The Denver

The Denver was the ferryboat which at 7:30pm on April 3, 1860, carried the mail and the first pony rider out of St. Joseph and across the Missouri River into the Kansas Territory at Elwood. The Denver on a smaller scale was the prototype of the river steamer Antelope which carried the Pony Express mail on the Sacramento River between Sacramento and San Francisco.

After the initial run the incoming horse from the west was left in a stall in Elwood and the horseless rider with his mochila crossed to St. Joseph on the ferryboat.

*As with much of the history of the Pony Express, there is as much lore as there is fact. Information provided by the St. Joseph Museum, states that the Denver was not in operation at the time. The ferry that carried the first rider across the Missouri River was the Ebenezer.