MEMORIES OF THE UNDAMMED OSAGE RIVER

 Damming the Osage  No Responses »
Jan 012021
 

Not included in the cost/benefit analysis of Corps of Engineers water resource projects are the economic, social and emotional costs of those who are dispossessed of their land.

China’s monster dam projects displaced millions of farmers and covered hundreds (or more) villages. They caused the extinction of China’s 20-foot-long paddlefish species, a close relative of our own Polyodon spathula. Truman Dam and Reservoir didn’t cause the extinction of the smaller American paddlefish, but it did necessitate development of an artificial breeding program by the Missouri Department of Conservation. That dam destroyed the spawning beds of the spoonbill, as they are called by locals.

There was an uncounted human cost as well. Hundreds of families lost their land to Truman reservoir. Not only was their compensation based on land sale records, in many cases old (some farms had not changed hands in generations) providing misleading valuations, but comparable acreage was not available to replace their livelihood of farming. So they were essentially put out of business. Some of those operations had been in business for a century or more and had supported successive generations of a family. During that time many memories were formed and family traditions established, which were now severed.

Melanie Pruitt with her grandparents on the Sac River in 1980.
Praise to George Eastman whose 1-A Kodak first made the family snapshot feasible. Photos like this have preserved a record of pleasant, fleeting moments that might be forgotten without a picture.
Thanks to Melanie Pruitt for permission to reproduce this lovely image.

We received an email recently that poignantly describes this emotional cost of losing land to ill-justified “multipurpose” dam and reservoir schemes. With permission, here is the email from Melanie Pruitt with a wonderful snapshot of young Melanie with her grandparents on the Sac River arm of the headwaters of Truman Reservoir:

I read Damming the Osage from cover to cover in 72 hours after receiving. … It was beyond amazing. I have spent YEARS trying to explain to people the impact of this situation. And everyone always says, but it’s for flood control. My family was very much impacted by this and lost land to the Corps, but not nearly as much as many, many others impacted. I haven’t stopped talking about your book, as I now can fully explain to people something I always believed in but never knew the whole story or how to explain.

Attaching a pic of me with my grandparents from summer of 1980 on the Sac river, taken just west of new bridge on 82 highway in Osceola. The lake hadn’t completely filled yet (close though) but the color of the water was still blue, not brown. That’s what’s chilling. It’s the last pic I have of me and my grandparents together, as my grandpa passed away in January 1981. I could go on for eternity on what this river means to me, my family, etc. and the impacts of everything.

The Sac is now also dammed farther upstream at Stockton.

 

 

 

The story of Osceola and many of the colorful characters who lived there (including the James and Younger brothers) is woven through our 304-page book. It is now available for $17.50, half the original price, from our website 

Historic Randles Court motel in Eldon

 See The Ozarks  No Responses »
May 192020
 

Jennifer Hart by the just-restored Randles Court neon sign.

The rock rubble classic motor court from the early days of America’s roadside culture is coming to life again along Business Route 54 through Eldon, Missouri. Jeremy and Jennifer Hart are renovating the place to offer hospitality for nostalgia-driven travelers. The nostalgia bringing me to Eldon was hunger for some of the world’s best onion rings, which we used to get at two restaurants there – a discovery made the summer we spent in Eldon making a very early direct-to-video horror movie, Copperhead. But I digress. Both restaurants are gone now. One of them was part of the Boots-Randles Court Motel. It burned to the ground, but the motel remains.

Jeremy’s aunt and uncle owned the place in the 1970s and through a series of karmic events, it has come to them. Jennifer can explain the full string of connections that finally put this roadside jewel in their hands. She’s made it her mission to put the pieces of history together, treating herself to occasional visits to the Eldon newspaper to search their archives.

One article she found indicates that Lloyd Boots started building his motor court in 1931, with a plan that called for a gas station and five cabins with attached carports. That was the year that Bagnell Dam closed. Eldon soon took the motto: “Gateway to Lake of the Ozarks.” The carports don’t show in the façade of the building today but architectural evidence remains. As the Hart’s renovated, they found original hardwood floors in every other room, and concrete floors in the ones between.

Last year, a tornado hit Eldon and the Randles Court. The stone building survived; roof, windows and the classic neon sign were damaged. Cleanup and repairs from the tornado carried on through the summer and early winter. Plans made for a grand reopening were put on hold with the coronavirus lockdown. Now with stay-at-home orders lifted and the classic neon sign fully restored and reinstalled, they are planning the lighting ceremony for this Friday night, May 22, the one-year anniversary of the tornado. Check their Facebook page for more information.

Provided to the Harts for the amusement and edification of their future guests, our book See the Ozarks, a visual history of the early days of tourism in our region.

Dalton Family Gathering at Arnhold’s Mill Fishing Club, 1920s

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Dec 102019
 

The Dalton family has been prominent in Missouri history. In 1925, they gathered in front of Arnhold’s Mill, a favorite family vacation destination. Photo courtesy of Mary Anderson.

Sidna Poague Dalton, second from right, became a Missouri Supreme Court justice (1950-1965). He was also an amateur archaeologist who discovered a transitional Paleo-Indian projectile point, which is named for him (the Dalton Point). His wife Edna is on the back row; three of their four kids are also in the picture: Ruth Rusk Anderson, aka “Rusk”, Jane Dalton Hess and Jim Dalton. Sidna’s brother Sam, far left, owned Dalton Coal and Concrete. Lelia, their sister, married George Denman. Their sons, John and Jim, are in the front row. Jim went on to be Mayor of Nevada, Missouri – much later in life of course.

Before Bagnell Dam created Lake of the Ozarks, there were few tourist attractions in this region. Arnhold’s Mill was a commercial mill site certainly, but also an early fishing camp/resort on the Niangua River in Camden County not far from Ha Ha Tonka’s springs. In 1896, J. W. (Joshua Williams) Vincent, editor of the Linn Creek Reveille, published a history of Camden County he had compiled by interviewing early settlers. In it he stated: “The Arnhold Mill, probably the most noted in the county, was founded in 1833 by a man named Kieth.”

George and Dorotha Arnhold, German immigrants, bought what by then was called Cleman Mill in 1878. Its scenic location, abundant game, good fishing and congenial owners attracted sportsmen from across the state. Eventually, cabins were built on the nearby hills to accommodate visitors who showed up in season. It was a family-friendly resort as evidenced by the Dalton family photo posed in front of the mill.

Ruth Rusk Anderson was Mary Anderson’s Grandma. She was 6 years old in 1925, when this photo was taken. She told Mary about “a fishing camp she went to as a child that she loved, and the heartache she felt when it flooded.” Arnhold’s Mill was covered by the backed-up waters of the Osage when Bagnell Dam closed.

Mary Anderson sent us these photos of the family vacation at Arnhold’s Mill in the 1925. She has scanned and made available to family members a horde of family snapshots. The Dalton and Poague families are prominent in Missouri history and this greatly adds to the genealogical archives of the family.

 

 

 

 

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

Fishing at Arnhold’s Mill on the Niangua in the 1920s

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Nov 102019
 

Several kids of the Dalton family pose with their catch on a family vacation at Arnhold’s Mill in 1925. Jim Dalton became mayor of Nevada, Missouri – much later in life of course. (Courtesy of Mary Anderson)

The kids are members of the Dalton clan, but the men holding the string appear to be locals. The large, long-nosed gar is a puzzlement. It’s not a palatable fish.

More Dalton family members with evidence of the abundance of fish in the pre-dam Niangua. Courtesy of Mary Anderson.

German immigrants, George and Dorotha Arnhold, bought Cleman Mill on the Niangua River in Camden County in 1878. Its scenic location, abundant game, good fishing and congenial owners attracted sportsmen from across the state. Arnhold’s Mill became an early sportsmen’s resort.

Such was his popularity when George Arnhold died in 1896, sportsmen commissioned a monument, which was carved in Scotland and delivered to Versailles in 1899. More than 500 people attended the dedication ceremony. The inscription says: “Erected in the memory of Dorotha Arnhold and George Arnhold by many fishermen friends as a tribute to their unlimited generosity.”

Located on the Big Niangua two miles upstream from today’s Niangua bridge, Arnhold’s Mill and the adjacent outbuildings and houses were covered by the waters of Lake of the Ozarks when Bagnell Dam closed.

Mary Anderson, who sent us these photos, remembers: “My Grandma Rusk talked about a fishing camp she went to as a child that she loved, and the heartache she felt when it flooded. … I feel confident she was talking about Arnhold Mill. (These photos) are from 1925. My Grandma was 6 years old in 1925.”

Mary Anderson’s hours spent scanning the boxes of old black-and-white photos added to the extensive genealogy of the Dalton family, prominent in Missouri history. Digital technology provides a significant enhancement to family histories as images such as these can be attach to the written records of family members.

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

OF DAYS REMEMBERED Quilt – Joe Dice’s Upper Swinging Bridge

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Nov 072019
 

Valorie Fauquier created this pieced and embroidered quilt for the 2015 Benton County Historical Society quilt raffle. Nine local landmarks are commemorated here. Members of the Historical Society sold raffle tickets through the summer and the drawing was held October 31. Mr. and Mrs. Troy Kessner of Independence Missouri won the drawing. They donated it to the Historical Society so everyone could enjoy it. We found it hanging in the Visitor Center, overlooking Truman Dam.

The center block commemorates the “Upper Swinging Bridge,” the last surviving Joe Dice bridge in Benton County. According to the explanatory legend posted nearby, “The Upper Swinging Bridge is the lone survivor of the 31 swinging bridges built in Benton County from 1895-1937. Built in 1904 by the famous local bridge builder Joe Dice, it was rebuilt by Dice after the original bridge was destroyed by a cyclone. It served highway 7 traffic until 1969.” It is now a pedestrian walkway over the Osage River outflow from Truman Dam.

Joseph A. Dice is one of the more interesting characters we discovered in our research for Damming the Osage (see pages 74-76). A self-taught engineer, Dice made his mark and living building swinging bridges across the Osage and its tributaries in what is now the Lake of the Ozarks region. Born in 1866, he built his first “swinger” in 1897 at a ferry crossing of the Osage near where US 65 crosses it today. “The Hackberry Bridge” cost $3,000.

A couple of Dice swingers remain on Aux Glaize Creek near Brumley as well. Driving across them is an adventure as they rattle loudly and sway slightly. From Damming the Osage, page 75:

Some of Dice’s smaller spans cost as little as $1,000. His 1905 Tuscumbia project, perhaps the most difficult, required an 80-foot wooden tower to connect up with a 250-foot cliff across the 600-foot wide Osage. All were constructed from locally obtained materials except the #9 galvanized wire. He worked in the summer and fall when local men were busy with crops, so most of his bridge crews were boys.

Frightened cattle or overloaded trucks broke the decks of some and tornadoes wrecked others, but no Dice bridge ever structurally failed.

Joseph Dice died in 1947 and is buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Warsaw on a high hill overlooking the Osage, with a view of a distant Truman Dam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

OF DAYS REMEMBERED Quilt includes Warsaw Missouri’s Lover’s Leap

 Damming the Osage, Lover's Leap Legends  No Responses »
Oct 172019
 

Valorie Fauquier created this pieced and embroidered quilt for the 2015 Benton County Historical Society quilt raffle. Nine local landmarks are commemorated here. One block shows the Lover’s Leap on the Osage. Nowadays the leap ends with a splash in the upper reaches of Lake of the Ozarks.

According to the explanatory legend posted near the quilt, “Lover’s Leap remains an unusual rock formation along the Osage River. It can be seen across the river while standing near the south end of Drake Harbor,” which is on the lakeshore below downtown Warsaw.

 

 

 

 

Valorie spent several hundred hours detailing nine of the historical landmarks of Benton County. Members of the Historical Society sold raffle tickets through the summer and the drawing was held October 31. Mr. and Mrs. Troy Kessner of Independence Missouri had the winning ticket. They donated it to the Historical Society so everyone could enjoy it. We found it hanging in the Visitor Center, overlooking Truman Dam.

 

 

 

From our forthcoming book, Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco:

Just below Warsaw is another Lover’s Leap also with a vague legend. This leap was modest even before Lake of the Ozarks flooded its base. The 1950s postcard (above left) shows the plunge would even be even less than when the Osage River ran underneath. Though lacking a retrievable story, this Lover’s Leap is pictured on postcards from 1909 to the 1950s and is even a block on a quilt illustrating famous local landmarks.

See a flipbook of sample pages at our website: Hypercommon.com

Damming the Osage and all our books are available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.  Lover’s Leap Legends will be published Spring 2020.

Construction of Bagnell Dam Began Transformation of lower Osage River

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
Oct 102019
 

Raines Family at their Rock House. Photo courtesy of Tim Helton.

Construction of Bagnell Dam brought great changes to the Osage River valley: road building, moving towns, graveyards, and people from its banks.

According to Tim Helton, son-in-law of Sally Raines, her father, William Maurice Raines, was “an attorney with a St. Louis firm retained by Union Electric to help secure land rights so they could create Lake of the Ozarks.”

Sally Raines on the porch of the family home. Photo courtesy of Tim Helton.

In Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir, we made the case that Bagnell Dam, which created Lake of the Ozarks, was a complicated scheme by complicated schemers to financially benefit themselves, not the public. It was conceived of in the Roaring Twenties and finished in the early years of the Great Depression. It did finally become a major tourist nexus after World War Two, but it was little used or developed in the 1930s and early ‘40s. There is no denying that its land acquisition and construction phase brought financial benefits to the region.

The family’s old rock house, a classic Ozark adaptation of an Arts & Crafts/Craftsman bungalow-style dwelling faced in rock rubble, is still intact on the Niangua Arm of the Lake.

Tim Helton reports, “It’s amazingly in about the same ‘configuration’ that it was all those years ago.”

Raines family home in the 1920s. The building still exists on the Niangua arm of Lake of the Ozarks. Photo courtesy of Tim Helton.

Personal benefit of the construction of Lake of the Ozarks – Leland’s father, Louis Strader Payton, was employed as a highway engineer to create roads around the new project. The Kentucky engineer met and courted a local schoolteacher, Annie Lewis Daniels. They married in 1939.

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

Ha Ha Tonka: One family’s memories

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
Sep 082019
 

This wonderful family photograph, which was sent to us by Tim Helton, shows young Sally Raines with her mother, Gladys Mary (maiden name Wells) Raines near Ha Ha Tonka before it burned. Per Tim Helton, Gladys (Wells) Raines’ father, William Maurice Raines (University of Missouri, Class of 1917), was “an attorney with a St. Louis firm retained by Union Electric to help secure land rights so they could create Lake of the Ozarks.”

“Sally does not remember where this picture was taken – only that they were nice people and put her up on that horse – because she didn’t have anyone to play with!”

Seen in the above Helton/Raines family snapshot from the 1930s, Ha Ha Tonka was built as the second home of the Snyder family of Kansas City. Robert McClure Snyder purchased 2,500 acres in 1904 on which to build his vision of a European stone castle in the Ozarks. He did not live to see it completed, dying in an automobile accident in 1906.

The Snyder Family sued Union Electric when Bagnell Dam created Lake of the Ozarks, which backed up into the spring branch full of introduced trout. The suit bounced in and out of courts for more than a decade. We covered the lawsuit extensively in Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir.

Ha Ha Tonka, now Missouri’s most popular state park, features a great spring, several large caves, and the stabilized ruins of the Snyder’s stone castle. The history of Ha Ha Tonka is indeed one of the more conflicted tales of the Osage basin.

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

Invasive Species Lurking near Lake of the Ozarks

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
May 102019
 

Lake Expo recently published an interesting article on three invasive species that could have a drastic effect on Lake of the Ozarks. “Lake Invaders! 3 Species That Lurk Nearby and How We can Protect Lake of the Ozarks” specifically points out a plant, a mussell and a fish and describes clearly what threat they pose to the native species and the new evnironment they find themselves in.

  • Hydrilla is an invasive plant from areas around India.
  • Zebra Mussels are native to Europe and Asia, but arrived in North American waterways in the 1980s.
  • Silver Carp are one of several Asian carp species in the state, are notorious for their unusual behavior when they get startled. They jump out of the water.

Read the whole story of how Lake of the Ozarks was created in Damming the Osage.  All Lens & Pen books are available on this site, at Barnes & Noble, and on amazon.com

 

 

Lake of the Ozarks’ Lover’s Leap at Junction of Niangua and Osage Rivers

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Oct 162018
 

Real photo postcard, probably 1940s

Lover’s Leap on the Osage River was a cliff near Linn Creek, about which J. W. Vincent, editor of the local paper The Linn Creek Reveille, penned a fanciful tale of a suicidal Indian maiden. Virtually every declivity more than 25 feet high in the Mississippi River valley had a similar legend attached to it. When Lake of the Ozarks filled in 1931, the name stayed but the jump got shorter and the landing in water became more survivable. The little creature poised on the rocks in disregard of its safety appears to be some species of dog.

This site has been popular with postcard photographers and there are numerous versions, both real photo postcards and printed linens.

Today the knob where the dog sits has broken off and the site has grown up in brush. Nevertheless, it’s a well-known overlook; the trash indicates it’s a popular party spot. Recently it became a set for Netflix series Ozark.

This locaton and Virgin Bluff on the James River were among the sources of inspiration for our new project, Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco. Lens & Pen books are available on this site, amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

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