Here we Are in Nevada......Nevada, MO That Is 8/27/2010

Well we were on the road again this morning headed to Nevada, MO. We packed up about 9:00 and were on the road by 9:30. The strap on our awning broke as I was retracting it and now we have no way to pull the awning out till we get it fixed. Another something to add to the list of things to have fixed. We had a trip of about 125 miles down I-29 through Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO. We survived the construction shut downs and morning traffic tie-ups and got to the campgrounds about noon. We are staying at Osage Prairie RV Park and small, 40 sites, very nice place for 2 nights. We checked in, set up and had lunch. The campgrounds has full hook ups, no TV though but it does have wi-fi when it works. The bathrooms are nice and very clean so that's a plus. After lunch, seeing as there is no TV we loaded some caches up and were off to find them and look around the downtown area. The caches we did really were all NRV caches with one right here at the campgrounds, one at a baseball field, one at a local park in the woods and 3 in cemeteries. One of the cemeteries we went to, Click Cemetery, had grave markers dating back to the 1830's.

After we were done caching we drove around Nevada to see what there was interesting and historical. Nevada is a city in Vernon County, Missouri, United States. The population was 8,607 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Vernon County. Nevada is the home of Cottey College, a junior college for women operated by the P.E.O. Sisterhood.
Before its incorporation in 1855, the small community was known as both Fair View and Hog-Eye. The latter name was considered crude, and the former had already been taken as a post office name. Therefore, town was named after Nevada City, California by circuit and county clerk DeWitt C. Hunter, who had tried his luck in the California Gold Rush of 1849. The first "a" rhymes with hay, making the pronunciation "Nuh-VAY-duh".
Vernon County suffered greatly during the American Civil War, and the entire town of Nevada was burned to the ground by a large group from nearby Cedar county on May 23, 1863. Men from Cedar county stormed the Nevada Court House, and were killed. Their bodies were left on the town square until they were taken to the undertaker. After the men didn't return home to Cedar county after a few days, a large group made it's way to Nevada. They told every household that they had 15 minutes to gather any items they wanted to save before their house would be set on fire.
For many years Nevada has been a home for the Moore's Opera House, built by Colonel Harry Moore and located on the corner of Cherry and Washington Streets.[4] It was built in May 1882 and burned after just 5 days. It was rebuilt in 10 months. It hosted plays, moving pictures and various traveling shows. The second Opera House building also burned down in April of 1907.
There were lots and lots of lovely old historic buildings which you will see in this and the next blog. We did drive around the campus of Cottey College c1884 interested in old buildings and lovely campus.

Cottey College, located in Nevada, Missouri is a private, two-year women's college. It was founded by Virginia Alice Cottey Stockard in 1884 and is currently owned and supported by the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic women's organization.
Cottey College offers the Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees. The type of degree a student receives is based upon the core curriculum and distribution requirements she completes. Students choose subjects of their interest and/or intended major. There is no obligation to declare a major while at Cottey; however, students usually complete prerequisites or requirements for their future field of study. Over 95% of graduates transfer to four-year institutions, including Smith College, Stephens College, Salem College, and Mount Holyoke College.
Cottey has a student to faculty ratio of 10:1, and the average class size is 13.It is not uncommon to have courses with fewer than 10 students. Faculty includes both men and women, with 94% holding the terminal academic degree in their field[citation needed]. The college's mission is stated in the college Catalog: "Cottey College will educate qualified women in the arts and sciences to prepare them for transfer to programs beyond the associate's degree by enhancing their intellectual ability, their store of knowledge, their personal skills, and thereby their capacity for contribution to society and their chosen fields."
The college has a nationally recognized leadership program known as LEO. The Center for Women's Leadership provides structured leadership training for current students and women from the area, as well as high school students.
Cottey is situated on 66 acres (270,000 m2) of land in Nevada, Missouri a rural town of about 9,000 people. The main campus is situated on 11 city blocks. Five blocks south of this is B.I.L. Hill, a 33-acre wooded area owned and used by Cottey for recreation, concerts, bonfires, picnics, suite nights, and other traditions.
The official colors of Cottey are yellow and white. Additionally, the senior class color is navy blue and the freshmen class color is "baby" blue. The senior class mascot was originally known as "Hermann the duck" and was adopted by the senior class in 1924. The current senior mascot is known as Hermitrude the duck, while the freshmen class chooses their own mascot every year (see Past Freshmen Mascots). The daisy was chosen by the first Cottey students to represent their school, and plays an important role in traditions like convocation and commencement.


Interesting thing about Cottey is that there has been tales of many paranormal activities going on in and around the college. Tales of ghostly happenings at Cottey have been told for decades. The most propagated story is of hearing a piano being played in Main Hall or Rosemary Hall at night, when no one else is there. The music is usually attributed to the ghost of Vera Neitzert, a high school student who attended Cottey in 1920. In May of that year she was cooking candy in a chafing dish in Main Hall when her nightclothes caught fire. She incurred serious burns all over her body and died a few days later in the American Sanitorium, which stood where the Blanche Skiff Ross Memorial Library is today. While she didn’t die on Cottey’s campus, her ghost is said to roam Main Hall and Rosemary Hall (before it was razed due to a failing foundation) and will wander all over the campus. Others believe that the piano is being played by Madame Blitz, head of Cottey’s music department at the turn of the 20th century. As well, in 1904, a Mme. Blitz drank carbolic acid and died in her home across the street from Cottey, and her spirit is still said to walk the campus.

The other story is that the Blanche Ross Skiff Library was built on top of an old Civil War Hospital and then in the 1880's a home was built for the Cottey Family. Students report books falling from the shelves, book carts rolling around, and music on the back stairs. An old man in a smoking jacket and cap has allegedly been seen on the balcony. Other haunts at this 1963 building include two little girls in Victorian dress who play on the stairs and a young woman in a long white gown who reads a book.

After we got done our ghost chasing we headed back to the coach for the day. Well that's about it from Nevada so until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick