Trip Report Sorta Disney......Walt's Hometown Pic heavy!

[lokin4deer]

OK This will be my first ever TR The camping peeps have been so helpful to me I figured you guys might enjoy this. So go easy on me
The cast of characters is Myself I go by Dave most of the time, My DW is Denise she is a 40 something woman who I could come home tomorrow and say lets move to Orlando and she would be waiting in the car for me My 12 year old DD is has been to WDW 9 times in her short life. My DD who is 4 has been to WDW 5 times!!!

Walt always consisdered Marceline, MO his home town even though he only lived there for 5 years from the age of 5 to 10.http://www.marceline.org We ended up with a 3 day weekend to make this trip in. And since its was 3 hours away seemed like a good trip. I found a campground in Bevier, MO population 772. Sept is customer appreciation month buy get one free night of camping.

It was a OK campground new owners about 2 years ago seems like they have done a lot but there is still a lot to do. Ultimately I paid $50.00 for 3 nights of full hook and had no problems with some really nice employees in the store. What more could I ask for?

The campground was about 20 minutes away.

On the 3rd Saturday in Sept the town of Marecline has a Toon Fest which is a party in the park with cartoonist in town. The Toon Fest thing wasn't much unless your kids are small my 4 year old thought it was fun my 12 year old ehh not so much. She did love the small town though she kept talking about how cool it was.

Look at that merry go round!

Yes this a peddle car pulling contest. LOL There was a lot of hooping and hollering at this! Only in a small town!

We all know Walt loved his trains and his home town was no different.

On Saturday we hung out the park and let 4 DD PLAY. Mom and my 12 DD walked around at the booths selling their stuff. We made it over to Main Street and walked the street looking at all the store fronts. Which all had the address Main Street USA.

This pic was at 3:30 saturday afternoon they were just about to roll the streets up!

More to come.......

 

[North of Mouse]

Thanks! Very interesting - did not realize this town existed!

 

[tiggerdad]

This is so neat of you to post this. Really like seeing this as I have never really dug that deep into Walt's history, especially the town. I knew Main Street was designed with it in mind, but had never actually seen it.

 

[lokin4deer]

After they rolled the streets up we went driving around and we found this....
Walt went to elementary school in Marceline so they named the school after him. More on this later....

This is only interesting because my 12 year old DD name is Delaney!

Next we found the park......

With some really cool old playground equipment that my kids thought was great!

This is a really nice park with a lake, pavilion, playground, pool (pics later), and a special surprise that will come later......
The way most of my camping nights end.........

The next day was the Walt Disney Museum, The dreaming tree, the barn and Walt's childhood home,

First up the Dreaming Tree and the Barn,
This is just going to be a series of pics. This will start at the parking lot and walk right up to the barn and the signs along the way in order.

The tree is diseased and struck by lightning that is why they planted the son of the dreaming tree.

We are the 4D's....Dave, Denise, Delaney and Daylin!

More to come I reached my allotment of pics...

 

[lokin4deer]

OK Now we are on our to the Museum...
There was a lot to see here unfortunately my 4 year old DD wasn't as entertained as she was at the play grounds So I got some pics but I missed some of the details. But there is a couple of neat stories I got and I will share them soon.
The museum was a run down train station that in 2001 for Walt's 100th Bday they renovated it. All the workers are volunteers.

This clock is 125 years old and sat in the train station when it was a working station. The lady said Walt would set his watch to this clock when he would come into town.

This is a replica of Disneyland that I believe a man construct sometime in the 90's. (this is one of the details I missed)

The series of the next pics have 2 stories behind them. The first one is that lady in the picture below actually knew Walt and he stayed at her house in the 50's and 60's.
She had a brand new house built in the early 50's and it had central air condtioning the only house in town with AC. In 1955 Walt was coming in town to dedicate the Elementary School and the city council came to her and asked her if it would be OK if Walt and his wife stayed with her and her husband since she had AC. She agreed but said her furniture wasn't very good so the town got together and put her furniture in storage and brought in all the best stuff from the town. She said it took them 3 days to get this done. Walt came back 5 or 6 times and always stayed with her and she realized that Walt was a very down to earth man and he didn't care about her furniture so she stopped moving it out. She is a sweet sweet lady and my wife and both said we could have talked to her for hours. She is 85 years old. I asked her how many town people are left that knew Walt she guessed 25 or so. Notice the train going by in the background, she told me about 70 trains a day go by!

The next story started the day before for us at the park I saw a odd looking playground.....

We didn't get out and look at it and then the next day we heard that Walt had decided that the driving car ride in DL wasn't big enough for a adult and a child to ride together so he removed it after 11 years and installed a new bigger ride and sent the old one to his home town and had it installed. That is why the concrete looks that way it looks.
This is the only car that didn't get used the rest of them are in storage they have plans to renovate them and get it back in service.

Notice the concrete where the center track use to be...

Walt was suppose to come back for the dedication of this put he was to sick.....he died in Dec of 1966.....

The last thing we seen was his childhood home. Which also has a interesting story. On one his trips back he told Inez (the lady in the pic) and her husband that he wanted to purchase his childhood home but that he wanted them to purchase and he would buy it from them. So he wouldn't pay to much. It took several years but it finally went up for sale and they bought and shortly later they got a check from a strange name which was one of Walt's companies that he had at the time secretly buying up property. Today this house is a private residence and not open for tours. Actually Inez's daughter owns the house. The following pics are his childhood home with an addition added on.

It was a great trip without the toonfest its a easy 1 day trip and it helps to have a interest in Walt Disney to really enjoy this. The one thing I took out of this was that Walt Disney was a man, not a amusement park in Fl and CA.

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone enjoyed their trip to Marceline MO the home town of Walt Disney!!
And like I said this is how most of my camping nights end. This is Sunday night.....

 

[2goofycampers]

Very interesting TR and pics.

 

[jsmla]

I had no idea of all the Disney things in Marceline, thanks for posting. Your girls are darling

 

[bama_ed]

Wow Dave. You tell a great story. Thank you so much.

Bama Ed

 

[CantWaitToGoAgain]

Interesting TR! Thanks for sharing!!!
Another Denise

 

[KaTinkerbell]

Thank you for sharing your trip with us! I got all teary eyed reading it and looking at the photos. Love Walt's Dreaming Tree and how Son of Dreaming Tree was planted! Such a great trip report. Your girls are adorable!

 

[Flametamr]

Great Trip Report. I loved reading this story behind the man.

 

[Disneypeach]

thanks so much for sharing this with us! really cool to see things from Walt's childhood.

 

[Teamubr]

Dave,

Thanks for posting up the pics and the TR. I was just looking up this town a few weeks ago to plan a trip out next spring. MY DS and I are big Disney fans. My DW 'likes' it, but not quite to the same degree as the rest of us.

And we are nearly neighbors. I live in Edwardsville. My DW works at St Anthonys.

And a slightly regional joke, but do you live in LA?

(That's "Lower Arnold" for the non- St Louisans- about as far from the California LA as you can get)

j

 

[North of Mouse]

Thanks again for all the pics - have enjoyed them. Also, for the lovely tour of Marceline!!

 

[lokin4deer]

Dave,

Thanks for posting up the pics and the TR. I was just looking up this town a few weeks ago to plan a trip out next spring. MY DS and I are big Disney fans. My DW 'likes' it, but not quite to the same degree as the rest of us.

And we are nearly neighbors. I live in Edwardsville. My DW works at St Anthonys.

And a slightly regional joke, but do you live in LA?

(That's "Lower Arnold" for the non- St Louisans- about as far from the California LA as you can get)

j

I actually live in NA Northern Arnold right before you cross over the bridge! I would suggest the trip it was a good weekend.

 

[Luvchefmic]

Oh thank you so very much for this report Absolutely love the history of the Disney family. Your kids are so cute, love Delaney standing by her namesake in the town

 

[jaredjohn4]

Great report, but you missed one picture. During World War I, my grandfather was in the army. He sent a letter or picture postcard to his fiancée every day. While going through the old letters and photos, I found this one. It was mailed August 18, 1918, for 2 cents. He was on an ammunitions train that stopped to take on water on it's way from California to Detroit. He said it was a nice little town.



The minute I saw the postcard, I knew where it was from.
Enjoy!

 

[KristinU]

I finally got a chance to look at this thread on my home PC so I could see the pics...awesome! Thanks so much for sharing!

 

[lokin4deer]

Thanks everyone for the kind words it was my pleasure to post I am glad everyone enjoyed them. It really was a great trip!