The Last Ride of the Pony Express by Will Grant

THE LAST RIDE OF THE PONY EXPRESS by Will Grant is subtitled “My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West” and it offers fascinating facts while providing quite a travelogue on horseback between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California. Grant is accompanied by two horses, Chicken Fry (love that name!) and Badger on a series of adventures that trace the route of the Pony Express (see map). Readers will be astounded to learn that the Pony Express was in operation for only about 18 months, from April 1860 to October 1861, completing no more than 150 round trips. Introducing readers to hosts such as the head of the National Pony Express Association, locales involving river crossings, and origins of words like mustang, Grant weaves in numerous tidbits and reflections on how the West has changed, even recently. He notes, for example, that “between 1970 and 2020, the number of dairy farms in the US fell from 648,000 to 32,000.” Musings on the impact of the Western frontier on the national psyche and the “fabling” inspired by the short-lived Pony Express balance descriptions of potential danger and also glimpses of humor. Grant is a former cowboy and horse trainer who began a journalism career in 2008 with many of his stories involving horses, including exploits in Mongolia, Arizona, and Kyrgyzstan. I am looking forward to more adventures from him. Both informative and entertaining, THE LAST RIDE OF THE PONY EXPRESS received a starred review from Booklist.