The Romance of the Pony Express

“A black speck appears against the sky, and it is plain that it moves. . . . Another instant . . . and man and horse burst past our excited faces and go winging away like the belated fragment of a storm.” – Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
The legendary name of the Pony Express calls up thrilling images of horse and rider racing across treacherous terrain. Yet the actual Pony Express lasted for less than two years (April 1860 to October 1861) and was only one of a number of private express services that used riders to carry the mail.