The following is from my Lockets & Lace
novel, Otto’s Offer. Enlisted
in the Sixteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, Otto an two other soldiers take a
few days leave and visit St. Joseph, Missouri.
When
they stopped midday to rest the horses, Otto quizzed his companions about the
city. “What exactly is there to see?”
Ellis
spoke first. “The city itself. It’s up on a bluff overlooking the river. Quite
a scene.”
Carter
interjected. “You see a lot of that kind of thing up and down the Missouri and
Mississippi.”
“Ho!
The world traveler, are we, Carter?”
Carter shrugged with nonchalance. “I’ve been
around a few places—before the war, of course. However, St. Joe is close enough
for us to see the bluffs without getting shot at for our trouble.”
Not
to be outdone, Ellis jumped in. “They say it’s the farthest point west you’ll
find a railroad. In fact, there are several that all meet up in St. Joseph.”
Otto
raised his eyebrows with a questioning look. “What about the transcontinental
rail they are building out of Omaha? That’s west of the Mississippi.”
Ellis
nodded. “That’s just it, Atwell. They’re still building it. Planning to build
it is probably more like it. Of course, I’ve heard there are railroads out west
in California and the like. They ship those big engines and the rails around
the Horn, if you can believe that. However, there is nothing yet that connects
those western states to the East. St. Joseph is the most westerly point you can
travel by rail if you are coming this direction from the East.”
“That’s
why the Pony Express had its eastern terminus in St. Joseph. Once the rider
took the ferry across the river, the mail could go by rail from there.”
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