There are seeds in every abandoned house, in the dry rotted floorboards and the mildewy walls, in the moss on the roof where sunlight doesn’t reach. The seeds are in the windowsills, in the clawfoot tub with as many rings … Read More
St. Louis: birthplace of fast food, but…
The Gateway to the West doesn’t have stockyards like its western sisters Saint Joseph and Sedalia and Kansas City. Still, one prime Saint Louis cattle drive steers my tastebuds to Lindbergh Boulevard. Kreis’ Restaurant has been kicking steak house butt … Read More
Cut your cookie
Of all the Joplin icons—Langston Hughes, Bonnie and Clyde, Route 66—I never put mining on the list. But that’s how Joplin got its start back in 1873. I sought to uncover the boomtown you won’t see from the interstate, the … Read More
Boonslick
Drove into Howard County, which originally covered the entire northeast quadrant of the state. Missouri lawmakers eventually carved 29 Missouri counties from its sprawling flanks. But even the slimmed-down Howard County packs a history: The ubiquitous Boone Family. Trail enthusiast … Read More
The Sad, Strange Case of the Missouri Waltz
You’ve heard it a thousand times. At Mizzou games. On TV. Radio. Most recently at Mizzou’s Cotton Bowl victory over Ohio State. The Mizzou band begins the familiar strains of the Missouri Waltz. Then the song morphs into a march … Read More
Outlaws need pants.
Just south of Lawson, in the pastoral countryside, a huge factory, built more than 150 years ago, made pants and sweaters. The factory may have sold pants and sweaters to Harry Truman, who sold pants and sweaters when he was … Read More
The Last Man to Beat Bill Hickok
Bellefontaine Cemetery holds stories that forged America. Good. Bad. Wild, like the story of Captain Bill Massie, the world’s greatest riverboat gambler. His unmarked grave belies his prowess. In the parlors of his riverboats, Captain Bill Massie could read the … Read More
Skull Rock
We heard about Skull Rock, and we set out to find it, among some elephantine boulders in a legendary spiritual preserve bigger than the Bootheel, where two great American ecosystems bump into each other in Southern California. The highland Mojave … Read More
The Ghost of a Roadside Inn
Took a nap beneath this sign, sharing space with the ghosts of travelers who stopped here long ago to add a sticky chapter to their Route 66 journey. It was a time when cars had crank-down window air-conditioning and tube … Read More