POWERSITE DAM and Lake Taneycomo

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Apr 252018
 

Powersite Dam went into service in 1913 on the White River near Forsyth, Missouri, the first hydroelectric dam in Missouri. Designed in 1911 by Nils F. Ambursen as the largest concrete buttress dam of its kind, the dam is still privately owned by the Empire District Electric Company.

Powersite was hardly a visual embodiment of modernism like the later high dams out West. It more resembled a big milldam. Its forebay was little more than a pool in the White River. As it was a run-of-the river dam, Lake Taneycomo’s shoreline fluctuated very little.

The narrow, twenty mile-long lake it created became regarded as part of nature, indistinguishable from the free-flowing river it replaced. A March 12, 1913 article in the Springfield Republican, “Lake Taneycomo Is Name Bestowed By Branson Club,” compared the lake to the more famous Lake Como in the Alps. The new lake “nestled among the bluffs of the beautiful Ozarks” was part of the White River, “which no more picturesque stream can be found.” The Branson Club created the name from Taney County Missouri.

Until Table Rock’s discharge of frigid water turned it into a trout environment, Taneycomo was popular with swimmers and bass fishermen. Rockaway Beach flourished as a summer resort from the 1920s through the ’50s, until Table Rock drastically changed the lake’s water temperature.

Some local promoters got it in their heads that the price of electricity near the plants would be so low that factories would automatically spring up. A headline in the Springfield Republican (November 18, 1911) proclaimed “Cotton Mills Will Come To White River: Dam Proposition Is to Furnish Power for Big Industries From New England.” None of this happened. Electric rates were not less close to the dam. Cotton production did not swell.

Adapted from James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River

 

James Fork of the White is available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.

THE SPRING AT REEDS SPRING. Real Photo Postcard, 1940s

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Apr 112018
 

The Stone County Booklet of 1927 describes the small but then-bustling commercial burg of Reeds Spring:  “Lying in a nook among the beautiful hills and around a mammoth spring of clear, cold water, where only a few years ago the cattle were want to loiter, lies one of the best trading points in Stone County.”

With its railroad connections, Reeds Spring was also a center point of the tomato canning industry, which provided employment and much needed cash to that rural economy, with twenty-two canning factories within twelve miles. Highways put Reeds Spring on the route to the Shepherd of the Hills Country and Branson. Signs decorate the spring’s shelter, promoting major tourist caves of the region – Spanish Cave, Fairy Cave (today called Talking Rocks Cavern) and Marvel Cave – are promoted . . .  and don’t miss Mother’s Cafe.  Businesses serving tourists – like souvenir and novelty shops – flourished.

Today the town has been bypassed by major highways, but has attracted artists and creative types. The spring is still a focal point of interest, its sheltering roof and shed now painted a warm brick red.

James Fork of the White is available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.

Reeds Spring, Real Photo Postcard, 1930s

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Feb 072018
 

For the auto-driving tourist to Branson, the signs were out  . . .  “Welcome … Drive In and LOOK” . . .  and (hopefully) buy some trinkets, food or gas. You could drink a Coke, gas up and shop this splendid selection of Ozark drip pottery and cedar novelties in a short stop in Reeds Spring. Many of the cedar boxes were made locally under small factory conditions and had decals evoking Shepherd of the Hills Country. At the time these roadside attractions were disparaged, but today many of the items they sold are high priced collectibles. Look closely at the loaded shelves in this photograph. Next time you browse through an antique mall or flea market, scan those shelves for similar items. Nowadays, foreign manufactured items compete with locally made tourist items.

This image is used in a section about Reeds Spring in James Fork of the White (p. 87).  The book is available on amazon.com, on this website  and at Barnes & Noble.

 

WHITE RIVER FLOODING 1927

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Aug 092017
 
Although there are no big government dams on the James River, Table Rock Dam backs the lower James up almost to Galena. So we covered the genesis of the Table Rock project in our new book, James Fork of the White. There’s no denying that the White River is prone to flooding.  The Army Corps of Engineers originally had no faith that dams were a solution to overflows. That would change and much of the White River has been incorporated into a system of multipurpose dams.
Press photo of Forsythe in the 1927 flood taken from Shadow Rock
Rising in the Boston Mountains and flowing through a narrow valley, the White River would rise quickly and put buildings on low ground underwater. The Corps of Engineers’ solution protected most of Branson and Hollister from flooding but permanently submerged most of the agricultural land along the upper White River. Valuable farmland hundreds of miles downstream was protected from normal rises.
 
As these government dams were premised on flood control (power generation was an option), local advocates like the White River Boosters Association cried out to Congress for relief from floods, supporting the Corps of Engineers’ claims.
 
Felicity to the new patron of dams required a revised chant from the Missouri business community. When Empire District Electric was considering building Table Rock Dam factory creation was the mantra. Local supporters really didn’t care who built the dam, or why. They just wanted a nice lake, a bigger Taneycomo, at no cost to them.
Sample pages from James Fork of the White can be seen on www.beautifulozarks.com. The book will be available by the end of September. Our earlier river book, Damming the Osage, can be at seen www.dammingtheosage.com)
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