The Pony Express carried important communications between the East and West across 2,000 miles in only 10 days, becoming a vital lifeline of the nation and an example of courage, endurance, and determination during westward expansion. It is credited with helping preserve the nation by keeping California in the Union at the outbreak of the Civil War, but the completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph Line in October 1861 ended its role in urgent communication, and it went out of business on October 28, 1861, four days after the first coast-to-coast telegraph message. Despite high prices and often strong receipts, it was a losing enterprise from the beginning, never receiving government financial assistance, though its founders, W.H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell, continued operating it at a loss. Relay stations stood 10 to 35 miles apart, staffed by two to four men with extra horses, and about 500 horses and 80 riders kept the service moving day and night in all weather, with riders carrying a leather mochila of mail and changing horses quickly at stations. Over 18 months, only one mail pouch was lost and service was interrupted for only one month during the Indian wars. The stationmasters, often posted near water rather than in safe locations, endured isolation, danger, and the constant threat of Indian attack, with several killed. Among the best known riders in Nevada was Robert Haslam, or Pony Bob, who in May 1860 made a 380-mile round trip in 36 hours during the Pyramid Lake Indian War after another rider refused to continue, passing through Cold Springs and finding one station attacked, its keeper killed, and its horses taken. The telegraph could send in 10 seconds what the Pony Express carried in 10 days, bringing the service and a colorful era of Western history to an end. Cold Springs Station, one of the best preserved stations, was built in 1860 of large native rocks and mud, with storage area, barn, corral, and living quarters, thick walls, a small fireplace, and gun ports still visible.