By Linda Kor Members of the Navajo County Sheriff’s Hashknife Posse are preparing for their 63rd Pony Express Ride to Scottsdale beginning April 14 from Holbrook, continuing a longtime tradition that commemorates Holbrook’s rich history. The Hashknife brand goes back more than a hundred years to the Aztec Land & Cattle Company, which owned millions of acres of land and thousands of head of cattle in this region. The cowboys of the Hashknife outfit came from all across the US, many running from the law. In 1954, Roy Downing was responsible for the organization of the Navajo County Sheriff’s Hashknife Posse with L. Ben Pearson, then sheriff of Navajo County. It was organized to meet the need for a search and rescue team for the area, and was in operation by 1955 once again bringing the Hashknife brand to life in Navajo County. Four years later, in 1959, Downing and Ernest Hulet, Holbrook postmaster at the time, started to work on getting permission to start a Pony Express ride to carry the U.S. mail from Holbrook to the Valley. After being turned down by his supervisor, Hulet wrote to the Postmaster General in Washington, D.C., making his request for the annual pony express ride. The official responded that if the posse riders would submit to a swearing-in ceremony before each ride and follow regulations pertaining to handling the official mail and to protecting it, then Hulet could authorize the ride. Since that time, the posse has been sworn in each year to carry the mail on a four day journey via horseback from Holbrook, through Payson into Scottsdale.
