News Release

Pony Express Courier Swearing-In Ceremony 

San Antonio, November 2, 2005 – The Alamo Area Council of Governments, the Alamo-La Bahia Corridor Committee, and the U. S. Postal Service announce the 17th Annual Pony Express Christmas Courier Swearing-In Ceremony on Saturday, November 19, 2005, at the U.S. Post Office, downtown across from the Alamo, at 10:00 a.m. Admission is free and open to the public.

 The Swearing-In Ceremony includes:

• Mounted Pony Express Couriers next to the historic Alamo

• Granaderos de Galvez in their Spanish Colonial uniforms

• San Antonio College Brass Ensemble

• Courier’s Oath (“Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night…”) by SA Postmaster

• Cadence Cloggers

• Trail Riders, Sheriffs’ Mounted Posses and their beautiful horses

• Connections Living History (Mounted Pre-Civil War re-enactors)

• ALAMO (Alamo Lore and Myth Organization)

• Native American Community of San Antonio

• Photo Opportunities

Following the ceremony, a Native American flute player will lead the participants and audience southward across Alamo Plaza to where the historic Menger Hotel will graciously host entertainment.  The program will include dances performed at traditional Native American powwows; performances by  the Polish/International Folk Dancers of South Texas and the Cadence Cloggers.

The Swearing-In Ceremony is the prelude to the 17^th Annual Christmas Along the Corridor celebration. Christmas Along the Corridor is a 150-mile celebration of history, heritage, and the holidays as 120 Pony Express Christmas Couriers carry proclamations to communities in the seven counties along the historic Alamo-La Bahia Corridor and El Camino Real de Los Tejas, with the San Antonio Grand Finale at Fort Sam Houston on December 3, 2005.  For more information, please call Burma Hyde at (210) 362-5220.

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