Men Wanted: The undersigned wishes to hire ten or a dozen men, familiar with the management of horses, as hostlers, or riders on the Overland Express Route via Salt Lake City. Wages $50 per month.

This ad from a Sacramento newspaper was one of the documents that started the Pony Express, the first coast-to-coast mail service. There was unquestioningly a need for such a service, as the Gold Rush exploded the popularity of California and Brigham Young’s Mormon church was settling Utah and the furthest one could get from the east coast westward by rail and telegraph was St. Joseph, Missouri. The rest of the way could be handled by the service.

On this day, October 26, in 1861 the Pony Express made its last delivery. It lasted just a few years, and was never a profitable venture. Indians and robbers on the way claimed more than a few deliveries, and pretty soon both telegraph and rail would cross the continent.

For its short life, the Pony Express was a glorious experiment. The men that rode its routes were the hardiest of the hard, expert horsemen and quick with the gun, able to escape or shoot their way out of ambushes. Men like Buffalo Bill or Wild Bill Hickok, both of whom were riders, made sure that California residents knew about Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address, some 3,000 miles away, just a week after he gave it. That was seven days of nonstop galloping by a series of riders, without stopping in between for breaks or for danger.