1922 Missouri Pacific booklet, 31 pages, photographically illustrated. This gem rhapsodically describes recreational assets of the upper White River. The artist-illustrated cover depicts the target middle class traveler looking for an idyllic vacation.
Before Jim Owen and later John Morris pitched fishing the Ozarks, the Missouri Pacific railroad lured visitors to “the White River Country in the Missouri Ozarks” with romantic descriptions: “One cannot analyze the perfume of a wild rose, nor may one explain wholly the lure of the White River country—the noblest pleasure ground of the Missouri Ozarks. After you have fished its streams, floated in a canoe through the blue magic of its moonlight, cantered over its trails in the freshness of early morning, and slept, night after night, beneath its stars, you will understand—a little.”
The cover of this 1920s-era brochure depicts an urban couple in a canoe but describes and pictures “the Famous James-White River Float Trip,” which was made in guided wooden johnboats. Sportsmen could float and fish from Galena, down the James to the White, for 125 miles, ending at Branson. The heavy boats were shipped back 21 miles by train to their Galena outfitters. A guide accompanied each boat on the floats and a cook went ahead to pitch the tents and prepare supper. These colorful mountaineers entertained the tourists with legends and folklore.
Later, Jim Owen used trucks to transport his johnboats to the put-in at Galena. His guides still spun campfire tales but were known as hillbillies. Fishermen and women had better tackle and roadbuilding opened access to more rivers. Owen and later Morris both describe an Ozark mystique, but it is less Arcadian than the promotions of the MOPAC railroad.
A Jim Owen Fishing Service mailing piece advertised his guided float trips and new services on the new reservoir, reminding his many fans that “Ole Jim—is still in the Fishin’ Business.”
The MOPAC brochure outlines the services and delights of floating, showing pictures of “Paramount Movie Star, Forrest Tucker,” and advising the guys to “bring the Little Woman” with them. “She will be very welcome. . . . a lot of women do make these float trips and enjoy them too.” Bass Pro promotes family participation in outdoor sports as well. When Jim Owen began encouraging women to join the float, fishing was almost exclusively an all-male ritual.
Lens & Pen Press is having a half-price sale for all titles. James Fork of the White is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $17.50 (half the original price of $35), postage paid. James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River, 352 pages with more than 400 color illustrations, examines the entire watershed of the famed Ozark float stream, a tributary of the White River.
