New Madrid Historical Museum Missouri

Check out the wonderful New Madrid Historical Museum in Missouri!

New Madrid, the Kentucky Bend, & Island No 10

We took a little road trip to take in some of the history around the Kentucky Bend and New Madrid.

New Madrid Missouri

A very underrated and neglected historic town is New Madrid Missouri.  Make sure you don't pass it up on your road trip!

Dorena Hickman Ferry June 2024

Here is our complete ferry ride from Hickman Kentucky to Dorena Missouri!

Home of Budweiser Lager Beer

I found this very attractive old postcard showing "Home of Budweiser Anheuser-Busch-- St. Louis MO." recently.

it is undated.

Tiptonville Tennessee and Kentucky

 

I recently had a very ambitious trip planned around the far western areas of Kentucky and Tennessee.  I am a little embarrassed about just how much I planned (because we had to change our plans) but we still had a nice trip. 

Our main goal of the trip was to make it up to the VERY south western point of Kentucky.

Look at any map of Kentucky.  Actually, look at a large map.  There is that little point, on the far left bottom side- there is just a spec there, separated from the rest of the state.  Its just above Tiptonville Tennessee.


I will write more about some of the sites of our trip later, but for now I wanted to talk about the Tiptonville area.

This is honestly a remote area with a small population.  The area is however packed with history.  We found several spots on this trip relating to the Civil War.  Behind the visitor center in Tiptonville is Carl Perkins boyhood home.  There is also a prison in the area!

After leaving the Union City area, we made our way to Tiptonville and explored a bit.  From there, we drove north, towards Kentucky.

To get to that little section of Kentucky, you must really want to get to that area.  It is a long and snaky drive getting there.  This took longer than I expected.

Still, we did finally get there.  There are cornfields and a couple of homes in the area.  That's about it though.

We were proud to get to the area, and to explore.  Kentucky is a big state, and this is a very difficult area to get to.  I am glad we took the time to do it.

We saw few people in the Tiptonville Tennessee area, and we saw no one at all in the Kentucky part. 

There is a "Welcome to Kentucky" sign that almost feels more like a joke sign than a real one.  Speaking of jokes....  I kind of want to make one about the visitor center there, but that would be too easy.  There is no reason for a visitor center.

As we stood in Kentucky, we checked our GPS.  New Madrid Missouri was about 6 miles away.  We hit the go button and saw that that journey would still take us about an hour and a half.  There are no bridges close by.

We started to try to get to New Madrid, but after realizing we would have to rely on a ferry for part of the trip, we decided that New Madrid would be an adventure for another day.  We could still explore some places along the Mississippi River before heading back to Owensboro.



Frank and Jesse James- The Story Behind the Legend

I found an older, cheap biography of Jesse James at a used book store recently.  To go along with my trip to see some of his old haunts, I thought it would be a good read.  I quickly realized that it wasn't.

On the recommendation of a friend, I stopped reading that book and I picked up "Frank and Jesse James:  The Story Behind the Legend" by Ted P. Yeatman.

I really enjoyed this one.  Yeatman talks about how authors after Jesse's death (and even during his living days) wrote fictional and inflated heroic tales of the James brothers.  These stories have distorted the current images we have of Frank and Jesse.

Plus, there are a lot of questions about crimes and hold ups that may or may not have involved Frank or Jesse- or their frequent crime partners the Younger brothers.

I enjoyed reading about the brothers hiding out in Nashville, and running around some of my favorite hang outs, like the Mammoth Cave area!

Yeatman also discusses the Jesse James impostors that came along after his death, and he goes in to detail of the DNA testing that happened in 1995 to set the record straight on Jesse's death.

All of the James Gang members are covered.  I especially enjoyed reading about Frank's efforts to get out of crime, his trial, and his later reunion with Cole Younger in their West show.

Jesse James House- Missouri

http://www.ponyexpressjessejames.com/patee/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=6&Itemid=53

The Jesse James House in St. Joseph Missouri is a very odd tourist attraction.

First off, it is small.  It is only 4 rooms big.  because of its size, if a large group comes in, it can get very tight.  We spent some time there, and had the place to ourselves for some time.  Later a couple of families came in and you had to be very aware of the people, and artifacts, within bumping distance.

The house is devoted to the death of Jesse James, though there are other relics relating to the James family there.

The Jesse James House is a major attraction for a dark tourist, as items from Jesse's grave are on display, as well as a casting of his skull.  The main attraction at the home is the bullet hole in the wall supposedly made from the bullet fired from Robert Ford's gun (still, there is debate about the bullet, the hole in the wall, etc).

It has actually been moved from its original site and it is now right behind the Patee House Museum.  The original site of the house is a short walk from the museum- a nice marker is there.

Patee House- St. Joseph, Missouri

Right next to the Jesse James House in St. Joseph Missouri is the Patee House!

Check out their official site for a history and description of the place.  We had an unbelievable time there!

The old hotel is huge, and it is crammed with great old relics, and store front set ups.

This is easily one of the best and most complete museums relating to the Old West.  It is set up nicely and well maintained.  The building is old, but you can tell they carefully keep the repairs up.  I saw no physical flaws in the place.

My favorite displays showed the old hotels very direct links to Lincoln and Booth both.

The building was an early part of the Pony Express too, and it seems the riders would actually ride their horses inside!  There is a great set up showing an early mail area, noting that a piece of mail postmarked from the Patee sold for $460,000!

Another interesting and odd exhibit  is a display showing actual weapons used in murders commited in the area.

I could easily go on and on about all of the weird and amazing displays in this museum...

http://www.ponyexpressjessejames.com/patee/

National Frontiers Trail Museum- Independence Missouri

Jewel Box, Forest Park, St. Louis, MO.

"This unique structure, practically made entirely of glass, is located in the beautiful Forest Park. In it are displayed many rare and unusual flowers and botanical rarities from different parts of the world. It is open to the public from 9:00A.M. to 9:00 P.M. daily."