Founded by a fur trader named Joseph Robidoux in 1843 St. Joseph has been a point of national interest since. Until the conclusion of the American Civil War, St. Joseph was the furthest western point of rail service. If you wanted to head west St. Joseph was where you supplied and began your journey by wagon. With the wealth that supplying the west created St. Joseph was blessed with some of the most meaningful architecture, public buildings, parkway systems and museums for a town of its size or any size for that matter. The Pony Express began here, Jesse James was ended here and Walter Cronkite practiced his “That’s the way it was” in his father’s downtown dental office. A walk through St.Joseph’s historic downtown and museums allows the visitor to examine old world craftsmanship, Native American artifacts, western life and fine art within a ten block radius.