Two steam ferries, known as the Bellemont Ferry and the Ellwood Ferry, transported travellers, including Pony Express riders, across the Missouri River from Missouri to Kansas. Reportedly, the boat docked at either Jules or Francis Streets in St. Joseph. A monument, located along the shoreline of the Missouri River in Hustan Wyeth Park, represents the original site of the ferry crossing.
July 26 Friday – Sam and Orion leave St. Joseph for Nevada on the Overland Stage.
By eight o’clock [a.m.] everything was ready, and we were on the other side of the river. We jumped
into the stage, the driver cracked his whip, and we bowled away and left “the States” behind us. It was
a superb summer morning, and all the landscape was brilliant with sunshine [Ch 2, RI].
Left St. Joseph. Started on the plains about ten miles out. The plains here are simply prairie [Orion
769].