Our Journey To See History and Find Ancestors

My husband and I have decided we need to start seeing and visiting historic places in our surrounding states. We have found places that we never knew were there so once a week  I will be posting a few pictures and let you know where we have explored in Our Journey To See History and Find Ancestors along the way.

I love  history and in fact got a AA in Liberal Arts for history many moons ago. I am intrigued and love old buildings and sleuthing through cemeteries. People have told me I am weird but I can just imagine life happening in these buildings and what stories they hold. I sleuth through cemeteries hunting family and ancestors. We take time to stop and read inscriptions on headstones and to find veterans buried in the different cemeteries. I am lucky that my husband enjoys this journey too.

At the end of May we started this journey  and we are going to some interesting fun places that  only took one day to drive to see. The first was a day trip to we took to see the Hollenberg Pony Express Station in Hanover, KS.

Front of Hollenberg Station

Side View of station

Hollenberg Station from front

Hollenberg station behind the visitors center the back side of the station

Hollenberg Station Visitor Center

Sign of the Trails and roads that ran at Hollenberg Station


Some of the Room displays inside the Hollenberg Station

I always thought this was just used for pony express but it was a stop over station for the stage. Originally it was the home of Hollenberg's that was a place emigrants could get supplies. It is well worth the ride to see this historic site. The visitors center has some nice displays and tells of the archaeological dig that was done on the site. Nice little museum gift shop too for souvenirs of your trip.It is part of the National Historic Parks system and you can find information on their site about the station by checking here
https://www.nps.gov/poex/planyourvisit/site4.htm

or you can find pictures and info on the Kansas travel site too
http://www.kansastravel.org/hollenbergstation.htm

It is open Wed.- Sat. May- October and costs $3.00 for adults and $1.00 for students with children 5 and under free. I hope you will check into this place and plan your trip to see it.

We also to time to drive pass the Pony Express Barn in Marysville, KS. This is the original Pony Express Home Station Number 1 1859 that is what these plaques say.

On our trip to see the Hollenberg Station we also took time to go through the Marshall County Museum which is located in the old Marshall County Courthouse. The old courthouse building is beautiful and unique in its architecture.

 Old Marshall County Courthouse from a distance

 Old Marshall County Courthouse Museum from across the street

 Look at those wonderful pillars at the entrance of the Old Marshall County Courthouse Museum.

They have used the different rooms in the courthouse to tell the story of Marshall County KS. Here are some of the things you will see in the museum.

Old organ love how decorative it is

Entrance into the museum

One of the courtrooms left like it would have been when used

Old printing

Dr's office

Vintage hats

Vintage Wedding dress

When we were driving around Marysville we ran upon the city park and there they have an old school house, a sod house, an old train depot and a train. It is all from Marshall County.

Door into sod house

Front of sod house

This is the one room Bommer School House in the city park

This is the Beattie Train Depot in the city park

Union Pacific Train at city park

Plate on the side of the train



As we were leaving Marysville KS and our drive through town we happened upon this

105mm Howitzer on display.

There is so much more to see in Marshall County KS that I am sure we will be making a trip back to the county soon. This was a good day trip and we enjoyed all the sites we saw. It is interesting to note that the downtown area of Marysville KS still has a brick road. 

We also enjoyed eating in at Penny's Diner while we were there. Was good food and reasonably priced as well as nostalgic.

Counter in Penny's Diner

Mike ordering at Penny's Dinner

Me ordering and concentrating on what to eat at Penny's Diner

All in all we had a wonderful full day on our Journey to See History and Find Ancestors. Our Next stop was Little House on The Prairie Site in Independence,KS. Hope you enjoyed going with us on our Journey.

Until Next Time 

JOURNEY ON