There are many stories about the men who carried mail across America by the Pony Express, but the Pony Express really didn’t last very long. It began in 1860, carrying mail between Missouri and California by horseback.
Stations were set up along the route, about 15 miles apart, where fresh horses were kept for the riders. Each rider rode three horses before handing over his mail to the next rider. It took about eight or nine days for the riders to carry a mail pouch from one end of the route to the other.
But the service ended only 18 months after it began! For that’s when the first cross-country telegraph lines began to carry messages instead.
The shortest trip on the Pony Express announced the news of Abraham Lincoln’s election, only six days!
