One of Caldwell County’s Favorite Sons

Official Missouri Department of Transportation sign marking the south end of the Zack Wheat Memorial Highway.

• Location: MO 13, Caldwell Co., Mo.
• Designated: Unknown

Unfortunately, aside from a local street just north of the town of Polo, nothing else in Caldwell County seems to be dedicated to the player’s memory except for this stretch of Highway 13, a north-south road through the county.

As it happens, the county’s true favorite son is James C. Penney, the retailer whose name still appears on a chain of department stores. He was born near Hamilton, the county’s largest town; the high school in town is Penney High, and Penney’s 1947 Cadillac is sometimes displayed at a gas station just south of town.