The Camas Hot Springs Exchange

THURSDAY, JULY 20 1950
KNOW MONTANA. :
MAIL WAS COSTLY IN EARLY DAYS
By Rex Dale, Bozeman Chronicle

Back in 1864 when Montana territory and the little log cabin settlement that is now Bozeman was just getting underway forwarding a letter back to one's folks in the east or south or west was a matter that took months. Furthermore, it required the expenditure of 53 cents for each letter to expedite it in the speediest manner possible.

The quickest way to get a letter out of early day Bozeman or Gallatin county was to have it carried to Virginia City or Bannack City in order to connect with the pony express. Frank Dunbar, pioneer of Gallatin City, first county seat of Gallatin, used to horseback in to the Bozeman settlement to inquire of John Bozeman or W. J. Beall, Joe Wilson or a dozen other pioneers of the community "whose going to Virginia City"? Then he'd leave a dozen letters or so that immigrants in covered wagons corraled at Gallatin City had left with him for transit to the east. Generally, they deposited 53 cents with each letter to cover pony express charges as well as the U. S. letter postage rate.

Whenever any Bozeman resident was going over to Virginia City with supplies for the miners they would usually stop at the log cabin City Hotel run by G. W. A. Frazier to inquire if there was any mail to go over. Frazier would then hand the inquirer a package of letters and a sum of money on the basis of 53 cents a letter.

At Virginia City or Bannack, the Bozeman man would then step into the Wells-Fargo office and purchase sheets of 50-cent pony express stamps to be affixed to the letters. In such a manner the letters would reach Salt Lake City in three days where they would connect with the pony express for St Joseph, Mo., or San Francisco.