May 17, 2023
My Jesse James Missouri Tour with Mark Lee Gardner really got my juices flowing. Came home yesterday brimming with inspiration and ideas. It's one thing to read about historical events and it's an entirely different level of experience to be on the ground and walk where they walked. Like I said about the Centralia battlefield, it's so helpful just to hear the birds and feel the humidity.
"First Sketch for 'The Bushwhacker'"
And, here for your reading pleasure is a great description of the Confederate Bushwhackers.
This is a pull quote on the wall at the Arrow Rock Museum in Arrow Rock, Missouri. And, by the way, the Arrow Rock Museum gets my vote for the best overall historic displays on the trip, with excellent commentary, like the example above, or of their clear, concise maps to show you what they are describing.
(which began in Franklin)
This is precision storytelling. You see the location of Franklin in the top map and then you see that it is the beginning of the Santa Fe Trail. Really puts it all in perspective. Thank you Arrow Rock display designers!
How bad are tourists at the James Farm outside Kearny, Missouri? Here is the wallpaper in their historic home. Or, more correctly, what is left of it, thanks to paying customers who want to take a little souvenir home with them.
And lest we get too judgemental about souvenir hunters, at the Rocky Cut robbery site, I found this railroad spike loose on the ground and claimed it. I think it's human nature to want a piece of history and it's a matter of degree of how ridiculous we get in purloining it.
"So when is this 'old enough to know better' supposed to kick in?"
—Old Vaquero Question
Looks like you had an amazing experience on your research tour! I hope you save a little room in your JJ book for his mentor Bloody Bill Anderson. I am looking forward to this book and can't wait to see Jesse get the BBB treatment...I see a bestseller rolling around the bend!
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