The America's National Parks Podcast is sponsored by L.L. Bean.

L.Bine has partnered with the National Park Foundation to help you find your happy place.

And with more than 400 National national parks there's a good chance

you'll find one close to home. Discover your perfect day in a park at find

your park.com. For 18 short months a group of riders carried letters from St Joseph

Missouri to Sacramento, California and they did it in just 10 days.

Crossing 1,800 miles of rough western terrain at breakneck speeds,

the Pony Express tied the east to the west

in ways that would become pivotal in the years to come.

I'm Abigail Trebeu filling in for a very sick Jason Epperson and on this

episode of America's National Parks Podcast,

The Pony Express National Historical Trail,

and the writers who would become synonymous

with the American West. Thanks to the Gold Rush of 1849, the 1847 Mormon exodus to Utah, and the thousands who had moved

west on the Oregon Trail, the need for fast mail service beyond the Rocky Mountains had become vital.

Originally the need was filled by outfits such as the Butterfield Overland Mail Service

and private carriers, but then Postmaster General Joseph Holt scaled back service to California,

in the central region of the country in 1858 and an even greater need arose.

Enter in the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express Company created by William H Russell, Alexander Majors,

and William B. Wattle. It would later be known as The Pony Express.

In January 1860, with only two months to make the Pony Express a reality, the team had their hands full.

Over 100 stations, 4 to 500 horses, and enough riders were needed at an estimated cost of $70,000.

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