...begins with a single step. -Lao Tzu
Or, in this case, a journey of *three* thousand miles begins with a single *park*!
In order to get to our last two stops in Independence, MO before closing time, we had to stick to a tight schedule today. So we said our goodbyes to my parents and were on the road by 7:45AM.
An hour later, we arrived at Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield. Since we have been here many times before, this was just going to be a "stamp-and-run" stop. But because the visitor center wasn't open yet, we walked over for a selfie in front of the house while we waited.
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| Hello, the house! |
They opened the visitor center promptly at 9:00AM. After getting my stamps and another Explorer passport from the bookstore (I need more room for my growing collection of stamps!), we bought an annual pass ($80) from the ranger at the front desk. We'll definitely get our money's worth out of it on this trip!
By 9:15AM, we were back in the car and heading west on I-72 to our next stop, New Philadelphia National Historic Site. Located three miles east of Barry, IL, this unit became a part of the National Park System in December 2022. The New Philadelphia Association has managed the site since the late 1990s and continues to steward and maintain it as the NPS develops its presence here.
The story of New Philadelphia is really that of formerly enslaved Free Frank McWorter, who founded the town in 1836. It was the first town platted and registered in the United States by a Black American.
Frank met his wife Lucy on the Kentucky frontier, where he had the unusual opportunity to earn income from work outside that required by his enslaver. By 1817, he had saved enough money to buy the freedom of then-pregnant Lucy, which would guarantee that this child and all children afterwards would be born free. Two years later, at age 42, he purchased his own freedom. In 1830, Free Frank, Free Lucy, and their free children moved to Illinois, where he had purchased land for a farm and homestead between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.
In 1835, Free Frank purchased an eighty-acre parcel of land south of the family farm for $100. He subdivided 42 acres of that land into 144 lots and sold them to both Black and White settlers. With the proceeds of the sale of the lots in addition to his income from farming, Free Frank continued to buy the freedom of more family members. In total, he freed himself and 15 of his relatives for a combined cost of $14,000 (~$500,000 today)!
Given its proximity to the border with slave state Missouri, the racially diverse community of New Philadelphia became a stop on the Underground Railroad. Because they were familiar with the route north and escape routes from the south, Free Frank and his family sheltered and sometimes accompanied freedom seekers.
Although there is not much left of the community of New Philadelphia to see, the Association has done a good job of interpreting the site. There is a kiosk with informational waysides and a 1/4-mile augmented virtual reality walking tour. The mowed path has several guideposts with QR codes that provide a more-detailed history of the town. We didn't do the VR part of the tour but did enjoy walking the path on this pleasant morning.
From here we drove into Barry to get the passport stamp from City Hall. We also stopped by the public library to try and get a different stamp from there, but it wasn't open yet, and we didn't have time to stick around until noon. Guess I'll be sending a self-addressed stamped envelope...
As we continued west across the Mississippi River to Hannibal, MO, we unpacked our Avanti's gondola and ate while driving in the car - still yummy even after a day in the fridge! Then we made our way south and west on a couple of small highways towards Jefferson City, passing through some storms. Thankfully, it had stopped raining by the time we reached the state capitol around 1:15PM.
Once inside, we went straight to the tour desk for the state capitol stamp. A Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail stamp (bonus!) is also available here because the capitol sits right beside the Missouri River.
There were lots of kids here on school field trips, so we opted not to join a tour and just wandered around the building on our own, given the limited amount of time we had.
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| Looking up at the dome from the rotunda |
The Hall of Famous Missourians is located on the third floor - pretty interesting to see who hailed from the Show-Me State. Among the bronze busts on display were:
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| Top: Harry S Truman, Scott Joplin, Mark Twain Middle: Walt Disney, Laura Ingalls Wilder, George Washington Carver Bottom: Dred Scott, Stan Musial, Walter Cronkite |
We weren't able to go inside either the House or Senate chambers, but I did manage to snag a decent pic through one of the windows...
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| House of Representatives |
When we tried to enter the House Lounge to view the Thomas Hart Benton mural, A Social History of the State of Missouri, we found that the door was locked. However, we were fortunate to bump into the administrative assistant to the Speaker of the House, who let us in to the room via another door in the Speaker's office.
Covering three walls, the mural depicts a timeline of sorts, from Missouri's colonial beginnings to the political and socio-economic development during its first hundred years of statehood, and then ending with urban imagery of the early 20th century. Viewed through my 21st century eyes, I immediately noticed that the few people of color in the mural were shown in subservient positions or perpetrating violence. But in reading this commentary by art historian Joan Stack, I learned that Benton's choice to include them at all was controversial when it was completed in 1936, because it did not present a sanitized version of Missourian history that would have been more palatable to the majority at that time.
With almost a 2.5-hour drive yet to go, we skipped the Missouri State Museum exhibits on the 1st floor and did not walk around the grounds outside. When we exited the building, we were surprised to hear how loud the cicadas were. Perhaps the rain had silenced them when we were on our way in, but now that the sun was out, the noise level was shocking!
It was about 4:30PM when we arrived at the visitor center for Harry S Truman National Historic Site in Independence. It was too late to tour the Truman Home, which was not a problem since we did that the last time we were here in 2011. But I wanted to make sure that we were able to get the passport stamps for four different units (Harry S Truman NHS, California NHT, Oregon NHT, and Santa Fe NHT)! We did stay to watch the park video before the visitor center closed at 5:00PM.
The Truman Home is just a few blocks away, so we stopped by there for our second presidential home selfie of the day.
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| Hello, the house (again)! |
- The trail was used as a commercial route between Missouri and Santa Fe, NM from 1821 until 1880, when completion of the railroad made the trail unnecessary.
- It took about 3 months to make the trip in one direction.
And yes, there are more stamps here, including one from another unit (Mormon Pioneer NHT). As of today, here's the latest tally on our progress towards the Silver Master Traveler Award:
Units: 16
Stamps: 45
Regions: 2
Our hotel for the night was in Overland Park, KS. After checking in and dropping off our stuff, we went out for dinner at Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que in nearby Leawood. R said that the brisket was better than the ribs, but I was really happy with my pulled pork sandwich with smoked provolone cheese! Definitely recommend!
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| Brisket and ribs, Pork Z-Man sandwich, and tres leches cake |
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| 450 miles, 7.5 hours |
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