PrintTrail Guide: St. Joseph, Missouri
Just north of Kansas City, Missouri, off Interstate 29 is St. Joseph, Missouri, home of the legendary Pony Express. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express, the town is pulling out all the pony stops. April 1-3, St. Joe will reenact those thrilling days when the first mail was sent west on horseback. During the festivities, meet the authentically dressed characters William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell, the three businessmen who began the Pony Express in 1860 at its former headquarters in The Patee House, and see demonstrations of Pony Express riding techniques. On April 1, Pony Express expert Christopher Corbett, author of Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express, will give a talk to kick off the commemoration at the celebratory dinner in The Patee House. On April 3, visitors to Mount Mora Cemetery can hear the stories of people connected with the Pony Express from reenactors at the individual gravesites. That evening a period dance will take place in the elegant ballroom of The Patee House, where Pony Express riders once danced. Also on April 3, the first-ever ride by Johnny Fry will be staged again from the Pony Express National Museum, as will historic incidents involving Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody, train robberies, the shootout at Rock Creek Station, bank holdups, and Indian camps from nearby Patee Park.
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PONY EXPRESS LANDMARKS
For the trip back in time, start at the Visitor Information Center for a look at the Pony Express mural by artist Mike Trevons along with a bronze statue by Joe Beeler of town founder Joseph Robidoux.
(502 N. Woodbine Road, Suite B, 816.232.1839)
To service the easternmost leg of the route, the Pony Express kept a handful of Thoroughbred and Morgan horses in the stables at what is now the Pony Express National Museum, where you can peruse a large collection of Pony Express artifacts. Built in 1858, the wooden building served as a livery stable for the town and the Pony Express operation. An 1888 fire, possibly from a blacksmith’s forge, led to the brick exterior seen today. Trace the route of the Pony Express along a 60-foot interactive map, see a reconstructed and fully furnished relay station and a full-size diorama of the premier rider's departure, and examine hundreds of original items of equipment. The painting The First Ride by Charles Hargens is also on display here.
Pony Express National Museum, 914 Penn St., 816.279.5059, www.ponyexpress.org.
Two blocks from where Jesse James was killed sits The Patee House. Opened in 1858 by John Patee as an elegant hotel with gaslights, bathrooms, and running water, The Patee House served as the business office for the Pony Express; here riders were trained and given bed, a Bible, and board before going west. Today, The Patee House is a museum housing everything from a steam locomotive to a restored blacksmith’s shop to a carousel featuring a rare “Pony Express” horse complete with padlocked mochila over the saddle. The main Pony Express office downstairs looks similar to what it was like in the 1860s, when, it is said, riders rode their horses right into the hotel to pick up the mail. A railroad mail car at the museum allows guests to see where the mail was sorted and readied for handoff to officials in St. Joseph as soon as the train arrived.
The Patee House Museum, 12th and Penn streets, 816.232.8206, www.ponyexpressjessejames.com.
Two Pony Express riders — James Benjamin “Bean” Hamilton and Charles Cliff — are buried at Mount Mora Cemetery (824 Mount Mora, www.mountmora.org). Also buried at the 20-acre cemetery are John Patee, who built The Patee House; three Missouri governors; John Landis, the man credited with designing the mochila, or mail pouch carried by the Pony Express riders; Landis’ father, Israel, in whose saddlery the mochilas were made; and former mayor M. Jeff Thompson, who fired the cannon alerting the ferry. Tours of the cemetery can be arranged. (3406 Frederick Ave., 816.232.8471, St. Joseph Museum, www.stjosephmuseum.org).
Thomas Hart Benton ( 1889-1975)
"Custer's Last Stand" (1943)
Oil on canvas, 42 x 48 inches
Purchased with funds donated by the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation
You can admire Missouri native Thomas Hart Benton’s painting Custer’s Last Stand along with other Western works in the galleries of the Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art (2818 Frederick Ave., 816.233.7003, www.albrecht-kemper.org). See the bullet hole still in the wall in the room where renegade Jesse James was killed on April 3, 1882, at the Jesse James Home (1202 Penn St., on the grounds of The Patee House Museum, 816.232.8206, www.ponyexpressjessejames.com). You’ll find an extensive American Indian collection and a Pony Express riders exhibit at the St. Joseph Museum. (3406 Frederick Ave., 816.232.8471, www.stjosephmuseum.org. Visit Robidoux Row, a series of connected houses or apartments built about 1850 by town founder Joseph Robidoux to accommodate families traveling west. (3rd and Poulin streets, 816.232.5861, www.ci.st-joseph.mo.us/history/robidouxrow.cfm). Peace medals are among more than 1,200 local Native American items displayed at the Remington Nature Center (1502 MacArthur Drive, 816.271.5499, www.stjoenaturecenter.info). From the Gambler to Diamond Solitaire, play the slots or roll the dice at Terrible’s St. Jo Frontier Casino — don’t miss Pat Mathiesen’s statue of Sacajawea out front (777 Winners Circle, 800.888.2946, www.terriblesstjofrontier.com).
Hang on for steer life after the Pony Express Sesquicentennial for the National Federation of Professional Bullriders (NFPB) Federation Finals Championship (www.federationfinals.com), where more than 100 entrants will compete at the St. Joseph Civic Arena April 8-10. Celebrate the heritage of St. Joseph with more than 45,000 other visitors during the Trails West! festival the third weekend of August at Civic Center Park. Learn about the expansion of the American West through folk arts and crafts, music, dining, and performance. (Allied Arts Council, 816.233.0231, www.trailswest.org). You can take St. Joseph’s Self-Guided Tour of Public Art of bronze statues anytime; notable sculptures include The Journey West by Herb Mignery at 3rd and Edmond, Chief White Cloud by Claudia Packer at South End-Hyde Park, and No Turning Back by Veryl Goodnight at 1100 Frederick Ave. (Allied Arts Council, 816.233.0231, www.stjoearts.org). Make your getaway on the Jesse James Driving Tour (816.233.6688, www.stjomo.com) — pass Grace Baptist Church, where the outlaw “borrowed” a Santa costume and cookies for his kids one Christmas Eve, and Buchanan County Courthouse, where the Ford Brothers were indicted for James’ murder.
In the oldest restaurant in St. Joseph, you can dine on the hand-carved aged prime rib and the signature spinach salad at The Old Hoof & Horn Steakhouse (429 Illinois Ave., 816.238.0742) inside the 1898 landmark that was once a barroom and brothel. Pan-fried in an iron skillet, the chicken at Galvin’s Dinner House (6802 S. 22nd St., 816.238.0463, www.galvinsstjoe.com) ranges from the honey-mustard tenders to livers with a mushroom glaze. Margaritaville it is at Barbosa’s Castillo (906 Sylvanie St., 816.233.4970, www.barbosasrestaurant.com), where your south-of-the-border tacos can be accompanied by tequila. After a cooking class at the Victorian-era J.C. Wyatt House (1309 Felix St., 816.676.1004, www.jcwyatt.net), make reservations for a meal of wild salmon with hollandaise or peach-brandied pork chops.
The Great Room at the Museum Hill B&B in St. Joseph, MO
Get a classic 10-gallon hat at the Stetson Factory Outlet Store. Stetson manufactured the venerable headwear in St. Joseph from 1937 until 2004, when the manufacturing facility moved to Garland, Texas. (3601 S. Leonard, 816.233.3286, www.stetsonhat.com). For heel and toe, the St. Joe Boot Company has your finishing footwear (3749 Pacific St., 816.232.8128). Customize your hand-tooled saddle at Bill’s Saddlery (20496 County Road 306, 816.279.7392). If you’ve got room to take home some hand-peeled pine-log furniture or home accents, have a look at Timber Creek Furniture (2174 NE 85th Road, 816.244.4114, www.timbercreekfurniture.net).
You can send a letter from the 169-room Holiday Inn Riverfront (102 S. 3rd St., 816.279.8000, 800.824.7402, www.ichotelsgroup.com) on the grounds, which served as the eastern terminus of the Pony Express. Cozy up in front of a stone fireplace at the Stoney Creek Inn (1201 N. Woodbine Road, 816.901.9600, www.stoneycreekinn.com) in the Cattleman’s Lodge or Trails End suites. Capture the Spirit of St. Joseph in a room by that name with views of the city at Museum Hill B&B (1102 Felix St., 816.387.9663, www.museumhill.com). Or, have a nightcap in one of four Victorian suites at the Whiskey Mansion B&B (1723 Francis St., 816.676.1529, www.whiskeymansion1885.com), where distiller Ferdinand Westheimer and his wife raised eight sons in the 1800s.
Read all about the Pony Express in Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express, by Christopher Corbett, (Broadway, 2003), the first major look at the story in half a century.
For more information about St. Joseph, Missouri, contact the St. Joseph Convention & Visitors Bureau: 109 S. 4th St., 816.233.6688, 800.785.0360, www.stjomo.com.
Issue: April 2010
