In 1860, a letter sent from Missouri to California could take three weeks or more to arrive by stagecoach. California had become a state in 1850, and many thousands of people had moved there. They wanted faster news from family and friends in the East.

In April 1860, a company started a new mail service called the Pony Express. Riders on fast horses carried mail nearly 2,000 miles, from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. The trip took about ten days.

The secret to its speed was a relay. About every 10 to 15 miles along the trail, there was a station where a rested horse was waiting. A rider would leap off his tired horse, grab the mail, and gallop away on the fresh one in just a couple of minutes. After riding about 75 to 100 miles, he handed the mail to the next rider, who carried it on.

Riders had to be small and light so the horses could run fast. They rode day and night, in summer heat and winter snow, across deserts and over mountains.

Yet the Pony Express lasted only about a year and a half. In October 1861, workers finished the first telegraph line that crossed the country. Now a message could travel from coast to coast in minutes instead of days. There was no longer a reason to pay for mail carried on horseback, and the Pony Express shut down that same month.

Even though it did not last long, the Pony Express is still remembered as one of the boldest chapters in the history of the American West.