Participants needed for Pony Express Re-ride

The Nevada Pony Express is looking for riders, male or female, for the annual Re-ride, which is 1,996 miles through eight states. The Nevada portion is 400 miles long and will be ridden from the California/Nevada state line to the Nevada/Utah line from June 14-16.

Riders must be between ages 14 and 89. Ride may be anywhere from one mile to as much as 12-20 miles. It depends on the rider and the terrain they are covering.

Between June 13 and 23, Pony Express riders will carry the mail between Sacramento and St. Joseph, Mo., a distance of 1,966 miles, riding day and night.

The mail is still carried in a Mochila, which is laid over the saddle so that the rider is sitting on it to ensure that it does not fall. The Mochila is then relayed rider to rider as it makes its way across the landscape.

It will take some 500 riders and horses, plus support crews and ham operators to get the mail across the Pony Express trail in the same 10-day timetable that was used in 1860.

The Mochila will carry about 30 pounds of mail.

In 1859, freight company Russell, Majors and Waddell established the Pony Express in hopes of winning a postal contract.

In early 1860, it ran ads asking for young, skinny fellows who weighed no more then 115 pounds. The pay was $25 per week.

The riders rode 80-120 miles per day, stopping at home stations to await the mail going back in the directions from which they had come.

For more information or tosign up, go to www.nevadaponyexpress.org or call 775-867-4067.