A Unique Highway

 If you do a road trip in Missouri on Missouri Highway 36, anywhere between Hannibal and St.Joseph, you may probably understand why this road is called the Genius Highway. It has also been called the VFW Highway. Along this road are the childhood homes of General John J.Pershing (World War 2) as well as General Omar Bradley(the Great War). Three Civil War battles were also fought in places along this route. The Pony Express began in St.Joseph in 1860, and in Hannibal is the boyhood home of the famous author Samuel Clemens. Moving along from great generals and one author, we have two entrepreneurs. John and I visited the childhood home of Walt Disney in Marceline, Mo.last year, this time we visited the home of J.C.Penney in Hamilton. 

The J.C. Penney stores were started by the man pictured above. He at first worked his way up in the Golden Rule Stores, became a partner in those stores, and by 1913 bought out those partners. The new store he called J.C.Penney. In 1924 he opened his 500th store in Hamilton, his boyhood home.  By 1941 he opened store number 1600. We toured the Penney museum, in which his picture( above)was seen. We toured his childhood home, which had been moved from the countryside, just out of town, to a park within the city limits. It has two bedrooms- he was the seventh of twelve children. His father's untimely early death forced young James Cash Penney to work after high school and not carry out his plans for further education.

The Quilt Trail  can also be found along Highway 36, many of those sewing stores can be found just off the highway or within the Highway 36 corridor. It has been proclaimed 200 miles of fun, if you are a quilter. The mural below, on a building in Hamilton, announces the town's pride in being the home of Penney and "Quilt town USA"

The town of Chillicothe is another quilt town- there are two stores there. However, that town has another claim to fame: it was the place where the first bread slicing machine was invented in 1928. We found that machine at the Great River Historical Society Museum.

Otto Frederick Rohwedder is known as the "Father of Sliced Bread".  Pictured above is the second such machine- its first home was in the Smithsonian Museum, and is now on loan to the Great River Museum. We spent a wonderful afternoon at that museum, finding many other old treasures there; as a  Knabe square baby grand piano made in 1885, a hand-quilted Crazy Quilt made in 1880, and a printing machine (linotype 1872) - to name but a few interesting items which we saw there.                                                                      That was the highlights of our trip last weekend along Highway 36. I have not listed all the points of interest along that road, maybe you can discover the ones I missed. Wait, let us not forget the ladies!  Nellie Tayloe Ross, governor of Wyoming in 1925 and first female governor in the nation, was born in St.Joseph.                                                                       

 

Boone's Lick, and Lexington Missouri

Yes, we have returned from Arkansas, been home a couple of weeks and ready to hit the road again. This time our trip is within the state borders. I have lived in Missouri forty plus years and never attempted to discover what is at Boone's Lick.  I have often gone west on Highway 70, but never took tine to venture north off it after passing Boonville. To orientate you, Boonville comes shortly after passing Columbia as you are traveling west on Interstate 70. John and I do know that Daniel Boone and family settled in St.Charles in the early 1800s. Daughters of the American Revolution have a marker (placed in 1913) at this historic site of Boone's Lick which claims that he, Daniel Boone, discovered the saline creek.  However, it was his sons Nathan and Daniel who found the site and set up an extraction operation for the production of salt.

John and I hiked a short distance into some woods to find the salt lick, which amounts to a small stream of water. And why is it called a salt lick?  At one time deer, elk and bison came to this area to lick the ground. Yum! Salty dirt. Consequently it was easy for the early pioneers and native Americans to kill big game at such sites. Saline creeks were important to the early pioneers- salt was needed for preserving food, seasoning and curing and tanning of hides. This area is quiet now with very few people around. Back in the early 1800s it was a major salt production site. The process back then required placement of water wheels and reservoirs, as well as aqueducts.

Pictured above is a spring box, or water reservoir, only one left. An interpretive sign nearby noted the wooden box had been preserved or pickled by the salt water. Also in the area is an upturned kettle which was used to boil the water down to extract the salt. The Boone brothers started with 12 kettles, later 40 more were needed. Furnaces were built of limestone to boil down the water. I could well imagine the big production it was back in the day to extract salt!  Many men and animals were used before the product could be packed up in boxes, and shipped downstream on the Missouri River. The Boons sold their rights to the mine in 1818 because of frequent confrontations with native Americans. The salt lick changed owners a couple more times before stopping production in about 1838.

 

From Boone's Lick we drove to Lexington, Missouri. In that town we found the Lafayette County Courthouse built in 1847. In 1854 a wing was added, and later a second floor. On the upper part of the last column on the left there is still a cannonball embedded in it. Notice the black dot in the picture above at the top of the column. Even with enlarging the picture it is a bit difficult to see. The bloody 3-day battle, fought in1861, was a win for the Missouri pro-Confederate State Guard.  The battlefield in Lexington  has a short-loop trail to walk. However, it was a cold windy day and we passed on doing that. From the history I read of the town, it once was a much larger,bustling town than it is now. We drove around some of the streets and found two older brick buildings- one built in 1846, and another in 1844. There is plenty of United States/Missouri history to be found in our state. What I wrote in this posting was just the first day of our weekend trip. Our goal the next day was to drive on highway 36. also dubbed as the "Genius Highway".  More Missouri history to be learned yet for sure, which will be covered in my next posting.

Site of Lexington Battlefield

 

The Rest of our Arkansas Visit

 After our visit to the Hot Springs area, John and I traveled down to Crater of Diamonds State Park. Our daughter Melissa, husband and children, joined us there as the grandchildren had time off for spring break. This park is a 37-acre field where visitors from around the world can search for diamonds. There are other semi- precious stones to be found there, as amethyst,agate,jasper, quartz and calcite- but the chance of finding a diamond is what attracts many to the field. In this area many years ago a volcanic pipe brought many diamonds to the surface.

Diamond Field

 Yes, it is just an open field surrounded by pine trees. Over 30,000 diamonds have been found by people here since 1972. They had on display, in the visitor's center, one of them which has been mounted on a ring. It was found in 1990 and weighted 3.03 carrots. In 1998 it was certified by the American Gem Society as a perfect grade of 0/0/0 (ideal cut/color/flawless). A diamond like this is estimated to occur one time in a billion. And it is even more rare for a diamond like this coming from a non-commercial diamond mine!

Our grandson Nathan and his father Spencer spent probably a good six hours searching   for a diamond and found none. It did rain during that time, which supposedly may bring  diamonds to the surface, but that did not happen for anyone. The rain did bring down          some golf- ball size hail. So far on our spring vacation to Arkansas John and I                    experienced  snow,  hail and freezing temperatures, none of which we expected to happen at that time of the year.  However, we still had a great time in Arkansas.   

 

             

 

 On our way home back to St.Peters we had our grandson Nathan with us. We decided to show him a couple of historic areas in Arkansas to make the trip more interesting. Our first stop was at historic Washington State Park, which gave us a look into a nineteenth century community. Washington was an important stop on the Southwest Trail leading to Texas. It was a raw rainy day when we were there and Nathan was not too happy walking around some old buildings. However, the blacksmith building perked him up. The blacksmith promised him a souvenir forged from iron if he acted as his apprentice. Together they created a small leaf from an iron rod. He also showed Nathan a Bowie knife made at the shop. The first kind of this particular knife was made for Jim Bowie in Washington during the 1830s.

There is an interesting part of Arkansas history in Washington Park which I was not aware of. The Hempstead County Courthouse, pictured below, served as the state's Confederate capitol in 1863 during the Civil War. The Union Army had burned down the state's capitol in Little Rock.

There is another piece of United States history in Arkansas, which we stopped to see on our trip back, and that is the Louisiana Purchase Historic State Park in east central Arkansas. In 1682 LaSalle explored the Mississippi and declared all the lands drained by that river for France. He named the region Louisiana. The territory went to Spain in exchange for their assistance against England during the French and Indian War.  It went back to France in 1800, and then Napoleon Bonaparte sold it to the United States for $15,000,000. An official land survey was begun in 1815 to facilitate distribution of land to war veterans. Two men were commissioned to begin this survey by establishing a point from which other surveys would originate. This site went unnoticed until 1921 when two surveyors recognized a pair of large trees marked as "witness trees" by by the two men back in 1815. In 1926 the DAR dedicated a monument on this spot in commemoration of the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase. Back then it was not a wetland. It was necessary for us to traverse a boardwalk through an upland swamp to find this National Historic Landmark. This 37.5 acre park protects a headwater swamp- a natural environment once common in the mid-South. Walking over the swamp reminded us of our time in Florida, where swamps like this one are plentiful. The granite monument of the Louisiana Purchase survey site is pictured below.

 

 

 

A Visit to Fordyce Bathhouse

 Bathhouse row is located in the National Park of Hot Springs. The hot spring waters were first found by Native Americans. In the 1540 Hernando de Soto also discovered this area. The sculpture below, of de Soto greeting a native who presents him with a container of the spring water, we saw immediately as we entered  the Fordyce bathhouse.

 In the early 1800s crude huts sprung up around the springs. People soon found the spring waters to be physically restorative. The promise of improved health also drew Civil War veterans and others with disabling conditions to the springs. In 1876 the Supreme Court ruled against any private land claims and assured that the thermal waters would be available to all. From 1892 to 1923 eight public bathhouses were built,compromising of what is now know as Bathhouse Row. Presently the Fordyce, built in 1915, is the park visitor center and museum. The Buckstaff, built in 1912, is the only operating bathhouse. We had 4 floors to explore at the Fordyce which has been restored back to its 1915 appearance.

The Fordyce is the largest and thought to be the most ornate of the bathhouses. It has stained glass skylights and windows, as well as stone fireplaces. The bathhouse is divided into a men's area as well as a women's section. The men's area was deemed to be quite more sumptuous than the facilities for the women.  Pictured below are the steam cabinets for use by the men. It was thought that by using the steam cabinet skin secretions would be stimulated. Besides tub baths and steam cabinets there was a hydrotherapy room which included sun-ray cabinets, frigid cabinets,Sitz baths, sprays, electric baths and so forth. 

The women felt there were not enough tubs for them. One more was added. The first room which we toured in their section is pictured below. Notice the stained glass windows.

The women had a hot pack room as well as a cooling down room, and a state room to rest in afterwards.  Maybe I need to digress here and explain the uniqueness of these waters, as explained in the park's brochure. Rain and snow trickle down the ridges of the Ouachita Mountains. Gravity pulls the water further downward into into the earth's crust. The rock temperature increases with depth and the water emerges from the springs with a temperature of 143 degrees F. When the water reaches a major fault, pressure forces it upward. It is not a volcanic process that creates the hot springs. There are a total of 47 springs in Hot Springs. The water has been analyzed- it has a variety of minerals in the water; silica and calcium are the major ones- as well as free carbon dioxide and oxygen. While bathing the patrons would be given a glass of the water to drink.  And today there are fountains around Hot Springs where one may take a drink or fill up a jug..

Hubbard Tub -for the disabled to be lowered into the waters

Practice of medicine was a bit strange back then. We found a chiropody room in the bathhouse. In the 1930s, people could have their feet massaged, pedicures done as well as corns and bunions removed. In 1936 doctors came up with an electrical massage room which later was converted to a mercury rub room. Needless to say,we saw a few very curious equipment in some of the rooms!

A Body-Encompassing Needle Shower

The "crown jewel" of the Fordyce is the Assembly Room where both sexes could gather and socialize. A grand piano was in this room. The building also had a pool table in the men's parlor.

Assembly Room

Our final stop in the Fordyce was in the basement where we could see the original Fordyce Spring, as well as all the plumbing equipment once used to deliver the water to the bathing rooms. The bathhouse industry went into decline during mid-twentieth century as modern medicine was found to be the better treatment for many illnesses.

 

 

Hot Springs

 The national park of Hot Springs straddles a horseshoe-shaped ridge formed by Sugarloaf Mountain(north),Music Mountain(west), and and North mountains(south). The city of Hot Springs is on its west side. In 1804 a team of two men explored this area and made a report to President Jefferson. In 1832 President A.Jackson signs legislation to establish Hot Springs Reservation In 1820 Arkansas Territory asks Congress to reserve the hot springs for public use. In 1921 the reservation is named a national park. About half of the city of Hot Springs is the national park.

 

The above picture was taken from Hot Springs tower. That tower looms above the national park,offering views for 140-miles in all directions. Taking the tower elevator 12 flights up was one of the first things we did on our first day of visiting Hot Springs.

About a year ago I wrote about Hot Springs and said something to the effect that it did not have much- just a bunch of old bath houses. I was so wrong, which I discovered this time we visited the city. At the visitor's center for the national park we boarded a trolley owned by the park. The trolley conductor gave us a history of the town as he drove us around to see the major sights of the city and park. As seen above, there was a gangster era in the town from the 1920s to the 1940. If you do not know the character above, that is Al Capone. He had a suite on the fourth floor of the prestigious Arlington Hotel for his frequent visits to town. Shortly after we started out the conductor also pointed out an area of town where Jesse James and his gang held up a stagecoach. For more information on the gangster history of the town there is a Hot Springs Gangster Museum. Maybe we will visit the next time we visit the town.

 This picture may seem weird. The town has kept the home plate of Whittington sports field where Babe Ruth hit his first 500-foot-plus home run while playing ball there. The ball went in the direction of the upper right corner of the picture,where the cars are parked. Hot Springs was the birthplace of Major League Baseball Spring Training. Cities that trained their teams here in the spa city were : Brooklyn Jets,Pittsburgh Pirates,Chicago Cubs,and the Boston Red Sox. There is a Historic Baseball Trail in Hot Springs with a lot more information pertaining to this subject. Our driver even slowed the trolley to point out where the old baseball seats can still be seen.

Our driver also drove us around some of the older homes of the town, mostly Victorian in style. We also saw the home where President Clinton attended day care, as well as high school. His childhood home was not on the tour,but with some inquiring around we did find it.

We had about an hour and half trolley tour and learned so much about Hot Springs! I have written here only about a small part of the tour. The bath houses are part of the national park and I will write about them in the next posting