One of the goals of this trip was to finish visiting most of the parks and historic sites in the SW region of Missouri. I want to dedicate this post to a dear friend who passed away just last month. We had known each other for 45 years and I was privileged to spend some time with her during the last weeks of her life. Some years back, she participated in a state program to visit every Park and Historic Site in one year. She got a late start and I think completed the journey in just a few months at an incredibly fast pace. She told me a lot about these sites and what we could expect.
First, there was Big Sugar Creek State Park which sits on the Elk River watershed and is just a tiny bit north of Arkansas. There is no park office but a well maintained trail, the Chinquapin, that we enjoyed on a beautifully cool day. We didn’t have the time to do the entire length but what we covered was exceptionally peaceful, the only sounds were the birds.
A second park is Prairie State Park, which is even closer to the state of Kansas and is about two hours south of KC. We were using the campground at Carthage as our jumping off point. Prairie is an homage to the once vast prairies that covered this area. It is home to elk (which we did not see) and bison herds (which we did see). The prairie is magical, miles of open grass fields and like no place else in Missouri. There is a Visitors Center which hosts some interesting displays. We also hiked the Path of the Earth People which honors the Osage Native Americans who lived and once thrived in this biosphere.
We really did see the live bison but they were too far away to photograph well.
I think in part what makes Missouri so interesting is the diversity of its geography. This area is very “Western” like. Carthage seems almost like a cattle town and there are ranches all around this area.
We also visited Harry Truman’s birthplace in Lamar, Missouri. Truman only lived here a short time but was born in the tiny downstairs bedroom in 1884. His parents had purchased this 20x28 foot house as newlyweds in 1882. The real monument to Truman is the Presidential Library located in Independence, Missouri. I will find my photos and do a post about it in the future.
There will be more Missouri parks on this trip but next up will be some time in the NW corner of Arkansas near Bentonville and Fayetteville. But just a few more photo highlights from the Carthage area.
An artist village called Red Oak II
The Precious Moments Headquarters located in Carthage