The Pony Express operated from April 3, 1860, until the transcontinental telegraph was completed in October, 1861, proving that the Central Route to California could be traveled year-round. Part of this route was later used by the transcontinental railroad. By keeping government lines of communication open, it also helped keep gold-rich California in the Union during the Civil War. Organized as a private business venture by Russell, Majors and Waddell to meet Californians' demand for faster communication with the East, the service began when a rider left St. Joseph, Missouri, on horseback for the first leg of a horse relay mail system to Sacramento, California. Mail was delivered in 10 days, half the time of any other service. The organizers hoped to gain a $1,000,000 government mail contract, but when Congress awarded the contract they received only a portion of it, too little and too late to save the company from bankruptcy. Even so, it achieved its purpose of rapid, reliable communication and was a spectacular success for 18 months. Its route from St. Joseph to Sacramento was about 1,960 miles long, crossing rivers, prairies, plains, mountains, and deserts, with relay stations 10 to 15 miles apart and home stations 75 to 100 miles apart through the present-day states of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. Just over 100 riders were employed, each covering about 100 miles, riding day and night at about 10 miles an hour in all kinds of terrain and weather, sometimes evading hostile Indians.
