Jesse James's life came to an end in St Joseph in north-western Missouri, and in his house (12th and Penn Sts.) it is still possible to see the hole in the wall made by his killer's bullet. The town also has another claim to fame; it was from here that the first Pony Express rider set out in April 1860 to carry mail to Sacramento, almost 2000 mi
away in California. The invention of telegraphy put an end to the Pony Express only a year later. Its story is related in the Pony Express Museum and in the Patee House Museum, its old headquarters.