Saint Joseph Things to Do

Almost 150 years ago, at 7:15 on the morning of 3 April 1860, a single young man left The Pony Express Stables in St Joseph on what was probably the most historic horseback ride since Paul Revere galloped through the night in colonial Massachusetts. That young man and dozens like him who would follow his hoofprints in the months to follow carried news, mail, and the hopes for unification of eastern and western United States many varied exhibits2000 miles between St Joseph and Sacramento, California. These young men had to brave the elements, outlaws, wild animals, hostile Indians, and rugged terrain to do their part in uniting our nation.
Today the stables (and the adjacent city block) from which that first young man took his daring ride house The Pony Express National Museum and if you are ever in west central Misouri, it is well worth a visit.
There is a wide variety of exhibits in the stable buildings and grounds but within the stable building the organizing focus is a 70-foot diorama which depicts the time, the terrain, the trails, the struggles, and even the termination of the Pony Express.

Only the bravest young orphan men were signed on as Pony Express riders due to the extreme dangers of the trail. Riders would gallop at top speed from one station to another, changing horses at each at top speed. They would rest only when they reached their destination and passed the mail bag to the next rider.

Prior to 1860, it took months to get a piece of mail from the eastern US to California. Beginning in April of 1860, that time was cut dramatically due to the organization of the Pony Express. Fearless young horsemen in relay fashion would carry the mail from the western terminus of the railway at St. Joseph to Sacramento, California, in ten days.

What were originally the stables of the Pony Express is now a museum dedicated to telling the story of these tumultuous years.

Included in the museum complex is an area devoted to the history of blacks in the St. Joseph vicinity. Notable amongst the displays is this tribute to Coleman Hawkins, one of the greatest tenor sax players in the history of jazz to date. Hawkins was a native of St. Joe.

One patient hospitalized in the St. Joseph hospital was operated on to remove objects which he had swallowed. When the surgeons had finished, they had removed 1,446 items, now creatively assembled on display. Items include buttons, thimbles, pins, nails, etc. The patient died in surgery, not from the ingestion of the thousand plus articles.

Some of the treatments from older times shown in the museum include a giant "gerbil-like treadmill", cold water dunking, various types of electrical shock treatments, brain surgery, and more. Some of the methods of confinement, such as the coffin-like pen seen in this picture, seem barbaric to us now.

It's interesting how people react to this museum - some see it as fascinating and fun; others as really depressing. I guess Nancy and I fell somewhere in the middle of these two extremes after our visit to the Glore Psychiatric Museum. Located in a wing of the old state lunatic asylum, this educational museum outlines care and treatment of the mentally ill over the last four centuries or so. One can only hope that those who come after us will not think us to be as unenlightened as those depicted in the exhibits here.

This landmark was built in 1858 as a luxurious four-story hotel. In 1860, it served as the headquarters for the Pony Express, housing the office and the riders as well. It was closed on the day we visited - a weekday during the school year.