Kansas was one of my favorite states to travel through.
For one thing, Kansas has fantastic sunrises and sunsets.
For another, Kansas takes good care of her travelers. Her rest areas are clean and cater to those who need a place to spend the night. I went to sleep listening to cicadas. (I love the sound of crickets at night, so it was easy for me to love the cicadas.)
Kansas has easy to read and informative historical markers. This one was at a rest area; the same place where I photographed the rising sun.
*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!
Another unplanned stop was to a place that the Hubster, nor I, had ever heard of.
We came upon the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site in Missouri. We are so glad that we stopped to check it out!
The grounds are beautiful and offer picnic sites, walking trails, and ponds for recreational fishing.
From 1891 to 1950, the site was used as an old soldiers’ home for veterans of the Confederate States Army after the American Civil War.
Confederate veterans, some of whom had difficulty accessing medical treatment and who had been disenfranchised from voting, periodically met throughout the state of Missouri after the war. At a meeting in Higginsville in 1889, the idea of creating an old soldiers’ home to care for aging veterans was discussed. In 1891, 365 acres in the Higginsville vicinity were purchased to establish the old soldier’s home. The families of Confederate veterans were also allowed to live at the site.
The chapel is one of about 30 buildings located on the grounds at its peak.
Within the cemetery are 723 graves and a monument erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The monument is modeled on the Lion of Lucerne, one of the most famous sculptures in Switzerland.
USA author Mark Twain praised the sculpture of a mortally wounded lion as “the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.”
I know it moved my soul.
The home remained in operation until 1950, when John T. Graves, the last Confederate veteran in the state died.
The state government purchased the site to operate as a state park.
For further reading, you might be interested in an article about the controversy in removing Confederate monuments.
See the world around you!
LC's Cottage 
I agree – Kansas has some amazing Sunsets/Sunrises across its expansive plains. Hugely colored orbs rising up and out of the earth then sinking back down and into it.
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How wonderful it must be to see that everyday, Laura! That horizon line was quite a change for me…sitting in the passenger seat and looking out front, then looking out back. And they say that Montana has big sky! 🙂
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Thanks for sharing. One of the few states we’ve never visited.
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You are welcome, Donna! Hopefully, you will get to visit someday! 🙂
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That stained glass window!!!!!
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It is very pretty. I wish we could’ve gone inside! 🙂
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Well, isn’t that interesting?!! If I were forced to pick a progressive state, Kansas would not spring to mind. It’s actually a state I rarely hear anything about, one way or the other. A visit is warranted again – the last time I was there, it was a monsoon rain storm. Thank you, Laura! I’m enjoying your photos from your trip almost as much as you. {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne
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I never hear anything about Kansas, either, Roseanne. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did, since I am about the mountains and not the flat land. I didn’t expect it to be green as it was (visions of a dusty tornado from Oz, I guess). I also didn’t expect the humidity in eastern Kansas. I am so glad that we drove instead of flew to our daughter’s in NC! We also chose to avoid I90 as much as possible in order to see more. We learned a lot! 🙂
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Thanks for the photos and the insights into USA history. We are having all sorts of controversies about memorials to people who profited from the slave trade. Personally I think it’s important to acknowledge the great wrongs that were done but not to try to erase people and events from history. We have a poor enough record of ‘learning from the lessons of history’ as it is without ignoring parts of it all together.
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Well said, Allison! There is controversy here as well. Many of the confederate monuments/memorials have been removed. I also think it is a big mistake to erase history. Many in the confederacy were fighting for other reasons, not necessarily for the right to own slaves, but for their rights to choose how to govern and live. Regardless, there are many dead on both sides and the whole thing is a sad affair.
When we don’t teach our children, we will have many ignorant adults. Already there are those who deny that the Holocaust happened.
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