Pony Up
Before UPS and Fed Ex, mail arrived by Pony Express. And, though it lasted less than two years, this western legend endures.
Fast forward a century or so to the rural hamlet of Canaan, Indiana, where horseback riders have hit the trail since 1967 to celebrate this early mail service during the Canaan Fall Festival’s Pony Express Mail Run.
Their goal? The delivery of hundreds of letters, hand-stamped with the onetime only “Special Pictorial Cancellation,” to Madison, a charming Ohio River town located 13 miles away. Visitors gather to send off the riders and lawn chairs are set along the road for the event, the longest-running one of its kind in the country.
“We get calls from people all over the world wanting to make sure we get their envelopes canceled,” says Canaan’s postmaster Carolyn Hankins, noting that this year, Civil War re-enactors dressed in period garb will take part in the ride. “Then I put them in plastic bags before they go in the saddle bag, otherwise the sweat from the horses would make the ink run.”
While in Canaan, enjoy festival events like the pie-baking contest, parade, children’s games and flea market. Experience the country charm of Canaan, founded in 1812 and home to a short main street boasting a white Federal-style Masonic Lodge built in 1869 and the 1850 Kremer Museum, where after her duties as postmaster during the mail run, Hankins demonstrates how to make lye soap the old-fashioned way.
For those who hanker to ride, Canaanite Rod Asher, owner of Shiloh Farms and a frequent member of the Pony Express, offers guided trail rides (he supplies the horses) through woods and meadows swathed in fall colors.
The Pony Express Mail Run begins at 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 10. For a hand-canceled letter, mail it to: Pony Express Mail Run Station, Postmaster, 8842 N. Canaan Main St., Canaan, IN 47224.
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