“Wanted. Young, Skinny, Wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25.00 per week.”

- Ad to recruit Pony Express riders

The Central Overland California and Pike’s Peak Express Company, bankrolled by three businessmen of dubious reputations with expertise in freight movement, started a mail delivery service to bring information from the East to the banks, businesses, newspapers and governments that sprang up on the West Coast as a result of California’s Gold Rush. Regular mail took months to receive - but the aptly nicknamed Pony Express promised to deliver mail within 10 days or less. In today’s terms, this would be like comparing email to a letter via “snail” mail from the United States Postal Service.

How the Pony Express Met Its Delivery Deadlines

The Pony Express was a huge relay race of sorts across the nation. Young, slim, expert riders were hired to carry up to two dozen pieces of mail in a custom designed mailbag saddle cover called a mochila. This cover contained four pockets, called cantinas, which were sewn onto the cover in front of and behind the riders’ legs on each side. They held mail and telegrams and were secured by small padlocks. The mochilas were uniformly sized to fit a specially designed, lightweight saddle so the rider could remove it from one horse to another very quickly.

Each rider covered around 100 miles at a time, their only stops being at way stations spread out over 2,000 miles between St. Louis, Missouri and Sacramento, California. These stations, positioned between one to two dozen miles apart, were staffed by station tenders who kept freshly saddled horses on standby for the riders. Upon arrival to the station a rider would dismount, switch the mochila between horses and continue on his way within minutes. At the end of his route he would hand off the mochila to a fellow rider, who would then take the precious cargo another 100 miles closer to its destination. An emphasis on reducing weight wherever possible and the constant rotation of fresh horses and fresh riders were the key to the Pony Express’ delivery success record.

The riders themselves were a courageous lot: they were in constant danger, from steep and unstable terrain and inclement weather to vicious attacks from bandits and Indians who would lie in wait to ambush riders along the routes. They carried a gun for self-defense and a pocket bible which included the rider’s loyalty oath. In the event their horse became incapacitated or died, the rider promised to remove the mochila and walk it to the next way station. Tales of peril during rides - including one of the famous Buffalo Bill Cody being attacked by 15 Indians at one time - branded the Pony Express and its riders as legends in their own time, helping to romanticize the service and the West for generations to come.

Eighteen short months after it started the Pony Express ceased to operate thanks to the hasty completion of the transcontinental telegraph to relate news of the Civil War. Even if the telegraph had been delayed, the operating costs associated with the service would have not kept the venture sustainable over the long term.