Show Me Missouri: Lexington and Arrow Rock (6.19.24)

Dave first got interested in the Civil War after reading Dorothy Kearns' book, "Team of Rivals," about Abraham Lincoln.  We visited Vicksburg, Mississippi, a few years ago, and we also took a week-long trip through the Civil War battlefields of Maryland and Virginia, such as Manassas, Antietam, Harpers Ferry, Petersburg, and Appomattox.  On June 19, 2024, we visited the Civil War battlefield of Lexington, Missouri.

We learned that the state of Missouri was the site of more Civil War battles than any states other than Virginia and Tennessee. The battles were fueled by the state being bitterly divided between Confederates and Yankees.  Missouri never left the Union, but its governor quit his office at the outset of the Civil War to use the Missouri State Militia as a Confederate army!

The Missouri River was the waterway that bisected the state and made Lexington, a port on the Missouri River, a strategic site.

The Battle of Lexington included the Battle of the Hemp Bales, in which Confederate soldiers hid behind bales of hemp, which they pushed up a hill towards the Union soldiers, holding out in a beleaguered fort.  Eventually, the Union soldiers surrendered.  The Union Army soon took back Lexington, as the Confederates fled south.

We visited the Anderson house, which was used as a hospital during the Battle of Lexington and changed hands back-and-forth between the Union soldiers and the Missouri State Militia.

There were still bullet holes in the brick walls from the Civil War.

There were also bullet holes in the stairs, from fights for control that waged throughout the house.

There were even bullet holes in the ceiling.

The Anderson house was an elegant antebellum home, built by a planter who grew hemp and shipped it from the dock at the bottom of his property, on the Missouri River.  

The Civil War was a tragedy for the Anderson family, who abandoned their home during the Civil War and never returned.  The War was a victory for their slaves, who were freed.

The Southern idea of the "gracious life" was a bit like mine--leisurely dinners with china plates and good food.  Of course, I do those dinners without the slaves (although David sometimes feels like one, as he serves as sous-chef for a 20-guest meal).

I was interested in the connection between the "Mormon War" of 1838-39 in Missouri and the later Civil War.  Some of the perpetrators were the same.  A number of the Missouri officials who persecuted the Mormons in Missouri later became Confederate officers.

We next visited Arrow Rock, very close to Lexington.  Arrow Rock was an important port during frontier times, and until other Missouri River ports, such as Lexington, surpassed it.

We took a tour of Arrow Rock in a glorified golf cart, led by a guide who owned a gift store in town.  We stopped by the home of Caleb Bingham, the most famous painter of Missouri River scenes.

I especially like this painting of "Voting at the Courthouse."  It reminded me of the Mormons trying to vote at the courthouse in Galantin, Missouri, an act which resulted in the Mormons being expelled from the state.

We stopped by the Visitors Center for Arrow Rock.

Arrow Rock was one of the entry points to the Santa Fe trail, although that honor is also claimed by St. Joseph, Missouri,

The Missouri River, which was a great artery into the West in frontier and Civil War times, now gurgles through Arrow Rock at a state park.

We stopped, on our tour, at a gun shop, where rifles were custom built before the Civil War.  Our guide showed us each step of the process, including adding the circular "rifling" inside the barrel that made bullets shoot straight and far.

Arrow Rock is now a quaint tourist town, where visitors from St. Louis and Kansas City come for a weekend to lounge on the broad porches outside boutique gift shops.

A theater group stages shows at the Lyceum for town visitors.  We wished we had a weekend to lounge about in Arrow Rock.

Show Me Missouri: Columbia and St. Louis (6.18.24)

I love botanical gardens.  On June 18, 2024, Dave and I visited Columbia, Missouri.  We started our day at the Shelter Gardens, a small but lush oasis on the outskirts of Columbia.  It had bright, beautiful flowers and the many accents that grace a fine garden--a lily pond, a rose garden, a waterfall, romantic statues, and even an old, abandoned schoolhouse.

I was intrigued that so many of the plants that grow in Missouri also flourish in my garden in Salt Lake, such as daylilies and coneflowers.  Northern Utah and northern Missouri both have long, hot summers and cold winters, but it is wetter and more humid in Missouri.

We also visited the Devil's Icebox, a hike through a lush forest and inside a wide, low tunnel through which a stream flowed over boulders.

We planned to spend the day in Columbia.  However, the museums at the University of Missouri were closed, as was the well-reviewed automobile museum.  We realized we were only two hours from St. Louis, and we hurried there to see its Civil War Museum.

The Civil War Museum was located at Jefferson Barracks, the US Army base where Ulysses S. Grant served when he graduated from West Point.  He met and married his wife, Julia, while at Jefferson Barracks.  Julia's father was a Missouri slaveholder, and I could better understand Missouri's strange position, poised between North and South, as I learned about Julia owning her own slaves yet marrying a Northerner who would later lead the Union Army.  After the Civil War, Julia remained a good friend of the wife of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.

I recently read a biography of Ulysses S. Grant and since then have visited many sites related to his life.  I have seen the cabin in Ohio where Ulysses was born, his farm in St. Louis, the site of his great military triumph in Vicksburg, and his post-Civil War home in Galena, Illinois. I remember the old joke, "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?" and I want to visit that tomb in Riverside Park in New York City.   Ulysses S. Grant was a fascinating man who failed at many jobs, yet was a brilliant military leader and an underrated U.S. president.  Progress towards his vision of a reconstructed South in which blacks held public office and truly became equal with whites was made by the federal government while Grant was president, yet the South slid back into Jim Crow atrocities after he left office.

Abraham Lincoln is a hero to Dave and me, and we read as many books about him as we can and visit as many sites related to him as we can find.  Most recently, we visited his summer home near Washington D.C. where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.  There was a fine statue of Lincoln at the Civil War Museum.

There were also fascinating artifacts from the Civil War era.

Back in Osage Beach, we ate shrimp enchiladas that were so good that we came back to the same restaurant the next night to eat them again!

Show Me Missouri: Churchill and Fulton, MO (6.17.24)

In 1946, at the urging of President Harry Truman, Winston Churchill accepted the invitation of the president of tiny Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, to speak.  Churchill gave his "Sinews of Peace" talk, in which he first used the expression "iron curtain" to describe the control by the Soviet Union over Eastern Europe.  He also described the "special relationship" between Britain and America.  Both of those terms have been used ever since.  On June 17, 2024, Dave and I visited the excellent Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri.

There were photos of the hall in which the speech was given.

There were photos of Churchill traveling with Harry Truman.  25,000 people arrived to hear the speech, although there were only 8,000 regular residents of Fulton.

 

The museum has many exhibits about Churchill's early life and rise to power, as well as of his brave leadership of Britain during World War II.

The museum was being renovated when we were there, so we didn't see it in the way it typically is presented.  One of the outdoor displays is of portions of the Berlin Wall, part of the "iron curtain," that was eventually torn down in 1989.

Dave and I consult Trip Advisor and Google Maps to find the best restaurants wherever we visit.  In tiny Fulton, the only restaurant that was open was #3 or #4 on our list.  My meat loaf tasted great, but it was presented without a garnish to speak of.  Dave was served two chicken filets with no veggies but French fries and not even a sprig of parsley!  Lunch tasted good, but could have looked better!

Who I Might Have Been (6.17.24)

Jonny has an AI program that takes current photos and suggests what those people might have looked like when they were younger.  Jonny could specify the dress and style.  On June 17, 2024, he sent us these photos, including one of my favorites--Dave and I in our leather jackets.

Here we are as a chic young couple in the Greek islands.

We're the king and queen of the dance.

We're going steady in high school, although Dave looks like he's robbing the cradle!

The very best photos, though, were of Dave as a muscleman....

And Dave as a druggie!  Oh, what we might have been, instead of a staid couple in our 70s!