Looking for something to do this weekend? How about going to Vale? It's not an airplane flight or 12+ hour drive away. It's a 30 minute maximum drive. It's actually in Kansas City between Raytown and Lee's Summit. I've only driven through.
I am assuming the town was platted as a stop of the old Rock Island Railroad and as the train depot shows on this old assessment map. Now that I've come across this, sometime over a winter I might just see if there is any remnant traces of the train depot.
Just to the north of the town of Vale was a 300+/- foot long tunnel which goes underneath Bannister Road. I've been through that tunnel but unfortunately it was so long ago that I didn't have a cell phone nor a digital camera (shuddup Millenials....and no I wasn't there when Moses parted the Red Sea-if you call me ancient I'll kick your skinny jean hiney). Maybe if Steve Rhoades with Vireo is reading this, he might have some pictures from what I think was a 3.5" floppy camera.
Vale Station shows up on the 1934 Lee's Summit quadrangle USGS topo map.
It still shows up in the 1957 USGS Lee's Summit topo map.
It didn't exist in the 1887 Harrisonville USGS topo map. I tried drawing the Rock Island Railroad corridor in red and where Vale would have been with the green arrow.
You can read more about the history of this segment of the Rock Island here and here or download the old plat map below. In the meantime, take a day trip to Vale and annoy your friends on social media with all the awesome pictures of your visit.
Download Town-of-Vale-Jackson-Co-MO
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