What is "pony express"

n. express mail carried by relays of riders on horseback; especially between Missouri and California around 1860

The Pony Express was a 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, California, by horseback, using a series of relay stations.

Officially operating as the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express Company of 1859, in 1860 it became the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company; this firm was founded by William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell, all of whom were notable in the freighting business.

During its 19 months of operation, it reduced the time for messages to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about 10 days. From April 3, 1860 to October 1861, it became the West's most direct means of east–west communication before the telegraph was established and was vital for tying the new state of California with the rest of the United States.

Pony Express is a steel motorbike roller coaster at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. It is the first Zamperla-manufactured motocoaster to be placed in the United States, and is one of the most recent additions to the theme park, beginning operations on May 22, 2008. The ride is based on a new design that features uniquely shaped seating and a flywheel launch system.

Pony Express is an American western television series about the adventures of an agent in the 1860s of the Central Overland Express Company, better known as the Pony Express. The half-hour program starring Grant Sullivan was created by California National Productions. Pony Express ran for thirty-five episodes in syndication from the fall of 1959 until May 1960.

Pony Express is a 1953 American western film directed by Jerry Hopper and starring Charlton Heston as Buffalo Bill, Forrest Tucker as Wild Bill Hickok, Jan Sterling as a Calamity Jane type character and Rhonda Fleming that was filmed in Kanab, Utah. The story is largely based on the 1925 silent film The Pony Express and tells a highly fictionalized account (eg. Buffalo Bill was born in 1846 and would have been 14 at the time!) of the formation of the Pony Express rapid transcontinental mail delivery pioneers in 1860’s United States.

The Pony Express was a mail service that operated from April 1860 to October 1861.

Pony Express may also refer to:

• Pony Express, a dispatch service from Halifax to Digby, Nova Scotia, operating from February to November 1849
• The Pony Express (1925 film), a 1925 silent film produced by Paramount and directed by James Cruze
• Pony Express (film), a 1953 film portraying a fictionalized account of the formation of the Pony Express
• Pony Express (TV series), a 1959-60 television series focusing on a Pony Express detective
• Pony Express (roller coaster), a steel motorbike roller coaster currently open at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California
• Pony Express Bible
• Pony Express Bridge, a highway girder bridge over the Missouri River connecting Elwood, Kansas with St. Joseph, Missouri on US-36
• Pony Express Council, a scouting organization in Missouri
• Pony Express Historical Association, the not-for-profit organization that owns the historical Patee House (the headquarters of the Pony Express)
• Pony Express Museum, a transport museum in Saint Joseph, Missouri, documenting the history of the Pony Express
• Pony Express Record, a 1994 album by the Washington, D.C.-based post-hardcore group Shudder to Think
• Pony Express Region, a region of northwestern Missouri
• Pony Express Stables, the eastern terminus of the Pony Express
• Pony Express Terminal, the western endpoint of the Pony Express
• Pony express (newspapers), employed by newspapers prior to adoption of the telegraph
• The Pony Express, a nickname for the SMU Mustangs football team in the 1980s
• Operation Pony Express, a military operation during the Vietnam War

A pony express is a term which was used for express delivery systems which newspapers used in the 19th century to obtain news faster or publish it prior to rival publications. As with the celebrated Pony Express of 1860-61, these systems were eventually supplanted by telegraph lines.