George Washington Carver National Monument

Path through woods that 
inspired George as a child

The very next day we were on to another history lesson. This time we visited George Washington Carver National Monument in southeastern Missouri. This is another remarkable site by the National Park Service. The monument is on the land where George lived as a child and includes the location of the cabin in which he was born. The visitor center has a wonderful museum that tells his remarkable life story from being an orphaned son of a slave and raised by his owner Moses Carver, his love of nature, his relentless pursuit of an education, his research work of many different types and finally as an educator. He was a truly remarkable man.

The park service has acquired the entire land tract of the Carvers which allowed them to put in a walking path through the woods and prairie where George explored, learned about plants and inspired him his entire life.

Visitor Center

1881 Moses Carver House
George did not live in this one

Fort Scott National Historic Site

Moving along to the east, our next historic stop was Fort Scott National Historic Site. It is in Kansas just a few miles from the Missouri border. The fort was established in 1842 to keep the peace between white settlers and American Indians. Without explaining the whole story here, in 1853 the fort was abandoned and in 1855 it was sold at auction, thus beginning the formation of the town of Fort Scott. As the Civil War broke out, Fort Scott was re-established by renting the buildings back from the private citizens. After the war, the Fort Scott closed again and was returned to private uses. Over the years buildings were modified, fell into disrepair, were torn down and others built.

In the 1950s a group of Fort Scott’s history-minded citizens argued for restoring the fort to its late 1840s appearance. Federal funding was received and archaeological investigations determined the location of missing buildings. Structures not original were torn down, while most historic buildings and features were restored or reconstructed. In 1978 it became a national historic site. Now we all can enjoy the fruits of all of that excellent work. We’ve been to a lot of restored/reconstructed forts around the country and this is another very well done effort. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Quartermaster Storehouse

Officers Quarters

We visit the Mid-America All-Indian Museum

A few years back (2019) we went to Wichita Kansas to go to the OldCowtown Museum. We went for a walk along the river and were drawn to a great statue of “The Keeper of the Plains”. We then saw the Mid-America All-Indian Museum and wanted to go in but it was closed that day. It went on the “when in the area” list and, guess what, we were in the area on this trip and planned our route and timing to be there on a day when it was open. 

When we went in, we were surprised how small it was. The very nice person who greeted us said “we are small but mighty”. She explained that it was started as a local gathering place for local American Indians and is slowly growing into a place to collect stories and artifacts and to display them to share. It didn’t take us a lot of time to see everything but I must say that the display of Blackbear Bosin art was amazing.

Nicodemus National Historic Site

When we decide to go on a trip our trip route is often influenced by historic, or otherwise interesting, sites to see. On this trip we are taking a route through rural Kansas to see a historic site. After the Civil War, groups of African Americans moved west to settle in all-black settlements to escape from racial tensions and the reconstruction that was doing nothing to help them. The last remaining of these towns is Nicodemus Kansas. In 1976 the original 161-acre town was listed as a National Historic Landmark District. In 1996 the Nicodemus National Historic Site was established and the National Park Service and the residents of Nicodemus continue to work together to preserve the history of the town as well as the five remaining historic structures. Since we wanted to take highways other than the Interstate across Kansas, it fit nicely into our plans to stop here. There are not a lot of structures restored yet, but it was worth a stop for the information in the visitor center, to see the town, and to chat with a couple locals.

Town Hall and Visitor Center

Timpanogos Cave National Monument

Timpanogoes Cave National Monument, like Lava Beds NM, is a place we’ve tried to go to for many years. Washed out roads, wild fires and other hindrances have kept us from getting there on various occasions. We were driving by again and we were able to at least get to the visitors center this time, but due to the difficulty of the cave tour, we were not able to do that given our current physical conditioning. It’s too bad we didn’t get there years ago when we tried and we were in good shape. That said, I can’t give any details on the tour other than – do your research on its physical requirements, and plan well ahead and make a reservation for the cave tours because they fill up. The Visitor Center is a nice facility in a beautiful setting. It has a few exhibits and restroom facilities, along with a nature walk along the river and picnic area.

Lava Beds and Tule Lake National Monuments

We’re on a road trip again, finally. With health issues waning and the roads and places to see calling, we are off mid-summer in spite of high heat and maximum travelers. It’s just great to be back on the road again. It’s always a preference to take different roads when possible but after all these years, those options become harder to find. That said, we drove two days on familiar roads to get to our first sites of interest and new roads to travel.

Devils Homestead lava flow

After an overnight in Klamath Falls, OR we headed out early to try to beat as much heat as we could with a forecast in the upper 90s. Just a little way into northern California, about 30 miles due south of Klamath Falls, is Lava Beds National Monument. This is one of those National Park Service locations that protects both earth history and human history. Relating to earth history, the park is home to the Medicine Lake Volcano. It is the first “shield” volcano that we’ve visited in our travels. It does not have a classic cinder cone because it has a lot of vents that released pressure so there were no massive eruptions, just flows coming out of the earth over and over again causing massive lava flows and “tubes”.  This volcano is the largest “by volume of lava flow” in the Cascade Mountain range. The park is home to over 500 lava tubes, a.k.a. caves, some of which you are allowed to explore. Learn about all of this and more on the website. On the human history side, we learned that the area was the home to the Modoc people for thousands of years until, of course, being forced off of their land to reservations. Yet another sad story of human unkindness which included the “Modoc War” which took place in the lava flows that are within this park.

Schonchin Butte

On our drive to Lava Beds, we drove through the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. It is the remains of Tule Lake which was drained long ago to make farmland. During our visit, it was home to a 5-10 mile drive through droves of grasshoppers which caked the front of our vehicle. It was a sight not to behold.

Near the little town of Tulelake, CA is Tule Lake National Monument. This is a very new NPS location that gives the long history of an on-again/off-again community, not of a necessarily good kind. It was originally Camp Tulelake, a Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) camp where hundreds of CCC workers lived while building roads and buildings in Lava Beds NM (which had become a monument in 1925). Then in 1943 it became the Tule Lake Segregation Center, a high-security camp housing over 10,000 Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from their homes on the west coast of the United States. And then, between 1944 and 1946 it was a prisoner of war camp holding German prisoners. After the war most of the buildings and land were sold off but a few remain and can be toured with advance reservations.

Viewpoint of Gillem Bluff 
and Devils Homestead flow
from distance

Fleener Chimneys

Fleener Chimneys - source
of Devils Homestead flow

Devils Homestead flow

View up flow from Fleener
Chimneys

View down flow from Fleener
Chimneys