Pony Express Stables Museum

Today was catchup day. The temp was in the 90's with high humidity, good for staying inside for awhile. We needed to make some phone calls, do some paperwork, and start laundry.  You know the drill.  After lunch we decided to go into St. Joseph and visit its most favorite and well known landmark, the Pony Express Museum, housed in the same building that was used as a stable for the Pony Express horses.

The large doors lead into the stable area, and would have been the doors that the pony express riders galloped out of when they started their journey west.

Johnny Fry, the first pony express rider, is shown waiting for the special train to bring the mail from Hannibal, MO.  The train set a record speed of 50 miles per hour for this occasion! Some 45,000 people were waiting for the start of the Pony Express ride.  It's said that it was late at night when the train finally showed up, but all the people had stayed.  Todays population of St joseph is about 47,000, so it hasn't changed much! Trivia: Johnny Frys boots could be worn on either foot.  Not until after the Civil War were left and right shoes worn.

The stable building has been used for a number of things over the years, including use as a stable for many years, at least into the early 1900's.  It has been expanded and remodeled for its current use as a museum, but it still retains the original flavor of the building.  Well done.

The stable display shows two horse figures that are from the Wyeth Saddle Company in about 1880, and were used to display saddles.  Donna is posed in front of her favorite, just to the side of the "Do not touch" sign…..

William Russell, Alexander Majors and William Waddell set out to earn a government mail contract worth $1 million. Trivia: the founders of the Pony Express only received about half of the $1 million contract, contributing to the company's bankruptcy.  But St. Jo was the second largest city in Missouri at the time, with more people leaving St. Joseph for the west than from any other city on the Missouri River. The California, Oregon and Mormon trails all departed from this city, and thousands of pioneers were heading west.  Communication was becoming more and more important, so Russell, Majors and Waddell, being in the transportation business up and down the Missouri, formed the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company to provide fast mail service to the West Coast. Legend says that C.O.C. and P.P stands for Currently Out of Cash and Poor Pay! With government approval, they set up relay stations along the 2000 mile route of the Pony Express, hired riders and station managers, and bought about 500 horses.

On April 3, 1860, the inaugural ride of the Pony Express left St Joe.  The museum has a magnificent 60 foot diorama depicting the terrain and conditions that the riders had to ride through. Riding some 80 to 100 miles at a time, the riders left St Joseph in the river bottoms of the Missouri, and quickly climbed the bluffs into heavily forested hills that gave way to prairie grasslands.  One story has it that a group of young girls were waiting for Johnny Fry with cakes and cookies to give him as he rode by.  At breakneck speeds, it was hard for him to hold the cakes, so the girls formed them with a hole in the middle, the forerunner of todays donut….

Kansas was well populated in those days, and led the riders into the Great Plains.  Getting caught in Buffalo stampedes was only one of the hazards encountered; the weather ofttimes required route changes.

Up and over the Continental Divide and down into the Salt Lake Desert. The next obstacle was the Sierra Nevada mountain range over Echo Summit and down into Sacramento, California.

The Sierras posed a huge obstacle in the winter.

Each rider stopped every 10 to 15 miles for a fresh horse.  The riders had 2 minutes to get a drink, go to the bathroom and change the mochila over to a fresh horse. The mochila, slung over the saddle and sat upon by the rider, contained four pockets, two of which were locked, with keys only at each end of the trail.  One was open for mail picked up in route, and one was devoted to military dispatches.  It weighed 20 pounds max, with 165 pounds being the maximum total weight on the horse. The mail, written on onion skin paper and wrapped in oilskin, cost $5 per 1/2 ounce to mail. At the "home stations", the rider got some rest and waited for the mochila going the other way.  When it arrived, he threw it on a horse and retraced his route, so that each rider came to know his route very well.

Buffalo Bill Cody was a Pony Express rider, as was Broncho Charlie Miller, who was the youngest of the riders at age 11.  He was the last surviving rider when he passed away in 1955 at the age of 105. He was a substitute rider between Sacramento and Placerville, California until he became a regular rider from Placerville to Carson City and the Utah Territory.

The Pony Express ran for just over a year and a half, but put its mark in American history forever.

During its day, the mail was guaranteed to make the journey from St Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California in 10 days.  The record run was in March of 1861, when President Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address reached California in 7 days, 17 hours, thanks to the Pony Express riders.

Thank you, young men.