Day 52 -- St. Joseph, Missouri to Emporia, Kansas -- 188 Miles

Our camp last night in St. Joseph was nice enough if a tad un-level. But the grounds were suffering from what the camps in Kentucky were wishing they had: lots and lots of rain. Hence the grass surrounding the rig was soggy and the gravel pads not big enough to hold the rig and accommodate foot traffic at the same time. Consequently setting up and breaking down the utilities was just a bit damp and messy.

Our main plan for this morning was to visit the "Pony Express National Museum" in St. Joseph, Missouri. Although we've camped in the town of St. Joseph before, on that long-ago visit we spent our time at a very fine museum just up the street called the Padee. At that time the Pony Express Museum was not open. But today we learned that the Pony Express facility has recently undergone expansion and remodeling that accidentally made it advantageous for us to have waited for our visit.

We were just blown away by the quality of the new museum which is housed in what was once the St. Joseph's Pikes Peak stables. The original structure was built completely of wood, but in 1888 a brick shell was constructed around the wooden building. This is the structure as it appears today (photo top left)

So what was the Pony Express? The Pony Express could be likened to a very, very long relay race where each contestant takes his turn, then passes the baton to the next contestant. Only in 1860 when the Pony Express came into being, it was the U.S. mail that was being passed along.

Throughout half of the 1840s, and most of the 1850s, folks in covered wagons had been heading west to find a better life, look for precious metals, or to find a piece of land of their own. This journey from any number of "jumping off points" on the Missouri River to California or Oregon usually took about four to five months. Naturally, four to five months was far too long for the transportation of mail.

So an idea was hatched by a conglomerate of private businessmen, with encouragement by a member of the California Senate, to have a single horseman carry packets of mail all the way across the nation. Each horseman would have a set route of about 75 miles. This route would require numerous changes of horses so stations tended to be about 10 miles apart. When the rider reached the end of his assigned route, he would pass the mochila (mail carrier pouch) to the rider waiting for his arrival.

St. Joseph was the chosen terminus for the eastern end of the Pony route as the city served as the eastern terminus of both the incoming telegraph line, and the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company, which was owned by the backers of the Pony Express.

For more on the Pony Express, here's what Wikipedia has to say: "The idea of a fast mail route to the Pacific coast was prompted largely by California's newfound prominence and its rapidly growing population. After gold was discovered there in 1848, thousands of prospectors, investors and businessmen made their way to California, at that time a new territory of the U.S. By 1850, California entered the Union as a free state. By 1860, the population had grown to 380,000. The demand for a faster way to get the mail and other communications to and from this westernmost state became even greater as the American Civil War approached."

"In the late 1850s, William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell were the three founders of the Pony Express. They were already in the freighting and drayage business. At the peak of the operations, they employed 6,000 men, owned 75,000 oxen, thousands of wagons and warehouses, plus a sawmill, a meatpacking plant, a bank and an insurance company."

"Russell was a prominent businessman, well respected among his peers and the community. Waddell was co-owner of the firm Morehead, Waddell & Co. After Morehead was bought out and retired, Waddell merged his company with Russell's, changing the name to Waddell & Russell. In 1855 they took on a new partner, Alexander Majors, and founded the company of Russell, Majors & Waddell. They held government contracts for delivering army supplies to the western frontier, and Russell had a similar idea for contracts with the U.S. Government for fast mail delivery."

"By utilizing a short route and using mounted riders rather than traditional stagecoaches, they proposed to establish a fast mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, with letters delivered in 10 days, a duration many said was impossible. The initial price was set at $5 per 1⁄2 ounce, then $2.50, and by July 1861 to $1. The founders of the Pony Express hoped to win an exclusive government mail contract, but that did not come about."

"Russell, Majors, and Waddell organized and put together the Pony Express in two months in the winter of 1860. The undertaking assembled 120 riders, 184 stations, 400 horses, and several hundred personnel during January and February 1861."

"In 1860, there were about 186 Pony Express stations that were about 10 miles (16 km) apart along the Pony Express route. At each station stop the express rider would change to a fresh horse, taking only the mail pouch called a mochila (from the Spanish for pouch or backpack) with him."

"The employers stressed the importance of the pouch. They often said that, if it came to be, the horse and rider should perish before the mochila did. The mochila was thrown over the saddle and held in place by the weight of the rider sitting on it. Each corner had a cantina, or pocket. Bundles of mail were placed in these cantinas, which were padlocked for safety. The mochila could hold 20 pounds of mail along with the 20 pounds of material carried on the horse. Eventually, everything except one revolver and a water sack was removed, allowing for a total of 165 pounds on the horse's back. Riders, who could not weigh over 125 pounds, changed about every 75–100 miles, and rode day and night. In emergencies, a given rider might ride two stages back to back, over 20 hours on a quickly moving horse."

"It is unknown if riders tried crossing the Sierra Nevada in winter, but they certainly crossed central Nevada. By 1860 there was a telegraph station in Carson City, Nevada Territory. The riders received $100 a month as pay. A comparable wage for unskilled labor at the time was about $0.43–$1 per day."

"Alexander Majors, one of the founders of the Pony Express, had acquired more than 400 horses for the project. He selected horses from around the west, paying an average of $200. These averaged about 14.2 hands high and averaged 900 pounds each; thus, the name pony was appropriate, even if not strictly correct in all cases."

"The approximately 1,900-mile-long route roughly followed the Oregon and California Trails to Fort Bridger in Wyoming, and then the Mormon Trail (known as the Hastings Cutoff) to Salt Lake City, Utah. From there it followed the Central Nevada Route to Carson City, Nevada Territory before passing over the Sierra into Sacramento, California."

"The route started at St. Joseph, Missouri on the Missouri River, it then followed what is modern-day U.S. Highway 36 (US 36 the Pony Express Highway) to Marysville, Kansas, where it turned northwest following Little Blue River to Fort Kearny in Nebraska. Through Nebraska it followed the Great Platte River Road, cutting through Gothenburg, Nebraska, clipping the edge of Colorado at Julesburg, Colorado, and passing Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, and Scotts Bluff, before arriving at Fort Laramie in Wyoming."

"From there it followed the Sweetwater River, passing Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, and Split Rock, to Fort Caspar, through South Pass to Fort Bridger and then down to Salt Lake City. From Salt Lake City it generally followed the Central Nevada Route blazed by Captain James H. Simpson of the Corps of Topographical Engineers in 1859. This route roughly follows today's US 50 across Nevada and Utah. It crossed the Great Basin, the Utah-Nevada Desert, and the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe before arriving in Sacramento. Mail was then sent via steamer down the Sacramento River to San Francisco. On a few instances when the steamer was missed, riders took the mail via horseback to Oakland, California."

"There were 184 stations along the long and arduous route used by the Pony Express. The stations and station keepers were essential to the successful, timely and smooth operation of the Pony Express mail system. The stations were often fashioned out of existing structures, several of them located in military forts, while others were built anew in remote areas where living conditions were very basic. The route was divided up into five divisions. To maintain the rigid schedule, 157 relay stations were located from 5 to 25 miles apart as the terrain would allow for. At each swing station, riders would exchange their tired mounts for fresh ones, while "home stations" provided room and board for the riders between runs. This technique allowed the mail to be whisked across the continent in record time. Each rider rode about 75 miles per day."

The part of the exhibit we found the most fascination today was a section where some two dozen pony riders were profiled with histories and artifacts supplied by their descendents. While I don't have that information at my fingertips as I sit here tonight, I can tell you that several of the riders had very exciting lives AFTER they survived being a Pony Express rider. The most interesting story I read detailed how one of the riders had a great, great grandson who became an astronaut in the space program.

Later today we did visit another museum, but didn't turn out to be very satisfied with it. Perhaps I'll tell you about that visit another time. Over the years we've found that the truly great museums seem to know just how detailed to make their exhibits. In other words, what to include and what to leave out. They key to good museum exhibits in our minds is leaving out more than you include.

Tomorrow we're headed west toward Dodge City. We've been there before, but perhaps we'll find something new to spark our interest. And when you hit the trail in search of fascinating places in this land of ours, The Happy Wanderers wish you happy travels and exciting adventures.