Seneca Pony Express Museum

08/31/2026

●●●Fall hours change!●●●

OPEN...Thurs-Fri-Sat 9am-12pm.

We will participate in The Highway 36 Treasure Hunt Sept.16, 17, 18 (Wed-Thurs-Fri) We will use the remaining Sept hours to set up inside.

We will close Sept 18th for the season.

If you wish to donate items to the museum, we will have the back garage door lifted open our remaing Sept hours for easy car trunk/pickup tail height. Just slide in your donations and go, if you wish.

As always, if you wish to visit the museum or have questions about donating items, call or text Carol @785-658-6118.

We will announce a couple opening days later in October & November, joining up with other events in town.

08/26/2026

Hiring Pony Express Riders came with exerpts from a speech in the western division office of Sacramento in year 1860:

"The Pony Express is vital, news is more important than ever, we must keep the lines open."

"You men will carry the fate of the nation."

"Yes, the nation."

"This will be no picnic. You will travel the roughest country the Lord ever made. You will be cold and hungry and dried out with heat & thirst and saddle-sore."

"You must go on if there is no relief. We are not holding cards up our sleeves. You may die or be killed."

"Now take it or leave it."

After a doctor examined the prospective riders, many were weeded out due to past frozen hands or feet, a touch of too much sun, rheumatism, malaria, or suspicious cough. Some had never learned to read or write.

Those were dismissed with good will and told, "I think more of you than less for still applying for the job."

"Grub?" Asked a young man needing the job for food.

"The best money can buy. Bacon, beans, biscuits, hominy & cheese if you want it. We can put some weight on those bones of yours."

"This isn't a job I would advise my own son to take, if I had one." The company stands with the hired with our last dollar and last bullet."

08/21/2026

Mochila: "moe-cheee-la"

The Spanish word for ruck-sack made it easy to throw the mail from one Pony Express horse in Seneca, Kansas on the dirt main street onto an awaiting fresh horse & rider without removing the saddle in their 2 minute exchange in 1860.

Many years prior, in 1844, a man named Israel Landis started "The Big Saddle" company in St.Joseph, Missouri. He took on the task of making the mochilas for the Pony Express.

He hired emigrants to keep up with the gold rush of the '49ers in his 3 buildings who wintered in the town.

Israel Landis was a well-knowm character in town and far beyond. He had a sense of humor and sometimes put written poems in his packages for shipments.

In front of his office building he had a large wooden frame which he inserted a poem of self promotion.

Everyone made it a point to stop by to see what was new on the "Big Saddle Poetry sign."

A sample of his poetry:

"If a good saddle you would find,
One that's just suited to your mind,
You need not to St. Louis go,
For you can get one in St.Joe."

Israel Landis, instead of advertising to sell his saddles, he purchased space in a local St. Joseph newspaper for his poetry, which also made his saddles famous.

His bits of doggerel poetry was famous all the way to California.

08/19/2026

Our Kansas Pony Express Members are saddened to hear the loss of Connie, a Marysville, KS native & a Pony Express dedicated rider who helped move the mail west to & from the Nebraska line for years during the re-rides.

More in comments.
(National Pony Express )

View Connie Heidebrecht's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

08/13/2026

When these out-of-town gals walked into the museum, the sunshine and fun just followed right in with them. Thanks for the visit!

Traded the back to school pics for a bucket list pic. These girls let the real adventures begin when they took a day trip to Seneca! From lunch Cornerstone Coffeehaus to museums Seneca Pony Express Museum and shopping Picture This On Main with sweet treats sweetpeabakery they had a FULL DAY of F-U-N🩷

08/12/2026

●A Baby shoe.

The Seneca Smith Hotel was built in 1858 and became the Pony Express Home Station #1 in 1860-1861.

The hotel was lifted prior to year 1915 and moved northwest a couple blocks & resettled. It fell into ruins and was torn down in year 1972.
......A baby shoe was found.

More in comment section.

08/01/2026

When a Pony Express Rider, in 1860, fell sick or injured while riding in the saddle at 12.5 mph for 9-10 hours he was always confident that each station was equipped with medicine.

Waddell, Russell & Majors spared no expense to supply their stage stations with the important cures a Pony Express Rider may need.

They had the best known medicines for man & beast:

●Copperas: iron sulfate applied to the skin to clean wounds or for weeping sores to harden tissue.

●Alum: to clot blood or induce vomiting. Spasm tonic or mouthwash for ulcers.

●Borax: an all cure tonic for digestive issues & skin problems.

●Turpintine: stimulant to kill intestinal worms.

●Caster Oil: Strong laxative to clear the bowels & a skin salve. In emergencies to grease wagon wheels and power lamps.

Store bought tonics offered cures for indigestion & depression which some contained o***m, morphine or alcohol. Most of these medicines & tonics did more harm than good.

Getting to a doctor did not always have a positive outcome, whether it was a gunshot, arrow puncture, snake bites, cuts & etc. Surgeons still wiped surgical instruments between patients on a common rag or against their clothes.

It would take 5 years before Joseph Lister (Listerine) introduced the idea of washing hands, disinfectanting surgical tools & using clean towels.

07/30/2026

Over the last few weeks museum guests from out of town also sat and helped put our Pony Express puzzle together for a window display.

Our Christmas puzzle now needs to be assembled for it's frame. Hint. Hint. Tues through Sat 9am-1pm.

07/29/2026

Levi Bona Hensel was the blacksmith at the 1st Pony Express Home Station of Seneca, Kansas in 1860.

He was a correspondent for the New York Tribune before his marriage to Mary Jane Morrow and they made their way to Kansas in 1858.

In Seneca he built a blacksmith shop consisting of 4 poles covered in brush and a few boards to serve stage coaches and the Pony Express.

They lived in the famous Seneca Smith Hotel. Their first child, Ester, was the first baby born in Seneca in 1859 and a lot was conveyed to the baby in celebration. Unfortunately, she died prior to age 3.

Levi Hensel's reputation for his talent to shoe a horse for the Pony Express brought horses & mules driven to town from all over the area. His ability to hang a wheel on a wagon was impressive as well.

More in the comments about his interesting life & his call to duty for Abraham Lincoln.

07/20/2026

●Wetmore, Kansas!
The museum recently had a guest who asked about 1860 original Pony Express Rider Don Rising who is buried locally in Wetmore, KS.

We discovered we were lacking our duties as a museum for information and uncovered quite a bit since.

We have Google searched, Find-a-grave, Ralph Tennal Nemaha History 1916 and found routes he ran from a reliable Pony Express book.

We gather the Rising family had ownership or interests in Granada & Log Chain Ranch stations as well at one time.

(Pony Express Rider Don Rising's grave marker includes the nickname "J***y Granada")

Looking for relatives and would love to score a picture or hear as much as we can from locals so we can share a formal post dedicated to him and record in our books.

785-658-6118 for private text, Museum hours Tuesday-Saturday 9am-1pm.