(KNZA)--The annual Pony Express re-ride is underway.

 The first rider departed from the Patee House Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri  Monday afternoon, and the last rider is to arrive in Sacramento, California on June 16.  

Brown County Sheriff John Merchant said the riders will cross Doniphan and Brown Counties, ending up at the Sac and Fox Casino around 11:00 this evening.  Merchant said they will be riding the most original portion of the route. There will be vehicles and horse trailers following the riders.  

Each year, around 600 riders travel the route of the Pony Express National Historic Trail.  This year, they will traveling nearly 2,000 miles from Missouri, through Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada, to California.

The re-ride is a 10-day, 24 hour event honoring the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company which carried letters and telegrams from April 1860 to November 1861.