Day Four on the Jefferson Highway – with a splattering of Route 66 along the way

**Note of apology - have no idea why the font is changing mid-sentence and what is happening to my paragraphs.  Oh, Well!

Whew!  Another LONG day – totaled a whopping 62 miles today from Baxter Springs KS to Carthage MO.  Did a little bit of running around to see some things but the weather wasn’t great for taking pictures, really overcast and when I got to Joplin MO it was raining.  I wanted to go to the park with the memorial from the tornado that devastated the city a few years back – drove thru but couldn’t get any good pictures.  It is quite the park however and if you are ever in the Joplin area, you need to plan on a drive through.  They have a special area dedicated to the children that lost their lives there.

As I have been driving around the area, I find it interesting that so many tourist info places and chamber of commerce places are in renovated old service stations. 

Baxter Springs, as a town, was established in 1866 on the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson military road.  Because of this, for many years it was an important trading center on the Texas cattle drive trail. Prior to this it had been a stopover on the military road due to the water and the springs.  In its early days, Baxter Springs was a rough and ready town.  Evidently there was a need for a "hangin' tree."  But the spring waters made it a welcome stop over for travelers, cowboys, military and all sorts of folks!  Because of the spring waters, it was an ideal location for a military fort.

On my way out of town, I picked up the old Route 66, visited the cemetery where they re-interred the soldiers killed at Fort Blair and the Battle of Baxter Springs.  On October 6, 1863, General James Blunt and about 100 men were met near Baxter Springs by William Quantrill and several hundred Confederates masquerading as Union troops.  Thinking these were Union forces, Blunt’s Band was preparing a musical salute; Quantrill and his men opened fire.  Due to the surprise, there was no organized resistance.  Blunt escaped but he lost 90% of his force.  

The raiders also attacked Lt James Pond and 95 men camped at the springs a few miles away.  Although they, too, were caught off-guard, they were able to muster some resistance and the Quantrill gang retreated.

Traveling Rt 66, I was tempted to cross the “Rainbow Bridge,” (not the one dead pet’s cross!) but I wasn’t sure I wanted to take my truck across – kinda narrow, kinda old!  So I took the main road around it! Called the Brush Creek rainbow arch, the bridge is 130 feet of reinforced concrete.  Built in 1923 it linked Galena, Riverton and Baxter Springs with a concrete road.  It is 20 feet wide, the arches rise 27 feet and the bridge deck is about 22 feet above the low water elevation and approximately 34 feet above the bedrock on which the abutments rest.  It has a live load capacity of 125 pounds per square foot.  Have no idea what that means but when I saw the “no trucks” sign, I figured that was good enough for me!  This must have been a popular design because I have seen similar structures on the Lincoln Highway.

One thing I have noticed they have plenty of down here are “round abouts” or whatever they call those circles where once you get on, you can never get off – you just keep going around and around and hope you spin off in the right direction.

Note the picnic table and benches - they are made of concrete road construction pieces. 

Still on Old Rt 66, I went to Galena – this is getting into mining country.  Although the train had tracks in the area by 1871 – it wasn’t until they started lead mining that Galena settled in as a town in 1877 – a rough and tumble kinda town.  Originally platted by the Galena Mining and Smelting Company and was named after the lead ore, galena, found in the area. The city was part of the tri-state mining area and had over 30,000 inhabitants.  During World War II, was a large ordnance plant producing ammonium nitrate. After the war it was privatized and at one point was the world's largest producer of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in the world.  After the mines closed in the 1970s, population decreased.

Must have been a good sale on those clocks......lots of towns in the area have one or more!

After Galena, it was off to Joplin and the rain and the traffic and another round about or two – I would need more than a couple of hours to find my way around Joplin.  Then off to Webb City.  

Webb City has certainly captured the spirit of Route 66.  A mining community, lead was first discovered in 1873 when John Webb plowed it up while working his fields.   In 1876 Webb leased his place to the Center Creek Mining Company and 20 years later there were over 700 mines within the limits of Webb City and nearby Carterville.  The St Louis and San Francisco RR came in 1879.  There was a mule street car line from Webb City to Centerville and later, 1893, the South West Missouri Electric Railway came. During WWI zinc and lead concentrates produced in the Webb City district were valued at over $18 million.  During WWII, explosives were manufactured at powder plants in the area.

Proud of their mining history, they are in the process of building a wonderful park to honor that tradition.  And, they have taken full advantage of their location on Route 66 for the tourist trade.

            Another old service station being made into a Chamber of Commerce Tour Info center!

I think the one thing I will remember about Webb City is the Praying Hands statue 110 tons and 32 feet tall atop a 40-foot-tall man-made hill. They were sculpted by local artist J.E. "Jack" Dawson in 1972 – you cannot miss it coming into the city – it sets high on the hill off the side of the road – gleaming white hands folded in prayer and a large American Flag.  God Bless America!

From Webb City it was a short jaunt to Carthage and the Boots Motel for the nite.