Trip to Arkansas: Missouri

Our first stop in Missouri was Long Branch Lake State Park.  It is a beautiful park, but not as nice as the state parks in Arkansas.  We enjoyed the peace and quiet that we had there and we were able to have our first fire of the season.  We had beautiful view from all our windows.

While we were camped at Long Beach Lake State Park, we went to Marceline, Missouri to see the Walt Disney Museum.  Walt Disney and his family lived here for five years.  He lived here from the age of five to ten.  Walt felt like this was his home town.  This was where he first started tell stories with animation.  It was his job to babysit his younger sister, Ruth.  He would draw picture on each page of his tablet and flip it when he was telling her a picture while sitting under his dream tree.  The tree and the barn was his happy place.

He held his first show, a circus, in the barn and charged a nickel.  It was not a hit with the paying customers.  His mother made him give back the money and told him to always give the people what they would enjoy where they would leave happy and wanting more.

    

  

Walt Disney used the Main street of Marceline as the model for Main street in Disneyland.

The museum is housed in an old train station.  The volunteers that tell the story of Walt's life there and about how he adopted the town as his home town made the museum come to life.

Picture of Walt's parents

A miniature of Disney Land that was donated to the museum.

Walt Disney came back to Marceline several times for dedications.  He also left money each year for the elementary school.

Because he loved this town so much, his daughters celebrated his 100th birthday in Marceline.

I will continue our trip through Missouri in the next blog.