I’m thrilled to show everyone the cover for my next book, “Hippie War: Battle for the Harrisonville Square”. For those of you who enjoy seeing how the sausage is made, I started with the idea shown in the image with the blank back cover. That eventually moved over time to the final version which is the …
The Kingdom of Amarugia was located in an area in Cass County between Freeman, Archie, and Drexel. Much of the land is now a conservation area containing a 45-acre, man-made lake which was finished in 1987. The strange part of the story is that this “Kingdom of Amarugia” created its own government in the early …
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 National Military Park for several years. Jill and I were there in 2020, but the visitors center was closed with no guides or pamphlets to be …
Kansas City Municipal Stadium was located at 2123 Brooklyn Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. If you are approaching from the north, you will drive past Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque before arriving at the intersection of Brooklyn and 22nd streets and the small park that memorializes the location of the old stadium. To be honest; I was ready …
I have always been fascinated, in a sort of macabre way, with this story. The reader comments and interest in the story tell me that many others share that interest as well. As I was doing the research on the story, I felt like every thread I pulled led to more threads. There were two …
I want to start this final entry in the series with a bit of a disclaimer. If you have read the book, Charlie Simpson Apocalypse, you know that 75% of the book covers what happened after the shooting. The newspaper accounts of the time cover mostly the shooting itself. This lack of coverage after the …
I was honored to be asked to speak with the Mary Sibley Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Harrisonville on Saturday, April 16th. It was great to speak to this group of people with a passion for local history. Thanks again for giving me the opportunity for me to speak about the …
As mentioned at the end of part 1 of this series, the fuse that lit the fireworks occurred in front of the Sears store on the SW corner of the square on April 20th. A crowd of approximately 25 hippies had gathered in front of the Sears store. Don Foster, the manager of the Sears …
This entry in my series of historic events on the border takes a bit of a different slant than my other entries which generally have focused on the “old west” time frame. This three-part series will tell the story of Charlie Simpson and the shooting that he was responsible for on the afternoon of April …
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 …
