Henry Lay Sculpture Park

We are still exploring Missouri!  In the past we have traveled up state highway 79, either taking one of our children or another to a college in Iowa or Minnesota.  We have also driven the road for fun times in Hannibal, home of the author Samuel Clemons.  Over the years we never paid much attention to the small town of  Louisiana located along that highway.  It is just south of Hannibal, and has a population 3,300.  Driving through the town I got a feeling that I had been there before, but no it just looked like another river town- Herman, Missouri.  Both towns have a few large Victorian homes around still, possibly owned by local river captains back at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Lay Sculpture park is located in Louisiana, and is set on approximately 20 acres, surrounded by 350 acres of natural meadows, rolling hills and lakes.  Part of this area includes the McElwee Artists Residences, a retreat center for St.Louis University.  Henry Lay (April,1941-Oct. 2000),an alumnus of the university's law school, purchased the property in 1996.  His dream was to establish a place where art and literature are paired with the beauty of nature.  John McElwee, a Revolutionary hero first owned the farm property in 1832.

There are many sculptures located in this park.  A rather amusing one, pictured above, is of a man pulling a horse sitting rather comfortably in a wagon.

Walking around one of the lakes we came upon the Three Sisters,a sculpture done by artist Bing Cheng from Beijing.  In front of them is a rather broken down bridge- the whole park looks in need of some repairs, probably no thanks to the Corona virus.

The artist of the sculpture Infinity Revisited, pictured above, came back in 2016 to repair it.  It is an art work comprised of rocks and wood - a large infinity symbol which "erodes back into the landscape", the quote is from signage at the site.  The signage gives a very good explanation for the art work and raises the question of what is our relationship to nature, are we a part of it, or separate from it?   That is easily answered by John and I, because by embracing nature we have been keeping our sanity during the covid crisis which requires distancing from other humans!

I will end this with Westward Journey, art work done by sculptor Reynaldo Rivera in 2018.

Exploring Missouri

The corona virus is still around and very active.  For John and I it  means that we need to continue to
take precautions.  We are not sheltering in place, but we do not congregate in large crowds and certainly wear masks when we are around people outside of our family.  We are continuing to explore the parks and other tourist sites around Missouri, which is helping to keep down our restlessness.

 The latest state park we visited was the Don Robinson State Park.  It is considered part of the St.Louis area, located southwest of the city near Cedar Hill, Mo.  Upon arrival we immediately  looked for a picnic area and found the shelter pictured above, complete with rocking chairs!  Quite a nice place to sit and hold our fussing grandson.  And from the shelter we could look off over the verdant rolling hills.  Behind the shelter is a house under repair.  Part of it is an old stone cottage which had additions added to it.  In the foreground of the picture below the older part of the building can be seen with its chimney.

This park was established in 2012.  In the mid 1960s Don Robinson began a personal quest to "return to the land" and began buying up the rugged countryside of Jefferson County.  He described the land as "wild and woody with lots of canyons".  He amassed 800 acres.  The stone cottage was built in 1928, Robinson added to it with some upper floors and siding using recycled materials.  He spent 4 decades renovating it.   According to the park ranger we met, that building is being turned into a visitor's center.  John and I hope to return to this park, we are anxious to see more details of the home as well as the park's box canyons, shelter caves, cliffs and glades.  Because of the little ones we had with us the day we were there, we could not hike into the more interesting and rugged parts of the state park.

Several weeks after that trip we drove to a blueberry farm near Marthasville, Mo.  After picking the berries we took a side trip to Peers Prairie, to see the 4 acres of prairie flowers located along the Katy Trail.  I had happened to see an ad on television encouraging people to come to Peers Prairie to check out the abundance of colorful flowers.  And on the last two weekends in June there is a blue grass festival celebrating the prairie.  Something else to see there is an old historic store built for the Katy Railroad in 1896.  Unfortunately it is only open on weekends.

 

While we were in the Marthasville area we also had planned to see the Daniel Boone's memorial.  In the last years of his life he and his wife Rebecca lived in what became later the state of Missouri.  His wife's family lived in the Marthasville area, and because Rebecca died before Daniel, the Boone family cemetery is located near that town. Supposedly Daniel Boone's remains were later removed to Kentucky, but that claim is disputed as apparently the body moved was not that of Daniel Boone.  His daughter Jemima Boone Calloway's grave is located near that of her parents.  It is an interesting peaceful site with a creek running past it, farm fields off in the distance.  Some of the people buried here were born during the early years of our country.