Traveling this great country brings such amazing experiences. Getting to enjoy the actual place where the Pony Express got its start. Of course, the actual riders began in St. Joe, but Marysville is where so many of the important historical events happened.
There is still the real Pony Express Barn that has turned into a museum. I love taking the kids to the actual location where history happened. Instead of just reading it in a book, which we do also, we get to hike, walk, explore, and study the original places.
It is not a huge museum, but very informative. I recommend everyone go to this wonderful town and please, don't miss this museum!
The city pool is wonderful. We bought a season pass for our short stay as it was less expensive than daily passes.
There is a little sod house to look at in the park.
My earlier post talked about staying in the city park in Marysville and the wonderful Pony Express Museum. I would like to share more of the numerous memories we made in such a small town.
We made the short drive to the Historic Trails Park. There are plaques that describe the different historical trails that passed through Marysville on the way west. There is the Morman Trail, Military Trail, Oregon Trail, California Trail, Overland Express, Pony Express, St. Joe, and Otoe-Missouria.
There is also a model of the original ferry that crossed the Big Blue River there in Marysville. The Donnar Party crossed here and the first person, the mother-in-law died at this location.
The park isn't far from town and doesn't take long to check out and is a great history lesson.
I remember people saying to me, "Why in the world would you want to go to Kansas?"
I challenge anyone that might think there is nothing to see there, to give it a try. One of our favorite towns in the entire country is there, Marysville.
We left Missouri, heading west, and stopped in Marysville, Kansas. We had been here two years earlier and were so excited to come back.
The city offers free camping in their city park, but limits the stay to five days. Really, that is long enough to see all of the attractions, but not long enough for us. We like it so much there!
It may be a small town, but it has huge history!
This was the first home station for the Pony Express. Their museum is not too big, but full of information and fun. Our kids like to play on the pretend ponies and in the carriage.
The city pool is great.
The little old sod house made us appreciate our camper more.
Interesting sign at the Veteran's Memorial in Marysvale, Utah
Naomi by the lion mentioned in the Little House Books. The Koester House Museum.
Yesterday, Tuesday the 14th of July, we stopped by a gas station here in Marysville, Kansas. After two hours on the road I was beat - I know, pretty wimpy.
I was pretty tired so I had Cody run in and ask the attendant if there was a campground close by. She said we could camp at the city park. I wasn't too sure about this, but thought we could check it out.
It is awesome!
During our last visit we took a stagecoach ride through the city park.
We can stay for free and it has 50 amps, water, and a sewer dump. We are so thankful. There is also the most awesome playground ever. It is made to be similar to the actual town!
Look for the black squirrels around town.
We got up late this morning. We hiked to the Chamber of Commerce. They had a lot of great info. We visited the Pony Express Station One museum, and hiked to the Pony Express Monument and Murals. The murals look like they are moving! It all was a lot of great fun. Gabriel has decided he wants to be a Pony Express rider and not a bull rider! Sounds good to me!
The Pony Express Museum was wonderful. It was $3 per adult and just a little for kids, I can't remember the exact price. There was a movie, a pretend horse that Gabriel didn’t want to get off of. Josephine thought the carriage was her princess carriage. She sat in it for over ½ an hour.
The front doors of the real Pony Express Barn
The history in this town is amazing. The main streets are still made of brick! It is stunning.
The old buildings and shops are so neat to see. We went to the Koester House. It was from the middle 1800’s. We got to see an old piano worth over $100,000! Had to watch the kids in that room. Since the kids were so well behaved, the tour guide took us behind the ropes and played an old music box worth over $15,000. It was so beautiful sounding, I could have listened to it for hours.
This is the same lion mentioned in a Laura Ingalls book
We toured the courthouse, also. We went to the Trails park where 8 different trails heading west came through this area. Some were the Oregon, California, Morman, Military…
We had a great time at the pool today. It was a wonderful place. There is a kiddy pool for seven and under. There is also a huge water slide. We bought a season pass as that was less money than buying numerous daily passes for our entire family.
Most people have heard of the Donner Party from 1846. They are the group of 87 pioneers heading west that got trapped in mountains in California. Their story is tragic and horrific. Not many people know this same group passed through Marysville, Kansas.
We took the hike to Alcove Spring near the Big Blue River. It is the location where many of the wagons took a ferry across to continue their journey west. If the water was high the wagons and people would wait until it was safe to cross, which could mean days upon days of camping in the fields surrounding the river.
The Donner party was one of hundreds that passed through this area on their trip west.
The hike to Alcove Spring was easy and a great historic experience. We got to see original carvings made by some of the pioneers and see the spring that many of them frequented.
It was so amazing to get to walk where the pioneers walked and see what my husband called, "their graffiti". But, on the way back to the van things weren't as pleasant. We had to cross a bridge. Shae was carrying Josie, I was walking with Gabriel and Naomi and had Tytus in the sling. Cody and Hanna had taken a different trail back to the van. The rest of us went back the way we had come. Shae was in the lead. He had to go potty and found the perfect tree. He set Josie down and began to walk off the trail. He suddenly began yelling at Josie to get back. I started to run towards her. Shae jumped and then kicked his leg towards the ground. I saw grass, weeds, dirt, and a copperhead poisonous snake fly through the air in the opposite direction of Josie. I grabbed Josie by the arm while trying to hold Tytus’ in the sling. We ran back to the bridge and as far from the grass as possible. Josie was crying loudly. Shae began searching for a large stick to kill the horrible creature with. All he could find was branch with lots of small branches on the end. He stabbed at the snake over and over again. The snake kept striking at the branch and trying to come towards us instead of getting away. Finally, Shae got it to head down a hill away from us. He chased that thing down the hill with that branch. Gabriel stared at his daddy with awe and respect. He talked about the incident a lot that night. We praised God over and over for protecting Josie and Shae. Shae said he has never kicked a poisonous snake with his foot before and especially in sandals!
