Yeehaw Y’all. Independence remaines a hub for all things frontier history.
“Great, my son just died of typhoid fever,” says Sydney Jones, associate editor of Missouri Life magazine, while playing the Oregon Trail computer game at the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence.
Independence is known as Queen City of the Trails because it was a starting point for the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe Trails. In the mid-1800s, tens of thousands of pioneers passed through the town; now, Independence honors this history through interactive activities.
Within a few block radius, the town showcases the National Frontier Trails Museum, which has exhibits on five different frontier trails and Merrill J. Mattes Research Library, an archive brimming with all things frontier trails. The town also features Pioneers Trail Adventures, a historical tour given to guests while they ride on a horse drawn Chattanooga wagon.
“We were basically the jumping off point at the time the trails came through here,” says Melissa Brown, the National Frontier Trails Museum services supervisor. “This was the edge of known civilization. Once you left Independence, you were jumping off into the unknown.”
The museum covers the history of the Lewis & Clark, Santa Fe, Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. Inside the museum are artifacts and replicas of items used on the trail, including guns, clothing, diaries, and crates. It also has interactive children’s activities like the original Oregon Trail computer game, a game to test how many pioneer items (like wheat or medicine) can be put in a wagon without going overweight, and Lincoln Logs, which can be used to build pioneer-style cabins. Besides the exhibits, there is a gift shop and a short movie about westward expansion that plays in a movie room decorated like a frontier blacksmith shop and grocery store.
Down the street, in the Missouri Model Railroad Museum, is the Merrill J. Mattes Research Library. This library has a collection of over 3,000 volumes on the trails, periodicals, maps, relics, and photographs all hidden behind a steel door. From rocking chairs to farming tools to clothing trunks to barrels, the library has collected an archive of frontier artifacts. People all across the world reach out to the library for information and research material housed here. Visitors are required to make an appointment before searching its overflowing shelves.
Near the library is Pioneer Trails Adventures, a history tour given from a horse-drawn covered wagon that travels around town. This unique tour starts with a “yeehaw” from tour guide Ralph Goldsmith. It then bumps around town and passes the Bingham-Waggoner Mansion & Estate, the Harry S. Truman Home, the 1827 Log Courthouse, and five other historic sites. Throughout the tour, Ralph jumps into character and details iconic historical figures who ran around the town, like Jesse James, historic battles that took place in the town, frontier wagon train starting points, and more.
“Most of the world was coming here to Independence to spread out to the West,” Melissa says.
This article was originally printed in the March/April 2026 issue of Missouri Life.
