Bearing the name of Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, a system of continuous horse-and-rider relays between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, as well as via steamer from Sacramento to San Francisco, California (April 1860-October 1861). The company was founded by brothers William G. "W.G." Cooke and James J. Cooke. They obtained permission from the U.S. Army to use public lands for their relay station near Fort Churchill in western Nevada. The first transcontinental telegraph line was completed in 1866, but it took another three years for messages to be transmitted across the country by wire instead of by mail carrier or rider. In 1869, W.G. Cooke sent the first commercial message over this new line. It went from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City for the Brigham Young University Archives Department. In April 1860, two months after the start of operations, the first Pony Express route stretched from St. Louis to Sacramento. The riders covered more than 1000 miles in 30 days at an average speed of 10 miles per day on mostly Indian trails. The service lasted only one year because of financial difficulties. However, it had demonstrated that it was possible to send messages across the continent quickly and reliably. This kind of communication would play an important role in building up settlements in the west.