We got to take a spin into St. Joseph, Missouri, today. It started raining last night so the temperatures have dropped substantially but it is still underwater on the humidity. I am a terrible sweat hog and seem to be damp most of the time.
The first place we visited was a house where the rat Bob Ford shot the criminal Jesse James right in the cowlick. Ford was a chicken as proven by the backside entry wound. Jesse had been making many people angry by robbing their banks and trains for some 16 years and had an ample supply of folks who wanted him dead.
Right next to Jesse’s final residence is the Patee Museum. It is alleged to be one of the best Western museums in the country and I would have to agree. It was a hotel back in Jesse’s time and also the eastern terminus office of the Pony Express. The collection here is magnificent. They have displays of stagecoaches, wagons, cannons, a bunch of Pony Express memorabilia, an old carousel with carved wooden animals you can ride, two ballrooms and a great assortment of murder weapons taken from the former operators, sometimes after they were recently shot. There is a half ton ball of string, old automobiles in good shape, patent application models of strange devices, a signed first edition of Roughing It by Mark Twain, an indoor full-size locomotive pulling a few historical railway cars, a big selection of old fashioned toys in great shape, a working gallows, operating model trains and a full size train station. They also have office, store and hotel room displays made to look like they did in the 1800’s. The Pony Express room is a big room off the lobby and is preserved as it was during the year or so it operated. There is a good display about the Buffalo Soldiers. There is period furniture liberally distributed throughout the building. I know because I sat on a lot of it. To see everything, budget at least a day or two. This is a Bucket List museum. It costs $6 for mere mortals and $5 for the elderly, like me.
After leaving the museum, we took a drive through downtown St. Jo and found lots of old buildings. Some of the old buildings are in great shape and truly stunning. Lots of them are falling apart. It is a bit tragic that these old treasures can’t be renovated. Maybe there’s just not enough money around to save them. We also took a spin down to an area called The Stockyards. We did not see too many stockyards but there were semi trucks everywhere with stock trailers. Apparently, they don’t fool around much with stock outside instead choosing to truck the unsuspecting future food directly to the myriad slaughterhouses lining the Missouri River. There were also an abundance of grain elevators along the river. There must be a lot of river cargo on the Missouri although I doubt many head of cattle use it.
We took a few pictures you can see if you click the asterisk *