On this week in 1860, the Pony Express began. The short-lived overland mail service, which lasted for 18 months, made legends out of many of its riders. One of the most notable riders was Warren “Boston” Upson, who is buried in the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery. Warren was the son of Lauren Upson, who was the editor of the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper. Warren was responsible for carrying mail from Pollock Pines to Lake Tahoe, one of the most treacherous sections of the 1,800 mile trail b

Happy Pony Express Day! This day commemorates the riders of the short-lived overland mail service that operated from April 3, 1860 to October 26, 1861. The Pony Express closed for business just two days after the first transcontinental telegraph message was transmitted. The Pony Express advertised that mail through their service would take just 10 days to travel from St. Joseph, Missouri (the eastern terminus of the Pony Express route) to the B. F. Hastings building at Second and J Street in Sac

On April 13, 1860, the first westward bound mail from the Overland Pony Express Company arrived at the B.F. Hastings building at the corner of Second and J Streets in Sacramento, the western terminus of the Overland Pony Express Company, before being transported by steamboat to San Francisco. The mail took 10 days to travel the approximately 1,800-mile journey. The Pony Express set a new standard for quick mail delivery and connected isolated California in the west with the news of the eastern U