We started our day off by going downtown St. Joseph again. There are a tremendous number of wonderful 120 year old houses. Most appear to have been kept up and are beautiful! We stopped to take a picture of the Buchanan County Courthouse and decided to go inside and look at it also. The 3 sheriff's deputies at the front door asked if we were traveling through and we said we were and just wanted to go look at the inside. They said we could and where to go to see it. On the way out I asked one question and we ended up talking with them for about 15 minutes. The one I talked with most said that if we like this we should go to Atchison, KS.
This is one part of the interior of the courthouse. The floor is made of tiny tile and the seal is about 12 feet in diameter. I can't think of the name of the tile floor that it is but it is beautiful.
Of the approximately 250,000 people who went on the Oregon Trail, most left at St. Joseph, MO so as we crossed the Missouri River here, we are now officially on the Oregon Trail.
We then went to Atichson, KS and it does have many beautiful houses which are around 150 years old. We also discovered that it is the birthplace of Amelia Earhart. We also stumbled across the spot that Lewis and Clark stopped on their journey up the Missouri River. This was also the first that we could really see the river. It is wide and the water really flows rapidly. I can't begin to imagine how you could row or pole a heavy boat upriver in the spring. I guess that was when "men were men."
I couldn't resist taking this picture of a very narrow, old brick street on the bluff at Atchison. An early roundabout!!!! Muncie is way behind the times.
We were driving on a little road and came to another little town, Muscotah, but this one had a sign that said that it was the birthplace of Joe Tinker. What a surprise!!!! In case you have forgotten, Joe Tinker played shortstop for the Chicago Cubs from 1902 - 1912. He was on the only Cubs team to win a world series.
This metal ball was silver with red paint to make it look like a baseball was in a vacant lot in the town. There was another hole on the other side but no sign to say when it was put there or what it was for. There were also no people outside in the town to ask. All the streets in town were rock roads/streets.
We finally came to a small town that had a very small cafe but it was busy and there was a constant flow of people eating. It was typical small, small town cafe. They had a quilted wall-hanging that was very well done. It had the name of the cafe appliqued on it. On a sashing that was about 1/4" was machine embroderied their motto, Food so great, you'll scrape your plate. The bottom part was plain with stippling.
- These are the saddest of possible words:
- "Tinker to Evers to Chance."
- Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
- Tinker and Evers and Chance.
- Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
- Making a Giant hit into a double –
- Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
- "Tinker to Evers to Chance."
The black hole in the center is Alcove Spring. It was a stopping place for many of the travelers because it never ran dry and it had a nice area to camp. They could water their cattle and horses. Diaries have said that it was the best tasting, coldest water in the world. When their is more rain there is a little waterfall.
There are names and dates carved in the stones here. At one place there is a JF and they wonder if that is John Freemont, who led expedition parties west. He was at this spot also.
Alcove Spring is about a mile from the Blue River which they all had to cross. Signs said that farming and nature have changed the looks of the river from what it was then. This is the place where the Donner party had to wait so long to cross because of the floods. This is what made them late arriving at the crossing of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
It has been a fun day.
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