Pony Express National Museum

The company behind the Pony Express was Russell, Majors and Waddell, freighters who had carried army supplies west from Leavenworth since 1853 and lost heavily when their wagon trains were caught in the Utah conflict of 1857. In December 1859 Senator William Gwin of California proposed a fast-mail demonstration on the central route, and William Russell, wanting a government mail contract, talked his partners into it. On March 2, 1860, the firm chose St. Joseph as the eastern end because the town already had railroad and telegraph lines to the East. The first mail came across Missouri on a stripped-down train from Hannibal and left from these stables for Sacramento.

The riders proved the mail could cross in ten days, but the service never paid. On Christmas Eve 1860 Russell was arrested in New York, accused of using $870,000 in bonds from the Indian Trust Fund to secure loans. The coming war buried the case, and the government repaid the fund $759,525.56. In March 1861 Congress ordered the western half of the route handed to the Overland Mail Company, and on October 24, 1861, the day the transcontinental telegraph was finished, the Pony Express was discontinued. Russell filed for bankruptcy on April 3, 1865, five years to the day after the first ride.

Inside the old stable are a wheelwright and blacksmith shop, a relay station, mochila saddles, the well, a covered wagon and the Hall of Riders. A one-room schoolhouse used for programs stands next door, and Patee Park, across the street, has a steam engine from the 1800s.