The Pony Express at Troy

The town of Troy was one of the first stops the Pony Express made after its riders galloped into Kansas. The legendary mail service ran for just nineteen months, from April third, eighteen sixty, to late October, eighteen sixty-one, carrying letters across nearly two thousand miles of frontier between Missouri and California in about ten days. After a rider crossed the Missouri River at Saint Joseph, the very first stations he reached in Kansas were at Elwood and here at Troy, the seat of Doniphan County.

The Troy station was actually added partway through the run, first used on July first, eighteen sixty-one, on an alternate route. The Express was a marvel of speed and daring, but it could not outrun progress. When the transcontinental telegraph line was completed in the fall of eighteen sixty-one, the Pony Express was made obsolete almost overnight and shut down for good.