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.
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.
