FIRST Lead Mine in Missouri was on the James River

 James Fork of the White, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Sep 062023
 

Lead mine along Pearson Creek, circa 1900. Commercial extraction of lead here began in the 1840s and ended around 1920. Remnants of lead diggings can be seen in the hills along lower Pearson Creek.

In Schoolcraft’s 1819 account, A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri, he wrote, “On the immediate banks of James River are situated some valuable lead mines, which have been known to the Osage Indians and to some White River hunters, for many years.”

The young New York explorer repeatedly expressed astonishment at the clarity of Ozark streams. At his James River camp at the lead mine he observed lumps of ore “through the water, which is very clear and transparent.” Other Ozark regions had much vaster commercial lead deposits. These diggings along the James River left unsightly holes and the potential for lead contamination.

Dr. Robert T. Pavlowsky and his associates and students at Missouri State University’s Ozark Environmental and Water Resources Institute have investigated the effect of these old mines on water quality. They found lead contamination from mine waste has been stored in alluvial deposits of floodplains. Lead that washed into streams is now embedded in sediments in Pearson Creek and the James River. It will eventually degrade, but there is a danger if channel instability uncovers this mining-related metal contamination.

 

Taken from James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River, now on sale for $17.50 (half price) postage paid, at www.beautifulozarks.com

EARLY ENTRY IN HILLBILLY CARICATURE

 James Fork of the White, Lens & Pen Press, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Jun 082022
 

The idea the Ozarks is inhabited by primitives has been perpetuated in books by educated travelers like Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, in popular songs like the “Arkansaw Traveler,” and in souvenir postcards, like this one by otherwise-respected photographer George Hall.

We have incorporated many quotes by Lynn Morrow in our books. This paragraph from Shepherd of the Hills County: Tourism Transforms the Ozarks, 18802-1930s by Lynn Morrow and Linda Meyers-Phinney, so perfectly describes this posed photograph that we use it in its entirety. The book exquisitely describes the romanticism and sentimentality that pervaded early Ozark tourism. Like Mark Twain, the authors debunk popular culture without dismissing the people who embraced its mythologies.

Morrow and Meyers-Phinney reproduced the Hall postcard, captioning it, “Commercial stereotyping using the Arkansaw Traveler story.”

Twentieth century Arcadians came to the White River expecting to see rustics whom the national press labelled as hillbillies, since journalists and tourists had used the term from the very beginning of commercial tourism. Ozarkers quickly learned to cash in on the demeaning hillbilly image. If the tourists wanted to see hillbillies, then hillbillies made their appearances. Float-fishing guides were model hillbillies at the gravel bar camps, telling tall tales and manipulating their Mid-South dialect for the enjoyment of sportsmen; locals at resorts and the legendary sites of Harold Bell Wright’s novel took up the challenge of dramatizing the hillbilly stereotype for visitors.

As we found in the gift shop of the Shepherd of the Hills Ziprider Canopy Tours tower, the practice continues:

Lens & Pen Press is having a half-price sale for all titles. James Fork, Damming the Osage, Mystery of the Irish Wilderness and others are now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for half the original price, postage paid.

The Language of Trees – Steve Wiegenstein’s compelling new novel

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jul 292018
 

The Language of Trees is the third in Steve Weigenstein’s historical novel trilogy about the people, the ideals and the realities of the democratic community of Daybreak, Missouri, before, during and after the Civil War. Readers who have followed Charlotte Turner and others through settlement, war, bushwhackers, love and loss will find this new ‘chapter’ in the saga a lively and rewarding read.

Each chapter is written in the voice of one of the main characters, but these are not jump cuts. They flow evenly through the narrative, bending to each point of view, but following the arc of the story. Minor characters are woven through the events and actions of the main characters. Even Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s 1821 Journal of a Tour to the Interior of Arkansas and Missouri (a familiar work to Ozarks historians) is  a minor player, setting a tone and serving as the gateway for one ‘outsider’ to find his way into the heart of Daybreak. Historical in its setting, the narrative deals with universal passions (greed, lust, regret) and contemporary challenges (exploitation of resources, power grabs and callous ambitions).

Wiegenstein captures the changes in outlook brought on by age, loss, experience and the implacable intransigence of human character that, more than any political or ideological conflict, affected the survival of such communities across time and country. Charlotte Tuner, one of the “originals,” and Josephine Mercadier, of the second Daybreak generation, two strong and principled women, drive the narrative just as they shape and knit together the community of Daybreak.

Wiegenstein’s focus on utopian societies is itself intriguing. In the nineteenth century, many groups came together based on practical, ideological, political, religious or common cultural ties, seeing in the New World landscape a tabula rasa on which to write their own mission and goals. In that context success or failure might hinge on personal or group weaknesses and strengths as much as their inherent friction with old ways or the weaknesses of human character. Might. But those frailties and hard rock traditions broke or significantly modified most dreams.

Wiegenstein’s skill in weaving a story fraught with passion, greed, ambition and idealism pulls the reader into the narrative. Learning that comes with age, pain, joy and experience both frees and surprises reader and characters alike. One comes away from The Language of Trees with a sense that Charlotte, Newton, Josephine and J.M. (John Malcolm – although he didn’t claim his given names) Bridges would carry on. The community might even survive… at least the reader can hope there is still more to the story.

The Language of Trees was published by Blank Slate Press in St. Louis. It is available on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble and independent publishers.