Visiting National Historic Sites

Another thing I like to do when we travel across the country is collect stamps for my National Parks passport. We have visited several sites on this trip.

On Friday we made a side trip to West Branch IA to visit the birthplace of Herbert Hoover, a National Historic site (NHS). We saw the two room cottage where he was born in 1874 and lived for 4 years with his parents and 2 siblings. One room was the bedroom; the other was the living area. The kitchen was separated from the other rooms (maybe for safety) and there was a back porch which often served as a sleeping area. The site also includes a Quaker meeting house, a one room school house, a blacksmith shop (his father was a blacksmith), and several historic homes. Nearby is the Hoover Presidential Library.

Don at President Hoover's birth place

Herbert’s  family was Quaker and helped settle the town. Both of his parents died before Herbert was 9 and he lived with relatives until he was of age. He went to school at Stanford. So, I learned a lot about this 31^st president of the United States and was quite impressed with his accomplishments –he worked as a mining engineer in Australia; survived the Boxer Rebellion while working in China; translated a book on mining which is still used today; he was chairman of the commission for relief in Belgium during WWI; Secretary of Commerce under Warren and Harding; he was especially interested in helping children and founded CARE and UNICEF. He had many other humanitarian accomplishments primarily due to his early upbringing as a Quaker in a small town . He died in 1964.

Suzanne at President Clinton's birth home

We also visited President William Jefferson Clinton’s birthplace home in Hope AR which is another NHS. Clinton’s father died before he was born and he lived with his mom and grandparents in this house. If you look at his history he has a lot in common with Hoover – they were raised in a small town, with a loving, but somewhat broken family (Clinton’s mother remarried and they moved to Hot Springs AR). They had a good education and worked hard on humanitarian issues. Clinton was the 42^nd president of the United States.

On our scenic drive through the Ozarks we were in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways (NSR). It comprises the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers. The visitor center is in Van Buren. Unfortunately, it was closed – but it was a beautiful area and worth a revisit if we are ever in the area again.

And today we did revisit an area (unknowingly). We are camping in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. It is not an official National Parks site, but is run by the National Fish & Wildlife Management.