U-Haul TR: St. Joseph, MO - U-Haul SuperGraphics on Waymarking.com

The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the North American continent from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 1860 to October 1861. It became the west's most direct means of east-west communication before the telegraph and was vital for tying California closely with the Union just before the American Civil War.

The Pony Express was a mail delivery system of the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Company of 1849 which in 1850 became the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company. This firm was founded by William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell.

Built in 1858 as a luxury hotel, Patee House served as the Pony Express headquarters from 1860 to 1861. It is one block away from the home of infamous outlaw Jesse James, where he was shot and killed by Robert Ford. After his murder, Jesse James' family took up lodging at this hotel and were interviewed by newspapermen of the time during their stay there.

The original fast mail services had messages carried by horseback riders in relay across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains of the Western United States. For its 18 months of operation, it briefly reduced the time for mail to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about ten days.

William, Waddell and Majors were already in the freighting business with more than 4,000 men, 3,500 wagons and some 40,000 oxen in 1858. They held government contracts for delivering army supplies to the West frontier, and Russell had a similar idea for contracts with the US Government for fast mail delivery.

Their proposal was a fast mail service between St. Joseph and Sacramento, California by a Pony Express with letters delivered in 10 days, a duration many said was impossible. It was not exactly overnight, but perhaps overpriced for the time, at $5 a half-ounce. Their goal was to snare a government contract for delivery of the mail, something that did not come about.

Russell, Majors and Waddell organized and put together the Pony Express in just two months in the winter of 1860. It was an undertaking of enormous proportions, with 120 riders, 184 stations, 400 horses and several hundred of personnel, all during January and February 1860.

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