Pony Express Begins Its Run News Article. March 27, 1960. Atchison Sunday Globe.
April 3, 1860 the Pony Express began operating over a 2,000 mile route connecting the Eastern states at the Missouri river town of St. Joe with the state of California. They averaged less than ten days per run, traveling through the storms and heat of summer and the snow and cold of winter, with Indian raids and other hazards thrown in. The Express has come to be known as one of the West's most colorful epics.
For nearly 18 months the Pony Express was in operation over a route that crossed northeastern Kansas on its way to a junction with Platte valley trails and the newspapers of Kansas territory were filled with stories about the fast moving ponies and their riders.
The Pony Express will be commemorated by a rerunning this year, its 100th anniversary. Riders will leave St. Joe and California simultaneously to begin a series of relays which will carry 1960 mail west and east again in something like the manner it was accomplished a century ago.