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Just like the settlers who traveled along trails toward westward expansion, John Mark Lambertson has his eyes set on several new sites.
Lambertson, 55, recently retired as the longtime director of the 21-year-old National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence. He is moving to Colorado, but after nearly 19 years in the directorship, Lambertson isn’t necessarily slowing down.
Machu Picchu, the 15th century Inca site in the Cusco Region of Peru, leads Lambertson’s sites-to-see list, along with Tibet. He’s already visited all 50 U.S. states, all seven continents and 60 countries.
“I’ve always been fascinated with architecture and ancient civilization and the amount of mystery they have attached to them,” Lambertson said of why these sites lead his list. “Also, there is a lot of climbing, and I need to do that before my knees give out.”
Nearly two decades ago, Lambertson, a native of eastern Kansas, was looking for a change from his employment with the Kansas State Historical Society. He took a job as the archivist for the Trails Museum’s library, and six months later, Lambertson was named as the museum’s director.
“It was certainly very fascinating because of the rich history in Independence,” Lambertson said of moving from Kansas to Missouri. “I certainly became very enamored with the trails history out of Jackson County.”
And over the years, every aspect of the museum and its research library grew and expanded. Three covered wagons and three large murals were added. Permanent museum exhibit galleries doubled in size under Lambertson’s directorship.
In January 1999, Lambertson discovered the 150-year-old wagon swales and ruts on the far south grounds of the Bingham-Waggoner Estate at 313 W. Pacific Ave., just across the street from the Trails Museum.
“That was nothing short of miraculous,” he said, “that here in a built-up metropolitan area, there they would be and then forgotten and then rediscovered literally five blocks from the Courthouse Square.”
Two years ago, the museum received certification to perform interpretative work on the Mormon Pioneer Trail, making it the fifth trail certification of its kind, along with the Oregon, California, Santa Fe and Lewis and Clark trails. The museum is the only U.S. museum that has five such certifications on national historic trails.
From all of his work at the museum, along with the publishing of his articles in historical journals, Lambertson’s consulting on three children’s books and appearances as a guest historian in documentaries, Lambertson developed a national reputation. He served on the national board of the Oregon-California Trails Association – headquartered in Independence on the museum’s grounds – for six years and received the association’s Distinguished Service Award in 2000.
Just like the settlers who traveled along trails toward westward expansion, John Mark Lambertson has his eyes set on several new sites.
Lambertson, 55, recently retired as the longtime director of the 21-year-old National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence. He is moving to Colorado, but after nearly 19 years in the directorship, Lambertson isn’t necessarily slowing down.
Machu Picchu, the 15th century Inca site in the Cusco Region of Peru, leads Lambertson’s sites-to-see list, along with Tibet. He’s already visited all 50 U.S. states, all seven continents and 60 countries.
“I’ve always been fascinated with architecture and ancient civilization and the amount of mystery they have attached to them,” Lambertson said of why these sites lead his list. “Also, there is a lot of climbing, and I need to do that before my knees give out.”
Nearly two decades ago, Lambertson, a native of eastern Kansas, was looking for a change from his employment with the Kansas State Historical Society. He took a job as the archivist for the Trails Museum’s library, and six months later, Lambertson was named as the museum’s director.
“It was certainly very fascinating because of the rich history in Independence,” Lambertson said of moving from Kansas to Missouri. “I certainly became very enamored with the trails history out of Jackson County.”
And over the years, every aspect of the museum and its research library grew and expanded. Three covered wagons and three large murals were added. Permanent museum exhibit galleries doubled in size under Lambertson’s directorship.
In January 1999, Lambertson discovered the 150-year-old wagon swales and ruts on the far south grounds of the Bingham-Waggoner Estate at 313 W. Pacific Ave., just across the street from the Trails Museum.
“That was nothing short of miraculous,” he said, “that here in a built-up metropolitan area, there they would be and then forgotten and then rediscovered literally five blocks from the Courthouse Square.”
Two years ago, the museum received certification to perform interpretative work on the Mormon Pioneer Trail, making it the fifth trail certification of its kind, along with the Oregon, California, Santa Fe and Lewis and Clark trails. The museum is the only U.S. museum that has five such certifications on national historic trails.
From all of his work at the museum, along with the publishing of his articles in historical journals, Lambertson’s consulting on three children’s books and appearances as a guest historian in documentaries, Lambertson developed a national reputation. He served on the national board of the Oregon-California Trails Association – headquartered in Independence on the museum’s grounds – for six years and received the association’s Distinguished Service Award in 2000.
In August, Lambertson appeared on C-SPAN3 and spoke about the American Westward Expansion and the role the trails out of Independence played.
“It’s astonishing to me a little bit that I’ve developed a bit of a national reputation as a trails authority. It is interesting as far as the responses and the people who contact me from all over the country for responses and so forth,” Lambertson said. “I also take that as a little bit of a recognition of the wonderful research collection that we’ve been able to compile at the research library over the past two decades. That, by itself, helps give the museum director clout as far as a resource for Western historians.”
In his years as the museum’s director, Lambertson said he learned that the trails story “resonates with people from all walks of life, from all over the world and from all ages.
“It is such a fascinating and compelling story of enormous human interest and human experience and trials and tribulation,” he said. “People from all over the world really understand it in terms of being able to put themselves in the shoes of trail travelers and understand the situations that occurred.”
The museum’s artifact collection also has expanded, allowing visitors to see the story of the trails in a more 3-D sense, Lambertson said. The research library includes more than 2,000 maps and about 3,800 first-person accounts of trail experiences, including original letters and diaries.
“It is still an enormous story with tremendous impact on American history, and I wish that we had more space to be able to tell that story even better,” he said. “As far as the future, I think it’s important to have more room to tell that story and Independence’s role even better.”
Independence resident Niel Johnson, a past president of the Friends of the National Frontier Trails Museum who’s been active since the museum’s inception, said Lambertson contributed a great deal to the museum, especially considering the challenges he had, such as the expansion and improvement of the museum’s existing property.
Lambertson also played a pivotal role in strengthening the museum’s educational programs, both for school-aged children and for teachers in the summer months.
“I think he’s carried that quite far,” Johnson said. “The library also has been built up a great deal, and there also is a good collection of papers and documents in the archival area.
“We kind of have a national reputation, and we need to keep adding to that. (Lambertson) did a good job of building up that reputation.”
In addition to traveling across the world, Lambertson said he plans to continue pursuing his hobbies of genealogical research and visiting graveyards to learn more about interesting tombstones, an interest that his parents introduced to him and his sister when they were children.
For those visitors who continue to pass through the National Frontier Trails Museum – the most visited city-owned tourism site in 2010 – Lambertson said he wants them to understand that the trails influenced world history as much as they shaped American history.
“It really changed forever the size and the economic clout of America, and the whole development of the western part of the continent came out of the trails story,” he said. “It has far-reaching effects of changing American history and as far as making America a world power.”
