“FROM: NPEA Stablemaster
SENT: June 24th, 2024 | 5:53am PDT
STATUS: The Pony reached Ibapah, UT, and turned the mochila [leather mail pouch] over to the Nevada Riders at 6:40am MDT. The Pony is running on schedule, arriving at Ibapah only 10 minutes behind the actual scheduled time. The Pony will be on PDT now, riding on west in Nevada and California.”

This was this morning’s “Report from the Trail” for the National Pony Express Association‘s 2024 National Re-Ride, which started June 17 in St. Joseph, Missouri and is winding its way west as it did more than 160 years ago. A traditional reenactment and celebration of the 1860-61 Pony Express, this year’s Re-Ride is scheduled to conclude June 27 in Sacramento, California.

History

The Pony Express was a short-lived frontier mail service known for its speed and inherent danger. An important part of America’s westward expansion, it continues to be an iconic symbol of the Wild West. According to the NPEA website:

“Young men once rode horses to carry mail from Missouri to California in the unprecedented time of only 10 days! This relay system along the Pony Express National Historic Trail crossing eight states was the most direct and practical means of east-west communications in 1860. From Missouri to California the Pony Express riders could deliver a letter faster than ever before.

“The Pony Express was in operation for only 18 months between April 1860 and October 1861. Nevertheless, the Pony Express has become synonymous with the Old West. In the era before easy mass communication, the Pony Express was the thread that tied East to West.

“Thousands of people moved west on the Oregon and California Trails starting in the 1840s, followed by the 1847 Mormon exodus to Utah and the 1849 Gold Rush. The growing West needed fast mail communication beyond the Rocky Mountains. William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell created the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company to carry mail across the county. It later become known as the Pony Express.

Transcontinental telegraph

“On June 16, 1860, about 10 weeks after the Pony Express began operations, Congress authorized a bill to subsidize a transcontinental telegraph line to connect the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast,” the NPEA website text continues. “This resulted in the incorporation of the Overland Telegraph Company of California and the Pacific Telegraph Company of Nebraska.

“While the telegraph lines were under construction the Pony Express operated as usual. Letters and newspapers traveled the entire length of the line from St. Joseph to Sacramento. The telegrams went only between the rapidly advancing wire ends.

“It was on October 26, 1861, that San Francisco was in direct contact with New York City. The Pony Express was officially terminated.

“In November 1861 the last Pony Express letters completed their journey.”

Follow the riders

Most of the original Pony Express route is no longer visible, with many segments open to conjecture or converted to dirt roads. “Short, pristine segments, believed to be traces of the original trail, can be seen only in Utah and California,” according to the NPEA website. “However, approximately 120 historic sites may eventually be available to the public. This includes 50 existing Pony Express stations or station ruins.”

During this year’s Re-Ride, mail will be carried by horseback by more than 700 riders—all approved NPEA members—from Missouri through Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada, and finally into California. The 1,966-mile, eight-state event is conducted 24 hours a day until the mail is delivered to its destination.

The 2024 Re-Ride Schedule can be found here. *Please note that all times are estimates and the Pony can be ahead or behind.*

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology (a GPS tracker in the mochila), you can track the riders and their mounts in real time by clicking here: Follow the Ride.

The NPEA also offers the public a chance to send a letter along in the mochila during the ride. The letter will receive a special commemorative postmark and is delivered by the USPS. While it is too late to send a letter along for the 2024 ride, watch the NPEA website for the 2025 letter deadlines.

About the NPEA

The National Pony Express Association, which is headquartered in Pollock Pines, California, is an all-volunteer non-profit dedicated to the identification, marking and preservation of the Pony Express National Historic Trail, its sites and its history.

The association traces its roots to a group of California horse and trail enthusiasts that started staging re-enactments of the Pony Express during the 1960s. With the creation of the Pony Express National Historic Trail in 1992, the NPEA became the primary non-federal advocate for the preservation of this historic route.

The NPEA keeps the “spirit and memory” of the Pony Express alive through its Annual Re-Ride in June of each year. The horse with the mail travels east in odd numbered years and west in even numbered years.

NOTE: To learn more about the Pony Express sculpture being planned for Nevada, click here.

Landing page image of commemorative postage stamp from NPEA website