St. Joseph Ready for Pony Express, Civil War Anniversaries and the demise of Jesse James.

In 2010 the United States will commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Pony Express. A year later, the country will observe the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Neither event will startle residents of St. Joseph, the Missouri town that launched the Pony Express in 1860 and saw the murder of Confederate Bushwhacker Jesse James.

Jefferson City, Mo. - infoZine - The cross currents of frontier and Civil War history have long converged in St. Joseph, especially at the Patee House (pronounced PAY-tee), 1202 Penn St., a four-story, red brick structure built in 1858 and reputed then to be the finest hotel west of the Mississippi. It provided the last taste of civilization for pioneers and prospectors bound for Oregon and California. The Patee was business headquarters for the Pony Express, and a recruiting station for the Union Army. Jesse James himself trod its floorboards and modern visitors may do the same. The hotel now houses a museum of frontier communications and transportation. The reconstructed office of Russell, Majors & Waddell, the freight company that ran the Pony Express, is a highlight.

The Pony Express was the risky brainchild of partner William H. Russell, who first proposed the nonstop, 10-day dash of saddle-borne mail across plains, mountains and deserts. Westering railroad tracks ended at St. Joseph in 1860, and Sacramento, capital of the new state of California, lay 2,000 miles beyond. Russell's horse-mail bested existing ship and stagecoach transport by two to three weeks. Its timely delivery of political dispatches and military orders on the eve of the Civil War helped preserve California and its gold for the Union.

St. Joseph was spared the ravages of battle during the Civil War but saw its share of civil rancor, much of it centering on Patee House. Mayor Jeff Thompson gave a rousing send-off there to the first Pony Express rider in April 1860, but left town quickly as a Confederate general in 1861. The Union army began enforcing martial law in St. Joe that year, setting up its courtroom in the Patee ballroom and hanging miscreants across the street.

Staffs at the Patee House and at the St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau are already at work on special projects for the Civil War Sesquicentennial in 2011.

Just down the street from the Patee House Museum stands the Pony Express National Museum, at 914 Penn, housed in a restored brick stable built in 1888 on the site where Pony Express riders started the furious journey westward. The museum's interactive exhibits on Pony Express lore and operation prompted True West magazine to designate it Missouri's best western history site.

St. Joseph sometimes bills itself as the place "where the Pony Express began and Jesse James ended." It's a catchy phrase, but in truth Jesse James, like the Pony Express, has never really ended. The Missouri folk hero, who rode with deadly guerrilla leaders William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson, took up bank and train robbery after the Civil War and moved to St. Joseph in 1881. Using the alias "Thomas Howard," he lived with his wife and four children in a small frame house where he was killed in 1882. The house has been relocated to the grounds of the Patee House and is open to the public.

Dozens of movies have featured the James character, with actors such as Tyrone Power, Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell portraying Jesse. The latest film, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," staring Brad Pitt, is scheduled for release in September 2006. Plans for a St. Joseph premiere are not complete but, according to Beth Whitchurch of the St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau, "We'll have some kind of hoopla!"

Hoopla of a different sort will greet visitors to the Patee House in the afternoon of June 16, when the mail arrives on horseback from Sacramento, Calif. The museum is the 2006 terminus of the annual 10-day, commemorative "re-run" over the entire 2,000-mile Pony Express route, organized by the National Pony Express Association. The "re-run" is living history at its exciting best and a great warm-up for the 150th anniversary in 2010-2011.

A comprehensive listing of attractions across Missouri is available at www.VisitMO.com. Contact the Missouri Division of Tourism at 800-519-4800 for more information or to order a copy of the 2006 Official Missouri Vacation Planner.