Among the more famous riders was Jim Moore. Moore made his greatest ride on June 8, 1860. He happened to be at Midway Station, half way between the Missouri River and Denver, when the west-bound messenger arrived with important Government dispatches to California. Moore "took up the run," riding continuously one hundred and forty miles to old Julesburg, Colorado, the end of his division. Here he met the eastbound messenger, also with important missives, from the Coast to Washington.
By all the rules of the game Moore should have rested a few hours at this point. However, his successor, who would have picked up the pouch and started eastward, had been killed the day before. Without asking any favors of the messenger who had just arrived, Moore got back in the saddle without stopping to eat and was soon pounding eastward on his return trip.
He made it, too, in spite of lurking Indians, hunger and fatigue, covering the round trip of two hundred and eighty miles in fourteen hours and forty-six minutes, an average speed of over eighteen miles an hour.