The new name reflected his hope of securing a daily mail route to California along a central route through the Rocky Mountains. (The Southern Route traveled from St. Louis, Missouri through El Paso, Texas to San Francisco, California.) Russell headed back to New York in December to raise funds and hold off creditors. On January 27, 1860, he wrote his son: "Have determined to establish a Pony Express to Sacramento, California, commencing 3rd of April. Time ten days." The specifics of who conceived of the idea of a pony express and when are under dispute, but it was Russell, Majors, and Waddell who made the plan work. Russell wanted the Pony Express up and running in a little more than two months after announcing the formation of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express. The firm used their considerable organizational expertise to construct stations, build roads, supply horses and equipment and hire stationmasters, mail agents, and riders in order to open the route from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California on time. St Joseph was the logical choice for an eastern terminus as the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad line ended there enabling fast communication with the east. The route was divided into five divisions, St. Joseph to Fort Kearny, Fort Kearny to Horseshoe station, Horseshoe Station to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City to Roberts Creek, and Roberts Creek to Sacramento, each with its own superintendent. While the route followed the same roads as the Leavenworth City & Pike's Peak Express stage line many had to be repaired or upgraded to accommodate the new traffic. Many of the existing stations were re-purposed for the Pony Express but some additional stations were constructed in order to reduce the distance between stations to around 10 miles. Whereas the trail between St. Joseph and Salt Lake City was well known to the firm, the trail from Salt Lake City to Sacramento was almost entirely unknown. At the time George Chorpenning held a federal mail contract between California and Utah which brought in $130,000 per year. His semimonthly service received mail in San Francisco which had been brought in by ship, and freighted it to Salt Lake City. Not willing to share his resources with a competitor, the C.O.C. & P.P. Express Co. was forced to build its own roads and stations to use. The company started building along the Humboldt River in northern Nevada, but when the United States Topographical Engineers surveyed a new route across central Nevada to Genoa they switched routes.