How The Pony Express Galloped Into History
The Pony Express only lasted 18 months, but the mail delivery service remains one of the most enduring icons of the American West — its story told in dime novels and in Westerns like the 1990s TV show “The Young Riders.”
The Pony Express used horse-and-rider relay teams to speed letters across the West just before the start of the Civil War. The 2,000-mile route went from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California — and the Pony could do it in just 10 days.
“These guys are the rock stars, the athletes, of the day, and everybody lionized them,” Jim DeFelice (@JimDeFelice), author of “West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express,” tells Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd. “When they came into town, they didn’t have to pay for their drinks, we’ll put it that way.”
- Scroll down to read an excerpt from “West Like Lightning”
Interview Highlights
On how big companies like Wells Fargo and American Express got their start with the Pony Express
“When we think of
