Pony Express delivery

The Pony Express has been delivering letters and packages to us this week.

Of course, our regular mail carrier has been depositing our U.S. Mail in the mailbox out by the highway, but inside the house, special deliveries are being made by our own little Pony Express rider. When our daughter was at camp a couple of weeks ago, one day the "Pony Express" delivered the mail to the cabins. Girls who were attending the horse riding portion of the camp delivered the letters from home.

So, that piqued my daughter's interest and imagination, and she's been saddling up her stuffed pony and riding it through the house, delivering letters and packages (most of which she's created herself).

I did a little research...the Pony Express delivered U.S. Mail cross-country from April 1860 to October 1861. From St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, there were about 190 stations, spaced about 10 miles apart. Ten miles was the accepted distance that a horse could travel at a full gallop. At each station, the riders switched horses. The riders changed about every 70 to 100 miles. They rode day and night, all year long.

The Pony Express ended in 1861, immediately after the completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph connected California with the rest of the country.

The route has been designated a National Historic Trail. There are several sites along the way that have memorials, monuments, statues, etc., dedicated to the Pony Express.