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What was the Pony Express?

The Pony Express was a mail service that operated between Saint Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, during 1860 and 1861. After gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento in 1849, the population of California rose so rapidly that the territory qualified for statehood by 1850. William Russell, William Waddell, and Alexander Majors founded the Pony Express to compete with the regular mail delivery, which took six months by ship (to reach the West Coast from the East Coast ships had to travel around the southernmost tip of South America) and three weeks to cross the West overland by stagecoach. The Pony Express employed lightweight young men (who weighed a maximum 120 pounds [54 kilograms]) to carry mail on horseback using specially designed saddles and saddlebags. The 1,966-mile (3,163-kilometer) route crossed Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. At relay stations...

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