All Stories: 171
Stories
Missouri State Veterans Cemetery – Fort Leonard Wood
As decades pass and time marches on, the need for newer cemeteries to honor veterans has grown. For the Missouri Veterans Commission, that need came to a head in 1996, when, after persistent lobbying, the State Veterans Cemetery Program was signed…
Fort Riley Post Cemetery
Fort Riley Post Cemetery, like many military cemeteries before it, began with the fort that gives it its name. The site began in 1853, with the establishment of the fort in the plains of Kansas as a hub to protect the heavily trafficked westward…
Bolivar, Missouri Dunnegan Memorial Park
Your final stop on this tour of beautiful and historic Bolivar is none other than our biggest and oldest park: Dunnegan Memorial Park. You are visiting at a special time – this year, 2023, marks the 100th anniversary of the park. The city is…
Bolivar, Missouri Southwest Baptist University
Bolivar has been home to a nationally renowned university for over 140 years. Southwest Baptist University (SBU) was founded in 1878 in Lebanon, Missouri, before being chartered the next year by the State of Missouri and moved to Bolivar. The early…
Bolivar Missouri Statue of Simon Bolivar
The City of Bolivar is a storied town with a rich history. Some of this history hails from the namesake of the town, Simon Bolivar. Bolivar was also recognized as the village name due to the heroics of General Simon Bolivar in South America. The…
Bolivar Missouri Depot
Railroads were the bloodline of commerce and industry in both cities and towns in the 1800s and 1900s. They were a fast and effective way to haul people, goods, and information from one side of the nation to the other. Depots and stations were…
Bolivar Missouri Public Library
The name Andrew Carnegie likely rings a few bells for the average and expert tourist or historian. In 1889, Carnegie wrote an article in which he stated that “in bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who help themselves.”…
Bolivar Missouri First National Bank
Your next stop on this tour of Bolivar is the First National Bank. Located near the County Courthouse at 103 East Broadway, the building was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 2013 because, per their application, the “property…
Bolivar Missouri Polk County Courthouse
Just three blocks from the North Ward School sits the center of Bolivar as well as the business of Polk County: The Polk County Courthouse. Today, the building serves as the focal point for the city of Bolivar and holds the county courtroom, county…
Bolivar Missouri North Ward School/Polk County Museum
Our first stop on this tour of Bolivar is a setting of both education and history that continues to tell many stories after over a century. Located at 201 W. Locust Street, the building was constructed in 1902 from a design by Henry Hohenschild, an…
Bolivar Missouri Historical Tour
Bolivar, Missouri, is an idyllic city in the middle of Missouri. Filled with rich history and preservation of its landmarks and buildings, it has been careful to maintain and identify buildings and places which remind present and future citizens of…
Pleasant Hill Missouri Historical Society Museum
Towns like Pleasant Hill must work diligently to look after their history, and the Pleasant Hill Historical Society Museum is the heart of such operations. Nestled right in the heart of the Historic District, the construction of the building has an…
Pleasant Hill Missouri Bank Company
Part of the draw of Pleasant Hill’s Historic District is the wide variety of architectural styles visible in such a small area. Throughout this tour alone, there have been buildings with Art Deco, neo-colonial, modernist, and more austere ornamental…
Pleasant Hill Missouri Booth Public Library
Situated just across the street from the Pleasant Hill Post Office, the Booth Public Library is another building that conveys the speed at which Pleasant Hill was developing in the mid-20th century. Constructed in the same rush of development that…
Pleasant Hill Missouri Post Office
Like the Municipal Power Plant, the Pleasant Hill Post Office on what is now Veterans Parkway is an artifact of the struggle to rebuild Pleasant Hill in the midst of the Great Depression. Alongside the Public Works Administration, which helped fund…
Pleasant Hill Municipal Power Plant
The downturn of the Great Depression was incredibly widespread, and its economic climate inevitably affected Pleasant Hill during the 1930’s. The Public Works Administration, one of the numerous New Deal programs designed to revitalize the economy…
Pleasant Hill Peoples Theater
Just as Knorpp’s Opera House was built to entertain the people of Pleasant Hill during the waning years of the 19th century with theater, a defining art form of the era, the Peoples Theater was built to entertain in the early 20th century with that…
Pleasant Hill Missouri Knorpp's Opera House
Standing tall on the corner of First and Commercial lies an unassuming cream colored building with a connection to opera. Knorpp's Opera House was initially constructed in the 1880s as Pleasant Hill experienced an economic boom as a railroad…
Pleasant Hill Missouri Train Station
The railroad was the lifeblood of Pleasant Hill for the vast majority of its history, and this railroad station was at the center of it for nearly a century. The town’s original train station was constructed in 1866, as Pleasant Hill was coming out…
Lexington Missouri Anderson House
The Anderson House is perhaps the most well-known house in Lexington, Missouri. Centered on the battleground of the Battle of Lexington or the Battle of the Hemp Bales, it sits on and is operated by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as…
Lexington Missouri Stramcke House
Unlike previous Greek Revival I-Houses, the Stramcke House is an asymmetrical two-and-a-half-story Queen Anne-Eastlake style frame home most likely designed by renowned local architect W.S. Epperson and built under the direction Thomas Talbot…
Lexington Missouri Waddell House
Located in the old residential neighborhood of Lexington, the Waddell House is uniquely different from the previous Greek Revival I-Houses of the tour. Originally constructed in the 1840s as the pastoral home for the First Baptist Church (the oldest…
Prairie State Park, Missouri
Just about 18 miles west of Lamar is a conservation area devoted to maintaining what little remains of Missouri prairies. Known as Prairie State Park, this spot is dedicated to preserving the state’s original landscape while also educating the…
Lamar Missouri Tour
The Civil War in Missouri was full of chaos and disorder, especially around the counties bordering Kansas. As Barton County fits this description, it was not immune to skirmishes and many of its men taking up arms. Missouri did not secede from the…
Lamar Missouri Tour
Around 10 miles outside of the Lamar downtown square sits a local burial ground named Howell Cemetery. It is set in a wide-open scenery complete with trees and a beautiful entrance gate. The founding date is unknown, though it can be inferred that…
Sweet Springs Missouri The Market
Small communities require commitment from their residents to continue to economically prosper. Sweet Springs is no different and has, at times, thrived and grown due to unique interests such as the healing mineral Health Springs Resort that operated…
Sweet Springs Missouri Marmaduke Military Academy
One of Missouri's more well-known families, the Marmadukes, made contributions to the military training and political history of the state of Missouri. The Marmadukes produced two governors of Missouri, father Meredith M. Marmaduke who was…
Sweet Springs Missouri Sweet Springs Herald
Information is vitally important to social engagement and a feeling of belonging in a community. Community newspapers have served an important role in communicating town activities, publishing legal information and records, and providing…
Sweet Springs Missouri Smith Stores Company
Oftentimes in a small town, it takes one passionate individual to make a difference in the growth and prosperity of the area. One of the very early residents of Sweet Springs was Charles K. Smith. He and his family had commercial ties to the town in…
Sweet Springs Missouri Health Resort
Of the history of Sweet Springs, the main defining element of its past is the wonderful natural mineral springs that permeate the area. In fact, it is such an important part of the identity of this town, that it was renamed Sweet Springs in 1887…