Back to our trip to Marceline. Walt Disney was actually born in Chicago, Illinois, but his family moved to Missouri when he was very young, so Marceline is where Walt spent a lot of his childhood. He considered Marceline to be his hometown and some of his greatest childhood memories are from there. The very small town takes pride in this fact and have several spots dedicated to Disney. We decided at the beginning of the summer that since we live in Missouri and are such big Disney fans, we needed to add a visit to Marceline to our summer bucket list.
The town is about 4 1/2 hours from Branson, so not exactly a "staycation" but we were only going up for the day, so not really a vacation either. Marceline sits in the northern part of Missouri, about halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City, 80 miles north of Columbia. We left the house around 6:30 am, arriving in Marceline around 11:30, only stopping to fix our tail light.
We ate some sandwiches out of the cooler we brought and headed straight for the Walt Disney Hometown Museum.
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| The museum is inside of the old Santa Fe Train Depot where Walt sat foot in Missouri for the first time. |
It closes at 4:00 and so we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to see everything.
When you walk in, there is a table sat up where you pay. We paid cash (I can't remember if they take credit/debit cards), were given an admission ticket, and signed the guest book. The first part of the tour is by a guide. And not just any guide, but someone who grew up in Marceline and had met Walt. Kaye had the privilege of having Walt stay at her house when she was young. She shared this and several other very interesting stories about Walt, his life in Missouri, his journey as a cartoonist, and his many trips back to visit Marceline. As you can see from the sign above, there was no photography allowed so we didn't take any pictures. Kaye's stories were fascinating and we enjoyed every second of our guided tour. After she was finished, she led us to a door to let us see the rest of the museum by ourselves. Before we took off though, another very nice lady by the name of Inez came in with us for a couple of quick stories. She also took a picture of us by this Mickey Mouse statue.
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After taking in as much as the information as we could, we went upstairs to see the Disneyland model. In 2006, Toonfest guest Dale Varner showed pictures of the Disneyland model he had built. While it had been on exhibit during fairs, it didn't have a home where it could regularly be enjoyed. He offered to donate it to the museum under the condition that he could continue to work on it and add pieces. Sadly, Dale died just a few years later before it was completely finished.
There was one final room that we went through upstairs but I was apparently too busy reading to take many pictures. From here you can actually sit and watch the train pass by. We heard it a few times while we were downstairs but weren't near a window so we weren't able to get any pictures.
We finished our tour on the top floor and went back downstairs to the front area where we started. We spent some looking around before checking out the gift shop. Before leaving we talked with Inez and another volunteer for a bit. I'll admit now, I didn't really have this entire day planned out. There was only a little information online so I figured we'd play it by ear (which is very unlike me.) Luckily, Inez had a pamphlet with a map and list of Disney sites to see around Marceline. We started towards the Walt Disney Elementary School.
In 1960 when Walt was approached about changing the name of his old school to Walt Disney Elementary, he was thrilled. He even had artists paint murals of Disney characters throughout the school. If you visit when the school is open, they will gladly take you around to see the murals. Because we were visiting in July, when school is not in session, we only peeked through the front doors.
We could have probably looked through some of the classroom windows, but I was kind of feeling like a weirdo as it was so we decided to head down to Main Street. Our first stop was E.P. Ripley Park. It was named after the president of the Sante Fe Railroad who donated the land to Marceline for the park. If you go to Disneyland in California, you will find one of the trains also named E.P. Ripley.
Across the street was the post office. Even though it was closed for business, the main doors were open for customers who needed to access their P.O. Box.
At this point it was time to check out the rest of Main Street.
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| Ghost town? |
This is when we discovered virtually nothing was open. I know there's less than 2,500 people that live here, but come on! I'm not sure if this is how it normally looks on a Saturday afternoon or if it's because (as we later discovered) the Redneck Games were held in Marceline that day. No, I'm not kidding. I really hate to reveal this information because I don't want Marceline, or all of Missouri for that matter, to appear to be nothing more than a bunch of hillbillies, but that's what was going on. Regardless, almost everything was closed, so I cruised Main Street alone on foot. It was over 100 degrees out so my hubby and daughter stayed cool in the air conditioned car.
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| E.P. Ripley Park |
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| Buildings across from the park. |
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| If you decide to stay overnight, the Uptown Theatre has a Bed & Breakfast upstairs with 5 Disney themed rooms. |
All around you could find little Disney embellishments.
Since everything was closed and I was unable to buy myself a little souvenir (even though I found one by peeking in windows), we moved on to our next destination.
In all honesty, there really wasn't anything for us to do at these stops so we just took pictures. Had we not already eaten the sandwiches we brought, the park would have been a nice place to have a picnic.
Our final destination was Walt's barn and dreaming tree. I'd read that it was an easy to miss spot because there were no signs. They now have a sign, but I can see how it would have still been easy to miss. Before you even get there, you will see Walt's old house...sort of. It is his old house, but it has been completely re-done.
Just past the house you will see this sign and a small parking area. And by small, I mean it will hold 3 cars.
Now for the sad news. Walt's dreaming tree has been struck by lightening a couple of times and looks nothing like it used to, however, they have planted a new one with a seedling from the original tree.
After making my husband take several pictures of me sitting "dreaming" under the tree, which came out with me looking ridiculous, we continued down the path to see Walt's barn. The barn is not actually the original. It is a replica that was built in 2001 by a group of volunteers. Inside you can leave your own message or memory on the walls. While there was a sharpie inside the barn, I recommend bringing your own...just in case.
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