1019. Bingham-Waggoner Estate
Missouri’s famous painter and statesman, George Caleb Bingham, purchased the Lewis homestead and lived in this home during the Civil War where he painted, perhaps, his most famous masterpiece, “Martial Law,” or, “Order No. 11,” depicting the Union Army’s militarization of this area and depopulation of four counties along the Missouri-Kansas border in 1863.
Trail ruts or swales, preserved on this site, are visible reminders of the hundreds of thousands of overland travelers who passed by on the Santa Fe, and later Oregon and California trails. Here surviving swales align with modern roads.
With the constant roll of time, travelers saw this modest home expand around its original nucleus into a mansion that is open to the public today as a house museum with guided tours.