The Pony Express Museums (Marysville and St. Joseph)

Last June I wrote about the Pony Express Leg of our Middle States Trip.  In the post, I provided some references to books and videos about the history of the Pony Express and mentioned that we were planning to visit some museums.

The first museum we went to was the Pony Express Barn and Museum in Marysville, Kansas. This museum is distinguished by being the only home station in its original location.  While the building was used for several other things after the Pony Express was decommissioned, it now functions as a museum not only of the Pony Express, but also other means of transportation through the ages. 

We had planned to visit the Pony Express Barn and Museum when we arrived in Marysville, but our trip from Dodge City took longer than planned as we spent more time than planned at President Eisenhower's museum in Abilene, Kansas.  [I haven't blogged about that yet - I just realized I missed it in our chronological posting.]  So we went on Sunday afternoon after church services on the same day we visited the Koester House and Gardens.

The museum includes a short film about the Pony Express, and then there are several areas where you can see exhibits related to it.  Here are some pictures of things we found interesting in the museum.

The second Pony Express museum we visited was in St. Joseph, Missouri, which is located across the street from where the Johnny Fry, the first Pony Express rider, headed west on April 3, 1860.  There is a marker in the park where he departed.  This Pony Express National Museum also has a short film that tells the story of how the Pony Express came into existence, and then several rooms of exhibits about life and times during the 18-months that the Pony Express was operational.  

The Pony Express National Museum has a Hall of Riders that features the men who rode for the Pony Express.  I found the diversity of men quite interesting as the typical rider one things about is the skinny, wiry young man who isn't afraid of anything.  There were men of a variety of ages and backgrounds who carried the mail across the western part of the U.S. through less-than-ideal conditions.

Here are some of the pictures from the Pony Express National Museum.

There was a school group at the second museum when we were there.  This must have been school group tour week as we began encountering school groups at nearly every place we went that week.  But it was to our advantage as we were able to hear the stories that the tour leader was telling to the children which also provided information to us.  The only time it was an issue was when I took too long to make my selections in the gift shop and had to wait for several kids to make their purchases ahead of me.  

We enjoyed both of the museums, but agreed that while they each have some unique things to offer, we wouldn't say one needed to see both.  The two museums are about two hours from each other.  Both museums have stamps for the National Park Service.

~ Cindy D.