Exploring 13 Towns on the Pony Express Highway ||| US 36

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Welcome to the Pony Express. And how awesome is that hotel sign behind me?

[00:00:04]The Pony Express Motel here in St. Joseph, Missouri. We're here basically right next to the Pony Express Museum as well. And there's a there's a really awesome mural about the Pony Express.

[00:00:16]There's a lot of cool stuff in St. Joseph and a lot of stuff to see. We're not going to spend much time here. This is a place I definitely want to come back and do a lot of videos. I want to check out more history on the Pony Express. But in this video, we're going to explore about a dozen towns along the Pony Express Highway. We call it small town downtown where we have towns like less than 5,000 people. They're all incorporated and we just kind of stay on the main street of those towns. Learn a little bit about their history. And then at the end of the video, we'll rank them. And so keep track as we go along and uh see if we agree or disagree. Put your rankings in the comments. So, let's uh cross the river into Kansas and get started on our adventure.

[00:01:14]Right across the river from St. Joseph, this is Lwood. We're in Donafan County.

[00:01:18]Population 1,125.

[00:01:21]A trading post was established in this area in 1852. Originally, it was named Roseport after a town promoter with the last name of Rose. He persuaded others to invest in the town to make it a great inland river port. Turns out he was an ex-convict and the idea fell apart when people found that out. In 1856, the site was sold and the town was then laid out.

[00:01:40]Post office established in 1857. The town was named for John Elwood, who took charge of the new community. Lwood flourished and was incorporated as a city in 1860, but a flood on the Missouri River cut away a large part of the town. Repeated floods diminished Lwood through its early years. See, the population, even though those those flooding years were difficult, it did increase throughout the, you know, all the way through the 1940s where it hit 1,000 for the first time, and it's kind of been very steady population ever since then.

[00:02:30]staying in Donafan County. This is Waththena, population 1,246.

[00:02:35]was named in honor of Chief Waththena, a Native American chief of the Kikapoo tribe who previously lived in the area and allowed settlers to have church services in his wigwam. Post office was named Brian here from 1855 to 1856 and then changed to Athena in late 1856. St. Joseph and Denver Railroad was extended to Athena in 1860. It was incorporated a city in 1873.

[00:02:58]You see, looking at those population figures, it's been a fairly small town.

[00:03:02]It reached 1,000 for the first time in 1970 and has basically continued to grow. All that has gone down in the last census to 1,246 There's Highway 36. We pulled off over here because there's a Pony Express station marker for Troy. So Troy is just down the road a couple miles. And this is not where the express station was. It was just I think south of Troy a little bit and they named it Troy because the town was near there. And this marker is on 36 just to kind of get a little information. So you got that right there and it kind of tells the history.

[00:04:18]Hard to see it, but talks about the Troy Pony Express station right there. So, there's our first Pony Express station marker of the day, Troy, Kansas. All right, let's go check out the town. And this is Troy. It's the county seat of Donovan County, but the population with 964 is smaller than our previous two towns, actually. So, the town was platted in 1855, named after the ancient city of Troy. First house in Troy was built in 1856, first store in 1857, and that was the same year as the post office opened. Was incorporated as city in 1860. The grip from humble beginnings along a wagon route from St. Joseph, Missouri to Oregon and California.

[00:04:58]British explorer Richard Francis Burton in route to California in 1860 noted passing through the wretched shanty called Troy. Well, Troy had the last laugh as it became the county seat eventually. And you look at the population, it was very small there in 1860, hit 1,000 for the first time in 1920. Basically has hovered around the 1,000 mark ever since.

[00:05:52]One final town in Donovan County is Highland, population 93. The Highland Township was started with the founding of the Iowa and Sack Mission State Historic Site by Reverend Samuel Irvin and Reverend William Hamilton in 1837.

[00:06:06]The mission was sponsored and funded by the Presbyterians. The founders plan behind the town was to make it an educational town. And in 1857, when it was laid out, a spot was chosen for a future university. Iran established the first Highland Community College building in 1858. College has gone through eight name changes over the course of its history. In 2011, Highland became the self-proclaimed quote snowflake city of Kansas. Population wise, a lot like these other towns. It was small in the early days, grew up to nearly a thousand, and actually hit 1,000 in 2010 before going back down to 93 in 2020.

[00:07:18]This is the very small town of Robinson in Brown County. Population 183.

[00:07:24]Robinson had its start in the year 1871 by the building of the railroad through the territory. It was named to honor the first governor of the state of Kansas, Charles Robinson. before been known as lick skillet derived from the practice of an old trapper who allegedly put his dirty dishes out for his dog to lick clean.

[00:07:42]So the population was actually bigger in the early days than it is now actually and peaked at 1920 at 500 and then has been dropping off steadily ever since quite a bit in recent censuses down to 183 today.

[00:08:41]This is Hayawa is the county seat of Brown County. Population 3,280.

[00:08:48]BL Ryder reportedly was responsible for naming Hayawa, taking the young Indians name from Henry Wodssworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hayawa. It was founded in 1857, became the county seat in 1858.

[00:09:01]The first school opened here in 1870.

[00:09:03]The main street was designated Oregon Street after the Oregon Trail. Parallel streets north of it were named after Indian tribes north of the trail and streets south carried tribal names south of the trail. The city is home to the longest running continuous Halloween parade in the nation starting in 1914.

[00:09:20]According to the New York Times in 2012, the cartoonist Bob Montana inked the original likeness of Archie and his pals in the idyllic Midwestern community named Riverdale because Mr. Goldwater, a New Yorker, had fond memories of his time spent in Hayawa. Goldwater had hitchhiked to the community at the age of 17 and started working at the Hayawwa daily world newspaper. Look at the population. It had that increase like a lot of these towns in the late 1800s and then by 1920 it was over 3,000. It did peak in 1980 at 3,700 and is now at 3,280.

[00:11:17]This is Fair View, still in Brown County. Population 240. was found in 1886 on land purchased in 1872 by WF Lambertson. It was named for its scenic setting. The arrival of the railroad connections in the late 1880s helped Fairview grow as a rural trade center for surrounding farms. The population was the largest in its early years there at 395 in the year 1900. It's been pretty steady, although 240 is the smallest it's ever been.

[00:11:47]Over to our smallest town of the day. This is Onida, population 61 in Neimah County.

[00:12:10]Now, Onida was laid out in 1873, named after the Onida people. The town's streets were named after the main thoroughares of Chicago. Located along a branch of the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, it helped farmers ship grain and livestock to larger markets.

[00:12:26]You can see how it was larger there in 1890. Population just slowly declined almost every census and was under 100 by 1990 and 61 is the smallest it's ever been.

[00:13:10]Over to our second county seat of the day.

[00:13:17]This is Cynica, which is the county seat of Neimah County. Population 2,139.

[00:13:23]Was founded in 1857 and named after Synica County in Ohio. First post office was established in 1858 and there was a station here on the Pony Express there in the early 1860s.

[00:13:36]That station was located in the Smith Hotel at the present- day location of Fourth and Maine. Cynica was incorporated a city in 1870. They had a minor league baseball team here that played the 1910 season as members of the Eastern Kansas League, finished in second place. Speaking of athletics, a couple of pretty well-known people are from Cica. Roy E. Moore, considered the father of American gymnastics, and John Rigggins, Pro Football Hall of Famer that played for the Washington Redskins.

[00:14:03]Population figures hit 201890 and then went back down and then went back up. It peaked in 1980 at 2389 has settled in just kind of in between there at 2139 in 2020.

[00:14:58]around.

[00:15:17]Fire.

[00:15:43]Yeah.

[00:15:47]Next up is Axel, population 399. We're now in Marshall County. First settlements in this area were in the 1860s and then the first post office in Axel was established in 1871. Town was laid out in 1872 when the railroad was extended to this point and the railroad depot was built that same year. Was named for Jesse Axel, a railroad official. You see how the population like these other towns went up from 1880 to 1890 quite a bit and then kind of stayed right there. It has dropped off more in recent decades. 399 being the smallest since 1880.

[00:17:06]Standing in Marshall County, this is Bey. Population 197 was originally laid out in 1870 and named for Armstrong Bey, the eighth mayor of St. Joseph, Missouri. First post office in Bey was established in 1871. City has been called the Milo capital of the world and hosts the annual Bey Milo festival.

[00:17:29]population just like these other towns from 1880 1890 went up quite a bit and then from that point has dropped off.

[00:17:36]197 is the smallest it's ever been.

[00:18:15]And now we've made it over to the county seat of Marshall County. This is Mary'sville, population 3,447.

[00:18:22]Mary'sville was laid out in 1855 by Francis Marshall and designated in that same year as the county seat. They incorporated it in 1861.

[00:18:31]Mary'sville was located on the Oregon Trail on the Pony Express, the St. Joe Road, the Overland Stage, the Military Road, and the Oto Missouri Trail. So quite a confluence of different places that went all through Mary'sville. In the book Beyond the Mississippi, written in 1867, Albert Richardson, who passed through Mary'sville in 1860, wrote that the town had 50 houses and was famed for whiskey and shootings. Mary'sville owed much of its prosperity to the Union Pacific Railroad, which became a major employer. But as the city grew along the railroad, most of the community was across the tracks from a good part of the downtown. As rail traffic increased, vehicular delays were estimated at almost 8 hours per day at the five grade crossings, which also affected emergency vehicles. 2006, the main line was moved out of the center of town to bypass to the south and west with separations for US 36 and US77.

[00:19:26]Mary'sville is also known as the black squirrel city due to an isolated community of all black squirrels that make their homes in the town. Squirrels are said to be a result of escapes from a traveling circus. You can see how it was very small there in 1860 and during the Oregon Trail days and it went up over a thousand by 1880, hit 4,000 by 1930 and stayed at that mark for several decades. Has dropped off a little bit but did go up in the last census by about 150 to 3,447.

[00:20:18]All right, let's stretch our legs for a little bit. We're going to check out the Pony Express Barney and Museum here in Mary'sville. This is going to be just a short stop as we want to make another video about the Pony Express someday and we'll take a longer visit here at the museum. But just want to pop in and check it out and see what it's all about. I love this map where it has every stop along the way. And if you're familiar with my Oregon Trail videos, you'll see that it really goes along that same path for a long ways and then Wyoming darts kind of southwest along the California Trail and eventually you get to Sacramento. You can see the main room here. There's a lot of displays in the bottom level. They have a upper level as well and it's very well done.

[00:21:03]Then over inside the actual barn, there's some cool things to check out too. So, this is where the Pony Express made their stops and the travelers would stay overnight. So, definitely a cool little spot. Let's get back out on the road.

[00:21:29]We're almost done with the day. Right on the sign there, it says Washington 10 miles. That's going to be our last town.

[00:21:34]Pulled over the side of the road because they got a cool Pony Express Station monument here. So, the town of Hanover is about four miles that way and they have the Hollandberg Ranch Pony Express station. We're not going to go there today, but I did visit it when I did the Oregon Trail Series and I went inside of it and explored it.

[00:21:55]So, if you're interested in seeing what the Hollandberg Ranch Pony Express station looks like, it's pretty cool.

[00:22:03]Here's a little bit of info about the Hollandberg Ranch and the station. So, on to Washington.

[00:22:12]Our final stop is Washington. It's county seat of Washington County.

[00:22:16]Population 1071.

[00:22:18]It was established in the spring of 1860 in the same year named the county seat.

[00:22:23]First post office was established in November 1861. Until the end of the Civil War, it was protected by two stockaded buildings. the Washington company house and Wilbert's Stockade Hotel. As the railroad reached Washington, the population nearly tripled between 1880 and 1890. And you see there 675 up to 1613, which that actually is the largest population it ever had was in 1890. You see how it's gone down and down at 171 hanging on to be above 1,000. That's the smallest it's ever been.

[00:23:01]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:23:35]done with the trip. What a great grouping of towns. I didn't realize it at the time, but I did 13 towns. Usually I do 10. I thought I might do an extra one or two. Ended up doing 13. And there were some really, really great towns.

[00:23:48]Did you keep track? Do you have a favorite? It was really hard for me to decide. I had three that kind of separated themselves.

[00:23:55]And I was thinking, well, I could give them a tie, but you know, that that's kind of like the the easy way out. So, I decided by a of hair, my top town in this list in terms of the downtown areas is Hayawa. Just had a lot of classic buildings. They had a a nice uh county seat area, you know, building and uh just a a good square where you could go around and see a bunch of different things, some good murals and items like that. So, Hayawa gets my number one.

[00:24:26]Barely over Mary'sville, which has that old Pony Express barn and museum, which helps it, but also a great downtown, just full of brick everywhere. So, we always love that. And then third, which could have been number one in a lot of videos for me, is Cynica. And like Mary'sville, lots of brick in the downtown, a lot of great old buildings, some really fantastic architecture in that area. So, uh, here's my whole list from 1 through 13. I'd say there were, you know, half of these were really, really good. And so, I had a lot of fun, uh, exploring these towns and learning a little bit of Pony Express history. And like I said in the video, I'm excited to go back at some point and probably do some more exploring in the Highway 36 Pony Express area. So, a lot of fascinating history up there. What was your top towns? Put it in the comments.

[00:25:19]We'll see if we agree or disagree. So, thanks for watching and next time I will see you down a back road.

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[00:26:36]You remember at the beginning of the video, I was in St. Joseph. I had driven around a little bit that morning, so thought I would end the video with some bonus footage of downtown St. Joseph.

[00:27:15]Heat. Heat.

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