March 27,2012

ST. JAMES to HARTVILLE to POPLAR BLUFF, MO

Today I drove from St. James, Missouri, to my property in the Ozarks near Hartville, Missouri.

I took a few photos, as I have not visited for two years and wanted to see how things have changed.

View from top of the driveway looking south

View from bottom of driveway looking east along Highway Z

View from across roadway looking northwest

View from bottom of driveway looking southwest

I had originally hoped to build a cabin on the property, but my plans have changed and I am selling the land.
I therefore visited two real estate agents today and elected to place the listing with Sho-Me Real Estate.

They will be posting the listing on their website soon and will have the For Sale sign up by this weekend.

Nearby is the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum, so I took the afternoon tour.

This home is where she wrote the Little House Books.

History of Rocky Ridge Farm

There is a 10-minute movie detailing the history of her home. Also included are several recordings made by Laura when she was nearly 90 years old telling of her journey to Missouri in the covered wagon.

Pa's Fiddle is on display in the museum. Her father played it on the journey to Missouri and it is described in many of the Little House books. It is kept in a display case, but each year during the Wilder Day Festival, it is brought out and played again.

The museum also exhibits hadwritten manuscripts for Little House books, keepsakes of the Ingalls and Wilder families, and a replica of the covered wagon.

A tour of the home was fun (no photos allowed), The most interesting for me was to see the desk where she wrote the Little House books. They were very neatly written long-hand on lined paper.

Afterward, I drove along Highway 60 East, a beautiful area of the Missouri Ozarks, and found a hotel in Poplar Bluff, MO for the night.