Flatlands Road Trip

Work sent me to Kansas... I arrived early enough to do a little sight seeing in the history-rich area around Kansas City, largely based on 1838 Missouri Mormon War sites. Then the road trip to central Kansas started... with stopovers in Topeka and Salina. 

Welcome to Independance, starting point of so many hours of Oregon Trail fun... 

Independence was a center of migration throughout the 1800's, and also the center of many conflicts from Native resistance to the John Brown raid of 1858. Just outside of downtown Independence is an empty field, surrounded by large buildings, that was also the site of a conflict. At one point, the Mormon prophet announced it as the site of a future temple and Jesus's return... except that after his death and the resultant schism, different factions fought over whose land it actually was. The Brighamites (those who followed Brigham Young to Utah) supported the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) ("Hendrikites") against the Reorganized Latter Day Saints (Joseph Smith's son's group). In fact, this court case gives us many sources supporting Joseph Smith's polygamy via affidavits given by Joseph Smith's wives. 

The open field where Jesus is going to come back. Brighamite visitor center, Hendrikite chapel, and RLDS temple surround.

Gravestone?

 The most striking part about the site is a spiraling temple built by the Reorganized Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, known today as the Church of Christ. The building itself is gorgeous, and unlike Brighamite LDS temples allows anyone in... and they don't have any secret ceremonies (except for the copies of the original ceremonies that they have in their archives).

After an interesting conversation with the sister missionaries at the Brighamite LDS visitor's center (they didn't know their own history very well...), I left Independence for Topeka. I overnighted there, rendezvoused with one of our partners, visited a customer in the morning, made it out to another customer in the afternoon, and then road tripped to the center of the state for another overnight. 

Buckley riding in the Veloster... those roads sure are straight! 

 Selina turned out to have a nice waterfront with some walking and running trails. It was a little warm, but I put on my shoes and beat a path towards the water. The sandy, rocky cut banks were lined with trees which gave a little bit of blissful shade. Looking at the marks on the riverbanks, I wondered what this place looked like when it flooded... but today everything was calm.

 

 Eventually, the shadows got longer and I headed back to my room. There was another customer visit early in the morning, and by mid-afternoon I was high-tailing it back to Kansas City to catch a plane home...