(MSC News)-- The National Pony Express Association will celebrate the 157th anniversary of the founding of the Pony Express by conducting a re-run of the famed mail service, beginning Monday.

Commemorate letters and personal mail will be carried by horse and rider relays 1,966 miles from the Missouri River to the Sacramento River.  The first rider will depart the Patee House in St. Joseph Monday afternoon at 3:00,  and the last rider will arrive in Old Sacramento, California June 15th.  The re-ride will cross 8 states.

Since 1980, the group has conducted a re-ride of the mail route each June.

The re-ride honors the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, founded by Russell, Majors and Waddell, a Missouri freighting firm.

It carried letters and telegrams from April 1860 to November 1861, to prove the Central Route passable year-round to win a federal mail contract.