The Tri-State Marker

Monday morning, my wife and I woke up at a rest stop on the western outskirts of Joplin, Missouri. A quick consultation of Google Maps revealed that we were, in theory, about 5 hours from our destination. It also revealed that we were less than five-minutes from the Tri-State Area! (Oops... I meant this one).

I'm talking about that spot on the map where Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma meet. I was excited and thought that this would be a cool thing to see. I also expected that this Particular Point of Geographic Synchronicity to be a Pretty Big Deal.

...

...

Turns out, not so much.

At the end of what looks like a gravel driveway there is a pile of stones that have been mortared together. Off to one side, there is what looks like a manhole cover. The rock pile had four smooth rectangles where commemorative plaques (most likely) of some sort had once been mounted.

Only graffiti remains.

I was crestfallen. My wife and I climbed back in our Jeep put it in gear and turned to leave. That was when I noticed that the manhole cover was not a manhole cover but was in fact a replacement plaque describing what had once been part of the squat rocky tower.

Had it not been for our encounter with a bison and a visit to the George Washington Carver National Monument, the morning would have been fairly underwhelming.