WANTED Young Fellows
	
WANTED
Young, skinny, wiry fellows
Not over 18
Must be expert riders
Willing to risk death daily
Orphans preferred

In April 1860, the Pony Express began delivering mail across the West. More than two thousand miles between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California were divided into about 100-mile segments. One of 120 brave young Americans who answered the call to ride, Jim Moore was employed in this relay race on horseback. He raced along his part of the route, changing his horse every 10 to 15 miles. At the end of his ride, he handed off his packet of mail to the next rider. Jim rested while waiting for a rider to arrive from the opposite direction. Then he took that mail and raced back to his starting point. 

In June, Jim Moore was at Midway Station, half way between the Missouri River and Denver. The westbound messenger had arrived with important mail. Moore rode one hundred forty miles west to Julesburg, Colorado. There, he met the eastbound messenger with mail on its way from the West to Washington, D.C. The rider who should have picked up the mail had been killed. So, without rest, Moore set out on his return trip. In spite of hunger and fatigue, Jim Moore made the round trip in fourteen hours and forty-six minutes!

Despite the dangers, they only earned $100 to $125 per month. It took almost a week for mail to reach its destination. In 1861, the transcontinental telegraph line was completed between California and the east coast of the United States. The Pony Express ended, but stories of brave Pony Express riders like Jim Moore live on. 









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