Dueling mayors attended the send-off for the Pony Express this week.

Mayor Ken Shearin, standing tall in a Stetson, administered the oath to the riders who on Tuesday morning re-enacted the historic event of the first letter to leave St. Joseph for the West Coast.

From the rooftop of the Patee House Museum, Bob Ford resurrected Meriweather Jeff Thompson, who was mayor when the Pony Express launched.

Thompson was a colorful character, a native Virginian who fancied himself a poet. He sided with the Confederacy in the Civil War and tore the flag from St. Joseph’s post office.

Historians still point to that moment as the beginning of the end of St. Joseph’s meteoric rise.

But on April 3, 1860, the city’s future shone bright as polished brass. The mayor’s speech reflected the optimism of the time. He predicted a time when trains would leave that very point and reach “Californy” in less than a week; when cities would spring from buffalo pastures and deserts would blossom with crops.

The mayor could have been talking about a horseback venture that opened a new era in communication. It could have just as well been the groundbreaking of an East Side business park. Or a plan to bring an Intel data center to Downtown St. Joseph.

History repeats itself and here on the banks of the Missouri River, our future is forever linked to our history.

Some may think the Pony Express symbolizes the city — a short-lived business venture that never lived up to its hype and ended in bankruptcy.

It also could reflect the vision of entrepreneurs who think in practical terms of using St. Joseph’s strengths to meet needs. Just like the Pony Express used geography to reach customers, thriving warehouses now make the most of the highway and rail system that pump through the heart of the city.

St. Joseph’s animal health industry, as high-tech as any in the world, grew out of the stockyards.

Historic homes are being revived, bringing inns and restaurants to neighborhoods that pre-date the telegraph.

St. Joseph has a niche in tourist trade. That was something never imagined by Mayor Thomspon, who went on to lead a Confederate brigade that burned a railroad bridge spanning the Missouri River.

The Pony Express celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2010. A rather small crowd attended the 149th commemoration at the Patee House Museum this year. St. Joseph needs to put its best effort to making next year’s event a spectacular one that not only honors the past, but looks confidently toward the future on the western horizon.

Business editor Susan Mires writes

a weekly column. She can be reached

at susanm@npgco.com.