Missouri’s back roads and byways not only offer a slower pace and plenty of wide-open countryside, but also lead to colorful characters from our nation’s history and culture, characters as diverse as Walt Disney, Jesse James, Gen. John J. Pershing, Mark Twain and J.C. Penney.
Pulaski County
Have you ever wanted to understand the dynamics of warfare without having to encounter personal danger, witness global conflicts and gain insight into behind-the-scenes strategy and drama, or understand what America’s soldiers have faced throughout history? Fort Leonard Wood’s military museum complex, one of Pulaski County’s most popular stops, chronicles the story of our nation’s wartime involvement in hotspots such as Korea, the Middle East and Europe.
The Mahaffey Museum Complex includes three training schools: chemical warfare, army engineers and military police. These museums are open to the public, but their primary focus remains training military personnel. They create today’s Maneuver Support Center, which the military refers to as MANSCEN.
“The complex is the only place in the country that you can see three Army museums under one roof, because the branches are co-located here at Fort Leonard Wood,” said Kip Lindberg, director of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps Museum. “The museum [Chemical Corps] teaches soldiers wartime history from 1917 in France through Iraq and Afghanistan today with our current situation.”
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The Chemical Corps Museum houses more than 6,000 artifacts related to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear warfare from 1918 to today. Visitors can see gas-protective equipment for men, horses and even carrier pigeons, which at one point served in the Army.
“One of the most unique items on exhibit is a child’s gas mask from World War II, when the threat of chemical warfare in the U.S. was pretty real,” said Lindberg. “The mask looks exactly like Mickey Mouse except that it has a filter canister coming out of the chin.”
The U.S. Army Engineer Museum showcases the engineers’ role of clearing and laying mines, building roadways, and managing bridge operations on the rear and front lines.
“If it needs to be built or blown up, Army engineers do it,” said Lindberg.
Once troops take an area, military police follow and secure the locale. The U.S. Army Military Police Corps Regimental Museum chronicles how MPs help handle prisoners, fight and clear vital roadways, or work behind the lines to enforce regulations and keep peace.
“There’s nothing else like it in the country,” said Lindberg. “Most visitors have no idea that anything of this scope exists in Missouri.”
Highway 36
Highway 36 bisects Missouri’s northern region from St. Joseph to Hannibal. Its charm lies in the surrounding small towns, which nurtured some of the nation’s most colorful and notable people.
St. Joseph lays claim to the assassination of the famous outlaw Jesse James, who was shot by Robert Ford in 1882. James’ home contains the bullet hole from the shot that killed him and sits adjacent to the Patee House and Museum, once an elegant hotel where James’ widow and two children stayed for several nights after his death.
Originally, the hillside home stood two blocks north, a spot James chose where he could be aware of anyone who was approaching. Today, a monument at 1318 Lafayette St. marks the site.
Hamilton, home to J.C. Penney, showcases the man who started the “cash and carry” retail concept. The Penney Library and Museum houses memorabilia from Penney’s early years until his death in 1971. They include newspaper clippings, photos, retail items and Penney’s first New York desk.
Close by, visitors can tour Penney’s four-room boyhood home, which has been outfitted with period furnishings.
Gen. John J. Pershing grew up in tiny Laclede. Restored Prairie Mound School, where Pershing taught before entering West Point, highlights his military career. Two films and a tour of the Pershing home, where his family lived from 1866 to 1885, give insight into the man.
Marceline’s Main Street became Disney’s inspiration for Disneyland’s Main Street USA. Next to the railroad tracks, the Walt Disney Hometown Museum displays approximately 300 artifacts, many donated by the Disney family.
As a child, Disney named the animals and put on plays on his family’s Missouri farm that later inspired many of the his animated animal characters. A replica of the barn where he named the animals is one of the Disney artifacts near Marceline.
Disney liv
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ed in Marceline for five years of his boyhood, sold his first artwork there and rode the train his uncle engineered as it chugged through town.
“Our mission is to keep the story of Walt Disney and the railroad which he loved alive,” said Inez Johnson, Walt Disney Hometown Museum director. “Walt always came by train when he visited us, because that was his passion.”
At the Uptown Theater, where Disney’s film The Great Locomotive Chase premiered in 1956, visitors watch a Disney cartoon and munch popcorn.
In the city of Hannibal, the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum spans seven buildings. Twain’s colorful characters come to life in the interactive museum, and Tom Sawyer’s reconstructed house, based on historical photos, sits behind the museum. Grant’s Drug and Becky Thatcher’s House sit across the street from Twain’s boyhood home.
“Hannibal is unique, because we have the actual buildings and places that inspired Twain’s stories,” said Megan Rapp, group sales manager at the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau. “The way the exhibits use audios quoting Twain’s own words, it feels like Mark Twain is guiding you through his hometown.”
