Pony Express annual ride leaves Carson City

Just a day after leaving Sacramento, Pony Express riders reached Carson City shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday.

In a switch that took less than a minute, Dwight Borges of Douglas County handed off the mailbags to Anne Martin of Stagecoach.

With bags on her Mustang Rosie’s back, Martin headed out for her leg of the journey, north on Curry Street to William Street and then east about four miles where another horse and rider were waiting.

Over the remaining nine days of the journey, Pony Express Association President Lyle Ladner said more than 600 riders and a thousand-plus volunteers will carry those mailbags all the way to St. Joseph, Mo., following as closely as possible the original 1,966-mile route of the Pony Express.

He said they have to deviate from the original route in some heavily urbanized areas including Sacramento and Salt Lake City, but try to follow it where they can.

Across a good share of Nevada, they can do just that.

He said they’ll do the trip in a total of 240 hours.

“That’s what they did it in, 10 days,” he said.

Ladner said the fastest time was when riders carried President Lincoln’s inaugural address west in just seven days.

Martin’s leg of the re-ride was to be just four miles but she said another couple of her horses would be ridden in the run when it reached Fallon.

The association recreates the ride each year during the summer.

The Pony Express was created in 1860 as the then-fastest way to get a letter or other communication across the country. It lasted only from April of that year until October 1861, replaced by the instantaneous communication ability of the telegraph.