This authentic account of the establishment of the first rapid-communications system between East and West is packed with adventure and real-life heroes—Bob Haslam, who rode unharmed through an ambush of thirty Paiute Indians; Jack Keetley, Warren Upson, and the most famous rider of all, Buffalo Bill Cody. It is a rousing chronicle of the Old West, when danger and excitement marked each galloping trip across the two thousand miles of mountains, plains, and deserts that separated St. Joseph and San Francisco.

"This deceptively simple book holds a wealth of material on early California and the West and on the history and political background of the struggle to provide cross-country transportation."—Library Journal