George Washington Carver, the great educator, agronomist and champion of African-Americans, was born a slave on a farm just southeast of Neosho, Missouri, in the early 1860s. Trails wind past the Carver birthplace, his boyhood home and the family cemetery at this parklike national monument. The preserve also encompasses quiet pasture and prairie, with groves of hardwoods.

Carver took his last name from Moses and Susan Carver. The farm couple raised him here after the infant boy and his slave mother were kidnapped by Confederate bounty hunters. Although he was found and returned to the couple, his mother never was seen again.

The frail youth was allowed to wander the pastures and woods, and there developed his abiding love of plants. George Washington Carver National Monument remains a retreat of abundant beauty for nature lovers.

Visitors can sign up to learn about wildflowers, take bird walks and learn about edible plants. History buffs can see how Confederate soldiers lived, and make old-fashioned corn-husk dolls. Kids can even lend a hand fetching water, doing laundry and helping out with other 19th-century farm chores.

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