La Plata, Missouri, City Tour, December 9, 2006

By Carl Morrison, Carl@TrainWeb.com

(Click any photo for a double-sized copy, click BACK in your browser to return to this page.)

Ray Ivy, City Administrator, (above) invited me on a tour of La Plata, which I quickly accepted.	We left the Amish hitching post at the bank by the Depot Inn & Suites, and crossed Hwy. 63 to the east.
I believe the "Sante" should be "Santa"	The Santa Fe Lake was hand-dug to hold water that would be piped into town to be used to fill steam engines. Swimming is popular here in the summer.

Fishing is allowed here, with a motoboat up to 5 hp.	The lake is beautiful any time of year.

The home, (Above) now owned by Edward Green, was constructed in 1895 by John T. Doneghy. It is a

Queen Anne Style house (Victorian Era) and is similar to the summer homes built on Cape Code
during the late 1800's.

The house was one of several built by the Doneghy family. The second owner of the home was
John Surbeck, whose son and daughter, Clay and Villa, lived in the house for several years after the
death of their father.

Ed Green purchased the home at a public auction on October 4, 1975, when the only original
pieces still in the house were three light fixtures. He has done extensive improvements to the home
since his purchase and has filled the entire house with antiques gathered from family and friends and
purchased throughout the state.

I liked the 4-poster bed on the roof!	I liked the shingles used on the prevailing wind side of the front porch...even a porch with a window!

Lester Dent (b. October 12,1904 in La Plata, Missouri - d. March 11, 1959 in La Plata, Missouri) was a prolific pulp fiction author of numerous stories, best known as the main author of the series of stories about the superhuman scientist and adventurer, Doc Savage.

This was the last house we photographed. Not only was the house beautiful, it had a very unique garage (above).

From the car I spotted some Amish buggies with horses tied to a tree and I could hear an auctioneer. I told Ray that I'd walk back to the TrainWeb ribbon cutting, and he left to prepare to be the M.C.

The sound of the auctioneer bought back a flood of childhood memories. When I was a youngin' my dad took me to a regular livestock auction in Vallonia, Indiana. There they had an inside arena for the auction of livestock, and in an adjacent building they sold household goods in a separate auction. In addition to this permanent auction facility, there were always auctions at farms, that we would also go to. We seldom bought anything, but simply enjoyed the sounds of the auctioneers, the food prepared by local farm ladies, and the general excitement of the sale and the purchase. This was a permanent auction place which sold items outside, and inside the adjacent building. I had never seen a mobile auction booth. Ray explained that the auctioneer did not have to walk the aiseles selling the items, he was carted, like a chariot, down the aisles...fascinating!

	The auctioneer's booth was in the back of a pickup, so he could be moved about the sale yard in relative warmth. His name and number were on his booth.
	There was food for sale here too, as this Amish fellow studys the menu.

This tractor sold for $250.	The Amish had driven their buggies to the sale and tied the horses to trees nearby.
This one seemed to be double-bridled.	This one seemed to be a 2-wheeled chariot version.

Before I left, I went to the inside auction. This auctioneer was working long and hard to get $1 for whatever item was on the block.	On the way out, I passed through the office to find that it was a bear market!
Realizing I needed to get to the noontime ribbon-cutting, I walked through town square.	La Plata, MO, Post Office

On the West Side of La Plata

Hwy. 156 west. Slow moving vehicle is one horse Amish buggy.	A store run by and for the Amish community is not far west of La Plata.

The Amish Store items were not made by local Amish, but what they needed to buy for their homes.


	An Amish farm because non-Amish would have had a corn picker that would have picked the corn on the stalk. This field of corn has been hand cut and the corn put in shocks to be picked up by horse team and wagon and shucked in the field or at the barn.

By modern day standards the corn ears were small. Perhaps fertilizer is not permitted. I do not see how they can produce enough per acre to make ends meet.	There was evidence that deer had eaten some of the corn, and we passed an Amish farm with a deer hanging from a tree ready for skinning. A deer would provide considerable venison for the table, with no investment like cattle feed.
My friends taunted me a bit about taking so long taking pictures of corn, so I initiated a snowball fight. Luckily I started it beyond their range and the sound of a train whistle caused us all to run for the car to go to the crossing and photograph a passing freight.

The 10th Anniversary of TrainWeb.com, December 9, 2006.

Tour of La Plata, Missouri

On the West Side of La Plata