The signs of Shiloh

The signs at Shiloh were everywhere. It is a large memorial park and there are hundreds and hundreds of signs. Since they are so smart, the signs are all organized. The big square signs have detailed information about the group/person in that area during the battle.

The triangular signs indicate a location of a group of soldiers on the first day of the battle. The yellow color meant it was a group from the army of the Ohio. If it was blue, it was from the army of the Tennessee and the red signs were the army of the Mississippi. (hopefully if I am getting this wrong, John will come back and edit!).


At first, we felt like we had to read all the signs. They were so interesting, but very quickly we realized we were going to miss out on the parks of the site we wanted to see if we read every single sign.

Another strategy John and I use that helps with traveling with kids is to try and have a game plan. John and I talked about what both of us what we absolutely wanted to see. John wanted to see the Sunken Road most of all and the headquarters of the different leaders as well as take some time to look at the different types of cannons on display throughout the park. He wanted to see more than that, but those were his bare minimum essential sites. I wanted to see the peach orchard, the Minnesota memorial within the park, and I wanted to take the short loop trial with Native American artifacts.

These locations would have to be our priority. We could stop and look at other things, but we couldn't spend much time there without giving up one of our other desires. We had arrived later than expected due to our unexpected stop in Mississippi (see Corinth) and we still were hoping to leave by 4ish in order to eat dinner close to our hotel. The clock was ticking.

Anyhow, after the first several signs, I gave up on the further afield signs as I could easily tell from a distance by the shape and color what the information was going to be about. John stuck with it for quite a bit longer, but in the end even he had to give up on taking in each and every sign.

Our original destination

We got to the original intended destination of the Shiloh battlefield at lunch time. I utilized the ride between sites to read up and review the history of the battle with John. To be clear, for him it was a quick review. For me, it was more than that. And I'm pretty sure I already have forgotten most of it.

We ate our picnic lunch in the car and then the kids ran around for a little while. Stopping off in Mississippi was a happy accident. We enjoyed the stop very much, but now we were 2 hours behind our (flexible) schedule for the day. When we were ready, we all went into the visitor center and I talked to perhaps the most helpful person ever. Not sarcastic. Truly helpful.

The park ranger saw me looking at the maps/brochures and asked if I needed help. I decided that being frank was going to get me the best results.

Why yes, I did need help.

I am here at this awesome historical site and I have 3 hours. I also have 3 kids aged 3, 6, &8. I live far away and might not be back for years. What are the best/coolest/most exciting parts I can't miss? He grabbed me a map and started talking. It was a tall order, but he was ready.

1. Driving tour. Well labeled and numbered. (Our personal tip: have everyone go to the bathroom BEFORE you start the self guided driving tour. Even the people who say they don't have to go. There is not a single place to go to the bathroom on the entire loop drive. You could find yourself flying through the loop and skipping monuments to get to bathrooms. Twice.)

2. a loop hike at the end of the driving tour has some artifacts and some interesting Native American features.

We took a quick look around the visitor center before hitting the road. The kids were about 13% more interested in the Civil war artifacts than I anticipated, which is always a good surprise.

Shiloh, stop 1: Corinth, MS

John and I put our heads together on Friday evening and started researching our options. The options were looking slim and while there were attractions we could see, there wasn't anything we were super excited about.


Then, on a whim, I looked up how far it would be to the Shiloh, TN Civil War battlefield. It was only 1.5 hours away. Shiloh is one of those places that might make John's top desired places to see (in the United States). This was far more exciting and we did discuss other options before finally coming back to Shiloh. It was going to be a big undertaking with 3 youngish kids, but it was something we were excited to try.

We got going up early in the morning so we could arrive in time to get some looking around done. We packed up some lunches so we wouldn't have to search out lunch in the middle of the day (in hindsight, this was absolutely necessary as there was nothing in the park and little close by).

We hit the road early and prepped the kids for the kind of day we were having. One reason our kids travel so well is I work hard to let them know a rough schedule and what the expectations were going to be. This kind of day was going to be a little drive, some really interesting history to look at and check out and then more driving. Good listening and behavior were going to earn cookies and chips for lunch. Good behavior after lunch would earn extra electronic time in the car on the way home.

The plan was to picnic at Shiloh and leave there around 4ish in order to eat dinner in nearby Mississippi.

We programmed Shiloh national monument into our gps and headed down the road. It didn't take us the way I thought it would, but the gps has rarely steered is wrong.

When we pulled up, it appeared we had arrived at the Corinth, Mississippi Shiloh national monument. Prior to arriving, neither John or I had any idea it existed.

It turned out to be a very interesting sight with several interesting exhibits. I doubt that if we had arrived at the larger Shiloh monument first that we would have gone back to check this out. This turned out to be a very happy accident. Although it put our timing off, we enjoyed this site and learned quite a bit.

After a short visit, we were back on track and drove the 30 minutes to the Tennessee Shiloh national monument.

Bass Pro Panarama

It was big!

More Bass Pro

It was huge. Very big!

Bass Pro Shop

From a distance, I kept spying this pyramid. I had no idea what it was. After we went to Mud Island, we realized it was just down the street from where we were parked. So, we drove by to discover it was a Bass Pro Shop. A huge one. Gigantic. There is a hotel housed within the Bass Pro Shop. It was so big we felt like we needed to have a hand on each of the kids the whole time we were inside.

There was a glass elevator you could take to the top, but at $10/per person, it was out of our budget.

They had live alligators in one area and fish swimming everywhere. Although it wasn't planned, this was pretty memorable!

Big park time

Sometimes you just need to pick something for the kids to do and run around. There was a huge park on our list of "recommended" sights to see.

The sun was shining and the kids were ready for a little running around.

True to the description, the park was huge. Which means not very many pictures. Not many pictures as it is hard to keep track of 3 kids in a giant space.

The was climbing, swinging, a giant sandbox, a bouncy teeter totter, and a huge, crazy slide area. The kids were in heaven.


Obviously, we were paying it forward. Memphis is known for its barbecue and we were planning on getting some for dinner. The kids were not going to be happy with this, so going to the park was our peace offering in advance.

As expected, the barbecue place was tasty and our kids didn't eat hardly at all.