FREDERICKSBURG MILITARY BAND, CIRCA 1915

 Beautiful Ozarks, Lens & Pen Press, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
May 212025
 

The decorative cardboard mat has the embossed name Schuster Studio, Hermann, Mo. Martin Anthony Schuster was born in 1871, was a veteran of the Spanish-American War, and a widely known photographer in the Hermann area. He opened a studio there on Schiller St. in 1910. The first ad we could find for the studio noted that as well as portraiture, they offered film development and printing.

How does a marching brass band cross an unbridged Ozark river? On a cable-driven ferry, of course. This sharp focus cabinet photograph preserves the record of a lost musical tradition and a vanished transportation technology. In its entry about Fredericksburg, the Gasconade Historical Society documents the population of the tiny village in 1879 population at 40. It likely never much exceeded that.

Throughout much of the 20th century the ferry permitted crossing that bridgeless section of the Gasconade River. Originally the little barge was propelled by oars, then a cable system was followed by an outboard motor, and finally an electric motor. In the mid-20th century, a bridge at last rendered it obsolete. Both the ferry and the band survived long after their prime.

The brass band posed on the ferry was organized in 1902. An ad in the May 29, 1953, Advertiser-Courier of Hermann Missouri announced an upcoming performance:

Ice Cream

SOCIAL

St. Peter’s E. & R. Church

Fredericksburg, Mo.

Saturday, June 6,

6 p.m.

Sandwiches and Refreshments

Music by Fredericksburg Military Band

Welcome Everybody

Following the Fredericksburg band promo was the announcement that music by the Charlotte Cornet Band (an even smaller community than Fredericksburg) would be provided for an ice cream social at the Salem Presby Church at Holt, Mo. That the northeast corner of the Ozarks was heavily settled by German immigrants explains how a tiny village could supply five trombone players, four cornet players and several other wind instruments. Most Ozark highland pioneers were of Scots Irish heritage and favored stringed instruments and the ballad tradition of the British Isles.

Vintage Images is a column we provide to the monthly publication, River Hills Traveler. This photograph, along with hundreds more, are among our collection now housed at Missouri State University Libraries-Ozarks Studies Institute.

The Enduring Fascination With Ozark Streams

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Apr 222025
 

On the back of this circa 1920, sharp and nicely composed real photo postcard is written in script: “Scene at Sugar Creek, Mo. George watching the fish.” The card is stamped, “O. C. Kuehn, Photo. St. Louis, Mo.”

Oscar C. Kuehn (1877-1949) was an enthusiastic amateur photographer, and an “ardent camera devotee,” who exhibited his characteristically corny posed shots of cute kids and dogs and a gnarled old timer strumming a guitar. This may have been a family snapshot as it has a more authentic look than his more standard posed pictures. He served as president of the St. Louis Camera Club in the 1920s. That he was a well-known amateur photographer in St. Louis leads us to believe this image was taken at the Sugar Creek running through Kirkwood in southwest St. Louis. It shows a typical headwaters Ozarkian stream.

As we all know, the boundaries of the Ozark Plateau have been subject of much discussion. Per Missouri State University Libraries Notes, July 2023: “The boundaries of the Ozark region always have been open to debate and discussion. Most previous maps of the Ozarks tended to use bold, solid lines as a border for the region. The new map uses a hashed line to indicate that the boundaries are a bit murky and fluid.”

By most maps, St. Louis lies just beyond the northeast edge of the Ozarks. However, the more permeable edges of this newest map could include this watershed. Recent news (well, 2018) from the Webster-Kirkwood Times describes it as: “Sugar Creek Valley in Kirkwood has been called a wildflower haven, painters’ paradise and architects’ alley.” And neighborhood residents had organized a “Save Sugar Creek” group to resist development to keep their stream clean.

Start Googling around the internet and you’ll find several other Sugar Creeks in Missouri. One in Adair County, near Kirksville, and of course Big Sugar Creek State Park in McDonald County. Big Sugar Creek is a tributary of the Elk River, whose watershed drains south into the Arkansas River Basin. The state park features a variety of plants and animals that are less common or absent farther into Missouri. Begun in 1992 with 640 acres of land, it now comprises more than 2,000 acres. MDC notes the park is still in development stage, so check their website for more information before heading to it.

Vintage Images is a column we provide to River Hills Traveler, a monthly publication.  Lens & Pen Press publishes all-color books on the Ozarks. Our book, “See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image,” showcases many of the primary tourist destinations across the Ozarks. It is available for $22.50 (10% off retail), postage paid. Click on Buy our Books

FISHING HUMOR OZARKS STYLE

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Apr 012025
 

HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY!

This humorous real photo postcard – FISHING FOR ROCK TROUT – seems an appropriate post for April Fool’s Day!

There is considerable writing on this 1910 real photo postcard, but we are left guessing about its exact meaning. Along the top is scribbled in ink, “Uncle Bill Tracy.” More legibly in white is “Davis Phots” inscribed on a beam supporting the bridge behind him. Also, in white along the beam is “OUT OZARKS MTNS Fishing for Rock Trout.” Indeed, the nattily dressed gent has a stick with a line attached dangling down to some stones on the streambank. Other inscriptions are “Fish Point” and “Bate Date May 14th, 1910.” Perhaps these refer to some absurd event known only to Uncle Bill and the photographer. That still leaves us guessing about what stream this is. Without a location or some other information our Google search fell short.

It isn’t surprising there are jokes about Ozark angling. Sport fishing and hunting are pastimes that have the raw material of humor – men engaging in activities of little economic benefit while consuming intoxicating beverages. The Ozarks is famed for the sarcastic, self-effacing humor of its native. The hillbilly persona, drawn from its inhabitants’ lighthearted indifference to propriety, created its pop culture portrayal in the media. Legendary mountaineers may have been indifferent to game laws, but they relished being in nature, were skilled with rod and gun, and were valued guides for urban sportsmen.

Vintage Ozarks is a column we provide to River Hills Traveler monthly magazine. We are Leland and Crystal Payton at Lens & Pen Press, publishers of all-color books on the Ozarks. Our book, “See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image” showcases many of the primary tourist destinations across the Ozarks. It is available for $22.50 (10% off retail), postage paid

LOST HAMLETS OF THE OZARKS PRESERVED ON REAL PHOTO POSTCARDS

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Mar 052025
 

The great spring that significantly increases the flow of the Niangua River attracted homesteaders in the 1830s. James and Ann Brice arrived from Illinois and purchased 400 acres and in 1837 constructed a watermill. Other pioneers settled nearby, and a community called Brice was created.

Another millwright, Peter Bennett, built a competing mill at the confluence of the spring branch and the Niangua. Somehow, Bennett’s name became attached to the spring which was then called Brice. Today, the Brice name is known only to historians and preserved in vintage photographs. The only relic of that early settlement is a frame church, which was protectively clad in stone in the 1950s.

Recreationalists have found the setting alluring since before the Civil War. In 1900 the Missouri Fish Commission released 40,000 mountain trout into the branch. Bennett Spring State Park became one of Missouri’s earliest state parks, when the spring and some surrounding land were purchased by the state for that purpose in 1924. Though evidence of its earliest settlement is scant, the park has numerous Arts and Crafts style stone structures, and several handsome bridges built during the Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Twelve miles of hiking trails wind through the wild and rugged surrounding terrain. A hatchery raises both brown and rainbow trout for release. The dawn of opening day of trout season attracts hundreds of anglers, including, often, the current governor. It’s a Missouri tradition. It’s also a spectacle, covered extensively by media.

Vintage Images is a column we provide to River Hills Traveler, a monthly magazine. We are Leland and Crystal Payton at Lens & Pen Press, publishers of all-color books on the Ozarks. “See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image” showcases many of the primary tourist destinations across the Ozarks. It is available for $22.50 (10% off retail), postage paid.

CLARK MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT CO. – PIEDMONT CANYON, WAYNE COUNTY

 James Fork of the White, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Feb 272025
 

The 1920s saw a surge in optimistic developers vying to attract the leisure class to vacation destinations in the Ozarks. Springfield’s own John T. Woodruff bought an unfinished health resort in Siloam Spring, near the North Fork River, where he built the impressive four-story Pinebrook Inn, a nine-hole golf course, dance pavilion and dug a swimming pool. (More on that story in our book James Fork of the White.)

Across the hills on the eastern side of the Ozarks, entrepreneurs formulated designs for a tourist development of the Clark Mountain Park just north of Piedmont.

Photograph, circa 1925-1930. Through the canyon, McKenzie Creek encounters outcroppings of very hard igneous rock (blue granite), creating a miniature version of the famous Johnson Shut-Ins. The Wayne County Journal-Banner, Sept. 1, 1927, carried an article noting that, “T. J. Elliott has a large force of men and teams at work on the construction of a gravel highway along the south side of the canyon.” We think the folks seen here are either investors or prospective buyers of lots in the development of Clark Mountain Park, just north of Piedmont in Wayne County.

St. Louis businessman Col. Lon Sanders, president of the Clark Mountain Development company, had elaborate designs for the scenic canyon and McKenzie Creek shut-ins. In 1927, 53 lots had been laid out. A water system and electric lights were planned, as well as a 9-hole golf course, tennis courts, and baseball diamond. The company envisioned a low dam on McKenzie Creek to create a 30-acre lake.

Today the canyon is managed by the Missouri Conservation Department as the Lon Sanders Conservation Area. This 130-acre area is intended as a wildlife study, hiking and nature resource. The Department’s brochure notes: “He (Sanders) built small dams, lily pools, flower gardens, shelter houses, and foot paths. He also planted non-native ornamental plants, some of which grow here to this day.” Remnants of Sanders’ small rock dams remain in the creek, creating small waterfalls. His stone steps are incorporated into the hiking trails. The loop trail is about half a mile long.

Fun fact from Wikipedia:

“In August of 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of alleged unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings in Piedmont, the Missouri General Assembly passed SB139 designating Piedmont and Wayne County as the UFO Capital of Missouri.

Between February and April 1973, residents of Piedmont and the surrounding area witnessed unexplained activity in the sky. Several hundred calls were made to local police, sheriffs and newspapers. The incidents made local headlines and eventually national news outlets began reporting the sightings. Today, the city of Piedmont celebrates this designation every April with its annual UFO Festival.”

Vintage Images are courtesy of Leland and Crystal Payton of Lens & Pen Press, publishers of books on the Ozarks region. James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River, with more information on regional development, is available for $31.50, postage paid, from www.beautifulozarks.com

Indian Creek McDonald County – timeless

 Lens & Pen Press, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Oct 292024
 

                                         Real photo postcard: Indian Creek Scouts, Anderson, MO. September 4, 1913

“Shall we gather at the river? The beautiful, the beautiful river?” Familiar lyrics bring images such as this to mind. Since before photography people have gathered at the river to play, to relax, to share momentous events and ceremonies like baptizings.

Indian Creek flows from the north into the Elk River in McDonald County. The clear, spring-fed streams of the Ozarks have always attracted folks for recreation. As this photo attests, Indian Creek outside Anderson has long been a magnet for summer recreation – fishing, swimming, boating, for generations. Today, it still attracts recreationists. Indian Creek is noted for spring floats especially, with 25 miles of a good, steady, fast run through relatively undisturbed countryside, despite its proximity to development. The Conservation Department has developed an access point to Indian Creek right in Anderson. The Dabbs Greer Town Hole Park and Access is in Anderson on Main Street next to the Post Office.

Describing a pleasant day’s float, the NW Arkansas Democrat Gazette (July 25, 2013) waxed eloquent:  “…Indian Creek, an Ozark waterway that is truly a stream of dreams.” –

This and many other vintage images of Ozarks recreation and activities are now in the collection of the Ozarks Studies Institute at MSU.

The Payton’s book on early tourism and recreation in our region, See The Ozarks: The Touristic Image, is now available on the website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $22.50 (10% off retail price of $24.95), postage paid.

Early Branding of the Ozarks – salubrious climate and agricultural opportunities, lures settlers

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Sep 102024
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway brochure advertises Resorts and Attractions of the Southwest. Circa 1910.

This brochure is part of the Payton Ozarks Collection now housed in the Ozarks Studies Institute at Missouri State University

 

Railroads were built to facilitate timbering and mining. The Iron Mountain Railway was an American railway company that operated from 1856 until 1917 when it was merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The Iron Mountain was initially established to deliver iron ore from Iron Mountain to St. Louis. American railroads ran on oak ties harvested from Ozark forests. Tie hacking was a major source of cash for struggling farmers.

Railroads also helped real estate sales, agricultural interests, and tourism. Their tourist promotions were lavish, full-color booklets promoting the salubrious climate, scenic beauty, and recreational opportunities of the region. Promotions often focused on economic opportunities for small farmers, with emphasis on specialty crops like apples, strawberries, and tomatoes.

Many progressive agriculturalists (including Laura and Almanzo Wilder) were “lured to the Ozarks by such promotions by railroad companies trying to sell parcels of the vast lands they had been given by the government as encouragement to invest in westward expansion.” (See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image, in the chapter “Opportunities in the Ozarks.”)

Laura’s bestselling series of “Little House books” included one on Almanzo’s childhood farming experiences, Farmer Boy. Attracted by railroad promotional material, they bought a farm in Mansfield they named Rocky Ridge (an appropriate moniker for an Ozarks farm). There they planted vegetable gardens and fruit trees and raised their daughter, Rose.  And there Laura Ingalls Wilder began to write of her pioneer childhood.

See The Ozarks: The Touristic Image is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $22.50 (10% off retail price of $24.95), postage paid.

“A Native Hunter”

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Aug 272024
 

Circa 1910 postcard, captioned “A Native Hunter, Eureka Springs, Ark.”

Eureka Springs’ main tourist attraction was “taking the spring waters” which were thought to have medicinal value. Luxury accommodations were available and attracted upscale tourists to “The City that Water Built” in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There was a Eureka Springs Gun Club and although local boosters didn’t promote hunting and fishing the mythic hillfolk were acknowledged as this postcard shows.

Probably there was more participation by the affluent visitors in horseback riding than hunting: “Large parties would ride far out into the country, have a prepared picnic lunch, and return to an evening of concerts, dancing, and in some cases, making the acquaintance of a member of the opposite sex of suitable social standing.”  (See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image. Lens & Pen Press.)  Local hunters likely did not return to “evenings of concerts, dancing” and flirting.

Missouri came by its moniker, The Cave State, honestly as many areas of the state are underlain by soluble carbonate bedrock, such as limestone or dolomite, that can be easily dissolved by water – a karst landscape. This creates the features we’re all familiar with—caves, springs, and streams that can ‘sink’ into the ground and resurface in another place.

See The Ozarks: The Touristic Image is available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $22.50 (10% off retail price of $24.95), postage paid.

 

“Taking his medicine”

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Aug 092024
 

Real photo postcard, circa 1920. “Taking his medicine in the Ozarks, Anderson Missouri.” Note the long gun on the ground by his feet. This hunter was thirsty!

The spring-fed creeks and  of the Ozarks were promoted in tourism literature from the beginning. Claims were made that additional benefits came from bathing and drinking from the pure waters flowing throughout the region. These met with less success than the promotions of Eureka Springs, which had extensive infrastructure to accommodate upper middle-class travelers. Even when there was widespread faith in the healing properties of spring water, Eureka’s gracious accommodations, fine food, shopping, and sightseeing edged out other health resorts at Heber Springs and Sulfur Springs, Arkansas and DeSoto, Missouri.

There were claims, as this postcard shows, that you could quench your thirst drinking from a surface stream. Even back then, we suspect that was not always a good idea. Ozarks creeks and rivers were clear and relatively unpolluted, and promotion of river fishing was justified, but drinking directly from a stream would have been perilous.

Image courtesy of Lens & Pen Press. See The Ozarks: The Touristic Image, with an extensive section on Eureka Springs, is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $22.50 (10% off retail price of $24.95), postage paid.

PEARL SPURLOCK, the Tourist’s Friend

 Beautiful Ozarks, Lens & Pen Press, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Jun 202024
 

Pearl Spurlock, tourist guide and raconteur extraordinaire of the early Shepherd of the Hills days in Branson. “Sparky” was such a legend herself; we used this photograph as a full page illustration in See The Ozarks

Pearl Spurlock became as well known as the characters and locations of Harold Bell Wright’s best-selling 1906 novel, The Shepherd of the Hills. As ‘furners’ traveled to Branson to pay homage to the events and people of the novel, most were treated to the knowledgeable services of “Sparky” – early on by horseback, and later in her car. As they bumped over the rocky hills to Sammy Lane’s Lookout and Uncle Ike’s Post Office, Pearl “not only tells the story in a beautiful and impressive manner, but feels it, … and you feel it must be the first time (she has given it) … It has grown sweeter to her each time it is told.” (Harrison County Times, Bethany, Missouri, Nov. 1, 1934.)

Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey, poet of the hills, even penned a tribute to Pearl:

Velvet fingers, but grip of steel,

Eyes on the road, hands on the wheel,

A flashing smile and a kindly hail,

For passing friends on the shining trail;

 

And a fine, sure knowledge of hill and wood,

With legend, tradition, bad or good.

And Pearl Spurlock floats along

With her big car singing its steady song.

 

And yet, I wonder if sometime she

Dreams a dream of the used to be?

When a good horse answered her girlish skill

In a glorious gallop o’er vale and hill,

 

When the summer days passed gay and sweet,

On the little bay mare with dancing feet.

Today the same strong love abides

For her still streams, her mountain sides,

And that is why they all depend

On dear Pearl Spurlock—the tourist’s friend.

The article noted that Pearl was a Harrison County local, as her family was from there, well outside the territory of the Shepherd of the Hills.

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See The Ozarks: The Touristic Image is available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $22.50 (10% off retail price of $24.95), postage paid.

 

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