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Us 40 In Missouri


roadmaven
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Hi folks....I'm leaving this afternoon for a quick trip to Kansas City for a funeral. I thought on my way back Friday I'd make lemonade out of lemons for this somber trip and take US 40 through Missouri back east. I've not experienced 40 in MO, so any tips, suggestions, etc would be appreciated. Am I wrong in that 40 and I-70 are signed on the same path? And old US 40 is basically frontage road throughout most of the state? I'll have my laptop tonight to check on replies. Thanks in advance for this short-noticed request!

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Pre-digging thoughts are:

 

1. The Madonna of the Trail in Lexington. It's a few miles off of US-40/I-70. Lexington also has a Maid-Rite although it was closed the only time I was there.

 

2. The Stein House in Booneville is a good place to eat. US-40 departs from I-70 around there. I suggest getting just a little off of 40 to check out the Santa Fe Trail & Boone's Lick Road markers in downtown Franklin.

 

3. East of Columbia, take OLD US-40 through Willamsburg and stop at Cranes. Plan on spending some time here. The store is like a museum and so is the museum.

 

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Pat,

 

The "U.S. 40 Route in Missouri" citation in Wikapedia generally confirms your conclusion, and adds some detail.

 

What I have to offer will not add to your already well established knowledge of US40, nor to that of our members, but for visitors I think I will take a minute and borrow some items of interest from George R Stewart's U.S. 40 book of 1953.

 

The following photo shows US 40 "about a dozen miles east of Kansas City." Stewart is commenting on the two roadways separated by "100 yards," an underestimate of the distance in my judgment. He comments that the separation is considered poor practice.....but the dual roads apparently still exist today. Here is a clip from Delorme about 12 miles east of Kansas City. Now if you can find and climb that water tower he used as a vantage point, you should have a real “crowd pleaser” then and now photo!

 

AR40Two.jpg

 

AR40Map.jpg

 

As you know, US 40 deviates from I-70 most notable as it comes out of Kansas City, one section through Boonville, and for several miles going into St Louis. If my memory serves, Denny reported a year or more ago on the section around Booneville, but I don’t remember if he commented on the Thespian Hall pictured below in Stewart. It must still exist, as I found a 2002 reference to using donations from a local casino to renovate it. Got time to do a photo to match Stewart’s?

 

AR40Thespian.jpg

 

 

Well, that’s all I got! ;)

 

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I recalled Frank Brusca reporting that some tower was gone and thought it might be this one. A search though the Route-40 Yahoo group messages confirmed that it was. There is now a cell tower there and Frank apparently got the company to take some pictures from there for him. That message is here although you may need to be a group member to read it.

 

And Thespian Hall does still exist. Boonville is actually a fairly interesting town. The trip of mine that you mentioned was in May of 2007 and is covered here. It led to an American Road article in the Spring 2008 issue.

 

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Denny & Dave....

Thanks for the quick suggestions! A scouring of the satellite imagery confirmed there's no water tower to be found. Since I posted my original note, a couple of other possiblities popped up. One would be taking US 24 out of KC and pick up US36/I-72 near the Mississippi River and take it on home. Or another one that looks appealing....and should be easy to follow....would be US 50 out of KC and follow it down to St. Louis. It's somewhat out of the way, but we don't read too much, if anything, about 50. Since it's a cross country route, me thinks there's a good chance there's some good roadside photo opps awaiting. Heck, I might just flip a coin on this trip home! :twocents:

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Pat,

 

This is probably beyond even the scope of the most avid old road guy, but I think I may have spotted the house in Stewart’s photo!

 

This site is along the section that Stewart describes. The section is easy to locate because the roadbeds are parallel in only two places. He says his view is toward the southwest, which fixes which side of the road to look on.

 

The house has been enlarged by the nearer added section, but it is evident from the mismatched rooflines that the nearer (larger) section was not built at the same time as the smaller (original, in Stewart’s view) section

 

The image below comes from Virtual Earth and is at 39.0105, -94.3036. It is along the split roadway in Stewart’s photo. The distance that the house is back from the road and the distance the lean-to is back from the house match Steward’s photo, as does the ratio of those distances in the two photos.

 

ARSHouseLean.jpg

 

ARSLong.jpg

 

ARSOrg.jpg

 

Small road cuts evident in Stewards photo appear in the Virtual Earth images. No water tower is evident, but it might have been a farm type cistern tower, and be long gone.

 

The identification is hardly perfect, but maybe it is worth a photo when you get to those coordinates. If you see an address, write it down and I will write the resident to see what they have to say.

 

Dave

 

keep the Show on the Road!

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But the cell tower that Frank says replaced it is.

 

Yah, but when I looked at the tower, I considered it too far away as the base for Steward's photo. But since he has identified that radio tower as on the same site as the water tower, , then certainly my house ID is correct. On the other hand, no doubt Frank long ago identified the house anyway, so I wasted 2 hours.....or was my acumen demonstrated? Lets go for "acumen demonstrated." Oh Yah!!

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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...no doubt Frank long ago identified the house anyway, so I wasted 2 hours.....or was my acumen demonstrated? Lets go for "acumen demonstrated."

I think solving mysteries is fun in itself, whether or not someone else knows the answer.

 

Chris

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I think solving mysteries is fun in itself, whether or not someone else knows the answer.

 

Chris

 

Chris,

 

It was fun, and actually pretty engrossing. But it would have been even more fun if my "acumen" had been fully working! :P

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Hi folks....I'm leaving this afternoon for a quick trip to Kansas City for a funeral. I thought on my way back Friday I'd make lemonade out of lemons for this somber trip and take US 40 through Missouri back east. I've not experienced 40 in MO, so any tips, suggestions, etc would be appreciated. Am I wrong in that 40 and I-70 are signed on the same path? And old US 40 is basically frontage road throughout most of the state? I'll have my laptop tonight to check on replies. Thanks in advance for this short-noticed request!

 

 

I'm not all that familiar with U.S. 40 in MO but have been on a few stretches that are original alignments away from the slab rather than just being I-70 outer roads. Some (I don't believe all) old alignments are marked with a green 40 sign and the stretches I remember and recommend for your return are:

 

Boonville to just west of Columbia

 

Kingdom City to Graham Cave State Park

 

High Hill through Jonesburg, Warrenton, and Wright City to Wentzville

 

These old alignments are true Americana through rural MO and very enjoyable....Bliss

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Hi all...greetings from Warrenton, Missouri! I was able to cover a couple of routes on the way back. I started out on US 50 heading out of KC, got bored with the 4-lane divided it offered, so I went north to US 24. Per Denny, I took MO-224 into Lexington to see the Madonna there. Then I took US 24 east, hooked up with US 65, and took it to I-70 east. I then jumped off 70 and picked up US 40 and took it into Boonville. COOL little town. A little Madison, Indiana-esque. And Dave, I did get a pic of the theatre! But stupid me left my cable at the house, so I'm not able to download the pics I took there until after I get home.

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No Maid-Rite?!?! :o

 

From your last message I guessed that US-50 was the likely route home and it's one I know little of in those parts. My impression is that, since it has remained active and seen frequent upgrades, finding the good old 2-lane stuff requires planning, luck, or both. But now I'm guessing that it will be Forty for awhile and that you won't return to US-50 until at least St Louis, if ever.

 

Warrenton is right on the Boone's Lick Road. Look for a DAR marker for Sanders Tavern across from the court house. The name Boone's Lick Road is actually used in Warrenton although it turns into MO-M as it heads east. I can provide more routing info if desired. I can't think of any great landmarks between Warrenton & St Charles but see Bliss's endorsement of "High Hill through Jonesburg, Warrenton, and Wright City to Wentzville". You've already missed a Bliss approved 'burger in Jonesburg. The present US-40 angles to the south around Wentzville and that's a fine thing but, if you continue east, you can see the place where the Boone's Lick Road, the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and Missouri government all started. That would be St Charles, MO.

 

I know we've all sort of ignored the purpose of your trip and I suppose that's best in a way. But we do recognize that it's a sad trip and we do send condolences your way. Just hope that a Madonna and a couple of DAR markers brighten things a little.

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And here's our then & now...I was chasing daylight like you wouldn't believe!

 

AR40Thespian.jpg

 

3279052615_5d600ec617_o.jpg

 

 

Pat,

 

A perfect match! But I wish there were stll the highway signs on the corner.....well, we can't have everything!

 

Thanks for the effort!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

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A very good match indeed. Perhaps KtSotR could morph them for you or even throw in the Vale's 1983 shot for a mind boggling three way morph. :D

 

The street light, which was one of the changes pointed out by the Vales, has changed again and looks more like the one Stewart saw than the one that was there in 1983. Trees were completely absent in 1953, stood above the Hall in 1983, and have shrunk to half that height in 2009. (I'm fairly confident that they are replacements but, if they really did shrink, that's the story.) The shrub at the steps doesn't appear in either earlier photograph. The bricks between steps and sidewalk were stacked beside the building in 1983 but look to be restored in Pat's shot. Maybe the shrub appeared when the bricks returned to make up for some attrition. Like Dave, the Vales also commented on the absent route signs. I believe that US-40, MO-87, and MO-5 still pass the spot so they must be signed nearby. The striped shield above the numbered route markers in Stewart's photo is a National Old Trails Road marker which he calls "rare". I'll say. The National Old Trails Road Association had been gone for more that twenty years when Stewart took that picture. Any guesses as to when the NOTR was last signed?

 

Thanks for the picture. Playing "what's different" is a fun way to start the day.

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A very good match indeed. Perhaps KtSotR could morph them for you or even throw in the Vale's 1983 shot for a mind boggling three way morph. :D

 

The street light, which was one of the changes pointed out by the Vales, has changed again and looks more like the one Stewart saw than the one that was there in 1983. Trees were completely absent in 1953, stood above the Hall in 1983, and have shrunk to half that height in 2009. (I'm fairly confident that they are replacements but, if they really did shrink, that's the story.) The shrub at the steps doesn't appear in either earlier photograph. The bricks between steps and sidewalk were stacked beside the building in 1983 but look to be restored in Pat's shot. Maybe the shrub appeared when the bricks returned to make up for some attrition. Like Dave, the Vales also commented on the absent route signs. I believe that US-40, MO-87, and MO-5 still pass the spot so they must be signed nearby. The striped shield above the numbered route markers in Stewart's photo is a National Old Trails Road marker which he calls "rare". I'll say. The National Old Trails Road Association had been gone for more that twenty years when Stewart took that picture. Any guesses as to when the NOTR was last signed?

 

Thanks for the picture. Playing "what's different" is a fun way to start the day.

 

Denny,

 

A masterfull analysis, and very interesting....practically a conference quality presentation! Much appreciated!

 

As for morphing, I'll give it a try ASAP.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Denny,

 

A masterfull analysis, and very interesting....practically a conference quality presentation! Much appreciated!

 

As for morphing, I'll give it a try ASAP.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

 

Here is the MORPH.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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And here's my contribution from the February '07 Sweetheart Cruise........Bliss

 

 

http://americanroadmagazine.com/forum/inde...=si&img=464

Funny, but as many times as I've looked at the Stewart & Vale & Bremer pictures, it took the Sanderson picture to make me notice the bricked up windows on the side and the fact that the metal steps (fire escape?) lead to the top half of a boarded up window. My excuse is that it's been that way since Stewart's day and was the same in all pictures. I wonder if that could have been part of the conversion to movie theater and appeared at the same time as the "hideous" Lyric sign.

 

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Here is the MORPH.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

Maybe I'm getting jaded after all the fine presentations that preceded this one but, probably because it pushes many details out of the frame, I'm not all that fond of the zoom approach. I'm not a professional art critic; Just an amateur one like everybody else.

 

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Maybe I'm getting jaded after all the fine presentations that preceded this one but, probably because it pushes many details out of the frame, I'm not all that fond of the zoom approach. I'm not a professional art critic; Just an amateur one like everybody else.

 

Denny,

 

I completely agree with you about the zoom. I “zoomed” because I thought it would highlight and make more evident those items you commented on (shield and lamp post) in your earlier post. I believe the zoom helps there. But it makes me “dizzy,” and the morph of photos taken at slightly different angles produces wobbly columns, especially on the right one.

 

I have added HERE a simple morph, without a zoom, that transitions smoothly between the two slightly misaligned images. How does that impress your artistic sensibilities? :lol::P

 

Seriously, your comment is welcome. As a substitute for artistic talent, I have developed over the years a number of technical tools and skills. The use of morphs is an old one, but with new software it offers some interesting additional possibilities. The jury is still out as to when and whether to use it.

 

As an aside, but as a consequence of your critique, I have developed a means to restructure Pat’s “Now” photo so that the angles match those in Stewart’s photo. In short I can “skillfully” (not artistically) readjust Pat’s photo so that it appears to be taken from the same angle as Stewart’s. HERE is a little clip showing the “readjustment.” It isn't perfect (i.e lamp post) but that can be fixed quickly.

 

The practical application would be to allow morphs such as from Stewart’s to Pat’s photos that appear undistorted. Big deal, and WGaD, but another small tool in the kit!

 

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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