At Excelsior Springs Hospital, mental health care isn’t an add-on—it’s foundational. That philosophy drives a team of dedicated providers offering a range of services that increasingly serve not just Excelsior Springs, but the surrounding communities as well.
Long after the Civil War, segregation lived on—in the cemeteries.
That’s the case public historian Jeffery Smith made in his talk at Watkins Woolen Mill, where he walked guests through the history of burial inequality, collective memory, and the stories preserved in African American gravesites.
Shirley Coleen Driskell, 66, of Excelsior Springs, died on December 2, 2024, a loss that deeply impacted her community and underscored the importance of mental health support, particularly for older adults.
Long before railroads and highways crossed the plains, a trail of silver, wool, and stories connected Missouri to Mexico. At Watkins Woolen Mill State Park, historian Dr. Genovevo T. Chavez Ortiz traced those paths, sharing how Hispanic traders laid the groundwork for one of America’s most important commercial routes.
