500 ride route of the Pony Express

More than 500 riders riding nonstop for 10 days are traveling the original Pony Express route in a reride event between Sacramento, Calif., and St. Joseph, Mo.

The first rider left California Wednesday. Riders will travel through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas before finishing in Missouri on June 28.

A rider will stop in Fairfield at the Camp Floyd/Stagecoach Inn State Park on Sunday at about 9 a.m. Riders may be as much as two hours early or two hours behind at a given station.

The express is due at Murray Park between 1:30 and 2 p.m. and at the This Is the Place Heritage Park between 2:30 and 3 p.m. before traveling east up Emigration Canyon over Big Mountain, past East Canyon Reservoir to Echo and on to Wyoming.

Those interested in tracking the progress of the riders can visit www.xphomestation.com.

Trail Capt. George Lange said the 900 members of the National Pony Express Association commemorate the 1860-61 time period when the Central Overland and California Pikes Peak Express Co. carried letters and telegrams for 19 months, proving the central route through Salt Lake City was passable year-round.