Harry S Truman National Historical Site

02Dec14

It doesn’t take long to tour the Truman Farm in suburban Kansas City. In fact it took me longer to go from my downtown hotel out to Grandview where the Truman Farm is located.

The Truman Farm is a unit within the Harry S Truman National Historical Site. For my money go to the Truman Home and Visitor Center in Independence where the former President spent the years leading up to and following his presidency.

There you can take a guided tour of the historic home and learn more about President Truman including how his mother-in-law, who lived with him and her daughter (former First Lady Bess Truman), not only in Independence but at the White House. Yet she never voted for Harry. Guess she liked Dewey better.

A couple of years ago I did the Truman Home tour but passed on visiting the Truman Farm in Grandview. So when I was in Kansas City over the Thanksgiving break, I made the journey to the Truman Farm and even on a beautiful day I was the only person on the 10-acre plot.

There is the farmhouse that Truman, his grandmother, parents, sister and brother lived in. A few outbuildings still exist but you can’t go inside any of them, including the farmhouse. I walked around a few minutes, took some photos and hopped back into my car for the journey back to downtown Kansas City.

As with all National Park Service sites, there were outside displays that tell a little bit about the site. On one of the two displays, I learned that the original Truman Farm was more than 600 acres and Mr. Truman lived here for 11 years.

Over time, the family sold the acreage until the National Park Service brought the remaining 10 acres in the late 1990s. Now where Harry Truman and his family worked the land are shops, restaurants and the Truman Corners Mall.

In a way it kind of reminds me of what is happening to land my father has farmed for over 50 years in north Kansas City. Once we had over 1000 acres of wheat, corn and soybean fields, which my father rented from long-time property owners.

When I talked to him over Thanksgiving he’s down to just around 200 acres. Where I worked the fields, there are now several large industries, a casino and a major section of I-635.

Kind of sad on both accounts.

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