This month I took a short, hour and half drive out to Wamego, Kansas. Wamego is a town of 4,000 about a hour northwest of Topeka. The town is the home of the Wizard of Oz Museum and has totally embraced the notion that they are center of the Wizard of Oz universe. But first …
If you don’t know me personally or haven’t followed me long enough to figure this out, I am a God-fearing, flag waving, proud to be an American man. When the national anthem is playing, I will be standing at attention with my hand over my heart to honor the greatest country on earth. It is …
I have a bit of personal attachment to the Jesse James story because the house we built in Richmond, Missouri backed up to the cemetery where Robert (Bob) Ford was buried. Ford was the man who shot Jesse James in St Joseph. His tombstone reads, Robert Ford, “The man who shot Jesse James”. While in …
Our last stop on the Oklahoma tour is Fort Gibson. I found Fort Gibson very interesting, and I encourage you to visit if you are in the area. The historic Fort Gibson is located in the town of Fort Gibson, which is just east of Muskogee, over the Arkansas River. Muskogee is 50 miles southeast …
The Battle of Honey Springs, sometimes called the Affair at Elk Creek, occurred on July 17, 1863, at the Honey Springs Depot which was a storage facility for the Confederate Army in the area at the time. The depot was a stagecoach stop before the war and had good sources of water for travelers along …
Cabin Creek is a small river in the northeastern part of Oklahoma. Today, the battlefield site is out in the middle of nowhere. In 1863, it was a prominent crossing along the very busy, Military Road, coming from Kansas into the Indian territory, which today is Oklahoma. Oklahoma would not become a state until 1907. …
The Battle of Pea Ridge is labeled by some historians as the “Battle that Saved Missouri for the Union”. I have been trying to get to the Pea Ridge Na樂威壯 tional Military Park for several years. Jill and I were there in 2020, but the visitors center was closed with no guides or pamphlets to …
There is very little remaining of the town of Quindaro, Kansas today. A modern park shelter now sits atop the bluff that overlooks the riverfront ground that bustled with activity beginning in the late 1850s and continuing to the end of the 1800s and into the early 1900s. Unfortunately, the once-bustling area is no longer …
Sneak Peek for the cover design for my second book, “The Border War Tour: A Traveler’s Guide to Civil War Sites on the Missouri/Kansas Border”. I’m pleased to announce that my second book “Border War Tour”, is being finalized and I expect a release date in the early spring of 2022. The images with this post …
I’m going to step a little bit away from the Border War for my next few posts. In August I traveled throughout central Kansas visiting several historical sites throughout the region. I’m going to use the next few posts to talk about those sites and share images from my travels throughout that region. I hope …
