Orphan Train Museum, Concordia, KS

Over Christmas vacation DR, the kids and I took a little road trip and we found ourselves in the little town of Concordia, KS where we visited the National Orphan Train Museum. Before we visited the museum I had heard of the Orphan Train and I knew that it brought orphans from New York City and brought out west. I thought the train had only ran for a few years and only brought children to a few states out west.

 

 

In fact I learned the Orphan Train ran between 1854 to 1929. There were two main institutions in New York City that helped the children; The New York Foundling Hospital and The Children's Aid Society.

 

The relocation of these children was the beginning of organized foster care in America and many of children who were relocated were never formally adopted.

 

Over 250,000 children were relocated to all the 48 continental states. In fact it's estimated that 1 in 25 people in this country are related to an orphan train child.

 

With the large influx of immigrants to New York City in the late 19th and early 20th century homes were crowded and sickness and disease left many children orphans and many children on the streets while both parents worked.

 

Although the Orphan Train Museum was small it was set up in a way that was easy for children, who don't want to sit and read signs, to understand the concept of the orphan train. Large photos were mounted on the walls chronologically so that as we walked around the boys and I could discuss what was happening in each photograph and how the great poverty led children in need of help.

 

Though the Children's Aid Society did send many children out west on the trains they endeavored to teach children domestic skills and a trade as well.

 

What I found most interesting was that babies and older boys were the most popular children to be chosen from the trains and in fact children could be "ordered". Parents who were looking for a child could fill out a request form specifying gender, age, hair and eye color and organizations such as the Foundling Hospital who took in a large number of infants (foundlings) would do their very best to match children with parents.

 

It was interesting to find the National Center for the Orphan Train to be in such a little town of Concordia, Kansas but they received the records since Concordia was one of stops along the Orphan Train route.

So, I have to ask....can any of my readers say that they are a related to an orphan trian child?

 

Indianapolis Children's Museum

I can't believe it's been almost a month since we've been back from our visit to Indiana. This summer is really flying by! My sister, Officer, lives in Indianapolis and whenever possible I always let her do the driving around town. She never gets lost and I'm not a patient driver! While we were visiting we met my parents, sister in law, sister and her husband and we all visited the Indianapolis Children's Museum. When I was growing up we visited it often but I haven't been there in quite a while and BOY has it changed! 

This is what you walk by to get to the entrance. How cool is that! 

Then before you even enter the museum there are all sorts of famous "landmarks" outside for the kids to climb on...Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, the Pyramids...

The museum currently has an exhibit about brave children in history that includes, Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges and Ryan White. It was a great exhibit and dang, I was so in to the entire thing I didn't take a single pic of it!! But this chestnut tree was planted in honor of Anne Frank and the tree she saw out her window in the Secret Attic. 

My FAVORITE part of the museum?? The Chilhuly glass sculpture of course!! Never heard of Chihuly?? Do yourself a favor and Google him...awesome artist! 

There is just so much to do at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We arrived before it opened and I honestly thought we'd be done by lunchtime and have the afternoon to go somewhere else. Nope, we were there for SEVEN HOURS and I don't think we saw everything. 

They have this awesome hands on exhibit about explorers and adventurers that included Egyptology, pirate treasure and the famous Chinese terracotta statues. 

They have an incredible dinosaur exhibit too! Fossils, dress up and (my favorite) a place where you can be a prehistoric artist that discusses how artists decide what a dinosaur probably looked like. They had a section with dinosaur skulls and play putty and the kids (me) could build the skin on the skull. SO COOL! 

I didn't get nearly enough photos of everything at the ICM. I was too busy having fun myself! They had an exhibit on modern Egypt, old toys, the Old Carousel, Transformers, Trains, oh what else? I know I'm forgetting something. The exhibits are constantly changing but one of the greatest things, I think, about the museum is they still have the "oldies but goodies". 

Of all the years my parents have visited the museum, my dad said nobody had sat for this long to watch a particular exhibit. 

What was it?

The Water Clock! We waited at the clock to watch it drain from 12:59-1:00. 

It was the first time I'd ever seen it change! 

AND they STILL have the Indy Car!! I think it's the same car I climbed in when I was a kid! 

My kids and I have been to a LOT of museums but the Indianapolis Children's Museum, no question about it, is the very best for kids! They may have been exhausted by the end of the day but they were never bored! If you are looking for a place to go with your kids this summer the IMC is it! 

(By the way Officer...thanks for driving! You sure made our visit a lot more pleasant! ) 

Tallgrass Prairie Nature Preserve

 One of the places I enjoyed most on our quick vacation was the last place we visited, the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve . The preserve is located near Strong City in the middle of the Flint Hills Region. 

Tallgrass prairie once covered 170 million acres of North America. Within a generation the vast majority was developed and plowed under. Today less than 4% remains, mostly here in the Kansas Flint Hills. The preserve protects a nationally significant remnant of the once vast tallgrass prairie and its cultural resources. Here the tallgrass prairie takes its last stand. (borrowed Tallgrass Preserve Website)

Over the course of many years a ranch was built and ran by numerous different families until 1996 when it was turned into a national preserve. In the early 1880's a huge 3 story stone barn and mansion was built on the ranch. 

Inside the barn was dark and empty though there were a few farming artifacts; a buggy, barbed wire, old tools, etc. It was just huge and still in wonderful condition. I always enjoy going to see old buildings that someone has had the foresight to preserve. 

I can't imagine building a stone barn on the Flint Hills but they sure did a fabulous job. The barn and mansion stand on a hill. Down the hill, across a modern road, is a bottom land where there were orchards, gardens and vineyards. It's been so very dry these last few years that the prairie flowers and grasses have had a tough time coming up. Though, the prairie has a natural way of dealing with drought that I'm sure when the rains come (I have faith that they will) Tallgrass will be a breathtaking place to visit. 

The mansion is huge. It's built into a hill and has two basement levels and two above ground levels. It really must have been something to see in it's heyday. 

It's kind of hard to see but there are three terraced levels in front of the house and I was standing on a fourth taking the photo. Each level was surrounded by a stone wall roughly three feet high. The walls weren't just for show at the front of the house, rather they wrapped around the mansion until they naturally ended in the hill. Wow! 

Inside there were many more rooms than I was expecting and nothing had been added to the original design. At the very top of the house there were six bedrooms, I believe, but all locked. On the ground floor there were a total of 5 rooms. The basement was the kitchen area along with a cold storage area and there weren't as many large rooms since it was built into the hill. 

The kids thought this was an extravagant building. 

A three seater outhouse!! Pretty fancy! 

About a quarter mile down the way was a one room schoolhouse that was used up until the 1930's. It was locked up but my was it a pretty view! 

There are roughly two miles of hiking trails through the preserve, though we didn't go on many of them. We were pretty tuckered out from our trip by the time we hit the preserve and it was mighty cold and windy the day we visited. 

DR thought this outhouse must have been the work of the WPA because it was a concrete floor. Any input on that? 

It was pretty much a self guided tour when we were there but the preserve gets pretty busy in the spring/summer. We were told that if we came back in the summer we could take the bus tour through an area where a herd of 20 buffalo were kept. 

• From the last Saturday in April through the last Sunday in October, 90-minute prairie bus tours offered 1 time daily at 11 a.m. and more as staffing and budgets allow. Other tour times may include 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. (as staffing allows). Call ahead for availability.
• From Memorial Day through the last Sunday in October, special interpretive natural resource and cultural history programs on alternating weekends as staffing allows. Ask the rangers for the location of the scheduled interpretive activity.
• One-room Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse open weekends (Saturday and Sunday) from 12 p.m. - 4 p.m. in May, June, September, and October.

Here's a YouTube video about Tallgrass and another with Lyle Lovett in case you want to know more. 

I'd sure love to see that schoolhouse open too! It sure looked like a gorgeous building from peeping into the windows. I think we'll have to see about taking another trip to Tallgrass in the future! 

Vacation Recovery

Well, we survived a short vacation trip to Kansas City. Wait...didn't I say in my last post we were heading to Denver? That WAS the plan but Mother Nature stepped in and laughed at us. We were planning on driving to Denver Saturday but the mountains ended up getting hit by a storm that day so at the last minute we decided to drive the opposite direction (about the same distance) to Kansas City.

Though it was a last minute plan we still were able to pack in tons of sights and we had a great time. In a lot of the museums we visited there were interactive exhibits that gave you the option to take a video or photo and then email a link of it to yourself. When we visited the Rock and Roll Museum they gave us each a backstage pass with a scanner code. You entered your email once into their computers and scanned your pass, then after every video you recorded you simply scanned your badge to send the video to your email. I think the kids, and DR, created a dozen total videos. (Though DR won't let me share his with you. Party pooper!! ) Here's some the kids made, I think this was one of the highlights of our visit to Kansas City! 

   

Yap on the drums. They also had guitar, keyboard and other music stations. 

Yahoo singing her own song; "We are the best turners in the world." 

Makes total sense, right? 

The boys teamed up to perform the song their class will be singing in the spring concert. All the kids at school have been excited about this concert and have been telling me all about what kind of bugs they are. This song is so stinking cute, I can't wait to see what the entire school comes up with! 

We also visited Legoland, the WW1 Museum and the Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank (highly recommend them both!), Kaleidoscope, Science City and Tallgrass National Preserve. I didn't get photos of everything but I'll share what I did get later. 

If anyone is looking for a place to take a family on vacation I highly recommend Kansas City. Not only is there LOTS to do but everything we did was concentrated in one area so we weren't constantly driving. In fact the only driving we did was to and from the hotel. 

Enjoy the music! 

What Kind of Wagon is THAT?

I've been to a LOT of museums in my lifetime and considering I grew up on a farm, was a 4Her and a daughter of a man who LOVES history I've been educated about antique farm equipment. But on our way home from Oklahoma on the Eight. Hour. Drive. I needed a break so we took a short detour to see a sod house museum. It was closed but there was plenty of equipment outside to take a look at. 

When I saw this wagon I was stumped. It looked like a beer barrel. Could they have hauled beer on a wagon? That didn't make sense. Though it would have been darn cool to have a huge keg of beer delivered! 

Especially when this was what the front looked like. I kept thinking if it were beer then the tap would have been at the back and that sure didn't look like a tap to me. But with the curved shape to the wagon it had to have hauled some sort of liquid...but why??? 

I was stumped and sent the photos to my dad who came through with the answer, of course. And I must say once I figured out what this wagon was for it was a "DUH" moment. Obviously, THAT was what it was used for!!! 

So, do you have any guesses?? What was this wagon originally used for? 

Answer tomorrow! 

Colorado Ghost towns and Waterfalls (lot's o' pics)

Ah, so you have bravely returned to hear about the remainder of our mini vacation in Colorado Springs eh? The last couple days I posted about Pikes Peak and the Cliff Dwellings which kept us busy Saturday morning. After a quick lunch we stopped by the Ghost Town Museum. 

The museum is actually old buildings from a ghost town housed inside. Within each building there were artifacts from the gold rush era; home and saloon furnishings, blacksmiths, general stores, you get the idea. 

The kids especially liked it because there was plenty of stuff for them to TOUCH and they weren't just stuck looking with their hands in their pockets. They climbed on saddles, turned a butter churn, climbed in a carriage, played a song on the player piano and listened in to a conversation on an old telephone. 

A 19th century dentist drill....I think I'd have been toothless! 

That thing looks scary!! 

All around the museum there were characters like this guy who would "talk" to us and give us a some information about their job in the town. 

Well look at that...did you know Indiana printed money? 

We even tried our hand at panning for gold. I think I may have even found a couple of flakes but since I didn't have anything to carry it in I left it for the next tourist to find :) 

After a morning packed full of sight seeing we were pooped! So we crashed in the hotel for a few hours. I would have preferred a nap but my kids were having none of that.....tv all the way for them!! My kids are deprived. There were two tv's in our hotel room and they kept running between them to see what was on both. You can tell we don't have cable! 

Toward dusk, after I finally peeled my kids eyes off the televisions, we headed to Seven Falls. What a beautiful place! It reminded me just a bit of Turkey Run back home in Indiana except, well, the hills are just a bit higher in Colorado! 

This part freaked me out just a bit. If you look close at the photo above you'll see a couple huge boulders surrounded by, what looks like, a mesh net. What was most disconcerting was those boulders were right above where visitors walk to see the falls. Yikes! 

A view with the falls behind us. I love Colorado! 

There is a Native American family that boasts three generations that have danced at the falls. My kids enjoyed it, especially when they chanted and danced to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. 

You are probably wondering why I'm talking about seeing waterfalls and yet to show you many photos of them. Well, it's because it's really hard to get a view of the entire falls together. You have to climb....a lot...to see see them! There are two sets of steps to view the falls. 

224!! I was dying, but Yahoo practically ran up them! This set took us right along side the falls. And across the falls you climbed 186 steps (or wimped out like me and took the elevator) to get a full view of the falls. 

At dusk lights turn on to make the falls appear to change colors. 

Look at those stairs!! Now, imagine walking up and down all of them with an independent three year old! I was stressing! 

Lovely! 

Okay, I promise, tomorrow's post is the very last one about our Colorado trip. 

I think. 

But come back and check it out. 

Our last step was definitely the neatest stop we made!