Now in its fourth year, the Ride for the Heroes by the Southeast Wyoming Pony Express Association delivered over 200 hand-written cards and letters by elementary students to veterans under care at the Wyoming VA Hospital and Home.
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CHEYENNE – From April 1860 to October 1861, horse-mounted riders with the Pony Express traveled between Missouri and California delivering letters, newspapers and other messages to better connect the country’s still-developing western states.
Riders quickly became the region’s most direct form of east-west mail service; thousands had recently moved west following the gold rush and Mormon emigration to Utah. The service was soon replaced by the transcontinental telegraph, but the Pony Express continues to be a symbol of the rugged American frontier.
Riders with the Southeast Wyoming Pony Express Association hope to keep that Old West charm alive. The National Pony Express Association was established in 1978 to host re-rides and honor the original mail service’s historical impact.
On June 29, they hand-delivered letters from Wyoming elementary school students to local veterans at Cheyenne’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
The event, called “Ride for the Heroes,” allows children from throughout the state to thank a veteran for his or her service. This year, students from Cheyenne, Glenrock, Torrington and Wheatland handcrafted cards to be delivered on horseback.