Gentry Cave in Stone County

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Jun 052019
 

Real photo postcard by Galena photographer, D. F. Fox.

Gentry Cave, a remote cave—on private land and hard to get to—three miles south of Galena in Stone County, was described by Louella Agnes Owen in Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills (1898). Hiking through the woods after the mail coach’s wheel broke, the intrepid lady cave explorer found the “broken” landscape captivating:

“The topography was . . . very beautiful with the dense forest lighted by the slanting yellow rays of the afternoon sun. The way leads up to the “ridge road” which is at length abandoned for no road at all and descending through the forest, more than half the distance down to the James River flowing at the base of the hill, we come suddenly in view of the cave entrance, which is probably one of the most magnificent pieces of natural architecture ever seen.”

From James Fork of the White: “She found the cave interior worth the walk but does not mention the abundance of bat guano that would later provide the basis for an unusual industry. During the lean Depression years, one C. L. Weekly and two hires shoveled tons of dried bat manure into hundred-pound bags and shipped it off to be used for greenhouse fertilizer. He got $35 a ton. “

The commercial exploitation of bat guano was also the first impetus for the development of Marvel Cave, which became the centerpiece of a much later tourist attraction in Stone County—Silver Dollar City.

In Caves of Missouri (1956), J Harlan Bretz discusses Gentry Cave’s geology: “A rock shelter at Camp Ramona, 85 feet below cliff top and 50 feet above James River contains four of the five entrances to this joint-controlled cave system. Words are useless in describing the detailed interaction of passages; the cave pattern is too complicated. … One place in the cave showed cherty gravel, but there is no other evidence for vadose occupation of this splendid phreatic cave system. No red clay remnants and very little dripstone were seen anywhere in the cave.”

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Bathing At Camp Clark (Galena)

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May 082019
 

Promotional postcard with handwritten message. Postmarked “Galena Mar 1 10 AM 1910”

We recently acquired this gem of an image of summer play a century ago at Camp Clark in Galena (not the Missouri National Guard base near Nevada!). It is addressed to Miss Nettie M. McComb, Lamar, Mo who apparently had vacationed the previous year at Camp Clark. Rather than pay for a real photo postcard from local photographer George Hall, the owners pasted a snapshot on a blank Postal Card and handwrote their ‘pitch’ to customers from the preceding summer:

“Feb 28, 1910. Dear Friend: We remember how well you enjoyed your outing with us last year so we send you this card to remind you of Camp Clark, trusting that it will stimulate you to get up a party of your friends and come down and camp with us again this year. Your friends, Mr. or Mrs. A.L. McQuary”

A June 1913 newspaper ad for the “well known Camp Clark” assured readers: “Only people of good morals are accepted. It is a beautiful mountain camp on the James river, with pure air, grand scenery and fine spring water. A fine place for ladies to boat, bathe, fish and recreate.” All the Galena resorts pitched the idea that women were welcome—camping, fishing and floating were not male-only, stag affairs.

Dr. A. L. McQuary, former traveling evangelist who also prescribed eyeglasses, owned the resort, consisting of a set of bungalows and tents on a hill overlooking the James. He had been a farmer, run a saddlery business, and within a few years of moving to Galena in 1908, became the county collector.

 

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The Pinebrook Inn – John T. Woodruff’s Resort Fiasco

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Mar 062019
 

Printed postcard, 1930s

The copy on the card reads, “The Pinebrook Inn, 50 Rooms Private Baths. Siloam Springs, Missouri.“ We may have come down too hard on John Woodruff, Springfield’s fabled developer. He relentlessly promoted Springfield, was instrumental in the creation of Route 66, and was honorable and honest in his business dealings. But he was wrong in his negative literary judgment of Vance Randolph and other Ozarks local-color-school writers. He clashed with Randolph, who he thought promoted a backward or hillbilly image of the Ozarks. In our book James Fork of the White, we’ve got a panoramic photo of the Pinebrook Inn from the 1930s and a contemporary photograph of the site in ruins. It burnt to the ground a few years ago. Our write up (page 144) encapsulates his resort aspirations:

“For all his antipathy for Ozarks rusticity, John T. Woodruff had a taste for country life. In 1922, he bought an unfinished health resort at Siloam Springs, Missouri, near the North Fork River, seventeen miles from West Plains. Woodruff finished the impressive four-story Pinebrook Inn, built a nine-hole golf course, constructed a dance pavilion and dug a swimming pool. Excavations to attempt to increase the flow of the place’s ten medicinal springs apparently had the reverse effect. Few believed by this date that drinking mineralized spring water cured diseases anyhow. Nevertheless, the progressive businessman advertised that “Siloam Springs water is recommended by physicians and praised by thousands of people who have been benefited or cured by using it.” He would spend the rest of his life waiting for guests to find the money pit in the middle of an isolated patch of cut-over mixed pine and oak forest. “

                                                                 Ruins of Pinebrook Inn in 2016

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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.

1906 Springfield FALL FESTIVAL

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Oct 092018
 

Autumn in the Ozarks is a time to celebrate harvest, cooler weather and the beauty of the changing season. Ozarkers have celebrated this season with enthusiasm for generations.  Every year, The News Leader gathers a compendium of festivals large and small in the city and throughout the region. Research for each of our books regularly uncovers little-known facts or events that may have faded from memory. One such discovery for James Fork of the White was Springfield’s grand, even exotic, 1906 Fall Festival—a six-day extravaganza in October of that year.

Real photo postcard, postmarked October 17, 1906. Springfield merchants organized a six-day Fall Festival featuring a parade sponsored by a different organization every day. This postcard shows the Elks and Traveling Man’s Day – “Grand Wrap Up of the Gala Week.” Handwritten on the face of the card: “Had a different parade every afternoon and night for a week. This is a part of the Elks parade.”

Progress was the catch phrase of the day but old timers’ recollections about old times were popular newspaper features. Long before Silver Dollar City, Springfieldians were fascinated with a version of the primitive past that was more than nostalgia, less than history. A 1906 Fall Festival parade expressed this developing image of the Ozarks. Progress was the catch phrase of the day but old timers’ recollections about old times were popular newspaper features. Long before Silver Dollar City, Springfieldians were fascinated with a version of the primitive past that was more than nostalgia, less than history. A 1906 Fall Festival parade expressed this developing image of the Ozarks.

The carnage of the Battle of Wilson’s Creek now behind them, soldiers representing the North and the South stood peacefully on a float, their hands on the staff of an American flag. The next float themed Ozark karst geology—“The Onyx Cave of the Ozarks with its Glittering Stalactites.” An account of a well-attended fiddlers’ contest in the October 9, 1906 Springfield Republican linked a survival of pioneer culture with the rugged White River hills:

The fiddlers were there for the fun and those who went to hear the contest went there expecting to have a jolly time listening to those old-time tunes that are heard only “way down in the hills.” There was nothing classic about it, it was a fiddlers’ contest and not a violin recital. There wouldn’t have been any fun about a violin recital and there was a lot of fun at the fiddlers’ contest.

It was an eclectic event – an Airship Ascension, the Hon. William J. Bryan visited, Grand Electric Illumination and Captain Jack, the Missouri Horse That Thinks, Figures, Plays Music and does Everything but Talk. “Take the children to See Him!”

 James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River, page 136

Our forebears certainly knew how to put on a show!

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Publisher’s BOOK SALE!

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Sep 232018
 

Announcing a backlist sale of our books. Now is the time to start planning holiday giving. Illustrated histories of our own Ozarks region are the perfect gift.

We’ve posted reduced prices for all our books on our website. Click here http://www.dammingtheosage.com/buy-the-book/ to order.

As always we pay postage!

Damming the Osage $35 now $30

James Fork of the White $35 now $30

Publisher’s Special… Buy the two “river books” (Damming the Osage AND James Fork of the White) for $52.50. This is a savings of $17.50 from the full retail price. Plus free shipping.

 

 

 

 

 

The Beautiful and Enduring Ozarks

 

Beautiful and Enduring Ozarks, $19.95, now $17.50

 

 

 

 

 

See the Ozarks, $24.95, now $17.50

 

 

 

 

 

Mystery of the Irish Wilderness, $18.95 now $17.50

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Mission in MIssouri, $24.95, now $22.50

 

 

 

 

 

All are available on Lens & Pen website with any credit card. Or, if you prefer paying by check, mail to:

Lens & Pen Press, 4067 S. Franklin, Springfield, MO 65807

Virgin Bluff Dam-That-Never-Was

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Aug 092018
 

Real photo postcard by George Hall circa 1915. Virgin Bluff was a landmark on the Galena to Branson float. While tame compared to the shoals of the upper reaches of some Ozark rivers, the rapids just before the big bluff were sporty for the James.

While working on our last book, James Fork of the White, we encountered mentions of Virgin Bluff and a crazy scheme to drill a hole through it to connect with the James River miles downstream to generate hydroelectric power. The wild scheme envisioned by William Henry Standish (a.k.a. General Standish) about 1908 was to build a dam to back up the James and drill a tunnel from the bluff, through the hills to come out 30+ miles downstream. The river’s water coursing through that tunnel (rather than along what would become miles of dried-up riverbed) would turn generators to produce electricity to power Springfield. Stories of Standish’s fundraising and project development made local newspapers. He sought and found local investors, started preliminary work and pushed bills through Congress (despite President Teddy Roosevelt’s veto of one) in pursuit of wealth and fame.

Hustle as he did, however, the project was not to be. A short notice in a June 19, 1913 Ste. Genevieve paper is the only mention we found of this bizarre undertaking’s collapse:

Ozark Dam Site Changed. Springfield. – The Virgin Bluff Project involving the erection of a dam across James river and the digging of a tunnel which would shorten the course of the river nearly 30 miles has been temporarily abandoned, pending the possible obtaining of legislative authority to construct a dam near Hollister.

Early talk of a big dam above Taneycomo—the project that became Table Rock a half century later–finished off the troubled and underfinanced Virgin Bluff tunnel dam.

A more detailed account is included in 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.

James River’s Virgin Bluff and our Lover’s Leap Legends project

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Jul 182018
 

Our new project, Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Te of Waco, may not seem on the surface to be a logical offshoot of past projects—but in fact it is. Inspiration from our hero, Mark Twain, and finding in each of our river books their own #Lover’sLeap legends and locations pulled us logically to this new subject.

Real photo postcard by George Hall circa 1915. Virgin Bluff was a landmark on the Galena to Branson float. While tame compared to the shoals of the upper reaches of some Ozark rivers, the rapids just before the big bluff were sporty for the James.

Research on the James Fork of the White brought us to #VirginBluff, a spectacular, sheer rock face on the James, that was a landmark on the Galena-to-Branson float. Johnboats floated through a long, deep, fish-filled pool along its face, then the current pulled the boats into the sporty Virgin Shoals.

This bluff came with its own Lover’s Leap legend – or so we were told. Moon Song, the lovely daughter of an Indian chief, threw herself from this imposing cliff when her father threatened to kill the handsome, gold-seeking Spanish soldier she loved. Angry and heartbroken, her father ordered the medicine man to place a curse on the tragic place. Moon Song’s anguished cries can yet be heard on dark nights, some say. Before the lake the shoals below claimed the lives of several floaters.

The Virgin Bluff dam-that-never-was may have been victim to the medicine man’s curse. William Henry Standish envisioned a dam on the river and a tunnel through the hills from the bluff to shoot the pooled water on a 40-foot drop over several miles to hit turbines to spin generators to create electricity for Springfield. This crazy scheme would have dried up 30+ miles of the river.

A November 23, 1958 Springfield News-Leader feature, “The Indian Curse That Killed Dam Project,” by Gerald H. Pipes, is a rare remembrance of Standish’s plan. Pipes did acknowledge the adverse financial climate of the times (just before World War I), but speculated the abandonment of Virgin Bluff dam might have been due to workplace accidents related to the Indian legend:

Today the lonely “cries” of Moon Song may still be heard along the bluffs, but the dangerous shoals will soon be gone, for they will become a part of mammoth Table Rock Lake. The waters will climb over and hide the Indian maiden’s grave and the scars left by the dam-builders. But will they erase the curse placed on the bluff by Moon-Song’s chieftain father? Only time will tell.

James Fork of the White, page 275

Today, the bluff rises above the flat waters of #TableRock Reservoir. A fall from this bluff is still dangerous; the view from its heights has changed considerably. The legend lingers in the name, Virgin Bluff, and a small winery on the bluff once produced several varieties including Moon Song Blush, Virgin Bluff Red, and Virgin Bluff White.

James Fork of the White and all our books are available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.

“Staff” of Jim Owen’s Float Service

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Jul 112018
 

Owen and his band of guides, raconteurs and artist Steve Miller hang out in front of Owen’s Hillbilly Theater in downtown Branson.

Owen’s roster included many who had pioneered floating the James and White back in the days when city folks detrained at Galena. Few guides worked full time. Some continued to offer their services to Galena operators. The Branson businessman’s aggressive advertising reeled in the most clients and in the twenty-six years he packaged trips he would use almost every river man at one time or another. Jim Owen became an institution, but some of his guides had reputations for their fishing acumen, campfire cooking skills, or country wit. A jokester himself, Owen encouraged colorful rustic behavior that fulfilled visitors’ expectations of being escorted downstream by a tractable variety of hillbilly.

James Fork of the White (p. 235)

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

Women Anglers’ Evening Campfire on Owen’s Famous James River Float Trip

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Jun 092018
 

Floating was never an exclusively male sport. Fishing may have been the justification for a five-day, four-night float on the James River, but the evening campfire was its own sensual experience – a time for the universal pleasures of freshly caught fried fish, tall tales, and leisurely conversations.

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

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