Photos: Retracing the Pony Express route

The Patee House Museum in St. Joseph, Mo., once the finest hotel west of the Mississippi, has re-created its Pony Express office on the first floor. “It was a hotel three times and a girls’ college twice, and it was a shirt factory for 80 years,” said museum director Gary Chilcote of the Patee House,  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The vintage Museum Hill B&B sits in the oldest part of St. Joseph, Mo.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The Museum Hill B&B is an 1880s-era home offering four rooms and a prime St. Joseph location.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

In St. Joseph, Mo., the brick-walled Pony Express National Museum stands on the site where the original Pony Express stables stood in 1860.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

In St. Joseph, Mo., where the Pony Express began, the national museum advertises with a little wicked wit.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

A glimpse of This Is the Place Heritage Park, a living-history site near the old Pony Express route in Salt Lake City that salutes Mormon pioneers and the various cultures of the American West.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The Mormon Church is still building near the fountains and gardens that surround its downtown Salt Lake City temple.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

A marker notes the site where Salt Lake City’s Pony Express station used to be.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Old Sacramento, which features dozens of historic buildings including the original Pony Express terminus, is popular with school groups.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Outside the Wells Fargo Museum in Old Sacramento, where Pony Express riders finished their westbound journeys in 1860-61, two young visitors from Vacaville, Calif., Shateema Harrison, left and Kelis Atkins, both 10 years old, get acquainted with a carriage horse.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Near the corner of 2nd and J streets in Old Sacramento, a marker commemorates Pony Express riders who ended their journeys in the California capital.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)