I Am a Motorcoach, Discovering the USA by Tread Windshield and Mirror…
. . . having some fun on a mystery tour. The location, which only two passenger guessed correctly, is St. Joseph, Missouri. Of course, mystery tours are all about surprises. But St. Joseph itself is surprising in the number of locations it holds of national historic significance. There also have been a surprising number of finds connected to my own history—ancestry, that is. You’ll see.
Let’s get started with some selfies . . .
Selfies
(which by definition means I’m in them . . . though you might have to look for me)
At 7:15 PM on April 3rd, 1860, the first mail bearing rider left Pikes Peak Stable through this set of doors on the inaugural cross country dash of the Pony Express.
Just up the street was the national headquarters of the Pony Express, now the Patee House Museum.
St. Joseph was originally founded as the Blacksnake Hills Trading Post by French fur trader Joseph Robidoux in 1827. It became St. Joseph, Missouri in 1843. In 1844, as mass westward migration began, it became a trail head of the Oregon Trail that would merge with the primary trail route leaving from Independence, Missouri. In 1849 as many as 50,000 westbound pioneers passed through St. Joseph, which by then had become a major supply station for the push west. Covered wagons–among my proud line of predecessors–were essential to caravaning activities getting people and their belongings across the country.
My passengers typically like to dress up for an occasion. I prefer to dress up in the occasion. Check out these colorful Deco and Moorish efforts from our trip to the historic Missouri Theater in downtown St. Joseph (original construction completed in 1927).
MEETING THE NEWS on the roadways of America, first-hand, real time, real world news—going out and discovering the news . . .
EXPRESS NEWS: Here is the view from inside those Pike’s Peak Stables doors. That first Pony Express rider (by most reIable accounts) was Johnny Fry. He was carrying 49 letters and some news papers. The Express was all about speed, and it worked by relay. Each rider had a home station and road at top speed to the next station (typically 75 to 100 miles apart), where the next rider in the relay took over. In order to maintain top speed, riders could weigh no more than 125 lbs and horse exchange stations were 7 to 10 miles apart between the home stations. The riders were mostly in their teens, though the youngest was 11 and the oldest was 40. The most famous of the riders to participate was a young man named William Cody, later to be famously known as Buffalo Bill Cody.
NECESSITY NEWS: By 1860 over half-a-million emigrants had transplanted west of the Rockies. Mail and news from the east could be delivered to them by steamboat and overland transport by train and stagecoach . . . in a month or more. The Pony Express could get mail and news from its eastern terminus in Joseph, Missouri to its western terminus in Sacramento, California (and vice versa) in ten days! But in October of 1861 the coast to coast telegraph system was completed, eliminating the need for the Pony Express, which completed its last dash on October 26, 1861.
EVOLUTION NEWS: Transporting passengers and their belongings is a proud occupation as old as human history. Though the noble work I inherited is essentially as it began, wheeled transport has evolved. Here are a few examples:
I’ll begin with the wheel. Spoked wagon and coach wheels are the work of trained professional artisans—wheelwrights. First is the woodworking challenge of perfect roundness. But wooden wheels would not last long on a journey like the Oregon Trail. So blacksmithing skills were required to create the flat iron tire perfectly fit to the wheel. My inflated rubber tire appears simple by comparison, but is the product of generations of adjustment served by scientific discovery.
No matter how well-crafted the wheels and tires, the ride will be rough without a good suspension system. The makers of this 1850s stagecoach intended a feeling of riding on air. To accomplish it, they suspended the coach on 80 feet of layered leather straps on both sides, an invention called the thoroughbrace. My passengers literally do ride on air, because my suspension system actually is air.
This is the breaking system on the 19th Century coach. It looks nice, but breaks have also come a long way in sophistication.
Reality, in the mid-1800s was not in agreement with the idea of comfortable cross-country travel. Comfort has come a long way. (Trust me, my passengers are smiling.)
This vintage 1934 public servant looks like it might be a direct predecessors of mine. But it is more like a great-uncle. It is an electric streetcar. In 1887 St Joseph was the second city in the US to have electric streetcars. This one road on rubber tires as I do. But instead of being diesel fueled, it was connected to two overhead electric lines.
“AND THAT’S THE WAY IT IS” NEWS: For two decades Walter Cronkite was the face and voice of the news in the US. A native of St Joseph, the Walter Cronkite Memorial Museum is located on the campus of Missouri Western States University in the heart of the city. Visitors can reminisce about the many historic occasions Cronkite reported, view his Emy awards, and sit at his replica CBS news desk.
(Unlike selfies, these are not about me, but about travel discoveries I think you’d like to know about.)
Originally one of the finest hotels west of the Mississippi, the Patee House Museum is now one of the top ten western museums in the US. With exceptional exhibits on three levels and the equally impressive Pony Express Museum right down the street, this is a must see for anyone interested in US history or the well preserved past generally.
Quote Of The Day samples
“There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.” – Walter Cronkite
“The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York and it meows in Los Angeles.” – Albert Einstein
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