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!
