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Last year, 2023; not so much. Only one camping trip and that just 190 miles to Missouri’s Weston Bend State Park and the town of Weston Missouri. Weston Bend is a small state park. We had tried to stay there in the Spring of 2022, but the campground was full.
Missouri’s state parks are camping gems often overlooked by the rest of the nation and even by most Missourians. In Missouri, there are forty-one state parks and historic sites offering over 3500 camp sites ranging from lakeside and river front sites to beautiful Ozark Mountains and historic sites. See https://mostateparks.com/page/57960/camping-directory
But the purpose of this post is to highlight Weston Bend State Park and Weston Missouri as re-discovered by me and Alice in October of 2023. While the park and Weston may be unheard of by many Missourians, it is a favorite for camping and day trips to many in Northwest Missouri since it is only about thirty miles from downtown Kansas City and even closer to St. Joseph. Therefore, you had better make reservations well ahead of your planned visit since there are only thirty-one campsites.
Weston Bend Campground
Our little Sunray 139 camper must have felt neglected for most of 2023 since it just sat unattended in our driveway all year. Even though it did not leave our driveway, there was one exception to not being used when it served as a bedroom for our grandson Sam during his Florida family’s visit.
We decided not to let the year pass without at least one camping trip, and we wanted to see and enjoy the wonderful fall foliage of Missouri. After searching the web for the best place and date to do that, we decided on the fourth weekend in October at Weston Bend State Park. Fortunately, we had made that decision far enough in advance that we were able to get the needed reservations.
By early Saturday afternoon, October 21, we were comfortably set up at our campsite.
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As is typical of most Missouri State Park campgrounds, sites include electrical hook-up but no water or sewer hook-ups. However, a source of water is usually close by and a clean and well-kept bath house with showers is not too far away.
We obtained camp information, including the location of hiking trails and other sites of interest, and a map from a welcome stand which was near the camp host’s trailer. Alice and I enjoy walking but, at our age, are not avid hikers. We did, however, venture onto what was a trail of about a mile which looped from the campground and back. The trail was listed as “easy,” but it was up and down some relatively steep hills, through the woods, poorly marked and slippery because of the wet leaves which had fallen. But timid hikers which we are, we had our hiking sticks with us which kept us on top of the ground the whole way.
There are nine hiking trails ranging in length from about a mile to over six miles and listed as “easy” to “difficult.” There is also a 2.9-mile paved bicycle loop which can also serve as an easy walk.
See https://mostateparks.com/page/55016/general-information
The overlook provides a glorious view of the Big Muddy and a vast view of the state of Kansas on the other side of the river. Alice and I returned here three times.
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It is a breathtaking sight any time of the day, but being there at sunset is an experience you do not want to miss.
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A camping or day trip to Weston Bend State Park is to be enjoyed in its own right, but no trip there is complete unless you top it off with a visit to the historic town of Weston Missouri
Weston Missouri: The Town That Time Forgot - The Town That Refused To Die
It was raining Sunday morning, so we decided to go to Weston, which is only a couple of miles away, for breakfast. It was like a ghost town. By late October many of the shops and restaurants are closed and those which are still open are none-the-less, closed on Sundays. Still set on having breakfast, we drove about seven miles to Platte City and there we found a good family food restaurant.
When in Weston on Sunday, we saw that most of the shops would also be closed on Monday. Therefore, on Monday, although it was still cloudy, it was nice enough for us to be able to explore the park, including a short hike. The next day, Tuesday, was a beautiful sunny day as we made our way to Weston again, hopefully, this time for lunch and a tour of the town and shops. Weston, although a tiny town, boasts a variety of restaurants from bargain family restaurants to fine food cuisine. You will also find many shops and fun-filled pubs, beer breweries, wineries, and a famous distillery. We just wanted good home cooking and we found that at the Weston Café.
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After lunch, we strolled down main street’s shops featuring local crafts, antiques, souvenirs, baking goods and other specialty foods and items of local origin. The main street tourist area is only a few blocks long. We started at the bottom at this old-time filling station and worked our way up.
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When driving into town we saw a sign which simply read, “Museum.” That was our goal as we worked our way up by and into many of the shops.
“Let’s go in here,” Alice urged as we strolled by a plain looking window sign which read “Silk Museum.” “Why in the world would we want to do that?’ I replied, “sounds super boring to me”. We ventured on toward the big building with the Museum sign.
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Weston Historical Museum
https://www.westonhistoricalmuseum.org/
We entered the door of this auspicious building and stepped inside. The only person around was an older lady sitting at a desk to the far left of the entry door. She immediately rose from her chair and came over, welcoming us and asking us to sign the guest book. There was no entry fee but there was a donation box. I dropped a five-dollar bill into the box as Alice was signing the guest book. We were the only visitors, and the volunteer lady was happy to give us a personal tour during which she enthusiastically provided a knowledgeable description of the many exhibits. She was indeed a wealth of knowledge, not only about the exhibits, but also about the history of Weston.
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See here for http://ozarkcountry.com/weston/facts.pdf Some Interesting Facts We Learned About Weston.
“Glad you came and hope you come back again,” said the volunteer lady following the tour. “Oh, by the way, if you haven’t done so yet, be sure to visit the silk art museum. I just did that for the first-time last week, and I was simply amazed at what I saw and what I learned. You don’t want to miss it.”
National Silk Art Museum
We took her advice and headed back toward the silk art museum. If there existed in Weston any less auspicious looking shop than the National Silk Art museum, then we must have missed it. A scribbled, handwritten sign on the door read, “Be back soon.” Disappointed, we started to walk away when an older gentleman coming down the sidewalk yelled, “Here I am, don’t go away.” It was John Pottie, museum curator. Alice and I were in for a fascinating trip into the world of silk art, guided by the world’s most knowledgeable expert on the subject.
There is “silk art” and then there is “silk art.” Utilizing the ever-knowing depth of the internet I learned that “silk art” is painting, in one form or another, onto a silk canvas. That, most definitely, is not the silk art you will find in this museum. The artwork here consists of tapestries in which the art itself consists of woven silk thread; not paint on silk.
The home page of the https://nationalsilkartmuseum.com/home National Silk Art Museum explains the process in a way I cannot: “These dots are created every time a weft travels across one warp and can be made either more blended or diverse by the control of each dot; i.e., the spun silk itself and/or the weft bundle.” Maybe, if I knew what a weft and a warp were, I could explain it better. (I thought a warp was the speed measurement used by Captain Kirk.) I found this definition of weft and wart: “These dots are created every time a weft travels across one warp and can be made either more blended or diverse by controlling of each dot, i.e., the spun silk itself and/or the weft bundle.” (from “What Is Warp and Weft? The Heart Of Fabric Weaving” https://so-sew-easy.com/what-is-warp-and-weft-the-heart-of-fabric-weaving/#google_vignette
The images we see on the tapestries at the Silk Art Museum are created by the manipulation of thousands of dots which are like the pixels we in today’s computer world know so well. One cannot imagine how such tapestries could be created without the use of a computer.
Mr. Potte explained to us that, indeed, these tapestries were made possible thanks to the invention of the Jacquard loom, a device which made use of punch cards to control the weaving of the threads. The Jacquard loom, invented by Joseph-Marie Jacquard around 1804, introduced the use of punch cards in machines which eventually led to the punch card computers used until the second half of the 20th century. But even with the Jacquard loom, these tapestries required the skill of great artists and many hundreds of hours to create. Mr. Potte explained that these silk tapestries required a two-step process with the first step taking one thousand hours and the final step could take up to two and a half years.
“…photographs can neither reflect the beauty and sheen of pure silk, nor the impression of three dimension.” (quoted from the Silk Art Museum web site)
Mr. Potte led us through a maze of silk art tapestries in the street level of the shop and down into the basement. We saw a collection of over five hundred such invaluable pieces of art; a collection greatly beyond that of any other museum in the world. I took pictures along the way, six of which are shown below. But they in no way reflect the beauty of the actual masterpieces. You must see them yourself, in person. I asked Mr. Potte, “…how did such a prestigious, world-class museum such as this one end up in the tiny town of Weston”? His reply, “A friend of mine owns the building and he gives me free rent.”
History Alive in Weston
Don’t limit your Weston visit to Main Street. Take the time to walk off Main Street and marvel at the many old homes from the mid-nineteenth century which still exist and have been restored. In 1972, twenty-two blocks in Weston were designated as a historic district and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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In 1844, the Holy Trinity church was built, sitting high up on a hill on Cherry Street. The Presbyterian Church, also built in the 1840s, would ring its bell to alert dockworkers that a steamboat was coming. The Presbyterian Church is now the Christian Assembly church and sits at the corner of Washington and Thomas. Both historical churches are still active today.
In 1846 the St. George Hotel (now the Hotel Weston) was built, one of the three in Weston during its heyday, but the only historic hotel remaining.
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McCormick Distilling Company
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That pretty much wrapped up our day. As we headed back toward camp, I told Alice, “There’s one more thing I want to do before we call it a day. I want to tour the McCormick Distillery.” I knew it was just outside Weston and we had to pass it on the way to camp. I had read that the distillery gave tours.
Excerpt from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCormick_Distilling_Company
“…Established by Ben Holladay in 1856, the distillery has been registered in the National Register of Historic
Places and is the oldest distillery west of the Mississippi River that is still operating at its original location. … by 1864,
he was the largest individual employer in the United States.
In 1860, Holladay turned the distillery over to his brother, Major David Holladay,
who then ran the distillery until his death in 1894. …”
The distillery survived through the prohibition years and is today a thriving business producing outstanding beverages including many varieties of vodka, whiskeys, gin, rum, Irish Cream, and Tequila, to name just a few.
The storefront of the distillery was open, but I was disappointed to learn that tours for the season had ended. The young man behind the counter, however, was very knowledgeable about the distillery and its history and was only too happy to relate it to us and offered to fix us a drink to sample one of the products (at a price, of course). Alice declined. I did not. “What do you recommend,” I asked. He suggested a shot of Holladay White Dog. “What’s that,” I asked. “Moonshine whiskey, 118 proof”, he replied. “Uh, I don’t think so, I think I’ll try the Irish Crème instead.”
Plan to Return
Thus ended a most enjoyable camping trip. On the way home we parked our camper in front of daughter Laura’s house and had an enjoyable time visiting with her and John, her husband. After a comfortable sleep in their guest bedroom, we awoke early the next morning and completed our trip home to the Lake of the Ozarks.
We look forward to another camping trip to Weston this coming summer. We want to experience the tour of the refinery, to sample beer in the underground brewery built over a hundred and fifty years ago, revisit the museums, visit the Weston Hotel, and tour the twenty-two blocks designated by the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district.
Hope to see you there.
some pictures from the Silk Art Museum
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