Stations where riders could rest and where exhausted horses could be exchanged for fresh ones were essential to the Pony Express enterprise. By the time the venture was well under way, about 190 such rest stops, ten to twenty miles apart, were spaced across the country.

An accurate, all-inclusive list of these stops does not exist due to lost or incomplete records, changes in the route, and changes in the names and locations of some stations. Many sites, however, have been identified. Some are marked by buildings still in use; some are nothing more than rough remains. Others have entirely disappeared or are distinguished only by historical monuments, unpretentious reminders of relay points along the trail.

Home and Relay Stations

Two types of stations served Pony Express riders. One was the home station, the point where horsemen began and ended their...