The Pony Express was a established fast mail service crossing over the North American continent from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from about April 1860 to October 1861. It became the nation's most direct means of east-west communication for many years before the telegraph and was vital for keeping California closely in contact with the Union just before the American Civil War.
The Pony Express was an offshoot of the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Company of 1859, which became a year later the famous Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company. This company was founded by William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell.
The original speedy mail services had important messages carried by horseback riders in relay points across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains of the Western United States. For its short 18 months of operation, it briefly reduced the time for mail to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to a much shorter ten days.
By having riders travel a shorter route and using mounted riders on fast horses rather than stagecoaches, the founders of the Pony Express hoped to establish their service as a much faster and way more reliable conduit for the mail and win an exclusive government mail contract. Pony Express demonstrated that a unified trans-continental system could be built and operated year round. Since its replacement by the safer and faster First Transcontinental Telegraph, the Pony Express has become part of the historic lore of the American West. Its reliance on the ability and endurance of strong, individual riders and horses over technological innovation was part of "American rugged individualism."
Its route has been designated the Pony Express National Historic Trail to save this history. Approximately 120 historic sites along the trail may eventually be refurbished and opened to the public, including 50 stations or marked station ruins.