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Iatan, MO. November of 2004, Jerry and I visited Chris and Brian in Kansas City. We had decided to try to find some of the towns mentioned by Nerva Duff Moore in her family history. They were all just a few hours outside of KC. I wrote up a synopsis of Nerva's text organized by town and Jerry laid out a course on his GPS. The following descriptions are taken from my text. The first town was Iatan, a little town sandwiched behind the river on the west, followed by the rail road, with the town on the east. The rich bottomland stretched from the highway to the river. - 115_1571_IMG
Iatan was established in 1842 and appears to have not been built in or updated since the early part of the 20th century. It was generally in poor condition, but with darling homes and buildings tucked in and around the rolling hills and winding streams on their way to the river. - 115_1572_IMG
Iatan, MO. The town was built on a small grid, perhaps 2 or 3 streets square. This road ran north and south. - 115_1573_IMG
Iatan, MO. We liked these nifty street signs. - 115_1569_IMG
Bean Lake, MO. The second location was Bean Lake, a horseshoe of the Missouri River that flooded often enough that families were relocated in the late 20th century. We walked along just to get a sense of the place. - DSC01095
Boh and Chris head out to explore while they try to keep track of Yogi and Priscilla. - 115_1567_IMG
Map showing the rich bottomland of the Platte Territory that drew the Duffs to the area. You can see how settlement just followed the river. - 115_1575_IMG
Atchison, KS. This, our third destination, was also the largest of all. It took us over the Missouri River to Kansas. There we found a bustling, charming old town with shops, restaurants and a musem. We had lunch and learned that this might be a good place to return and do research. - DSC01100
We went to the Atchison museum in search of John Reisner's hotel. Instead, we found this interesting exhibit of corn husk memorabilia. "Between 1895 and 1912 Atchison hosted seven large harvest festivals known as the Corn Carnivals. These huge celebrations lasted from one to three days and drew visitors from across the nation. This event soon gained Atchison an international reputation." - DSC01096
A corn husk hat made for the occasion! When we were in Muscotah, the couple we spoke to had a photo of a woman in a corn husk dress. - DSC01097
Hat with corn husk dove, plus a separate doll. - DSC01098
Another view of this crazy hat. - DSC01101
Photo on display of people in a corn husk float. - DSC01103
Atchison, KS. We were looking for John Reisner's three story log hotel on the river. A guy at the museum thought this one was log, but the owner showed us around and it clearly was not John's. Nevertheless, this hotel was right on the Missouri River and had a great view. - 115_1574_IMG
Another view of the River House. It was really disappointing to learn that it was not a log hotel. The guy at the museum really had our hopes up.