BLM offers public tour of the Pony Express Trail
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SALT LAKE CITY- To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the National Trails System Act, the Bureau of Land Management Salt Lake Field Office is offering an auto tour of the Pony Express National Historic Trail on National Trails Day, Saturday, June 2, 2018, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. BLM staff and Utah historians will guide participants across a landscape largely untouched since the trail’s creation in 1860.
The tour will begin at 8 a.m. from the Home Depot parking lot located at 222 E 2400 N, Tooele, Utah and return to the Wasatch Front via I-80. Numerous stops will allow participants to visit Pony Express Station ruins and view trail trace, as well as, wild horses, desert springs, rugged mountains, and dramatic vistas.
The Pony Express operated from 1860-61 as a high-speed postal service, delivering letters from Missouri to California in only 10 days. This historic route across Utah’s West Desert has a rich and diverse background that also includes the trail-blazing fur trader Jedediah Smith, early Utah pioneers, army expeditions, the first Overland Trail stagecoach, the transcontinental telegraph, California-bound emigrants, and the Lincoln Highway. Immersed in a historic landscape, tour participants will learn about the unfamiliar and often overlooked details of what is simply referred to today as the Pony Express Trail.
Sign up is limited to the first 15 cars. Backcountry travel will be on a gravel road; a well-maintained vehicle with a good tires and a spare is necessary. For more details and to sign up for the tour, contact BLM Outdoor Recreation Planner Ray Kelsey no later than May 25 by phone: 801-977-4300, or email: rkelsey@blm.gov.
Persons who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (DD) may call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339 to leave a message or question. The FRS is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Replies are provided during normal business hours.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.