Our itinerary today was to locate the two Daniel Boone historic sites around here and check them out. We drove down to the Visitor Center in Washington, which happens to be right on the Missouri River, and got some information. This is a cute little "happening" town, population of about 10,000, but they have lots of festivals here and the buildings, although many are really old, are mostly in good shape. We headed out of town with a set of directions, which was a good thing because there were lots of turns. I wonder if there is where the expression "in the boonies" comes from! It was raining when we got here, so we sat in the car and waited it out for 10-15 minutes, and it was still drizzling then, but when we started our tour, it kindly stopped. We got to the Daniel Boone Village about 11:30 and bout tickets to the guided tours of inside the house, and of the grounds which included going into some of the buildings. We could not take pictures inside the house but could the rest of the tour.
After the Louisiana Purchase, no one was moving this far west and the Indians were reclaiming this area, so the government "persuaded" him to relocate to this area in the hope of populating the territory with Americans. Daniel Boone spent the last years of his life in this beautiful stone, 4-story Georgian-style mansion overlooking the scenic Feeme Osage Valley.
The home was actually built by his son, Nathan, but he and Becky lived here with them most of the time. The parcel that Daniel was given was actually down on the River, which was a few miles away.
The Boonefield Village is comprised of more than a dozen historic buildings representing the 1800s and includes a schoolhouse, the Old Peach Chapel, a carpenter's shop, a general store, and a grist mill. These buildings have come from the surrounding area (within 50 miles), been taken apart and then rebuilt on the property, piece by piece.
We got to sit down at the desks in the school and had a short spelling lesson with chalk and a little chalkboard. These buildings are in remarkably good shape.
The Old Peace Chapel was really beautiful. The chapel is available for weddings, now renewals and other special events. It was originally build in the mid-1800s and served as a store and dance hall before it was converted to a church in 1905. It included an interesting clock system, a nice stairway up to the choir loft, and a candle chandelier that could be pulled down to light the candles.
They have a few animals here, representing the times, including some sheep and a draft horse. Next to the barn was some cane growing so thick you couldn't get through it. Cane was used for many things back then, including making baskets and fishing poles.
Next we went into the general store, which was stocked with things important to that time, including guns, traps, chewing tobacco, etc.
The grist mill is where farmers brought their grain (grist) to have it ground. The farmer would also furnish the horses or mules to power the mill, which was on a pivot, and then pay the owner of the mill some percentage (15% we think) of the product (which he would sell) or be paid for the use of the mill. So it was a win-win if you owned a mill.
We finished the tour and headed out to Daniel Boone's burial site about 15 miles away. Even with written instructions, we got lost twice. Becky died first and when they buried Daniel, the site next to Becky had already been taken, so they buried him at the foot of her grave. The story here is that Kentucky thought they should have the Boone's and came with a contingent to remove the bodies to Kentucky. They had not contacted or received permission from the family, and the family knew Daniel hated Kentucky and never wanted to return there, so they did not tell Kentucky where he was buried, and the people from Kentucky, assuming he was next to Becky, supposedly took the wrong body. DNA was performed on the skulls, and Kentucky does have Becky, but the other bones were said to be come from someone taller than Daniel and of African-American heritage (probably a slave).
We saw several wild turkeys out here, and as we headed back to town we saw 4 more. I think we saw a total of 11 today.
By now it's 3:30 and we were starving, so we headed back to town. We were amazed to find that we were only about 3 miles from Washington -- I thought we were probably 20 miles. As I've said, we have totally lost our sense of direction here. Anyway, we had lunch, got the RV ready to travel, fueled, and headed to St. Louis about 4:45. We stayed with Hwy 100 to I-44/US-50, and then onto I-55. Of course, we are facing rush hour, but with the help of GPS Lucille, we sailed right across town. We exited right by the river, in fact we drove right beside the arch, and crossed over to E. St. Louis. We had stayed at the casino here a couple years ago and remembered that it had a nice campground so that was our plan for tonight. We only drove 52 miles today, and were off the road about 5:45.
We visited with our neighbors for a while, then went over to the casino for a couple hours. I actually came out a little ahead, but Joe didn't have much luck. There's thunderstorms in the forecast tonight, so we'll see!
After several days of tours, with lots of walking, we are both pretty tired and looking forward to getting to Lucille's to get some rest. Yeah, right. We'll see how that goes.
