George Washington Carver is best known for his work at the Tuskegee institute working on agriculture and of course peanuts. So why, I wondered, is the National Monument to Carver located in southwestern Missouri?

As I discovered, this is the land where he was born into slavery only a year before the end of the Civil War. His mother was a slave owned by the Carver family. While still a baby both Carver and his mother were kidnapped by outlaws who intended to sell them into slavery somewhere else. The Carvers, however, were able to find George and return him to their home though unfortunately they never located his mother.

With the end of the Civil War, Carver became a free man - or rather child as he was still under two years old. To their credit, the Carvers raised George and instilled in him a desire to learn that stayed with him his entire life.

At age 11, he left home to find a more formal education. It was not an easy task given the times but he eventually became a student at Simpson College in Iowa, not far from where I used to live. From Simpson, he transferred to what is today Iowa State University, attaining a master's degree in agricultural science.

Gaining the attention of Booker T Washington, Carver accepted a position at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. His work on improving agricultural methods became legendary. He would later be asked to speak in front of Congress and was a frequent speaker on best agriculture methods.

The George Washington Carver National Monument has a nice visitors center and the Carver's house is a short distance away. I did not visit the house as it was getting late and the trail to it was about to close. Of more interest to me was the wealth of information found in the visitor's center.