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Sixty miles north of Kansas City, ST JOSEPH
boomed as a supply depot for the California Gold Rush, and today
is still a busy manufacturing town. For a brief eighteen months,
starting in 1860, it was the home of the legendary Pony Express
, which took ten days to deliver mail all the way to Sacramento,
California, by continuous horseback relay. The Pony Express
was a financial disaster, driven out of business by its inability
to compete with the transcontinental telegraph, but riders such
as Buffalo Bill Cody went on to become legends. Charlie Miller,
the last of the riders, rode from New York to San Francisco in
1931, and died aged 105 in 1955. The full story is told in lively
dioramas at the Pony Express Museum , 914 Penn
St, attractively set in the company's original stables (Mon-Sat
9am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; $4).
It was in St Joseph, on April 3, 1882, that the
notorious Jesse James was shot in the back by Robert Ford, a twenty-year-old
member of his own gang who had negotiated a $10,000 reward from
the governor. Countless books and films have portrayed Jesse James
as a latter-day Robin Hood; in fact, he spent most of the Civil
War riding with a band of Confederate guerrillas. The
Jesse James Home Museum , the one-story frame cottage
where James was living incognito (naturally) while he planned
his next bank job, now stands at 12th and Penn streets, having
been moved closer to the main highway in the hope of attracting
sightseers (April-Oct Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; Nov-March Mon-Sat
10am-4pm, Sun 1-4pm; $2). A ragged hole in the wall is pointed
out as the spot where the bullet supposedly hit, after striking
James as he was hanging a picture; you can also see where bloodstained
splinters were chiseled from the floor to be sold as souvenirs.
As for the assassin, Ford was himself gunned down ten years later,
and his killer in turn was also shot.
There are thirteen museums, most about the Old West,
but there's not much reason to linger. If you do want to leave
the drive to Kansas City or Omaha for another day, you'll find
motels strung along I-29 as it passes east of
downtown, including a Motel 6 (tel 816/232-2311; $35-50) and a
Days Inn (tel 816/279-1671; $50-75) at the intersection with Frederick
Boulevard. The Old Town Smokehouse & Pub ,
1120 Penn St (tel 816/232-1899), serves huge sandwiches at appealing
prices and is a must if you want lunch in St Joseph.
