Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum - Lawrence, Kansas The Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum has a Lawrence, Kansas address, but is on the far side of Clinton Lake from town. The museum is at the tip of a peninsula which juts into Clinton Lake from the southwest. The 38 year old museum occupies an old cow shed, which was part of a farm before the building of the lake. The filling of Clinton Lake erased some of the communities of the river valley and significantly impacted the others. The museum tells the stories of the 10 communities which are or have been in the valley (Bloomington, Clinton, Kanwaka, Lone Star, New Belvoir, Old Belvoir, Richland, Sigel, Stull and Twin Mound) and their relationship to the Underground Railroad. The "Angels of Freedom" exhibit is based on a book written by the museum's founder, Martha Parker. It tells the stories of the men and women of the Wakarusa Valley who helped transport freedom seekers through the area via the Underground Railroad. The "Freedom Rings" sculpture outside the museum was created by Lawrence artist, Stephen Johnson. The 10 large rings represent the 10 communities and are arranged on the ground as the communities were arranged in the river valley. A restored windmill tower rises above the rings, topped with a sphere representing the North Star, which formerly enslaved people used as a guide while walking at night toward freedom in the north. We visited the museum in August of 2019 and were surprised to see highway sign after highway sign directing us to "Clinton Lake Museum." The River Valley Heritage Museum hasn't been called that since 2008! The museum normally sits above a beach and Bloomington Park, but that summer high water covered all of the park below the museum and only the roofs were visible of shelters which are normally 200 yards from the shore. We watched someone kayak through what is normally a playground.
copyright 2019-2022 by Keith Stokes |
