National Park: The Ozark National Scenic Riverways

The Ozark National Scenic Riverway is located in Southwestern Missouri. It encompasses Mark Twain's National Forest (managed not by the Department of the Interior but by the Department of Agriculture) as well as a number of scenic trailways. There isn't just one site, or just one geographic feature of this park, but many. It would take days if not weeks to explore. I didn't have that kind of time today, so I just chose a couple of sites to check out and went on my way. There had been some flooding in the area, so I could not get to the Alley Mill without taking a long detour. The Alley Mill is the site that is probably the most photographed of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. The Alley Mill is a working mill that uses a turbine instead of a water wheel and rollers instead of a grinding stone. I was bummed that I didn't get to see this structure which was built in the late 1800s. To the folks who lived in the area the mill was an important community center. It served a dual purpose of grinding wheat (as one would expect) but also as a community meeting place. While times have changed, many people return to this spot today for reunions, camping, and other activities.

The Alley Mill was built in the late 1800s.

Much of the water in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways travels underground, and spews forth through springs in the ground. I was able to see two of the water sites. The first was the Big Springs. The road was blocked off to some recent flooding, so I walked down the road a bit, and gained access across the water damaged bridge. The water had to have been a good 10-15 feet higher than it was today (and it was still high). The Big Spring is one of the world's largest springs. It generates over 275 million gallons a day of water from the ground.

Big Spring near Van Buren, MO is one of the worlds largest springs.

The second water site was Rocky Falls near Winona, MO. The falls here are postcard picturesque. There is always something soothing about waterfalls. On this particular day, because there had been so much flooding, there was a lot of white water. Had it been warmer, I might have taken a dip.

Rocky Falls near Winona, MO

Overall this park doesn't have as much history as some of the other parks that I have been to, but it is well maintained and supports lots of recreation. I would love to go canoeing down here when my daughter gets a bit older.

National Park: Ulysses S. Grant's White Haven Home

The site is in suburban St. Louis, Missouri

Ulyssess  S. Grant was the 18th president of the United States, while he did serve two terms as president and tried for a third, some of his presidency may have been plagued by a scandal called the Whiskey Ring. This may have made his term a little less remarkable. I think he is more memorable as the Union General during the American Civil War.  He was a West Point graduate, and fought in the Mexican-American War. But then, he kind of lost his way until the Civil War started. Before the Civil War started, he spent much of his time at a Fort in St. Louis, he met his wife, Julia Dent, at her father's house in White Haven near downtown St. Louis.

White Haven is his wife's family's property. As houses go, it is not that grand or that big. There is a substantial amount of land. The site is in the middle of suburban St. Louis and a bike path runs along it's entrance. The visitor's center has a nice film, and you can take a tour of the house itself. Because of the size, and lack of furnishings, the house is a quick tour. There are multi-media presentations there outlining St. Louis and Missouri's role in the American Civil war.

As presidential homes go, this one was rather modest in size.

Being a border state in the Western Frontier presented some inner strife in Missouri, with a lot of individuals pro-union and others pro-slave. I think the official stance at the beginning of the war was neutral, but the Governor of Missouri had Southern sympathies. This was no different in Ulysses' own family. He was born and raised in Ohio, which was a free-state and his father was against slavery. This institution was not embedded in Ulysses character. His wife, Julia, was raised in a slave state (but still neutral during the beginning of the war), and was taught that whites could own slaves, this was a proper relationship. So when Ulysses Grant moved to his wife's family farm, he actually "owned" slaves through his father-in-law. He would work along side them during the day, and debate his father-in-law at night about this institution. When the Civil War broke out, Julia's own brothers fought for different sides of the war. You can see this conflict up close in some of the multi-media presentations at the house. Ulysses moved up the ranks on the Union side when the wore broke out, and was the General that ultimately received the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, VA.

Ulysses S. Grant appears on the $50 bill.

When Ulysses S. Grant was president, and after his term was complete he did not spend much time at White Haven. He moved to New York to be close to his children. He also took a round the world trip that kept him from visiting Missouri for 2 years. The park is quaint, but not far from a lot of commercialization on nearby Gravois Street. The traffic (late on a Friday afternoon) was awful.

There are several national monuments dedicated to Grant. These include a statue of him and his horse on the National Mall and his tomb on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York.