In 1860 the Pony Express made one trip from St. Joseph to Denver, six hundred and twenty-five miles, in two days and twenty-one hours.

The Pony Express riders received from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and twenty-five dollars a month.  But few men can appreciate the danger and excitement to which those daring and plucky men were subjected; it can never be told in all its constant variety.  They were men remarkable for their lightness of weight and energy.  Their duty demanded the most consummate vigilance and agility.  Many among their number were skilful guides, scouts, and couriers, and had passed eventful lives on the Great Plains and in the Rocky Mountains.  They possessed strong wills and a determination that nothing in the ordinary event could balk.  Their horses were generally half-breed California mustangs, as quick and full of endurance as their riders, and were as sure-footed and fleet as a mountain goat; the facility and pace at which they travelled was a marvel.  The Pony Express stations were scattered over a wild, desolate stretch of country, two thousand miles long.  The trail was infested with “road agents,” and hostile savages who roamed in formidable bands ready to murder and scalp with as little compunction as they would kill a buffalo.

Some portions of the dangerous route had to be covered at the astounding pace of twenty-five miles an hour, as the distance between stations was determined by the physical character of the region.

The day of the first start, says Colonel Majors, on the 3d of April, 1860, at noon, Harry Roff, mounted on a spirited half-breed broncho, left Sacramento on his perilous ride, covering the first twenty miles, including one change, in fifty-nine minutes.  On reaching Folsom he changed again and started for Placerville at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, fifty-five miles distant.  There he connected with “Boston,” who took the route to Friday’s Station, crossing the eastern summit of the Sierra Nevada.  Sam Hamilton next fell into line and pursued his way to Genoa, Carson City, Dayton, Reed’s Station, and Fort Churchill, seventy-five miles.  The entire run was made in fifteen hours and twenty minutes, the whole distance being one hundred and eighty-five miles, which included the crossing of the western summit of the Sierra Nevada through thirty feet of snow!  Here Robert Haslam took the trail from Fort Churchill to Smith’s Creek, one hundred and twenty miles through a hostile Indian country.  From that point Jay G. Kelley rode from Smith’s Creek to Ruby Valley, Utah, one hundred and sixteen miles.  From Ruby Valley to Deep Creek, H. Richardson, one hundred and five miles; from Deep Creek to Rush Valley, old Camp Floyd, eighty miles.  From Camp Floyd to Salt Lake City, fifty miles, the end of the western division, was ridden by George Thacher.