Las Vegas icon

While the dust settles a bit on Colectiva, we finally found the time to visit a Vegas icon that we had on our “to do” list for quite some time. Near Cashman Field on Las Vegas Boulevard sits the old check in lobby from the La Concha Hotel, which now houses the visitor center for The Neon Museum of Las Vegas.

If you do decide to check this gem out, the best thing to do is get tickets online at their website. They only do docent guided tours every half hour, but they are limited in group size and tend to get full. You can just show up and get a ticket for the next available tour, but that might be an hour or two off before an opening is available.

Christine is a volunteer guide, and gave us some great Vegas history lessons as we toured the grounds. For decades, this has been known locally as the “bone yard”. As signs were taken down anywhere in the valley, they were stored here – partly because of the environmental issues and partly because of a foundation whose long-term plan included the idea of restoring some of these beauties to their original elegance. Thanks to those visionaries, we can still wander through the glitzy past of tinsel town.

Having visited Vegas a fair bit over the decades, most of what we saw was immediately recognizable to me. The pink neon from the Flamingo Hilton – the monstrous red H from Binion’s Horseshoe – the marquee from the Golden Nugget which all the experts admit created the most luminescence of any neon display ever in the city. A stroll through this graveyard brings back warm, long forgotten memories, and reinforces that what happens here does really stay here.

We also learned some tidbits that were new to us. We got some history on the Company’s that created this art, the leader being the Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO), a Salt Lake City based firm that dominated this era in Vegas. We saw the Elvis-esque pool shooter sign from the original Doc and Eddy’s Pool Hall on Arville. We learned that the El Portal, now a souvenir shop, was the original downtown movie theater, known for creating weather. In a time before air conditioning was invented, the El Portal would bring in huge blocks of ice and large swamp fans, blowing the air over the ice with the fans, and cooling off their patrons.

While I was only able to make it there once before it closed, the Green Door was a fixture along Fremont Street. In 1930 while the dam was under construction, since there was no gaming in the town of Boulder City, the construction workers would use what little time off they had to blow their paychecks in Vegas. Fremont Street at that time was the only way from Vegas to Boulder City, and an enterprising mom opened up the back door of her home to the traveling horde. Since it was the time of prohibition, she offered only two menu items – fried chicken and moonshine – the workers in a hurry to get to the tables would stop at her green door, get their booze and a quick, delicious meal at a good price, with very little time lost from their main mission – the gambling. Just as a point of interest, this is the oldest sign in the museum, dating back into the 1930’s.

The Tropicana, the Frontier, the Stardust, the Las Vegas Club, the Aladdin, the Liberace Museum, the Moulin Rouge, and any number of properties that I didn't even recognize all have some of their history here. They even offer a night tour here where those signs that they have managed to find the money to restore are electrified. If we find ourselves in the desert for a bit, I suspect we will take in a night tour someday as well.

Talk to you next time we are on the road again, which we hope is soon!

One last little gem for now

The I-40 is our normal route to Texas and the Southeast. It’s also about a 7 hour drive from Vegas, so when we set out to go East, it is our normal first night stop. But in all the times we have been here, we never discovered Red Rock Park.

Red Rock might be the most elaborate city park we have ever seen. The complex hosts significant rodeo events in a massive dirt arena area, has an open air amphitheater for major entertainment events, and has water and electric hooks up for all the vendors and contestants you could ever want. The park also contains a very nice campground, which we took advantage of.

But what makes this so much more special is the location and nearby attraction – the red rocks. In the heart of Navajo country, the park is nestled in among towering red walls that glow when caressed by the sun. This is what a sunrise looks like in Red Rock Park.

There are two impressive hiking trails here, and we did both of them. Both of the trails take you out of the basin where the park rests and up onto the plateau that it has been carved from through years of wind and water erosion. Church Rock trail takes you to visit this formation that is considered sacred to the Navajo – a significant Navajo community has developed in the shadow of the formation. On this trail, we hiked up near and looped around Church Rock. All the while we were hiking up, we had dramatic views of Gallup in the old Route 66 corridor through the most navigable pass through the local mountain ranges.

The other trail up from the floor is the Pyramid Rock Trail. While on the trail, we learned a couple interesting things. These trails were developed not by the CCC as we had assumed, but by the YCC. The State of New Mexico has a state funded youth development program designed to help youth develop desirable job skills while at the same time improving New Mexico. The kinds of projects taken on by the YCC are very much like those of the CCC. The work on these trails was done well, including retaining walls as well as steps carved in the stone walls were otherwise extreme scrambling would have been necessary.

We learned that the city was named for David Gallup, a local paymaster for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Apparently the pass in which the city lies is the only corridor that had been covered in the Atlantic Pacific Railroad Land Grant Act of 1868, so in 1881, the site was chosen to set up the railroads offices. As always happened during that time, a town to support this railroad junction quickly established itself.

Finally, we learned that Gallup was the site of Fort Wingate. Originally established to deal with Indian Affairs in the area after the treaty of 1868, the fort soon became the primary distributor of Navajo Treaty Goods. After WWI, the fort became a storage area for surplus armament and ordinance. The Nation’s need for safe military armament storage resulted in Fort Wingate Ordinance Depot. While no longer an active base, the bunkers that held the munitions in storage are still visible – easy to see from our 7,500 foot vantage point on top of Pyramid Rock Peak.

The reason for the name Church Rock obviously came from the spires that very much have the look of massive organ pipes. The reason for the name Pyramid Rock seemed pretty obvious to us as we stood near its base and gazed upon the massive structure. It was hard for us to believe that we had actually hiked up the 800 foot elevation gain when we were on the top.

The Woman didn't actually make it the last few hundred yards to the peak. As we were nearing the finish line, we hear the young boy who had passed us early on the trail scream somewhere ahead of us. As we passed the family, the dad said the boy had screamed because he had been standing next to a rattlesnake. In fact, the dad said they had come across 3 rattlesnakes lying in the sun on the center of the trail. He said one of them was a green rattlesnake, which he said there was no anti-venom for should you happen to get bit. That pretty much halted the Woman dead in her tracks.

So I scrambled up the last few hundred yards to the peak – camera in hand, searching very intently for the rattlesnakes. But no such luck – the family and the screaming must have scattered the rattlesnakes because there was no sign of them. So I was relegated to just taking in the spectacular view and snapping a few selfies for proof.

In the morning we will leave on our last leg to Vegas, and put Colectiva to bed for a bit. So, this will be the last blog for a while.

Talk to you next time we are on the road again, which we hope is soon!

Surprises in Alamosa

Alamosa is a small farming community in Southeast Colorado. While maybe not on the easiest roads to pick to get back to Vegas, it is definitely not out of the way. We had one purpose to head by there on the way back – the Woman’s brother Kevin was working in Alamosa, so she could pay a visit and get some needed family time. But when we got there, we had some other nice surprises in store.

We met Kevin late in the afternoon when we arrived. He had a couple of nice local attractions lined up for us. The first was Zapata Falls in the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range. A short but fairly steep half mile trail got us to a narrow gash in the rock face. This is where the rock hopping across the Zapata Creek began. We ended up crossing the creek 3 times – rather than rock hop, the Woman actually changed into her water shoes and just walked through the creek. That idea being just too cold for me, I took my chances and ended up being pretty much bone dry.

Shinnying out on some more rocks and bending under an overhang, we finally made it to the well hidden falls. The water comes jetting out of a crevice maybe a hundred feet up, caroms side to side on the crevice walls, and crashes into the creek at the base. While a bit of a challenge to get to, even the Woman agreed that it was worth the work to see it.

Next, Kevin took us to a National Park that we not only hadn't been to, but didn't even know existed. Great Sand Dunes National Park was designated as a National Monument by Herbert Hoover in 1932. It stayed in that limbo status until 2000 when Congress established it as a National Preserve and significantly expanded the lands under US government control. In 2008, Congress finally established it as a National Park, 76 years after Hoover set it aside for protection on behalf of the citizens of the US.

The dunes in the park are alleged to be the highest in the US. Apparently erosion sands from all the streams in the San Juan Mountain range West of here were deposited in the San Luis Valley floor. The prevailing winds here are strong, and are nearly always from Southwest to Northeast. Over the eons, these prevailing winds blew all the deposited sands across the valley floor until they bumped up against the curved barrier of the Sangre de Cristo Range at the Northeast corner of the San Luis Valley, and thereby formed the dunes.

Whether they are the highest or not, they are impressive. Mountain creeks in the Sangre de Cristo Range run along the edge of both the Eastern and Western edges of the dunes, so just next to the dunes is essentially wetlands with abundant birds and other wildlife, as well as flora. Arcing behind the dunes are the snow covered peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Range. It is literally a buffet for the eyes.

We did all our National Park stuff – hiked some trails, visited the Visitor Center and watched the video, but best of all we ascended some of the dunes. You can rent what are essentially snowboards at the general store at the entrance to the park, but that experience just wasn't on our bucket list. Kevin indicated that he had tried that before with his sons, and their experience was not something he remembered enthusiastically. So, we just hoped to be able to see some other young’uns give it a go. We did see a couple folk hiking up the dune faces with boards strapped to their shoulders, but it looked like they were heading to the very top, and it would probably be an hour or more before they reached it, so we chose not to wait.

We had a nice evening of dinner in Colectiva and playing some Zar, while catching up on all the family things and getting some needed family time. With the surprises that awaited here that we weren’t expecting on top of Kevin time, it was a great visit.

On our way out of Alamosa on the edge of the small town of Monte Vista Colorado, we saw was claimed to be, and likely is, the world’s only Movie Manor. A Best Western hotel there was a two story classic motel design, built in a sweeping arc and with huge picture windows looking out at the center point of the arc. At that center point, they built a mammoth drive-in movie screen, along with the requisite parking lot facing the screen with speakers on poles. So, you can either drive in there to see the movie from your car, or you can sit in the comfort of your hotel room and watch the movie out your picture window – it was a comical sight!

Talk to you soon!

All things Twain

Unfortunately, we need to end this journey before we are done – many more things that were on our list that will need to hopefully be covered in a future trip. That being said, with the coming of having to disconnect our water at night due to the possibility of freezing, maybe that is a sign to be done anyway.

Our path took us right through Hannibal Missouri, the museum and boyhood home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. This museum has been operated continuously since 1912. Being born in the very small town of Florida Missouri and being raised in a small Midwestern town on the Mississippi River gave the backdrop for his later writings. I am sure you all know this, but as a young boy he worked on riverboats. Because the channel in the Mississippi would shift constantly, and because the riverboats needed at least 12 feet of draft not to run aground, a depth spotter would be posted on the front of the ship with a rope that had knots in it every 6 feet – known as a fathom. Using old English and river talk – the word twain being used for the number 2 – the spotter would shout out “Mark Twain” meaning the ship was safe at 2 fathoms or 12 feet. Clemens later would adopt that name for his nom de plum. Interestingly, he used that name for the first time in 1862 while in Virginia City Nevada.

We visited Twain’s boyhood home as well as the boyhood home of the real Huckleberry Finn – only about a block apart. We could clearly see how his surroundings influenced his writing. Huckleberry Finn was actually Twain’s best friend, Tom Blankenship, and many of his later adventures were composed from experiences the two had as youth.

Across the street was his father JM Clemens’ office – the local Justice of the Peace. When he was 8, he was out late one night and didn't want to get scolded making his way into the home, so he climbed in a window in his father’s office and lay down on a couch. As he lay there, he thought he saw someone staring at him in the dark, and became alarmed. As the moon light shifted in the room, eventually the body of a dead man with a knife in his chest appeared. Apparently there was a quarrel between friends at a local tavern which ended in murder, and since the townsfolk had nowhere to store a body, they brought it and placed in the office of the JP. This gruesome scene ends up in one of Twain’s later writings.

Next to the Justice of the Peace office is the home of Becky Thatcher. Actually, this was home of Laura Hawkins who would be the inspiration for Becky Thatcher, the notorious love interest for Tom Sawyer. In the book, Becky is the daughter of Judge Thatcher – much as Twain was the son of the JP.  On the corner is where Grants Drug Store was housed – a place where the Clemens family liked to gather and where JM Clemens ultimately died.

At the end of Main Street is a statue of Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn as they would have looked in boyhood. Up a flight of stairs from the statue is the former entrance to the original Mark Twain Memorial Bridge connecting Hannibal to the state of Illinois via old US Highway 36, now I-72. They claim that in the spring the lights on the bridge were so bright that they would attract mayflies so thick onto the bridge deck that snowplows would have to be commissioned to remove them – sometimes as deep as two feet!

Up more stairs is the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse. Overlooking Hannibal and the Twain Museum, the lighthouse was felt to be a fitting tribute from the residents to the man who put this otherwise sleepy town on the national map.

One last flight of stairs takes you to the town’s best vantage point overlooking both the town and the Mississippi River. The overlook gives you a look at some of the nicer river bluff homes in Hannibal, the entire downtown area, and a panorama of the Mississippi River, including the new Mark Twain Memorial Bridge, now part of I-72.

We found some other fun stuff to take in. The Mark Twain Cave figures prominently in his writings. Discovered in 1819, the Cave was available for exploration when he lived in Hannibal growing up. Since there is no definitive evidence that Mark Twain ever explored the Cave, other than the prominence of caves in his writing themes, we decided not to pay an inside visit.

The Riverboat Mark Twain has a permanent mooring in Hannibal right in downtown. Folks are entertained with the lure of the River, as well as old time music, food and drinks. I imagine you can envision what it might have been to hear the spotters screaming “Mark Twain!”

A couple of other interesting facts were learned in our visit. As with most of the 1800’s era famous folk we have been vicariously living through, Twain had his share of trauma in life. When he was 22, he managed to get his 18 year old brother Henry a job on the Pennsylvania, a Mississippi riverboat. On his first trip out, the Pennsylvania had a fire and the boiler exploded – Twain was on the riverboat right behind the Pennsylvania. Twain was told that his brother was OK, but he later learned that Henry had been scalded badly by the exploding boiler, and within a week, Henry died of his injuries. Twain felt guilty for the rest of his life.

Twain actually went bankrupt in 1894. Although he had made substantial money in his writing, he lost it all in his investments. Fortunately he fell in with a knowledgeable financier who had him transfer all his copyrights to his wife to protect them from creditors, and then file bankruptcy. In 1895 he set out on a worldwide lecture tour, the proceeds of which allowed him to finally settle up his financial affairs.

Again we find a connection to where we have been on this trip. It turns out that Twain was good friends with Norman Rockwell, whose home and museum we had seen in New Hampshire. Rockwell agreed to illustrate early editions of Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn writings. The Twain Museum had both originals and prints of those illustrations on display – what fun!

Time to keep making our way back west.

Talk to you soon!

Springfield Illinois

Springfield is all about Lincoln. Born February 12, 1809 in Kentucky, his family moved to Illinois when he was still young. On reaching adulthood, he established his law practice in Springfield, the state capitol, and became well known for his trial expertise. He met Mary Todd, who had a wealthy sister in Springfield, and they were married in a ceremony at that mansion November 4, 1842.

In 1844 the Lincoln’s bought a home in Springfield. The National Park Service now manages that home, as well as a half dozen homes adjacent – in essence the couple of blocks surrounding the Lincoln home – in essence the Lincoln’s neighborhood, are all here under the NPS management. We toured the home and learned a great deal more about our 16^th President and his family.

We are always struck by how just one or two family generations ago, infant mortality was not the given it is today. Abe and Mary had 4 children in total – only Robert lived to adulthood. Two of their children, Willie and Edward, died very young, and Tad died when he was 18 of heart failure. Much has been made in books and film about Mary Todd Lincoln’s mental stability, but with all the grief she witnessed during her life, it’s no wonder to us.

A short walk from the Lincoln home is the law offices of Lincoln and Herndon. During his time practicing with his law partner, William Herndon, Lincoln served 4 successive terms in the Illinois State Legislature. It was during this time that he developed his strong convictions regarding the need for union – often quoted as saying “a house divided cannot stand.” The offices are preserved in much the look as they would have been in the 1840’s and 1850’s when Lincoln and Herndon practiced there.

We visited the old state capitol building where Lincoln would have served in the state congress. The building is surprisingly still intact. It was built in 1839 and was used as the capitol until 1878 when the new capitol building – the one currently in use – was built. We visited the House of Representatives which still contains all the original desks and furnishings that had been used by Lincoln and his peers. The exact desk used by Lincoln during his terms is highlighted by having his signature stovepipe hat sitting on it.

The old state capitol building was actually the second one built in Springfield. The original was wood construction, and in 1839 the state determined they needed a capitol that would last forever, and so this impressive stone building was commissioned. However, apparently the vision was not sufficient – after less than 40 years of use, it was determined that the building was too small to serve the needs of the state, and the current state capital was built.

We arrived at the new capitol building just as a guided tour was starting, so we hopped in with the small group. Lincoln didn't live to see this new capitol building built – construction started on it after the end of the Civil War. As will many of the traditional domed capitols built during the time, the use of exotic stones and marble is impressive to see. And the artwork is outstanding as well.

Just a few more blocks walk gets you to the Lincoln Presidential Library. Managed by a foundation rather than the Park Service, it is an interesting blend of historical artifacts and entertaining educational experience. Multi-media presentations blend images to attempt to put you in the time of Lincoln along with actual artifacts, and it is really well done. Seeing one of his stovepipe hats, some of the actual White House glassware, Mary Lincoln’s cosmetic case, and many, many other personal items made our visit exciting.

The Lincoln’s left Springfield in 1860 to occupy the White House. The old train station, now called the Lincoln Depot, where Lincoln bid farewell to the citizens of Springfield for the time being has been preserved. Of course, as history would have it, Abe Lincoln would never return to his home in Springfield as he had planned. Mary could not bear the grief of returning to the home without 3 of her children and her husband, so she left the home to her son Robert, who ultimately gave it to the state of Illinois to preserve the memory of his father, with the stipulations that it would always be available to the American public to visit without charge. To this day, tours of the home carry no charge.

Our last stop was Oak Ridge Cemetery. Within Oak Ridge lies the Lincoln Tomb. Abe, Mary and their 3 children who died in their youth are entombed here. There is a stone marker in the tomb for Robert as well, but only as a memorial – Robert is actually buried in Arlington, as he served in the military, and that is where his wife wanted him buried.

There are no direct descendants of Abe and Mary any more – Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, the great grandson of Robert, died in 1985 with no heirs. While in the Lincoln Tomb, we noticed that the date of Robert’s birth on his memorial stone was in error – and it looked like someone had just tried to engrave over the error. We asked the docents about this, and they said it was one of those unsolved mysteries – they agreed that it looked like an attempt to hide a mistake, but there was no documented history of the error, and there was nobody around who had any anecdotal stories about what happened – anyway, it is now just a part of the history of the Lincoln family.

Talk to you soon!

On the way to Springfield Illinois

We got a treat on our way through to Springfield from Canton. The Woman’s good friend, Debby Downes owns a B&B there, so we stopped to pay a nice visit, since we don’t get to see her very often. We caught a couple hours of hiking at the Englewood City Park, which allowed the ladies to catch up on old times. Then we stopped back at Colectiva to show it off to Debby and have a nice turkey breast crockpot lunch by the fire. Debby and the Woman ended the nice visit by toasting smores, the first time on this trip, so the Woman was really happy.

On the way to Springfield we passed through Indianapolis. We stopped to see the Brick Yard – the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – and were really glad we did. We had no idea of the history of this track, and were quite surprised when we learned it.

At the turn of the century, apparently Indianapolis was right there with Detroit as far as the developing car industry was concerned. No fewer than 5 manufacturers called Indianapolis home, Duisenberg, Stutz, Cole, Marmon and National (looks like Detroit eventually won the competition as these brands are no longer around) were all trying to perfect their autos and capture the exploding market. Asphalt would not be invented for a long time, so there were only rutted dirt roads to drive on, and the manufacturers desperately wanted to figure out a way to test their vehicles’ capabilities and design in speed and reliability.

In 1908, a local businessman, Carl Fisher (later of Fisher Autobody) convinced a couple of other wealthy businessmen to pool their resources and build this 2 ½ mile oval track so that the manufacturers would have it available to test their vehicles. Originally the surface was dirt, and proved to not be durable enough for the intended use. So Fisher had 3.2 million red paving bricks brought in, and the 2 ½ oval was entirely paved with brick – hence the nickname.

It wasn't until 2 years later that the first Indianapolis 500 car race was held. The track had served its purpose and cars were being made faster and more reliable. Fisher believed that a national level race to showcase cars to the public would draw huge crowds, and provide another income opportunity from the investment. He turned out to be right, and in time, different kinds of car races were held at the Speedway.

We were there just as a guided tour of the track and facilities started, so we got to learn about how the Speedway and the races changed over time, and some of the significant historical events. Because early cars smoked heavily, Fisher decided that his guests would not be able to see a traditional European standing start, so he decided he would start his races by having a pace car lead the pack around to the starting line, with a moving start – first time that was ever done in the racing industry. It didn't hurt at all that Fisher owned an auto dealership so he supplied the “pace car” and began the long history of advertising on them.

We got to see the actual Borg Warner Trophy given to the winner of the Indianapolis 500 each year – but only to hold and have their names and faces inscribed, and the actual trophy remains at the Museum at the Speedway. All the winners since Ray Harroun won it in 1911, with an amazing average speed of 74.59 MPH, have their faces and names engraved on the trophy.

The trophy had to be enlarged twice as the number of winner’s faces and names filled it up. Two separate extensions of the base were added, which will be good for races through 2034. With those two based additions, the trophy is now taller than the winner of the 1911 race.

We learned a bunch of other interesting facts. The famous war pilot Eddie Rickenbacker was part owner of the track for 18 years from 1927 to 1945. They began paving the oval where deterioration of the bricks began back in 1936 - however, the surface still had intact brick areas up until 1961 when the entire surface was covered in asphalt – except of course for the finish line which is still brick. The “Pagoda”, as the main structure at the finish line is referred to, was actually a Japanese style pagoda because those styles were in during the Roaring 20’s – they still keep the theme although the building is now high tech metal and glass.

Race activities last about week with qualifying runs and such. We sat in one of the huge corporate suites which can be scored for a cool $70,000 for the week – that is a lot of customer entertainment value for the buck. Oh, and its $70,000 for 1/3 of the suite, not the whole thing. And you have to provide all the food and drinks, which of course the Speedway is more than happy to cater for you.

With all this fun under our belt, we hopped back into Colectiva and continued our drive to Springfield.

Talk to you soon!

Canton Ohio

We were surprised by the plethora (good word, eh?) of things to see and do in Canton. After the Woman got to get her Perkins pancake fix (her favorite pancakes in the world, even better than Polly’s in New Hampshire, are from a Midwestern restaurant called Perkins), we headed out to be entertained.

I had no idea there was such a thing, but we visited the First Ladies National Historic Site. President William McKinley lived in Canton when he ran his campaign for the presidency. He married Ida Saxton, the daughter of a wealthy family and the heir of the family home, which was the basis for this National site. The Ida Saxton McKinley home has been restored to what it looked like in the late 1800’s when they campaigned from Canton.

That election was apparently the last where the general public had to travel to the candidate to learn what they were all about, and McKinley apparently handled it masterfully. He bought a home not far from Ida’s home (that home no longer exists) and ran what he called his front porch campaign. He would establish events where he would speak from his front porch, publish openly the times, and apparently something like 800,000 people from all over the United States ventured to Canton to see and hear him – a shot in the arm to the local economy. In campaigns after McKinley’s, candidates would travel the country in order to increase the number of folk they could actually interact with.

The home was classic Victorian, and the docent told great stories. Much that was on display in the home were personal articles owned and used by the McKinley’s, including their personalized china. Apparently Ida was generally in poor health, which is one of the reasons that he let folk come to him during his campaign.

The First Ladies Library has a collection of personal artifacts from many of the first ladies of US presidents on display as well. This, for example, is Ida Saxton McKinley's inaugural historian told us that women of the time would even sometimes have a rib bone or two removed in order to shrink down to this look - many women were nearly crippled as they aged due to organ shifting and injuries from wearing the corsets needed to show this waist look. The exhibits focus on the roles that the president’s spouse played in the country at the time of his presidency, as well as unique and interesting facts. In some cases – Jefferson for example whose wife died prior to him assuming office so his daughter did for his administration what a spouse normally would have – a non-spouse filled the role of the First Lady. You come away from this Library with a different perspective on the importance of the role of First Lady.

When I think of assassinated presidents I usually only think of Kennedy and Lincoln. But there were 4 presidents assassinated in history, and several more attempts – it’s a more dangerous job than I was generally thinking. McKinley was one of those unfortunates. Attending the Pan American Exhibition in 1901, a man who believed all those in power should be removed hid a gun in a handkerchief and shot the president while in a reception line. Apparently the wounds should not have been critical enough to result in death, but the medical care was so poor that by the time the bullets were removed, serious infections took hold – it was the infections that killed McKinley rather than the bullets.

McKinley, Ida and their two daughters are interred in the William McKinley Memorial at the McKinley Presidential Library site in Canton. The memorial is supposedly the largest such memorial in the US, and having hiked the steps to reach it, I can believe it. Both the memorial and the Library are worth a visit – the volume of personal artifacts of President McKinley’s contained in the library is impressive. Even his Masonic sash is there to see.

After everything McKinley, we headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I always wondered why it was in Canton, but now I know. The NFL (The American Professional Football Association when it was formed) was founded in Canton in 1920. At the time, the Canton Bulldogs was a very successful professional football team.

It was fun learning a bit more about the history of the League – we had learned quite a bit when we visited Lambeau Field a while back – the Packers were one of the first teams to be licensed by the NFL – but this visit helped us to fill in some of the knowledge gap. In addition, the historical equipment and uniforms from the early days of the League were great to peruse, as well as many of the names that are so clearly associated with the game.

I spent much of my time looking through the historical appointment listing of players and coaches. 6 Minnesota Viking players had busts in the Hall, as well as legendary Coach Bud Grant, so that was fun to see. We didn’t see Packer history maker Bret Favre’s bust in the Hall, but maybe since Peyton Manning just took his career touchdown passing record from him, maybe Peyton’s bust will someday make its way here as well. I even used one of the interactive kiosks in the Museum to design my own Super Bowl ring.

On the recommendation of one of the docents at the First Ladies Library we had lunch at Bender’s Tavern. There is a whole list of things to know about this place. The building was built in 1898 and it opened as the Tavern in 1901 – just in time for the McKinley funeral. (By the way, if you want to see some great pictures of the McKinley funeral reminiscent of Kennedy’s, they are on the first and second floor of the turn of the century court house a couple blocks away.) Bender ran it for 17 years, and passed away in 1918. 

At that time, no self-respecting woman would be seen in a tavern, so they actually had two establishments – the Men’s Tavern and the Women’s Restaurant – women could get a drink in the restaurant, but still had to enter through a separate entrance and had to remain in a different room. 

After Bender’s death, it was purchased by the Joseph family and has been operated by three generations of the family to this date. We met the grandson and saw a picture of him in the Tavern on his Grampa’s knee when he was maybe 8 years old. His son now runs the Tavern. I had two traditional items taken from the early 1900’s menu – turtle soup – never had it before but it is a tomato based soup with some veggies and turtle meat – and a little cup of brandy that they claim brings out the flavors of the soup – at least you think it does. The other was smoked salmon with chopped onions and capers. 

All in all, it was a yummy and informational lunch. By the way, the founders of the NFL were at Bender’s Tavern when they came up with their final plan for the League. Being that he played for the 1920 Canton Bulldogs, Jim Thorpe was a regular at Bender’s. I even sat in his regular booth.

Talk to you soon!