Joplin, Missouri

Since Bryce had to watch the MI State game on Saturday afternoon, we waited until Sunday to visit Joplin, and we should have known . . . lots of stuff CLOSED!  Oh well!

After mass in Webb City, we drove through downtown Joplin looking for Route 66 sites . . . and we saw several, but all of them were closed.  I was especially bummed about missing the Joplin Museum Complex . . . I really wanted to see the Cookie Cutter Museum!!

All that driving around made us hungry, so we stopped at Norma’s Diner for lunch.

With our energy replenished and a beautiful day ahead of us, we decided to enjoy some outdoor activities.  We went in search of Grand Falls . . . and eventually found it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The colors were beautiful, and the boys enjoyed climbing on the rocks around the falls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Grand Falls we made our way to the George Washington Carver National Monument. 

I remember doing a biography of Carver when I was in grade school, and I knew he was a well-known scientist, but I didn’t remember that he grew up in Missouri.

He was born a slave in the household of Moses and Susan Carver, who taught him to read and eventually sent him to school.  He eventually earned college degrees, including a doctorate, in Iowa, and was hired at Tuskegee University where he spent the remainder of his career.

He was most well-known for discovering hundreds of uses for the peanut, but he was also a teacher,

and he did considerable research on how to improve the health of plants and animals.

 

His other passion was health and nutrition, and he spent lots of time teaching the farmers how to grow other crops that would improve their diet, and even even taught them how to cook!

He would take his Jesup Wagon into the villages and demonstrate recipes with fresh vegetables . . . if he were still alive today, he’d probably be on the Food Network!

After completing the tour of the Visitor Center, we went outside to walk along the interpretive path on the property.

The path took us through the woods, along the creek where George spent his youth,

and also the location of the slave cabin where he was born.

We also saw the home of Moses and Susan Carver,

and the family cemetery plot.

George Washington Carver is not buried here, though . . . his grave is at Tuskegee University in Alabama, where he spent his adult life.

We enjoyed this beautiful fall day . . .

and I just couldn’t resist taking more pictures of the fall foliage.