McMurtry Spring – Head of Flat Creek

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Feb 042019
 

Real photo postcard. Postmarked “Cassville, September 17 8 AM 1910.“ Hinchey Photo

We acquired this outstanding real photo postcard after the publication of James Fork of the White or it would have been a half-page illustration in our book. The front identifies the spring as being two-and-a-half miles south of Cassville, Mo. Like many real photo postcards of this era, it is exquisitely exposed and sharp-focus.

Flat Creek is the longest tributary of the James River. Access to it is limited and it isn’t much fished or floated compared to the James between Springfield and Galena. Quoting from our book on the James (page 94): “Cherokees rested here on their Trail of Tears journey, and it was a well-known camping spot for settlers coming to Cassville to trade. Missouri highway 37, which runs next to the spring, was once the Old Wire (telegraph) Road. Both sides in the Civil War traveled this road and watered their horses here.”

The little stone springhouse is still there, but the spring today is enclosed by a circular rock and concrete wall.

Lens & Pen books are available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.

MCDOWELL MILL ON FLAT CREEK

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Aug 052017
 

Following the gravel road east from today’s crossroads known as McDowell, we found the remnants of a mill that once took its power from Flat Creek. Footings and foundations still resist the work of water, but the building has been gone for a while.

Milldam of the McDowell water mill on Flat Creek. This stream has an average fall of seven feet per mile and with good water can be floated as high up as McDowell – noting obstacles like this milldam.

Water mills were not unique to the Ozarks, but they flowered in the region due to isolation imposed by the deep river-cut terrain and the abundance of spring-fed streams. There were five water mills on Flat Creek alone.

Mills powered by running water were constructed soon after settlement. Overshot wheels drove most, but turbines were common after 1880. Some even employed steam power at the close of the local milling era. The handsome building (below) was the McDowell Roller Mills, which unlike many could produce flour from wheat. Most early mills used stone burrs to grind corn into meal.

Vintage photograph shows a mill at McDowell. This one utilized rollers designed to process wheat. Photograph is courtesy of the Barry County Museum.

James Fork of the White, page 80

Delights of Road Trip Research

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Aug 022017
 

As the release date of James Fork of the White approaches, I’ll be posting some samples of what you will find in the book. All research is not done in libraries or other books.  To write a book on a river, you have to learn the river, its people and places. Over the last several years, we have explored the watershed of the James, its tributaries – large and small, the byways, backroads and the small and large towns of its landscape.

We met people and pets, sportsmen with their catches and families recreating on the banks of creeks, playing at Table Rock, or floating the river. We found remnants of past mercantile enterprises. We ate chicken at Crane’s Broiler Fest, joined the crowds at River Jam and sought out the source of the river in Webster County.

Greene, Christian, Barry, Stone, Webster, and Taney counties. Creeks and larger streams. Dams that slow or halt the flow; a dam that wasn’t built. Drainage systems and sewage treatment. We visited them all…

Railroads, highways, dam projects, tourism, the growth of towns, agriculture, industry, media and art, political will, and cultural values—all interact. The river we see today is an outcome of all these forces. Even though transformed, and still changing, the watershed of the James Fork of the White is still in many places scenic and beautiful, and where it lacks aesthetics, it is interesting.

James Fork of the White, introduction