Between Kansas City And Omaha Is An Underrated Missouri City With Quaint Shops, Museums, And Outdoor Fun

In the northwestern corner of Missouri, St. Joseph is arguably best known for being the starting point of the Pony Express mail route in 1860. Many visitors come for the city's unique museums, including a psychiatric museum, a small funeral museum, and one dedicated entirely to dolls. Plus, it's got a large selection of locally-owned stores selling kitschy antiques, records, and collectibles. If being outdoorsy is more your thing, the city boasts several parks and impressive trail networks.

If you're short on time and want to see the area's main attractions in one day (from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.), take the Show Me St. Joe Experience, hosted by the St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau. For just $25 USD per person, the tour will take you to the city's must-see spots, with history lessons from a local guide. It even includes lunch, a T-shirt, and a signed certificate from the mayor to keep as a souvenir. 

Most get to St. Joseph on road trips after arriving via the Kansas City International Airport. Rental cars are available at the airport, and it only takes about 40 minutes to reach St. Joseph. Since it's pretty close, you might as well spend a day in Kansas City exploring its incredible restaurants and food scene. Known as the "Barbecue Capital of the World," this jazzy and creative Midwestern hub is full of smoky flavors and soulful art, and surprisingly authentic Mexican seafood. Alternatively, Omaha is a simple two-hour drive north. Another attraction on the way north that's worthy of a stop, which is also nestled between Kansas City and Omaha, is Iowa's scenic Midwest state park for hiking trails and camping.

St. Joseph boasts 14 area museums, ranging from the unique and somewhat eccentric to a bit of the bizarre. For just $12.00, you can buy an adult ticket that gives you entrance to four museums within walking distance of each other. At the St. Joseph Museum Complex, you can visit the Glore Psychiatric Museum, a Doll Museum, the Black Archives Museum, and others that are focused on Archaeology and Native American artifacts. 

The Glore Psychiatric Museum is one of the most eccentric. Housed in a medical unit at the state hospital, the education exhibits include reconstructed rooms, past treatment methods such as hydrotherapy and shock therapy, and medical tools used to treat patients. One of the most memorable exhibits displays thousands of objects removed from a patient's stomach who suffered from a disorder that causes people to swallow various items, including nails and buttons.

For those who are morbidly curious, check out the Heaton-Bowman-Smith Funeral Museum, which displays antique coffins, embalming tools, and unusual funeral artifacts, including the casket used to transport Jesse James' body. Plus, it's free to enter. One Tripadvisor user described it as an "unexpected find." She described it as a small room that's worthy of a visit for anyone interested in funeral and end-of-life traditions, that's "packed with unique items you will not find anywhere else. Various caskets, as well as funeral bills from a decade ago, photos, and other pieces of funeral home history that are quite interesting. Most pieces have a small laminated sheet of information providing more background," she said.

St. Joseph is home to dozens of parks, and one of the oldest and most popular is Krug Park. The park stretches over 160 acres and features a rose garden, a pond, a 7-mile multi-use trail for biking and hiking, and an amphitheater. Renovations are currently underway, including restoring the historic castle and creating picnic pavilions and a lily pond, and the space is still open to the public. One of the newest additions is the River Bluff Trails Park, which is located on 400 acres of bluffs and woods above the Missouri River. Opened in 2023 and created by Nomad Trails Development, the park features 12 miles of multi-use trails for mountain biking, hiking, and practice tracks.

Elsewhere in St. Joseph, you will find plenty of locally owned stores and boutiques, but the huge selection of quaint antique shops is what really sets this town apart from others. One unique store is the Black Kat Salvage Store, housed in a former medical center where the exam rooms now contain vendor booths filled with antiques. Other notable stores include Lucky Tiger, a vintage and vinyl records store, and the vibrant Manic Snail gift store, featuring a range of greeting cards and books.

In keeping with the quirky theme, you can also stay at the Beattie Mansion, another in the list of America's haunted hotels. Built in 1854, the home later developed a reputation for paranormal activity. For your own ghostly encounter, you can book a stay for $500 and do your own paranormal investigation. That amount gives your group nearly 24 hours alone in the house to see if you can communicate with the spirits of the "Haunted House on the Hill."