18. Arrival In St Joseph

 St Jo is well suited to receive such a group. It’s heyday was from 1845 – 1900 and many of the older buildings still remain in various states of repair.  We stopped at the old stables then up to Patee House where the mail was handed over and speeches were made- I was called upon to make one myself.  After some socializing the party thinned out and I considered where to spend the night.  It was actually quite a come down.  For 3 ½ weeks I had been a Pony rider crossing the mountains, deserts and plains of the continent facing snow, heat and tornados an reliving the feats of the riders.  Now I was just a tourist looking for a place to put his tent.

 Did it feel like an achievement?  Completing the journey by bicycle would have been a gold medal.  By motorbike it wasn’t even a bronze.

The Pony itself lasted just 19 months.  It was ended when the telegraph lines joined up across the continent and messages could be sent at a speed which made the Express look slow.  The riders had traveled 65,000 miles on horseback and lost only one bag of mail.

It was a financial failure losing perhaps $500,000 and did not lead to a hoped for government mail contract.  The losses revealed bankruptcy and wrongdoing in the company which collapsed, ruining and disgracing partners, but the exploits of the riders and station men became a famous part of the lore of the American West.