DANCING AT PICNIC IN THE OZARKS, 1910s

 Beautiful Ozarks, James Fork of the White, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jul 202022
 

Real photo postcard by George Hall

Unlike the posed hillbilly family real photo postcard we shared in June this is a straightforward document of the surviving folk culture on the upper White River, circa 1910.  Hillbilliness is based on these anachronisms.

Locals at this hoe-down appear to be wearing store bought clothes. Once the railroad made its way to southwest Missouri, Stone Countians had access to prêt-à-porter clothing just like the tourists.

Music and the moves it inspires have always been part of life in the Ozarks. Some of the Arcadian resorts built dance floors and natives joined in with visitors. Distinctions between locals and visitors were not always clear when melodies filled the air and boots and shoes started tapping. That tradition continues today in music festivals in the hills as well as regular weekly gatherings like Friday night parties at the old McClurg general store. The decades old weekly gathering was recently well represented at the Smithsonian Folklife Fest, on the Mall in Washington.

Lens & Pen Press is having a half-price sale for all titles. James Fork is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $17.50 (half the original price of $35), postage paid.

A PRETTY BUT MISLEADING PHOTO OF GRANDIN, MO, CIRCA 1905

 Beautiful Ozarks, Irish Wilderness  No Responses »
Feb 102021
 

This seems an appropriate card to post this week as temperatures fall and freezing mist turns roads into treacherous slides.

Entitled “The Woods in Winter, Grandin, Mo. Hinchey Photo,” this toned real photo postcard is puzzling. When this photo was taken, Grandin was the largest sawmill operation in the world, yet this scene is anything but industrial. Pennsylvania capitalists created the Missouri Lumber and Mining Company and, with the help of thousands of mill hands, converted a large percentage of the virgin pine forests of the southeast Ozarks into dimension lumber. (See details of that industrial lumbering operation in our book, Mystery of the Irish Wilderness.) Presumably, the puny trees along the brook were safe from the sawmill blades. But who, in this nexus of industrialization, would be interested in a poetic snow scene?

R. E. Hinchey was the “official photographer” for several railroads. They produced heavily illustrated booklets on the Ozarks, which not only promoted farming, mining, and wood products but also portrayed the region’s natural beauty. This postcard image was likely an outtake from his assignment to depict the area for Frisco sales material.

Several Lens & Pen Press books discuss the evolution of the Ozark landscape and our effects on its rivers. Check out Damming the Osage and James Fork of the White on www.beautifulozarks.com All our books are now on sale for half price, postage paid. Order on www.dammingtheosage.com

 

ANNOUNCING A HOLIDAY BOOK SALE!

 Beautiful Ozarks, Damming the Osage, Irish Wilderness, James Fork of the White, Lover's Leap Legends, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  1 Response »
Nov 142020
 

The holiday season is upon us all and BOOKS MAKE SPLENDID GIFTS!

We are pleased to offer a 50% discount on our current inventory with free shipping.
Click here to visit our storefront to order now.

Lover’s Leap Legends Price now: $17.50
James Fork of the White Price now: $17.50
Damming the Osage: Price now: $17.50
Mystery of the Irish Wilderness: Price now: $9.95
On the Mission in Missouri Price now: $10.50
The Beautiful and Enduring Ozarks Price now: $9.95
See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image Price now: $12.50

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4067 S. Franklin
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Early Ozarks Roadside Advertising

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  2 Responses »
Nov 102020
 

On the front of the card is written “Scene in the Ozarks.” On the back is printed “Photo by Ayers, Neosho, Mo.”

On the cliff wall along a dirt road running along an unnamed Ozark river has been painted “Chesterfield Cigarettes.” At the end of the dirt road, you can barely make out an iron bridge spanning the river. Commercial graffiti like this is uncommon. Billboards sprang up in the 1930s along well-traveled highways but weren’t the kind of strenuous objections to debasing scenic views as there was back East. Occasionally, letters to the editor raised esthetic concerns but in New England states anti-billboard forces have gone farther, getting severe restrictions on outdoor advertising. The Federal Highway Beautification Act required states to maintain “effective control” of outdoor advertising, but even these rules are less restrictive than the regulations of Vermont and New Hampshire. Today, cliff faces like this are more likely to display spray-painted bad art and obscenities than product advertising.

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Lens & Pen books are available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble. You can see sample pages of our most recent book, Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco, on our website: hypercommon.com.

Lover’s Leap Legends won the bronze medal in the popular culture division of the 2020 Independent Publishers’ Book Awards, an international competition. This year there were entries from forty-four states, seven Canadian provinces and fifteen other countries.

James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River was a finalist in Regional Non-fiction in the 2019 Indie Book Awards. Lens & Pen Press’s earlier river book, Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir, was awarded a silver medal by the Independent Publishers’ Book Awards in 2013.)

How Rough was “Roughing it in the Ozarks”?

 Beautiful Ozarks, James Fork of the White, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Aug 032020
 

Real photo postcard, circa 1910. Nothing on the back. Scratched in the negative: “Roughing in the Ozarks.”

The more we looked at this recently acquired postcard, the more we puzzled over it. What was going on? Who were the people? Locals or city folks? The clothes look more store-bought than homespun.  Was it all a setup? It’s not your standard “Life of the hillbillies” postcards sold at tourist shops. So we sent it to Lynn Morrow, Ozarks historian extraordinaire, to ask his opinion. He replied:
What a great postcard, new one to me.  My guesses include some of yours:
I’d guess they are from an Ozark town, the clothes are too good for a subsistence farmer; the “Roughing it in the Ozarks” was a common phrase in sporting and urban newspapers of the day, the traveling(?) photographer and/or locals are just imitating it & I’ve seen it elsewhere, but it is another hint of using an urban influence in the backwoods;
They aren’t too far from town or a sawmill with a dimension lumber shack (it looks like a tree rather than a stove pipe in the background) and the setting looks “Novemberish” to me for the campout; the woman in the background on the horse must be local, and maybe she brought the clothes’ pins to hang the textile on a line that is attached to the tree on the left;
The “T-pee” was popular with the emerging scouting and rural life movement that often included something “Indian” in costume, dress, etc.; the stripped wagon-type tent is surely another mail order product; the one girl in middle looks like she’s doing an Annie Oakley imitation;
The boy may be sitting on a “picnic” table, usually not seen in urban sportsmen images; the box on the ground behind the man on right might be a dry goods box of canned food and/or gear brought to the site;
but, puzzling to me is the apparent bamboo or cane poles that could be fishing poles, but why are they bound/wrapped high up unless that was just for traveling?
Regardless of guesses, the card is a keeper and should be published!
KWTO (Keep Working for the Ozarks),
Lynn
Lynn Morrow is the retired director of the Missouri State Archives’ Local Records Program, Missouri State University alum, and an Ozarks historian. His book, Shepard of the Hills Country: Tourism Transforms The Ozarks, occupies prime shelf space in our office and is festooned with post-it notes.
If anyone knows about it or has another interpretation please let us know.

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Lens & Pen books are available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble. You can see sample pages of our most recent book, Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco, on our website: hypercommon.com.

Lover’s Leap Legends won the bronze medal in the popular culture division of the 2020 Independent Publishers’ Book Awards, an international competition. This year there were entries from forty-four states, seven Canadian provinces and fifteen other countries.

James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River was a finalist in Regional Non-fiction in the 2019 Indie Book Awards. Lens & Pen Press’s earlier river book, Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir, was awarded a silver medal by the Independent Publishers’ Book Awards in 2013.)

Portuguese Point on the Gasconade River

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jul 072020
 

Real photo postcard, 1930s. Written on the postcard, “Looking down on Gasconade River from Portuguese Point. S-243.” Inevitably, photographs of the panoramic landscape contain a figure poised at the edge of the cliff.

There is a bluff called Portuguese Point overlooking the Gasconade River valley about eleven miles south of Dixon, Missouri. It has a splendid view, is easily reached, and photographers and artists, professional and amateur alike, exploit its graphic opportunities. The mystery is, what were the Portuguese doing in the Ozarks? We found a credible explanation in the KJPW’s Old Settlers Gazette, July 26, 1997, in an article by Gary Knehans. Apparently, John Anderson Smith immigrated to the Ozarks in 1858 and ended up in a fertile valley in a bend in the Gasconade. The pioneer had Cherokee blood and apparently, he and his children had Native American features. Fearing prejudice against Indians, he told his neighbors he was of Portuguese ancestry. Smith had a colorful life. Bushwhackers hung him but he survived somehow to die of dropsy in 1922. As he had voted twice for Henry Clay for President, his age was variously calculated at 110 or 116 years old. The article doesn’t cite any references but it’s an interesting and credible explanation.

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Lens & Pen books are available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble. You can see sample pages of our most recent book, Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco, on our website: hypercommon.com.

Lover’s Leap Legends won the bronze medal in the popular culture division of the 2020 Independent Publishers’ Book Awards, an international competition. This year there were entries from forty-four states, seven Canadian provinces and fifteen other countries.

James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River was a finalist in Regional Non-fiction in the 2019 Indie Book Awards. Lens & Pen Press’s earlier river book, Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir, was awarded a silver medal by the Independent Publishers’ Book Awards in 2013.)

 

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