Away from the Crowds in Missouri

Missouri is a landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States.  It is known as the “Show-Me State.”

Boathenge includes a series of painted boats on a lawn adjacent to the Katy Trail along the Missouri River. It has a strange legend that BoatHenge either "sprouted from the earth or fell from the sky on the first day of spring." The installation consists of six fiberglass boats bursting vertically from the ground and arranged in a semi-lunar formation.

The Chuck Berry House is a small red brick house in St. Louis that was once the home of rock and roll legend Chuck Berry from 1950 to 1958. A faint “B” for Berry can be seen on the awning over the front porch. It is here that Berry wrote such classics as “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Johnny B. Goode,” and “Rock and Roll Music.” 

The Devil’s Icebox is a cave that stays a cool 56 degrees all year long. The cave is located in the Rock Bridge Memorial State Park south of Columbia. Here you’ll find a landscape above and below ground connected by wooden bridges and pathways. Visitors can explore the dark terrain beneath a natural rock bridge and venture into the darkness of Connor’s Cave.

The park itself features the Gans Creek Wild Area, where visitors can hike and explore the surrounding area.

Elephant Rocks State Park, where giant granite rocks stand end-to-end like a train of circus elephants. About 1.5 billion years ago, hot magma cooled and formed coarsely crystalline red granite that later weathered into huge, rounded boulders.

One of the largest elephant rocks is Dumbo atop a granite outcrop. The boulders can be viewed from the one-mile Braille Trail, designed to accommodate people with visual or physical disabilities.

The trail passes a quarry pond with a variety of wildlife.

Fish on a Bicycle is located in Lewis Park in University City. Lewis Park is named after Edward Gardner Lewis, the first mayor of the city. The small park has an interesting feature: a sculpture of a fish that appears to pedal around the pond. It is the creation of London-based sculptor Steven Gregory and was installed in 1997. The sculpture references the phrase coined by Australian feminist Irina Dunn: "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." The "bicycle fish" phrase and imagery have been adopted by feminists, most notably Gloria Steinem and Flo Kennedy, and its presence in the park reminds visitors to remember Lewis' legacy and his work in the suffrage movement.

Grant’s Farm belongs to the former beer-brewing Busch family. It is a historical estate located south of St. Louis. The estate is home to over 900 animals among them buffalo, deer, lemurs, ostriches, and camels. This land once belonged to the 18th US President Ulysses S. Grant. Grant and his wife received the property in 1855 as a wedding present from his bride’s family.

In 1855 he built a two-story cabin on the property known as Grant’s Cabin. The fence across from the cabin was made from 2,563 rifle barrels as a Civil War memorial. Today Grant’s Farm is a symbol of Anheuser-Busch’s commitment to wildlife conservation and preservation.

The Tier Garden amphitheater offers visitors an up-close and personal experience with many animals among them kangaroos, birds, and pygmy goats. Other more exotic creatures can be viewed by taking the tram tour through Deer Park, which is home to bison, antelope, zebras, and others.

This is also the official home to the Budweiser Clydesdale Stables, housing one of the world's largest herds of Clydesdale horses. (pictured above)

The Ha-Ha Tonka Castle ruins are located in Ha-Ha Tonka State Park, perched on a bluff. Wealthy Kansas City businessman Robert Snyder wished to build a European-style castle. He bought land with a lake and started work on the mansion in 1905. Unfortunately, as the work proceeded, in 1906 Snyder was killed in a car accident. His sons chose to continue building and completed the castle in 1920. A son moved into the castle but went bankrupt. The castle became a hotel and lodge until 1942 when it was destroyed by a fire. In the 1970s the state purchased the property to preserve the ruins within the park.

Maxie, the world’s largest goose, is located in the middle of a public park and is the mascot of the so-called wild goose capital of the world. The giant bird was installed in 1976 and is made of fiberglass and stands on a tall cinder block. The city of Sumner is along the migration path that sees a large number of wild geese land on the local lakes at migration time each year.

The Pinnacles are located in Boone County, where a mass of 300 million-year-old limestone wedged between two rivers eroded over the years on both sides. A geological anomaly formed known as the pinnacles. This is a jagged, pointy rock formation bordered on one side by Kelley Creek and on the other by Silver Fork Creek. They are part of the Pinnacles Youth Park north of Columbia. A one-mile trail starts at a break in the trees on East Pinnacles Road, where a sign informs visitors that they are following the “Cat Tail Trail to Heart Attack Hill.” The trail also leads to a narrow formation known as Shelving Rock.

Precious Moments in Carthage are little Hummel figurines on display in the southwestern corner of Missouri and the creation of Samuel J. Butcher.

He also created a complex with a chapel and gardens.

In the St. Francois Mountains in the Ozarks at 1,772 feet above sea level is Taum Sauk Mountain. This flat-ridged mountain is supposedly named after Piankeshaw chief Sauk-Ton-Qua and his tragic tale. Mina Sauk, the daughter of Sauk-Ton-Qua, fell in love with a warrior from a hostile tribe. The chief killed the lover, throwing him from a nearby cliff and Mina followed her love over the edge. This incurred the wrath of the mythical Storm King, summoning a hurricane to wipe out Sauk-Ton-Qua's entire tribe. A lightning bolt struck the ground and caused a waterfall to appear, wiping away the blood of the lovers. The peak of the mountain, the highest point in Missouri, is marked by a granite plaque.