VALLEY OF LONG AGO

Shorty Neal, Arizona's cowboy postman, the last pony express rider, goes modern, mechanical and motorized.

Pony Postman

A feature by Western Ways When Progress, in the form of a stripped down 1928 Ford, rattled the death knell for the Pony Express, Shorty Neal thought it might make his job easier.

Shorty, who used to ride the mail between two small Arizona mining towns, Sombrero Butte and Copper Creek, is still the mailman. Time was when he rose at dawn, saddled up his horse and started the long hard ride over roadless country. Modern road-building equipment made possible the hewing of a road between the two towns, and now Shorty coaxes his flivver over the rocks to deliver the important letters to the miners, ranchers and prospectors along the line.

But he is finding that automobiles have as much personality and temperament as his horse did, and now and then, when he hauls a heavy rock out of the road or tinkers with the mysterious block of metal that is an engine, he wistfully longs for his horse.

Shorty Neal is the last of a long line of illustrious riders of the Pony Express and he still functions as the chief contact with the outside world for the eighteen people on his route.

Ranchers and prospectors along the line eagerly await the coming of Shorty and his mailbag. He's the best informed person in his area. He hears the good news and the bad news, the glad news and the sad news. His service is personal and friendly, and by the very nature of his work he's just as accommodating as he can be. He's a walking newspaper and an information bureau. And he can be depended upon in all kinds of weather. He's the connecting link between the outside world and the customers.