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Books on the Sculptor Avard Fairbanks by Eugene F. Fairbanks:

"A Sculptor's Testimony in Bronze and Stone"

"A Sculpture Garden of Fantasy"

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links: LDSMusician.com, LDSMusicNetwork.com, LDSMusicWorld.com, LDSMusic.org, BuyLDSMusic.com,

Medical Physics and Radiation Oncology

The National Pony Express Monument
at This is The Place Heritage Park
Salt Lake City, Utah

The Pony Express Sculpture by Avard T. Fairbanks, PhD, 1947
Replicated by Robert Shure and the Sons of Avard T. Fairbanks, 1998
Presented by the National Pony Express Association
Dedicated by Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, July 25, 1998

About the Monument
In 1947, Avard Fairbanks returned to his native state of Utah as Dean of the newly founded College of Fine Arts at the University of Utah. This same year marked the centennial of the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. To comemmorate this event, he created a life-sized monument to the Pony Express as a Pioneer Day Parade float. Fabricated in white plaster over a wood and wire framework, it exhibited Fairbanks' mastery of anatomy, action, balance and rhythm. It contrasted the vigor of the fresh horse to the fatigue of the spent horse. And it contrasted youth to age, symbolic of how each older generation must bid Godspeed to a younger generation. It honored the courage not only of the young Express riders, but also of the unsung heroes - the station keepers, many of whom lost their lives in this daring American enterprise.

About the Pony Express
When Abraham Lincoln was elected President, and when rebellion broke out in the South, and when shots were fired at Fort Sumter, it was the Pony Express that sped the news and spirited the mail to the Utah Territory and California. No one could do it faster. Gallant young Express riders, armed with a Bible and a small Colt pistol, covered the 1900 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento at a gallop in 8 to 10 days. Over prairies, deserts, and mountains they achieved speeds greater than ever before (compared to 3 weeks by stage or 6 weeks by ship). The cost was enormous, requiring 80 riders, 420 horses, 100 stations spaced 12 miles apart, supplies, feed, and several hundred station keepers. By design, riders would travel 75 to 100 miles a day, exchanging spent horses for fresh ones 6-10 times. But when stations were burned or plundered, they rode on without relief. Many station keepers lost their lives. Although the Pony Express operated for only eighteen months (replaced by the telegraph), it seized the imagination of the country it served so well. And it exemplified the courageous spirit of the westward movement.