George Washington Carver National Monument turned out to be a delightful diversion from our Route 66 journey through Missouri. We thought our visit would be short because we arrived with few expectations and very little knowledge about the site or the man. However, this turned out to be one of the best stops of our road trip, and while we spent more than two hours at the park, we could have stayed much longer.
Where is it?
The monument is located at 5646 Carver Road in Diamond, Missouri.
Features of the site include:
- Visitor center and gift shop
- Introductory film
- Three levels of museum exhibits with a special area for kids
- Guided and self-guided tours of the one-mile Carver Trail
- Junior Ranger programs
- Picnic area
Link to the monument’s website here.
Why is this national monument significant?
The monument preserves the birthplace and honors the extraordinary life of George Washington Carver. It was on the site that George was born to an enslaved woman named Mary in 1864. No records exist to show his exact birthdate, and very little is known about Mary except that she was about thirteen years old when she was purchased by Moses Carver. What is known, however, is that George Washington Carver faced a great deal of adversity throughout his younger life. Though despite the odds, he became one of the most respected environmental agriculturalists and teachers the country has ever known. Furthermore, George Washington Carver National Monument is the first national monument to an African American.
George’s Early Years
George’s parents, Giles and Mary, were purchased in 1855 by Moses Carver, a German American immigrant who farmed in southwestern Missouri. Giles, who by some accounts was actually owned by a neighbor, died in an accident before George was born. When George was only a few weeks old, Arkansas night riders, who were known to terrorize blacks, kidnapped him, his mother, and his sister. George’s brother, James, somehow escaped the kidnapping, but the other three were taken to Kentucky and sold. Moses Carver hired a man to find them, but he was only able to find George, and Carver had to “buy” the baby back by rewarding the man with a $300.00 horse. The Carvers raised George and James as their own children and gave them their name. No one knows what happened to Mary or her daughter.
George’s Boyhood Years
As a boy, George enjoyed a daily trek into the woods where he would pray and absorb the beauty of his surroundings. With an innate sense of curiosity, he became interested in the plants that grew near his home. Moses Carver and his wife Susan had taught George and James the basics of reading and writing. However, young George yearned for more – he wanted to go to school. Black children could not attend the public school in Diamond, so at about age twelve George left home and walked eleven miles to Neosho, Missouri where he knew there was a school that would accept him. Information about James is unclear, but he left the Carver’s farm and went to Fayetteville, Arkansas around the time George went to Neosho. Later, he may have worked as a house painter or plasterer in Missouri. James died of Smallpox in 1883 at the age of 23.
The Carver Homestead
Excerpt from a park information board:
“In the 1860s and 1870s Moses Carver grew hundreds of bushels of oats, corn, hay, and Irish potatoes in these fields. The farm where young George played and worked also produced fruit, wool, beeswax, honey, molasses, and livestock. When he left, G. W. Carver carried with him the conviction that farmers should be self-sufficient and good stewards of what had been entrusted to them…ideas he learned living here.”
A Thirst for Knowledge
After spending two years in Neosho under the care of a woman named Mariah Watkins, George left to travel to Kansas with a group of people who were traveling west. Over the next few years, he traveled around the Midwest attending secondary school and working, usually as a domestic. He graduated from Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas. In the late 1880s, George found himself in Winterset, Iowa where he enrolled in nearby Simpson College to study the fine arts of painting and music. One year later, he enrolled in the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm in Ames, Iowa, now Iowa State University. It was there that he earned a bachelor’s degree in in 1894 and a graduate degree two years later. After graduation, he became the first black faculty member of the university.
Tuskegee Institute
In 1896 Booker T. Washington asked George to head the agriculture department at Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. George accepted and spent the next 47 years educating students as well as farmers. Although he was sometimes referred to as Dr. Carver, he never earned a doctorate degree. However, Selma University and Simpson College each awarded him with honorary doctorates of science. In 1994 Iowa State University issued a doctorate of humane letters posthumously.
The Peanut Man
In addition to teaching, Carver did extensive plant research, especially with peanuts. He established an agricultural extension service, later issuing a bulletin entitled “How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption” and encouraged cotton and tobacco farmers to rotate their crops with peanuts in order to restore nitrogen to their soil. With the invasion of boll weevils, many southern cotton farmers followed Carver’s advice by turning to peanuts. As a result, former cotton mills retooled to become peanut oil mills. Some say George Washington Carver saved the south’s farm economy due to his crop rotation and soil enrichment methods. His tireless research resulted in over 300 uses for peanuts and hundreds of uses for other food plants such as soybeans and sweet potatoes.
Some of Carver’s uses for peanuts included:
- foodstuffs such as mayonnaise, carmel, chili sauce, and coffee
- cosmetics such as shampoo, face powder, and hand lotion
- industrial items such as rubber, plastic, insecticides, and paint
There is no doubt the man was a brilliant biologist. However, in addition to his teaching and research career, Carver was a promoter of racial equality and traveled throughout the South spreading his message. He never married, and he spent his life living in a dormitory on the Tuskegee Institute campus. When George got older, his good friend and automotive manufacturer Henry Ford had an elevator installed in the dormitory so that George would be able to access his lab without having to use the stairs. Sadly, George died on January 5, 1943, after falling down the stairs in his home. He is buried next to Booker T. Washington on the campus of Tuskegee University.
The National Monument
The national monument is interesting on the inside and beautiful on the outside. Below are some additional photographs of the site.
Thank you so much for joining us on our visit to George Washington Carver National Monument!
Want to visit more national monuments? Click on these interesting destinations:
Scotts Bluff National Monument
Craters of the Moon National Monument
Colorado National Monument
Travel safely, and we will see you on the road!
Mike and Kellye
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