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George Washington Carver National Monument – Diamond, MO

The George Washington Carver National Monument was established by an act of Congress in July of 1943. The National Park Service maintains 210 acres of the original 240 acre Moses Carver Farm.
George Washington Carver’s boyhood home consists of rolling hills, woodlands, and prairies. The 210 acre park has a 3/4 mile nature trail, museum, and an interactive exhibit area for students. The cultural setting includes the 1881 Historic Moses Carver house and the Carver cemetery. The Park is open year round, from 9am – 5pm.The monument is located in Southwest Missouri approximately 2 miles west of Diamond, MO.

George Washington Carver overcame great obstacles to become a world renowned scientist, educator and humanitarian. George was born into slavery and soon became an orphan. He was affected by the violence of the time and by racism all his life. Despite this, he firmly believed that he could achieve whatever he set out to do. He also felt that each of us could achieve whatever goal we set for ourselves and he expressed that belief through a poem he read as part of the commencement address at Selma University in Selma, Alabama on May 27,1942. Here, below the bust of Carver sculpted by Audrey Corwin, you can read the poem as he read it.On this site, George Washington Carver was born into slavery in the early 1860’s during a violent chapter in our history. The low walls may help you visualize the small amount of space that was available in that one-room slave cabin, approximately 14 feet by 14 feet. Moses and Susan Carver, owners of the farm and of Carver’s mother, lived almost as simply in another cabin located adjacent to this site that measured 16 feet by 14 feet. It is said that the Carvers were good to their slaves. Still, it is important to understand that there can be no justification or acceptable measure for owning other human beings and controlling their lives against their wills.

During the Civil War, bushwhackers (an undisciplined band of irregular troops) raided the Carver farm and kidnapped George and his mother, Mary. The raiders planned to sell them in Arkansas, or further south, at inflated wartime prices. Greatly upset, Moses Carver hired a Union scout, John Bentley, to find and to return Mary and George. Bentley did return, but only with George who was very ill. Mary was never seen or heard from again, leaving George an orphan. After George was returned, Moses and Susan Carver raised George and his brother Jim as their own children.

George Washington Carver National Monument
5646 Carver Road
Diamond, MO 64840

Phone Headquarters
(417) 325-4151

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