There is probably someone in each of our lives that truly inspires us.  Jeffrey Thimgan was one such young man.  But in his absence, his friends and family are working to accomplish all he had dreamed and more…

The shots at Ft. Sumter in April of 1861 are often considered the first military action of the Civil War.  However, one could make a case that the battle in this Kansas town five years prior was the event that made the war inevitable…

In the years just ahead of the Civil War, thousands of people came to Kansas ahead of a critical vote on whether the new state would accept or reject slavery…

When you run across a building named the “Elephant Hotel,” well, there’s probably going to be an interesting story behind the place.  That is the case…

Just about everyone one of us has visited a zoo and seen a circus.  Now let me take you to a time when neither existed.  It was a farmer from Sommers, New York, Hachaliah Bailey, that perhaps introduced many to those exotic animals…

It all began with a man who wanted to farm, not with a team of horses or mules, but rather with an elephant.  And from there, the opportunities were endless.  This is the story of an elephant that changed the course of American history…

This fort serviced the Pony Express, the Oregon Trail, and was around so long it even slept travelers by car.  It’s a big history in a place with a lot of stories to share…

You usually don’t think of a fort coming under new ownership.  But that’s what happened to this site that bears the name of a frontier legend…

He was one of the best known mountain men of the early 19th century.  A man who was skilled in the fur trade and later established a fort that still bears his name…

Image a man who speaks over ten languages, can play multiple musical instruments and serenade customers with his wonderful voice.  Today we remember the life of a friend of northwest Missouri – Fred Mares, who passed away a few days ago….