The Pony Express

The Pony Express. "Connecting the Country". The famed Pony Express was an overland mail service delivering messages, newspapers, mail, and small packages from St. Joseph, Missouri, across the Great Plains, over the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada to Sacramento by horseback, using a series of relay stations spaced about 10 miles apart over 2,000 miles., The Pony Express never stopped at this site, but certainly passed by. The first two stations out of Sacramento were Five Mile House and Fifteen Mile House, located near or in what is Rancho Cordova. Five Mile House was located on the south side of Folsom Boulevard one block west of Power Inn Road. Fifteen Mile House was located on the south side of White Rock Road one block east of Sunrise Boulevard., The first Pony Express rider to pass this spot was Sam Hamilton, who raced past at 3:45 a.m. on April 4, 1860, heading east. After riding seven miles from Sacramento, he followed the road on the north side of the Sacramento Valley Railroad tracks on what closely follows today's Folsom Boulevard. Past here, the route turned east onto White Rock Road towards Placerville. All eastbound and westbound trips, which sometimes included moving the mail by rail and river steamer, followed this route., The completion of the transcontinental telegraph and lack of profit doomed the Pony Express after only 19 months of operation. Wells Fargo and Co. took charge of the Pony Express segment from San Francisco to Placerville on July 1, 1861, and Pony Express mail was mostly delivered by train in both directions between Sacramento and Folsom until the last delivery to San Francisco on Nov. 20, 1861. The last Pony Express rider to pass this place was a westbound trip on June 30, 1861, closing this chapter of the remarkable story of the Rancho Cordova Heritage Corridor., Brought to you by the City of Rancho Cordova's Community Enhancement Fund