Long ago on independence square (Kansas City, St. Louis: relocate to, frequency, fastest)

[AngieCM]

I was trying to answer on the feed about sharon kinnie. Joe Thomas used to go from 40 hwy. But has since the 40 hwy entrance was removed. When I was growing up there it was nicknamed Lovers lane.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by AngieCM

I was trying to answer on the feed about sharon kinnie. Joe Thomas used to go from 40 hwy. But has since the 40 hwy entrance was removed. When I was growing up there it was nicknamed Lovers lane.

I dont know if James C. Hays mentions Joe Thomas Road in his The Sharon Kinne Story but I suspect she had them all covered. She killed Patricia Jones on Phelps Road.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

What did Independence have to do (if anything) with something called the Prairie Dolphin? The time frame is four years after Independence became incorporated.

Television in 1963, via Death Valley Days, pegged the “Prairie Dolphin” as the first wind wagon in 1853. This program ran on cable on November 14 and triggered this revisit of the wind wagon on this forum.

In the TV version, the Prairie Dolphin was driven by a man named Baylor Thomas, also known as Wind Wagon Thomas. His wagon was powered by a huge sail. The TV program took place in a contrived Westport and in this depiction of the town there were high mountains all around. The comedian sensation of 1950s TV, George Gobel, played Baylor Thomas.

In 1961, Hollywood, via a Walt Disney cartoon featurette, had Wind Wagon Smith as the fellow who invented the wind wagon. This version also featured the town of Westport.

In 1966, Look magazine said the name of the wind wagon was “Prairie Clipper” and had its first run in 1853. I have not been able to find any information as to the name “Prairie Dolphin.”

Regardless of the name and although the Thomas wind wagon was based in Westport, the “boat” on wheels was constructed in Independence by Robinson and Crook Company, an iron foundry located in the vicinity of present day Lexington and Noland road.

William Thomas contracted with the foundry for the wagon and upon completion it was supposed to have been pulled to Westport by ox team.

In a slight twist, seven years earlier the Western Expositor (Independence) newspaper reported in December 1846 that William Thomas’s new wind wagon worked and he was running up and down the prairie at his pleasure.

The newspaper further reported that Thomas was going to be moving to Independence to begin a freight company that would haul freight along the Santa Fe Trail at a speed projected at fifteen miles per hour. Pioneers were lucky to make fifteen miles per day on the Oregon Trail.

Thomas’s wind wagon company was going to charge $6 per hundred pounds compared to $10 for mule pulled wagons. Besides speed, another advantage of the wind wagon to the freight company was that the wagon did not have to carry corn to feed the mules, extra harness as backup, and leather working tools thus freeing up wagon space to hold more freight. Apparently, there was no mule backup plan in case there was no wind or a wagon broke down.

A few months later in 1847, the St Louis Daily Union reported that Thomas was still working on his invention.

All sources agree that during testing the wind wagon crashed after encountering very high winds.

By 1871, railroads were hauling freight to Santa Fe at 2 cents per 100 pounds.

[WCHS'59]

A sidewalk is being constructed from the Truman Depot to Pacific Avenue and a future project will have a sidewalk running to the National Frontier Trails Museum.

The Missouri River Runner stops four times a day at the depot.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

A sidewalk is being constructed from the Truman Depot to Pacific Avenue and a future project will have a sidewalk running to the National Frontier Trails Museum.

The Missouri River Runner stops four times a day at the depot.

Building the sidewalk to the NFTM will be an engineering challenge. The south side of Pacific is occupied with the UPRR, the north side has a rocky bluff. That won't be a cheap sidewalk! I do see some need for it, however vehicular traffic along that stretch is light, so it is a relatively safe walk without the sidewalk.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

Building the sidewalk to the NFTM will be an engineering challenge. The south side of Pacific is occupied with the UPRR, the north side has a rocky bluff. That won't be a cheap sidewalk! I do see some need for it, however vehicular traffic along that stretch is light, so it is a relatively safe walk without the sidewalk.

That will be about a 3,700 foot sidewalk.

[WCHS'59]

From the Examiner of 100 years ago:


"The extraordinary high price of shoes has helped the cobblers. Every shop in town is busy. A man don’t throw away a pair of shoes nowadays because the first sole is worn out or the heel whetted off. A woman with ten dollar white shoes don’t throw them away because the style now is a white top and a black upper, she has them dyed and the heels fixed. Since she bought those high white shoes for ten dollars the price has jumped to fifteen and it not at all unusual to pay twenty."


Fifty years later, in 1966, when I entered the Army the price of a pair of plain toe all leather black dress oxfords (which the Army called "low quarters") was $5.20.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

From the Examiner of 100 years ago:


"The extraordinary high price of shoes has helped the cobblers. Every shop in town is busy. A man don’t throw away a pair of shoes nowadays because the first sole is worn out or the heel whetted off. A woman with ten dollar white shoes don’t throw them away because the style now is a white top and a black upper, she has them dyed and the heels fixed. Since she bought those high white shoes for ten dollars the price has jumped to fifteen and it not at all unusual to pay twenty."


Fifty years later, in 1966, when I entered the Army the price of a pair of plain toe all leather black dress oxfords (which the Army called "low quarters") was $5.20.

The current price of black dress low quarters in the Post Exchange, which became the Army Clothing store a number of years ago, is $46.

[WCHS'59]

In 1966, The Examiner showed Blantyre, Malawi, as a sister city of Independence. That city today has a population of 1,068,681.

Malawi is a land locked country located east of Zambia, west and north of Mozambique and south of Tanzania.

The only sister city listed today for Independence is Higashimurayama, Japan, with a population of 151,000. It is sited in relation to Tokyo as Independence is to Kansas City.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

In 1966, The Examiner showed Blantyre, Malawi, as a sister city of Independence. That city today has a population of 1,068,681.

Malawi is a land locked country located east of Zambia, west and north of Mozambique and south of Tanzania.

The only sister city listed today for Independence is Higashimurayama, Japan, with a population of 151,000. It is sited in relation to Tokyo as Independence is to Kansas City.

Perhaps Blantyre outgrew us! I don't recall reading any discussion when the change was made. I also recall a sister city in Australia, perhaps Wagga Wagga or one of the other double-named towns. It could be that the sister city is changed on a regular basis so that committee members can see another part of the world.