The most interesting piece of Kansas City‘s outlaw history doesn’t have a museum. It has a parking lot and a sign most people drive past without slowing down. But follow that thread out to St. Joseph — about an hour north — and the story gets considerably more substantial.
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Red Crown Tavern: A Parking Lot With a 1933 Shootout Behind It
There’s almost nothing left of the Red Crown Tavern today. The site is a parking lot, marked by a historical sign — full stop. But the history behind it is worth knowing before you write the stop off.
In July 1933, the tavern was the site of a violent shootout connected to Bonnie and Clyde, part of a broader thread of Depression-era and Prohibition-adjacent crime that ran through this stretch of what later became part of the Route 66 corridor. The Barrow gang had been hiding out in the area, and the confrontation that followed left lasting damage to the building and added Kansas City to the map of stops tied to one of the most notorious crime stories of the era.
You’re not going for what’s there. You’re going for what happened there. If you’re already building a road trip around other Bonnie and Clyde-related history, it’s a natural addition — otherwise, it’s a five-minute pause with real historical weight behind a site that gives you almost nothing to look at.
The Patee House Museum: Pony Express Headquarters and a Lot More
The Patee House Museum in St. Joseph is one of those stops that takes a few minutes to fully register. The building itself — a former luxury hotel that opened in 1858 — served as the operational headquarters of the Pony Express when the mail service launched in 1860. St. Joseph was the eastern terminus of the entire route, the starting point for riders carrying mail nearly 2,000 miles to Sacramento before the transcontinental telegraph made the service obsolete after just 18 months.
What makes the Patee House worth the drive is the scale of what’s inside. This is a large museum with large artifacts — not glass cases of small objects, but full-scale pieces that fill the space in a way that’s unusual for a regional history museum. The carousel inside the building is one of the more unexpected finds on this entire Kansas City trip — an operational antique carousel housed inside a historic hotel turned museum, which is the kind of thing that’s genuinely hard to prepare for and equally hard to forget.
There’s more to St. Joseph than a half-day allows — the Pony Express National Museum is a separate, dedicated facility nearby that goes deeper on the mail service’s history and is worth building into the itinerary if your schedule has room. We had to head back, but it’s on the list for a return visit.
Jesse James House: The Site of the Assassination
The Jesse James Home sits directly next to the Patee House on the same property, which makes the pairing almost unavoidable once you’re there. The house is small, preserved largely as it was on April 3, 1882 — the day James was shot by Robert Ford while adjusting a picture on the wall of his own living room.
What fills the space is photographs. The walls hold an extensive collection of James-related images — portraits, crime scene documentation, family photos — that build a more complete picture of the man than the outlaw mythology typically allows. James wasn’t operating in isolation; he was part of a broader post-Civil War Missouri context where former Confederate guerrillas found few legitimate paths forward, and the photographs help locate him in that history rather than just in legend.
The house itself is the artifact. You’re standing in the room where one of the most famous assassinations in American outlaw history happened, and the building hasn’t tried to dress that up.
How to Build This Into a Kansas City Trip
St. Joseph runs about an hour north of Kansas City, which makes it a natural half-day extension rather than a dedicated travel day. The Patee House and Jesse James House together took us most of a morning — long enough to move through properly without rushing, short enough to be back at Basswood by early afternoon.
If you’re using a basecamp like Basswood RV Resort, the logistics are straightforward: an early departure gets you to St. Joseph by mid-morning, and you’re back in the KC area by early afternoon with the rest of the day open. The Red Crown Tavern is a five-minute stop that fits naturally on the route out or back.
Together these stops cover a sweep of Missouri history that doesn’t make the tourism board’s brochure: Depression-era crime, the brief golden era of the Pony Express, and the end of Jesse James — all within a half-day drive of your basecamp.
Is the Jesse James House worth visiting in St. Joseph Missouri?
Yes. The Jesse James Home is the preserved site of his assassination on April 3, 1882, filled with an extensive collection of photographs. It sits directly next to the Patee House Museum on the same property.
What is the Patee House Museum in St. Joseph Missouri?
The Patee House was the operational headquarters of the Pony Express when the mail service launched in 1860. St. Joseph was the eastern terminus of the 2,000-mile route to Sacramento. Today it’s a large museum with full-scale artifacts and an antique carousel inside the building.
How far is St. Joseph Missouri from Kansas City?
About an hour north of Kansas City, making it a natural half-day extension from a Kansas City basecamp trip.
What is the Red Crown Tavern in Kansas City?
The former site of the Red Crown Tavern is now a parking lot with a historical marker. In July 1933 it was the site of a violent shootout connected to Bonnie and Clyde’s Barrow gang.
Is there a Pony Express Museum in St. Joseph Missouri?
Yes — the Pony Express National Museum is a separate, dedicated facility near the Patee House that goes deeper on the mail service’s history. Allow extra time if you want to visit both.
Where We Stayed
We based our Kansas City trip out of Basswood RV Resort in Platte City, Missouri — about 20 to 30 minutes from most of the stops in this guide. Pull-through sites, quiet property, and book ahead if you’re going on a weekend.
This was a complimentary stay in exchange for coverage. All opinions are our own.
Angela DiLoreto is a bestselling author, former Fortune 500 marketing executive, and a passionate advocate who successfully worked to change stalking laws in several states after a family friend was murdered by her stalker. That fight — for justice, for voices that weren’t being heard, for stories that needed to be told — runs through everything she does. She and her husband Vince travel the country by RV with their two rescue chihuahuas, Gracie and Loki, chasing history, great food, and the overlooked people and places that shaped America. Angela created Fitting in Adventure and the Historic Footnotes series because the best stories are usually the ones nobody’s heard yet.