A Road Trip Into America's Hidden Heart - Traveling the Back Roads, Backwoods and Back Yards. John Drake Robinson

press in 1897, and began transforming copper and brass and bronze into balusters, finials and weather vanes. Many of the tin ceilings survive. In fact, next time you’re downtown anywhere, walk into an old building and look up. Chances are, you’re looking into an original tin sundae, stamped into a ceiling by this most unique company.

      As I stood at the W.F. Norman factory, on the outside looking in, I realized it wasn’t my high school history teacher, nor my unnatural attachment to my 1952 World Book Encyclopedias that launched me on a journey to see every square inch of Missouri.

      It was a waiter aboard the Delta Queen.