To commemorate the 149th anniversary of the Pony Express the 30th annual re-ride will begin June 9, 2009.

The first rider will leave the Patee house in St. Joseph, Missouri, the last rider will end the re-ride at the Pony Express Plaza in Old Sacramento ten days later on June 19th. The route between the two cities will be on the Pony Express National Historic Trail, a distance of 1966 miles. The mail will go from Missouri through Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada to California.

The mail service was founded by Russell, Majors, and Waddell and operated between April 1860 and November 1861. Letters and telegrams were carried between San Francisco and St. Joseph to prove it was possible and win a federal mail contract.< /p>

More than 500 riders and horses will relay the personal mail and commemorative letters in a mochila (Spanish for knapsack) similar to the mochila used during the less than 19 months the Pony Express delivered the mail between Missouri and California.

Each rider will take an oath and be issued a Bible in the tradition of Russell, Majors and Waddell.