Hoovers Birth place

Drove over to West Branch , Iowa today to visit the President Hoover Birthplace and Museum. The Birthplace and surrounding area is part of a National Historical Site and the Museum and Library are run by the National Archives and Records Administration. Kind of like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.

We first went to the NPS Visitor center, there they have a ten minute film explaining Hoovers boyhood in this area and then in Oregon where he went to live with an uncle after his parents died. From the visitors center you follow a trail through that area of town to his birth house were a park ranger shows you around the two room house and answers any questions about the president. This is the original house and right across the street is a reproduction of his fathers Blacksmith shop, the school house and the Quaker meeting house.

Follow some more paths and you're at the Museum, there is a six dollar admission fee here, here they have a 22 minute film which repeats a little of the information that the other film covered but then goes into his adult and political life. There is also about an hours worth of exhibits on display which really fill you in on his life and family, another path will take you back to his and his wife's graves, he wanted to be buried on the hill over looking his birthplace. It was a very enjoyable trip and we would recommend taking the time to stop here for 2 or 3 hours if you're ever in the area.



Click on a picture to enlarge and read all about President Hoover.


STANFORD






...............................................CHINA





Man of the World





................................World War I






Building the Dam




..........................Feeding the World






First phone ever installed in the White House







...........What he's remembered For




Don't even bother with this wall plaque in the lobby until after you're gone through the museum, then you'll understand what everything stands for.

On the way home we got off of I-80 at Exit 245 to experience the Worlds Largest Truck Stop, well we can now say that we were there, if you drive a Truck this place is heaven on earth for you, as the song sez “anything you want, you got it” but if you're in a car you get lost in all the chrome and diesel exhaust. We can scratch this off our list of things to do, want a minute, it was never on our list of things to do, dam wish I would have know that earlier.
On the way home I told Cathy that I was going to take East 74 for a change of pace, when we got to the intersection there were two big overhead sign above the freeway, the one on the right said “East 74 exit Right” the one on the left said “East 74 Straight ahead” after shaking my head a few times I took the wrong one.