The Brief, Enduring Life Of The Pony Express

The Pony Express was a mail service delivering messages, newspapers, mail, and small packages from St. Joseph, Missouri, across the Great Plains, over the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada to Sacramento, California, by horseback, using a series of relay stations.
During its 18 months (from April 3, 1860, to October 1861) of operation, it reduced the time for messages to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about 10 days. Financial struggles ended the storied service's operations after just 18 months, but even though it failed as a business, the Pony Express became one of the great legends of the Wild West.