Odds and Ends in Northwestern Missouri

I’m honestly not clear how the Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline has a 4.8 rating on Google. The core of its collection are items donated by Walt’s sister Ruth, though it turns out that collection is mostly correspondence and other items not especially interesting to look at.

The bulk of the items on display are collections from Disney fanatics that they didn’t know what else to do with. There are a bunch of Disney Park branded ephemera, along with a huge display of a Disney park model that someone made. Considering the detour involved to get to this museum in the middle of nowhere, this seemed like a bit of a trek for not very much.

One interesting artifact was “the only remaining components of a Disneyland ride to be operated outside of Disneyland, the Midget Autopia.” The ride was donated to Marceline when Disneyland dismantled it, and the town ran it as an attraction from 1966 to 1977. A single restored car is on display.

The museum, which opened in 2001, is located in what is billed as Walt’s hometown, but he arrived when he was four years old in 1905 and moved on in 1909. According to the museum, “Walt spent his most formative years in this magical midwest city, and injected his favorite memories of Marceline into countless aspects of his television, film and theme park projects.” This seems like a stretch, if you ask me.

We were in the area of the Gen. John J. Pershing Boyhood Home State Historic Site so thought we’d go for a quick tour. However, we were the only ones there – not surprisingly – and the tour guide was very enthusiastic, so we were a captive audience for nearly 90 minutes.

He walked us through exhibits, explaining each and every one, when I would have preferred to have zipped through that on our own. Then we got a tour of the house, which was honestly just like walking through your grandparents’ house – there wasn’t really any personal touches or stories that related it to Pershing. The furnishings are period-specific, not originals.

A surprise “bonus” was also getting to explore the Prairie Mound School schoolhouse where Pershing briefly. He was not very happy as a teacher, and when he saw an opportunity to get into West Point, he took it and never looked back.

Gen. John J. Pershing was primarily known for commanding the American Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War I, though he overall had a long and successful career. The home is located in Laclede. The Pershing family moved in when John was six, and he remained in the home to adulthood.