Amistad
In the southern part of Union County, on Hwy 402, is the little village of Amistad, which was a cattle drive stop in the late 1800s. In 1906 Rev. Henry S. Wannamaker, a Congregational minister, promoted homesteading in church newspapers, which lead to more than 40 older ministers staking claims in Amistad — the Spanish word for "Friendship." Local people pronounce the name AHM-stahd.
An informal community group operates the Amistad Museum and Archives, located in the parsonage of the old United Brethren Church (now United Methodist). The museum is open by appointment.
Two miles south of Amistad is the Brams-Bradley Memorial, a homestead which has not been significantly altered since its establishment about 1906. The home is of special importance considering it is a catalog mail order structure which is practically in its original condition having not been "improved" or expanded over the years. The Amistad group hopes to eventually convert the property to a living history museum dedicated to the life and times of a typical history museum in Union County near the turn of the last century.
You Better Believe It
Travel 50 miles south of Clayton on Hwy 402 to the Bravo Dome Industrial Site with its estimated 10 trillion cubic feet of natural carbon dioxide, the world's largest and purest concentration. CO2 in the Bravo Dome was first commercially developed during World War II for the manufacture of dry ice. Then researchers for oil companies discovered that using CO2 significantly increased from 40% to 60% the amount of oil recovered from already-producing but maturing oil fields.
