Once again I’m leaving in the winter. Heading to Tucson and LA. But first, stopped in Kansas City–actually Harry Truman’s old stomping grounds:
Spent the day at the Truman home:
Photos of young Harry and Bess — they went together for nine years:
They first met when he returned a cake plate across the street for his mom:
Harry was never pretentious. Until Kennedy was shot he didn’t have secret service protection. He had many visitors at his home: Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson, Eleanor Roosevelt among others. His home was very modest save for some photos:
We also visited the Pioneer Museum a close cousin to a museum on the Oregon Trail.
It had several buildings on the grounds:
This map showed the many trails folks followed westward:
The Conestoga wagon was essential as were the items in the second photo.
It was interesting to see the costs associated with a trip:
Bison were quite plentiful prior to the introduction of railroads. The pioneers learned from Native Americans about making use of the entire bison:
Before the Mexican-American War settlers acquired a taste for some finer items like chocolate:
This was a fun fact – see this photo:
Hard to believe San Francisco was ever this size!
At the end of the museum it was clear that the pioneers were quickly becoming “settlers”. Upon reaching Oregon someone arrived at this conclusion:
This period of expansion was the beginning of the end for Native Americans. It was the realization of Manifest Destiny–aka the creation of the American Empire we know today.
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