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St. Louis, MissouriOct 29, 2007
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Oct 29 52056 11:40
It is another beautiful day, blue skies, but a little on the chilly side. We had frost last night and ice on the windows of the car.
We head out first thing in the car to find the first of our stops today, the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, White Haven.
In 1843 a young Ulysses S. Grant was stationed at the Jefferson Barracks in south St. Louis. Many of the young officers were often invited to cotillions and parties to act as escorts for young ladies. Grand and Frederick Dent had been West Point classmates and Grant was often asked to the country home of Dent's family, White Haven, just outside of S. Louis.
When Julia Dent returned home from finishing school, Grant quickly become enamored of her and the casual visits soon became daily ones. When Grant was given order to leave for the Mexican War he became secretly engaged.
The plans were for this engagement to be for our months, this however stretched into 4 years before they could be married in 1848.
Being a military man Grant was required to travel a lot and when he received his assignment to California, Julia was pregnant with their second child. Grant felt she should not make the move and left her in the care of her parents at White Haven. It would be two years before he would return home and then only after he had resigned his commission.
Grant disliked being away from Julia and his children and eventually in order to earn a living the family returned to Grant's home in Galena, Illinois where he worked in his father's family business.
Grant's family had always opposed slavery and was from a "free" state; Julia and her family had always lived in Missouri, a slave state and had always had slaves. The two fathers rarely got along because of their differing views.
When the Civil War began, Lincoln asked Grant to resume his commission and become head of the Union forces. Reluctantly, and only because he would miss his family s, did Grant agree.
During this time Grant distinguished himself and at the end of the war he and his family settled in New York City. Here he was urged to take the nomination for President.
After serving two terms Grunt toured the world for two years and then settled in New York City to be close to the children. Even now they continued their association with White Haven. Grant had bought the farm from his father-in-law when his health deteriorated.
Julia and Ulysses never did return to her "home' Haven. After the world tour, Grant's business went under due to crooked partners and all of their assets were sold to pay off debt. In near poverty Grant wrote his memories finishing only 3 days before his death.
From here we drove back to St. Louis to see the Jefferson Expansion National Monument. This also included the Arch in St. Louis.
St. Louis. "Gateway to the West". French explorers arrived here in 1673 but before then American Indians lived in this area. In 1699 small settlements were started across the river in Cahokia, downriver in Kaskaskia and in several other areas as well. In 1703 Catholic priests established a small mission here. The French held the land until the Treaty of Paris in 1763 when it all the land east of the Mississippi was given to Britain. Settlers rushed to the new land. The Louisiana Territory was secretly returned to France in 1800 by the Treaty of San Ildefonso.
In 1803 the entire area was acquired from France by the U.S. in the Louisiana Purchase. At this time Lewis and Clark set out from here to explore the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and make their way to the Pacific Ocean and back in just 2 ½ years.
Now St. Louis truly became the "Gateway to the West". It was the starting place for wagon trains to new lands in Oregon, Washington, and California. It was the supply point for cargo trains headed down the Sante Fe trail. Hunters, trappers, settlers, explorers, businessmen, immigrants, and even outlaws looking for a new start all headed out from St. Louis into the "New frontier."
The museum here is an example of that movement. It chronicles the Lewis and Clark expedition, the settlers on the Oregon and Sante Fe Trails. It shows the changes in our history as thousands moved west after the devastating doughts of 1933-1939 that created a huge dust bowl out of the midwest.
To illustrate the that St. Louis was a Gateway the city erected the famous Arch in 1983-1985. We wanted to go to the top for the view, but it would take and hour at least and we need to be out of the RV park by noon.
So we got our stamps, walked through the museum, which is wonderful and headed back.
We try again to rouse someone in the office to no avail, so I write a check for $20, put the site number on it and slip it through the crack of the door. Don't know much else to do. The park is not that great anyway.
We finally get away at 11:40 and by 12:30 we are in the Missouri countryside headed SW towards Springfield, MO and the Wilson Creek National Battlefield.
Most of Missouri and Kentucky is limestone and there are Caverns everywhere. You could spend an entire vacation doing nothing but walking around underground. In the area around Mammoth Cave in Kentucky there are at least a half dozen separate caverns. Here in Missouri is Meremac Caverns and at least a dozen more just along old Route 66.
We are also traveling along Route 66 again on this section of I-44.
Our stop for the evening is just outside of Springfield, Missouri at he KOA. These are expensive $35 for the night, but it does have everything, full hookups, WiFi at the RV and laundry facilities.
Tomorrow we will go to the Wilson's Creek Battlefield, George Washington Carver NHS and Fort Scott.
