SWEETWATER COUNTY — Riders, history buffs, and communities along the old Pony Express Trail are preparing for the 2026 National Pony Express Re-Ride, a special event that coincides with the nation’s 250th-anniversary celebration, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum said in a release today.
This year’s re-ride opened officially at 2 p.m. on Monday, June 15, with the first rider departing from the Patee House in St. Joseph, Missouri, headed west. It is scheduled to pass through Sweetwater County on Saturday, June 20, arriving in Sacramento, California, on the afternoon of June 25.
The public is invited to the Farson Mercantile parking lot in Farson on the 20th, where a brief mail exchange stop is scheduled for 2 p.m., or the Granger stage station at 5:30 p.m. There they can meet the riders and their mounts.
The Pony Express operated from April 3, 1860, to Oct. 26, 1861. Lone riders working in relays carried mail both ways from St. Joseph, Missouri, across Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada to Sacramento, California, a dangerous trip of nearly 2,000 miles in an average of 10 days. Relay stations totaling 157 were established across the country, including one very near present-day Farson and another at Granger.