand dollars a princely
Speaker 1: sum at the time. And after that they when they started,
Speaker 1: all the damage had been done. Um, and they never
Speaker 1: received a government contract, which as we know, can be
Speaker 1: very very important for something that requires so much overhead
Speaker 1: and infrastructure, and it is estimated um according to some sources,
Speaker 1: including history dot com article entitled ten things you May
Speaker 1: Not Know about the Pony expressed by Evan Andrews that
Speaker 1: over the course of that very brief history of the company,
Speaker 1: it may have lost around two hundred thousand dollars uh
Speaker 1: and and just a couple of little quick facts from
Speaker 1: that article as well. I thought this was interesting. The riders.
Speaker 1: You think of Pony Express writers as being like grizzled
Speaker 1: kind of cowboy types, but they actually were very slight fellows,
Speaker 1: weighing between a hundred and hundred twenty five pounds, much
Speaker 1: more like a jockey, and that's because of weight restrictions.
Speaker 1: They wanted to keep them as light as possible so
Speaker 1: they could like increase productivity in terms of like you know, quick,
Speaker 1: quicker turnaround times. And the is my favorite one, as
Speaker 1: they received a salary of between a hundred and a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars months is a big deal of
Speaker 1: the time, and they were asked to submit themselves to
Speaker 1: reading this loyalty oath, which says, I hereby swear before
Speaker 1: the Great and Living God that during my engagement, and
Speaker 1: while an employee of Russell Majors in Waddell, which is
Speaker 1: the partners in the endeavor, this was a private company. Exactly,
Speaker 1: I will, under no circumstances use profane language. That I
Speaker 1: will drink no intoxicating liquors. That I will not quarrel
Speaker 1: or fight with any other employee of the firm. And
Speaker 1: then in every respect, I will conduct myself honestly, be
Speaker 1: faithful to my duties, and so direct all my acts
Speaker 1: as to win the confidence of my employers. So help
Speaker 1: me God. I want to add to that excerpt with
Speaker 1: a fascinating classified advertisement. This is an alleged advertisement wanted
Speaker 1: young skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen, must be expert writers.
Speaker 1: WILLI to risk death daily? Orphans preferred? No orphans? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's I mean, because that's enticing when you think about
Speaker 1: the age that they're trying to get to feel like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna live dangerously No, And it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: you better not have anybody that's gonna miss you because
Speaker 1: you might get an arrow through the throat or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's any number of ways you
Speaker 1: could have died on those treacherous journeys because the West,
Speaker 1: you know, the areas between that frontier very treacherous in
Speaker 1: terms of terrain, in terms of potential, you know, ways
Speaker 1: of just falling to your death. There's any number of
Speaker 1: ways you could die. That's right. If Oregon Trail taught
Speaker 1: me anything, it's that any time you travel with a
Speaker 1: group of six or more people in that time, one
Speaker 1: of you is going to get dysenterry, one of you
Speaker 1: is going to break a leg and uh, you know
Speaker 1: you might lose some ox oxen, but not break a leg.
Speaker 1: And like a doing well in a you know, high
Speaker 1: school musical kind of like a compound fracture with a
Speaker 1: bone sticking out and stuff. You guys remember Oregon Trail?
Speaker 1: Did you play? Are your fans? Yeah? Totally remember Fording
Speaker 1: the River Dying of dysentery. Yeah. I actually have a
Speaker 1: card game version of it that came out pretty recently.
Speaker 1: That's quite a lot of fun. I recommended if you
Speaker 1: if you if you haven't seen that, should they update
Speaker 1: the diseases? No, it's it's literally just a card game
Speaker 1: version of Oregon Trail has a neat mechanic to the
Speaker 1: way you play it. I I really it's all that's cool,
Speaker 1: but I'd like to check it out. Yeah, yeah, we
Speaker 1: should have a bring it to the next office game night.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a plan. If you want to participate
Speaker 1: in the Pony Express, there's kind of way you can
Speaker 1: do it today. You can follow their footsteps or should
Speaker 1: I say hoof prints by visiting the Pony Express National
Speaker 1: Historic Trail. It goes through a ton of different land jurisdictions.
Speaker 1: It has several sites that are open to public visitation,
Speaker 1: and there are a couple of places where they've got
Speaker 1: automobile access. It's it's a piece of living history. It's
Speaker 1: worth it, and it is indeed history. The Pony Express
Speaker 1: is no or because in while it was only an
Speaker 1: operation for that eighteen month period, in eighteen sixty six, Uh,
Speaker 1: the owner of the time sold the assets for Pony
Speaker 1: Express to outfit named Wells Fargo, and he sold it
Speaker 1: for one point five million dollars in eighteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: You know that's a ton, right, and Wells Fargo, you
Speaker 1: might be saying, or you probably said earlier in the episode,
Speaker 1: you said Wells Fargo. Uh, Holy moly, Stars and Garters.
Speaker 1: Isn't that a bank? Well? Yeah, now, but you may
Speaker 1: have seen their iconic logo, which is a horse drawn
Speaker 1: stage coach um with the what do you call it?
Speaker 1: A captain, pilot, rainsman, what do you call a driver?
Speaker 1: Just the driver boom, there you go to do little,
Speaker 1: the one who speaks to the hors that guy. And
Speaker 1: that is because while the pony expressed largely was known
Speaker 1: for delivering letters, Wells Fargo uh kind of had the
Speaker 1: market corner on delivering larger things packages. Coachman, I bet
Speaker 1: you it's a coach It's a coachman. I think you
Speaker 1: can do driver as well, but coachman is much more appropriate.
Speaker 1: I love that. And before they made their real money
Speaker 1: in banking, Wells Fargo was absolutely the end all be
Speaker 1: all of package delivery, as you can tell by this
Speaker 1: very very absurdly catchy little ditty I warn you in
Speaker 1: advance from the nineteen sixty two film version of the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven Broadway musical The Music Man by Meredith Wilson.
Speaker 1: Have a listen how the Wells Fargo wagon as a
Speaker 1: called and down the streets. All please let it be
Speaker 1: far me hole. The Weld's Fargo wagon is a calm
Speaker 1: and down the street. I wish I wish I knew
Speaker 1: what it could be. I got a box with me
Speaker 1: for sugar wargos in March, I got a great Medican
Speaker 1: Montgomery Awards sent me across a bathtub and a cross
Speaker 1: cut saw. Uh there was there was shipping, all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff, that's right. And it was literally all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff. Because the folks are teamed up. They're on
Speaker 1: the East Coast in New York to create Wells Fargo
Speaker 1: wanted to dominate shipping across the contiguous United States and beyond.
Speaker 1: They wanted a monopoly, and there were a bunch of
Speaker 1: East Coast shipping concerns at the time. But Wells Fargo
Speaker 1: is different. It was the creation or the result of
Speaker 1: a supergroup team up between three different people. Henry Wells,
Speaker 1: William G. Fargo, those are the names we know. And
Speaker 1: then another one you may not have heard of, a
Speaker 1: guy named John Butterfield. On their own, these dudes each
Speaker 1: had shipping company. But uh, they when they joined forces
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty, they created something. This is a trick question.
Speaker 1: What do you think they created? Way to not Wells
Speaker 1: far ago? Right, that's correct, I'm I'm thinking some other
Speaker 1: legacy brand. Let's see they called they called the package
Speaker 1: shipping industry at the time, the express industry. Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: and these activities were taking place in America. Let's see.
Speaker 1: I like what, I like where we're going with this,
Speaker 1: United Express, American Eagle, State Express, Packaged Postal Eagle, America
Speaker 1: un Canada Mail in a hurry. Okay, I like all
Speaker 1: of those, and those did not make it out of
Speaker 1: the pitch meeting that ultimately settled on, um, you guessed it,
Speaker 1: maybe American Express. Yes, I hope, we hope we left
Speaker 1: enough breadcrumbs there. And this is probably obvious to everyone,
Speaker 1: but I think it's so interesting how the biggest banks
Speaker 1: and credit card companies always got their start like in
Speaker 1: the gold Rush and like you know, occupying some niche
Speaker 1: and then just kind of like ballooning from there. And
Speaker 1: now we have our you know, our Wells Fargoes and
Speaker 1: our you know big banks of the world which are giant, right,
Speaker 1: So these guys joined forces in eighteen fifty they make
Speaker 1: American Express. Fast forward two years. American Expresses primarily an
Speaker 1: East coast operation, but they want to they want to
Speaker 1: get in on the growing West Coast market, or at
Speaker 1: least some members of American Express to you see, Henry
Speaker 1: Wells and William Fargo are gassed about it. They're super excited.
Speaker 1: But the Board of American Expresses, it's like, well, why
Speaker 1: are we gonna do this California thing? We got, we
Speaker 1: got a pretty nice operation here on the East coast.
Speaker 1: It ain't broke, don't fix it, Fargo, And they said, wells, no,
Speaker 1: they didn't say that. They they started their own company.
Speaker 1: They kind of, uh, they took what they learned from
Speaker 1: the American Express operation and they just moved it to
Speaker 1: the West coast and they changed the name. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: and again early on they their biggest service was delivery
Speaker 1: of valuable goods, um, you know, jewels and gold, and
Speaker 1: then eventually kind of more you know home goods that
Speaker 1: that that folks that actually had a little money to
Speaker 1: spend from like catalogs, ship and shipments and stuff like
Speaker 1: that could could lutes, balustrades, all of that stuff. Um.
Speaker 1: And they were very clever in their marketing and did
Speaker 1: a good job of endearing themselves to the news media
Speaker 1: by including free newspapers along with any packages that you
Speaker 1: would ship through their their service. And this is great
Speaker 1: because everybody enjoys being plugged in getting the latest news.
Speaker 1: And we have to remember this is before television. This
Speaker 1: is a time in an age where information is a
Speaker 1: little tougher to come by, so getting a free newspaper
Speaker 1: is a great value. Add things get a little weird
Speaker 1: when the company starts directly delivering gold as well. Right,
Speaker 1: that's where it becomes a little bit more than a
Speaker 1: postage service, It's true, and that you know, we we
Speaker 1: we'll find out and as we as we know based
Speaker 1: on what we know Wells Fargo as today, that became
Speaker 1: much more of their bread and butter. But because they
Speaker 1: were handling so much of this precious material that was
Speaker 1: coming out of the gold rush, um, they it made
Speaker 1: just perfect sense to them to set up a situation
Speaker 1: where they could you know, invest and hold onto people's
Speaker 1: assets for them. And they did such a good job
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, did it so quickly that folks
Speaker 1: were very comfortable with them. And then you know, like
Speaker 1: that was sort of one of the early days of
Speaker 1: folks having money that had been formerly you know, destitute,
Speaker 1: and they needed to trust somebody and they trusted Wells Fargo.
Speaker 1: So um. And a really good point in this Atlas
Speaker 1: Obscure article is every new settlement gold mining colony that
Speaker 1: was set up. You'd have yourself a saloon, and you'd
Speaker 1: have yourself a Wells Fargo. Yeah, absolutely, maybe a church
Speaker 1: to who knows. Definitely a Wells Fargo. And earlier we
Speaker 1: had walked through this strange and inconvenient Rube Goldberg esque
Speaker 1: shipping system that companies like Wells Fargo would use. They
Speaker 1: would send the steamships down to Panama, the horses over
Speaker 1: the smith which was a dangerous, uh and at times
Speaker 1: deadly trip, and then they would send ships up the
Speaker 1: Pacific coast. In eighteen fifty eight, they create the first
Speaker 1: of what we described as overland delivery service, named in
Speaker 1: a burst of creativity, the Overland Mail Company. And this
Speaker 1: is where Wells Fargo really kind of took that shipping
Speaker 1: to the next level because they a um started getting
Speaker 1: a little bit of assistance from Congress UH and that
Speaker 1: a bidding war began to establish much more of a
Speaker 1: nationwide postal system. And that company, that offshoot was and
Speaker 1: the running and won the contract. And so the Overland
Speaker 1: Mail Company, and it's by now very experienced owners take
Speaker 1: a step forward. There there's still a private company, but
Speaker 1: now they're very closely working with the government, and they
Speaker 1: are carrying all official mail. We know a little bit
Speaker 1: about their original contract. They cracked a deal with Uncle
Speaker 1: Sam and they said, okay, mail is never gonna take
Speaker 1: longer than twenty five days. But despite what it said
Speaker 1: on paper, the reality was much different, you know, And
Speaker 1: there was still a lot of wilderness in the West.
Speaker 1: There's still a lot of intervening variables. So you could
Speaker 1: you could trust that Overland and Wells Fargo and these
Speaker 1: kinds of outfits would do their best to get the
Speaker 1: mail to you at some point, which you wouldn't really
Speaker 1: be able to safely predict it all the time. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Butterfield resigns and Wells Fargo as the company, takes over
Speaker 1: the board of Overland Mail in eighteen sixty and then
Speaker 1: they buy the company straight out in eighteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: And then everything changed when in eighteen sixty nine, the
Speaker 1: very first transcontinental railroad system came into existence, which was
Speaker 1: a network um of various rail lines that were connected
Speaker 1: um through some very forward thinking individuals that started the
Speaker 1: Central Pacific Railroad Company. Yeah, and so imagine all the
Speaker 1: machinations of Wells Fargo, of Henry Henry Wells and William Fargo.
Speaker 1: Imagine it like a very beautifully constructed palace of cards
Speaker 1: in a windy room. Because as soon as all these
Speaker 1: regional railroad systems are connected, this house of shipping cards
Speaker 1: that Wells Fargo has built just rushes through the windows. Uh.
Speaker 1: The owners of Central Pacific in almost a single stroke,
Speaker 1: render everything Wells Fargo has worked on all all of
Speaker 1: its monopolistic infrastructure outdated, if not obsolete. Right, But they
Speaker 1: were quick to hop on the train. That's that's not
Speaker 1: even a pun. That's just I thought it works. Just
Speaker 1: laziness as Farllows and Wells Fargo. Um, they they knew
Speaker 1: what the score was, and the Central Pacific Railroad Company
Speaker 1: was actually kind of jerking them around a bit, like
Speaker 1: playing a little bit of like a cat batting around
Speaker 1: some sort of you know, um hand knitted mouse toy.
Speaker 1: And they created an express company themselves, and that is
Speaker 1: when um Wells Fargo purchased that company from Central Pacific
Speaker 1: so they could get in on shipping their goods through
Speaker 1: the railroad system. And that's what got them in the door. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: do you know what I have to be honest here,
Speaker 1: this is way more fascinating than I thought it would
Speaker 1: have been. Uh, you know, before I started researching this,
Speaker 1: what do you think? Well, then, first of all, I
Speaker 1: hope you always feel that you can be honest with
Speaker 1: me and the listeners, and I think you do. I agree, though,
Speaker 1: I was surprised at how the history of shipping and
Speaker 1: receiving and mail and packages, all things that sound a
Speaker 1: little dry on the surface actually pretty fascinating. And there's
Speaker 1: a lot of adventure and the Pony Express. Who knew
Speaker 1: we're not even halfway done with this? Well we're okay, officially,
Speaker 1: we're halfway done with the story. We're going to We're
Speaker 1: going to conclude, and we hope you tune in for
Speaker 1: our follow up on the weird, weird, weird history of
Speaker 1: shipping stuff. In the meantime, you can continue the conversation.
Speaker 1: We want to hear your shipping war stories or your
Speaker 1: your strange anecdotes. You can find us on Facebook, you
Speaker 1: can find us on Instagram. You can find us on Twitter,
Speaker 1: not just as a show, but as individuals. Can find
Speaker 1: me exclusively on Instagram at how now Noel Brown, Um
Speaker 1: where I get into various adventures and misadventures, and you know,
Speaker 1: you can see me hanging out and doing cute stuff
Speaker 1: with my kid and going to concerts and eating delicious foods.
Speaker 1: And you can join my various global Shenanigant and see
Speaker 1: me get kicked into and out of different places, communities
Speaker 1: and countries on Instagram at Ben Boland or on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Ben Boland hs W. Thanks as always the super
Speaker 1: producer Casey Peperam, Thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme.
Speaker 1: Christopher Hasiota is here in spirit as always, thanks of
Speaker 1: course to Gabe Lousier, Thanks to Eve's Jeff Coat. Thanks
Speaker 1: to and Noel. I appreciate you. I appreciate you reluctantly
Speaker 1: co signing me on this part. But thanks to Jonathan Strickland,
Speaker 1: ak that twister a k A young Quizzles a k
Speaker 1: a uh Stricka poo, he would hate that one, Mr Quister,
Speaker 1: there we go. I like the rhyd their sister, sister,
Speaker 1: twisted sister, the twisted Quister. I like that. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: I think okay, reluctant thanks to to Jonathan Strickland and
Speaker 1: absolute wholehearted um from the bottom of my heart thanks
Speaker 1: to super producer Casey Pegram. Did you already say that
Speaker 1: even if you did. I'm adding another one because we
Speaker 1: just love the crap out of that guy. Uh and
Speaker 1: thanks to you, Ben. I like your hat today, sir,
Speaker 1: thanks so much so I got it in the mail
Speaker 1: oddly enough. How do you like that? See you next time, folks.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.