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.