CASPER — The donation of a $1.5 million Pony Express collection could jump-start a multimillion-dollar project that would make the Fort Caspar Museum a national draw for fans of the famously brief 18-month Western mail service.
Casper City Council on Tuesday gave a thumbs up to accept the donation from the late Joe Nardone, a California collector who wanted his collection of Pony Express history, art and archives to find a historically appropriate home.
A feasibility study conducted by Prycer Consulting and Strategic Venue Studies paid for by the Fort Caspar Museum Alliance was shared with the council at a work session Tuesday. The study supports accepting the Nardone collection.
It also means the need to raise up to $7 million to build an addition to the Fort Caspar Museum that would store and house the collection as well as offer space for a local historical drug store exhibit and artifacts.
Consultant Melissa Prycer said the project is “a risk worth taking” and that it will be “transformative” for the museum and the city.
“The elements for success are in place,” she said. This would be “an important powerful collection that captures the public’s imagination, (with) highly skilled staff and volunteers to shepherd the project to successful completion, and a robust tourist infrastructure ready and excited about additional attractions.”
Nardone, who died in 2020, spent 40 years pursuing artifacts and researching the Pony Express. He nearly annually followed the trail as part of his research and advocacy, and many years ago became friends with Fort Caspar Museum Director Rick Young.
Treasure Trove
Prycer said the collection includes items relating to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, an extensive archive of original documents, maps, bronze sculptures, saddles and mochilas, historic materials from the National Pony Express Association, relics from the trail period and one-of-a-kind items relating to the expansion of the telegraph.
Nardone first offered the collection to the city in 2019, but Casper City Manager Carter Napier said the city was not in a financial place to accept it then. Nardone’s widow offered it again in 2023.
Prycer said while Casper attracts a lot of sport enthusiasts it also is a draw for tourists and visitors seeking out a Wild West experience.
“This expansion could easily double attendance at the museum,” she said.
Prycer’s research showed venues dedicated to the Pony Express in St. Joseph, Missouri, and a small Pony Express station in Gothenburg, Nebraska draw up to 40,000, visitors a year.
The study calls for ideally a 7,500-square-foot addition to the existing museum with 3,000 square feet for the Pony Express Exhibit, 2,000 for an exhibit on the historic Tripeny Drugstore and Downtown exhibit, and 2,500 square feet for storage, processing and research.
Estimates from Strategic Venue Studies show the expansion would be an annual $3.3 million boost to the local economy.
Financial Commitments
Casper Parks, Recreation and Public Facilities Director Zulima Lopez said the Fort Caspar Museum Association has agreed to use some of its money to help launch the project.
Information supplied to the council shows the association would pay up to $10,000 to catalog the materials and hire an exhibit designer for concepts that would be used for fundraising and an architect.
Napier said the city would be responsible for relocating the collection and entering into an agreement with a fundraiser, estimating those costs at $20,000. He thanked the Fort Caspar Museum Association and Visit Casper as organizations willing to step up and help support the project.
Young and Prycer both told the council that they believed there would be significant interest nationally in donating to the Pony Express Museum.
“There is a strong network of people who are very passionate about the Pony Express,” Prycer said. “The collector Joe Nardone was beloved. I do believe people will donate in his memory to help preserve his collection and his legacy.”
Because Nardone was a known figure in the Pony Express national community, Prycer said it is possible other collections could follow his to the museum region, making Casper the “national center for Pony Express history.”
Prycer also believes that the 105 paintings of the Pony Express commissioned by Nardone, which includes a historical interpretation of each painting written by him, could easily become a traveling exhibit.
Answering The Question
Unlike other Pony Express museums, Prycer said the Casper display would be able to answer questions related to why a service that just lasted from April 1860 through October 1861 continues to grow in popularity more than160 years later.
“Nardone’s collection with so many artifacts relating to public memory, popular culture and the many stories of the Pony Express will enable the Fort Caspar Museum to answer those questions in a way no one else can,” she said.
Lopez said the next step will be a donation agreement with Nardone’s wife and then relocating the collection to Casper.
Once sufficient money is raised, an architect would be hired to design the addition as well as an exhibit designer. Prycer estimated the fundraising and construction timelines likely would put any Pony Express exhibit grand opening into 2028.
Council members expressed support for the project, with Council member Gena Jensen, who also is executive director at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper, saying it reminded her of the beginning of the trails center project and that, “If you build it, they will come.”
The trails center has a small exhibit about the Pony Express.
“Not everybody comes here for sports. There is a huge piece that comes here for history,” she said. “There are tons of homeschoolers that we see from all over Wyoming and other states, and that is what they want to contemplate, learning about the Oregon Trails, the westward expansion and be on the ground where they are.
“We are constantly trying to do little Pony Express programs, and they are always well attended.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
