Cynthia Clampitt - Destination Heartland: A Guide to Discovering the Midwests Remarkable Past

The cover features the map of the United States with the following illustrations. A cannon, an arrow-shaped stone, a windmill, the first flight, a log cabin, a stamp, a museum, and the Mitchell corn palace.

A Guide to Discovering the Midwests Remarkable Past

cynthia clampitt

3 Fields Books is an imprint of the University of Illinois Press.

2022 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Clampitt, Cynthia, author.

Title: Destination Heartland: a guide to discovering the Midwests remarkable past / Cynthia Clampitt.

Description: [Urbana, IL]: 3 Fields Books, an imprint of University of Illinois Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021052449 (print) | LCCN 2021052450 (ebook) | ISBN 9780252044298 (hardback) | ISBN 9780252086373 (paperback) | ISBN 9780252053283 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Historic sitesMiddle WestGuidebooks. | Historical museumsMiddle WestGuidebooks. | Middle WestGuidebooks.

Classification: LCC F355 .C54 2022 (print) | LCC F355 (ebook) | DDC 917.704dc23/eng/20211026

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052449

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052450

To my dad, who taught me to explore, and my mom, who taught me to always take notes.

This book would not have turned out nearly so well without the assistance of a wide range of friends and acquaintances who introduced me to experts, directed me toward resources or destinations, sent articles, joined me for an occasional adventure, or in some other way aided the process. For these helpful kindnesses and others, thanks to Maggie Kohls, Mira Temkin, Terese Allen, Jane Hanson, Ro Sila, Judy Dollard, Barb Pohl, Ralph Haynes, Catherine Lambrecht, Katherine Garrett, Donna Douglas, Blane Nansel, Francene Sharp, Ellie Carlson, and Mike & Peggy Leslie.

Warmest thanks to all the interpreters, historians, educators, reenactors, and other experts who populate the world of museums and living-history venues, as well as the families that keep long traditions alive across the Midwest.

Special thanks to Teresa Tucker, for encouragement and feedback at early stages, to Steve Levinthal, for keeping my technology fit for work, and to Bob Ahern for advice and assistance when it was needed.

Why Midwestern history? Because I love American history, and the history of the Midwest is, to a greater extent than most people realize, a key element of that history. Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that Europe stretches to the Alleghenies; America lies beyond. Abraham Lincoln said of the Midwest, this great interior region is naturally one of the most important in the world. And historian of the frontier Frederick Jackson Turner related that individualism, independence, egalitarian spirit, and a sense of nationhood grew on the frontier, which in the 1800s meant what we now call the Midwest. Its big, exciting historyand I think people need to know not only how foundational it is, but also how many sensational, fun places there are to explore the events that shaped both the region and the nation.

I grew up in the Midwest. I went to summer camp in Wisconsin, visited the Lincoln sites in Springfield, Illinois, and played tourist among some of the areas offered delights, both urban and rural. However, it was my work as a food historian that created the need to seriously explore the region. While much time was spent in libraries and archives, early in the research for my book Midwest Maize, I also visited historic farms and living-history venues in the states I was exploring. As I continued, in each new location, I found something additional of interestnot related to what I was working on, but still attractive to a historian: Fort Snelling in Minnesota, Pioneer Village in Nebraska, Tippecanoe Battlefield in Indiana, the Herbert Hoover birthplace in Iowa, Mark Twains boyhood home in Missouri, and more. My next book, Pigs, Pork, and Heartland Hogs, carried me across the Midwest again. More discoveries. I joined the newly formed (2014) Midwestern History Association and began to travel the Midwest with a new focusI wanted to see just how much the region had to offer.

It offers a lot. Waterways, which helped define our early history, when water was the easiest way to travel, are abundantand often stunningly impressive. The Great Lakes, which stretch to distant horizons and look quite ocean-like when one stands on their shores, hold one-fifth of the planets fresh water. The mighty Mississippi River, one of the longest and most important rivers in the world, definitely lives up to the Ojibwe word from which we get its name: Messipi, which means Big River or Father of Waters. And the Missouri River, nicknamed the Big Muddy, vital to the Great Plains, is the Mississippi Rivers equal in all but destination. Many state borders are defined by rivers, and river features often gave names to towns that grew up nearby (such as Sioux Falls and Cedar Rapids).

In addition, the Midwest is remarkably beautiful. As John Steinbeck wrote during a driving trip that carried him across the region, I had forgotten how rich and beautiful is the countrysidethe deep topsoil, the wealth of great trees, the lake country of Michigan handsome as a wellmade woman, and dressed and jeweled. It seemed to me that the earth was generous and outgoing here in the heartland, and perhaps the people took a cue from it. And the beauty is so varied. The North Woods are spectacular, dark with pines and brightened by the white trunks of birch trees, floored with pine needles or mosses, and crowded with ferns. The tallgrass prairies are magnificent, undulating in the almost constant breeze like a green and gold ocean. Rolling hills and handsome farms abound. However, I think that perhaps it is the immense size and openness of the Midwest that is its most striking feature. The sky dominates, and one is almost overwhelmed by the sense of space.

The regions grandeur did not merely impress; it shaped our history. And the history it shaped is quintessential Americana, with so many of the iconic images we associate with our past. It was Little House on the Prairie and the Pony Express. It was the birthplace of Buffalo Bills Wild West Show and Antonin Dvoraks New World Symphony (both in 1890s Iowa). It gave us revolutionary farming equipment, but also gave us the first airplanes (the Wright Brothers lived in Ohio) and cheap cars (thank you Mr. Ford). It was and is a place where wide-open spaces led to big ideas.

The regions history was not without pain and conflict. Native Americans were relocated. The War of 1812 challenged American independence. The Dred Scott Case reinforced the rights of slave owners, while the Underground Railroad and Bleeding Kansas fought to liberate the enslaved. Of course, even when there was no conflict, there was always tremendous challenge. But challenge drove change, and things progressed with astonishing speed.

Of course, all the regions of the United States have rich and remarkable histories. However, of all these regions, the Midwest is the most often overlooked, even by those in the Midwest. Id like to help change that. Because the region sometimes dismissively called flyover country offers a multitude of great places to land.