Pony Express Camp

To kickoff the week-long Pony Express Camp, the Museum recruited our family as tour guides. Standing by our prairie schooner, Polar Bear and Winger helped their "Ma" unpack our treasures: tea brick, bull whip, bubble-bath maker, popcorn popper, quill pen, and wooden toy.
Our family history is actually German immigrants. Maternal great-great-grandfather Joachim Herman Oeding came through Ellis Island from Altenberge. He settled in Iowa originally, and later in Willowdale, Kansas. Our kids' paternal great-great-grandfather Cyril Schmidling came from Alsace-Lorraine to settle in Missouri in 1860, the same year as the Pony Express!