Early Party Barge on the Osage to Monegaw Springs

 Damming the Osage, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
May 132021
 

Real photo postcard by Thomas: “Excursion—Osceola to Monegaw. June 20 – 09”

Nearly a century before Lake of the Ozarks’ infamous Party Cove, people found entertainment on the free-flowing Osage. Small steamboats, some pushing barges, delivered large parties from Osceola to Monegaw Springs, eight miles upstream, after commercial river traffic had almost disappeared.

The effort to finance a railroad from Osceola to Monegaw Springs failed. Attempts to capitalize on Monegaw’s celebrated springs have been persistent, but largely unrewarded. Its geographic isolation has been problematic, and later public recognition that drinking spring water had no medicinal benefit sealed its fate.

Even if Monegaw ultimately fizzled as a spa and resort, it was clearly a fun place to visit in the early 1900s. Recreationalists back then dressed more formally but from what we understand alcoholic beverages were equally popular (some things don’t change).

 

From Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir. Lens & Pen Press is having a half-price sale for all titles. Damming the Osage is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $17.50 (half the original price of $35), postage paid.

 

Lock & Dam No. 1 on the Lower Osage

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Apr 132021
 

1909 Construction photograph of Lock and Dam No. 1

In 1886, an Osage River Improvement Committee convened and, using Army Engineers plans, challenged Congress to make the river navigable clear to Kansas with a series of locks and dams. After delays, work on the first lock and dam began in September 1895 at Shipley Shoals then seven miles from the mouth of the Osage.

The pièce de résistance of the futile effort to render the Osage River navigable was Lock and Dam No. 1. In the twentieth century, Army Engineers became renowned for escalating the price of a dam after Congressional authorization and work had started. Underestimating construction costs has long been a skill of the Corps.

In 1891, Lock and Dam No. 1 was estimated to cost $187,244. By 1895, with the addition of Chanoine wickets to raise and lower water levels to keep from flooding farms upstream, a figure of $417,500 appeared in War Department documents. As this 1909 photograph shows, the project obviously took longer and cost more than had been stated in Corps of Engineers’ reports to Congress.

The impressive hunk of concrete and iron, 850 feet wide with a 40 by 220 foot lock, proved to be a mixed blessing. Upon completion in 1906, a 30-foot section washed away. The structure blocked barges, which were the most cost-effective river transportation.

In 2012, a drought lowered Osage River levels so much that the rotten remains of Lock & Dam No. 1 were exposed for all to see. Today it not only serves to block possible sturgeon and paddlefish migration to Osage River spawning beds, but every year or two someone drowns trying to navigate through it in high water.

 

From Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir. Lens & Pen Press is having a half price sale for all titles. Damming the Osage is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $17.50 (half the original price of $35), postage paid.

 

Giant Osage River Catfish

 Damming the Osage, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Mar 232021
 

Photo by Becraft, Osceola, MO. 68 Pounds #25

On the first page of the first chapter in Damming the Osage, we wrote:

After being the subject of the real photo postcard, this sixty-eight-pound blue catfish likely became the blue plate special at an Osceola, Missouri café. Though not uncommon in the Osage River, big fish were newsworthy. Several hundred miles downstream and a decade earlier another huge catfish (a blue or a flathead) made the June 1, 1895, Jefferson City Daily Tribune:

“News has just been received here of the strange manner in which John Harnett an Osage River fisherman, lost his life by being drowned by a catfish weighing 105 pounds. No one witnessed the death struggle which occurred some twenty-five miles up the river, but the finding of Harnett’s body, a trot-line and the live fish attached thereto some hours after he was missed tells the story of how he lost his life. He had wrapped one end of the line around his hand and been jerked in the river and drowned by the struggles of the fish to free itself.”

This was a true Osage river monster cat, so big the men holding the staff supporting it had to stand on boxes to keep the tail off the ground. Times and the river’s ecology have changed.  The most recent headline-grabbing hefty fish pulled from the Osage was a 112-pound invasive black carp.

 

From Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir. Lens & Pen Press is having a half price sale for all titles. Damming the Osage is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com/buy-the-book/ for $17.50 (half the original price of $35), postage paid.

MYSTERY of the intrusive stick and ball SOLVED

 Damming the Osage  No Responses »
Feb 232021
 

Awkward photographic framing can produce puzzling images. It’s not a coincidence that surrealism came on after the invention and widespread use of the camera. One’s eye and brain compensate for awkward framing and off-kilter images, but a camera captures what is there—in all its visual disarray. We ran this photo (see previous post) of a puzzling intrusion into an image and asked if anyone knew what it was. This is one that had us stumped.

We received a tip from Todd Wilkinson, Project Manager for the James River Basin Partnership, and US Coast Guard Auxiliarist, that the come-from-nowhere ball and stick in this post was likely an “ensign staff.” Sure enough – Merriam-Webster defines an ensign staff as “the staff at the stern of a ship from which the national flag is flown.” The staff is usually topped by a polished metal ball.

For all our education, some more details from Wikipedia:

An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be different from the civil ensign (merchant ships) or the yacht ensign (recreational boats). Large versions of naval ensigns called battle ensigns are used when a warship goes into battle. The ensign differs from the jack, which is flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a vessel.

Mystery solved. The photographer was looking at the passing scenery behind the boat and didn’t notice or bother to exclude the staff from his frame.

Given Mr. Wilkinson’s bona fides on the topics of watercraft and waterways we appreciate him taking the time to clear up our quandary.

 

Several Lens & Pen Press books discuss the evolution of the Ozark landscape and our effects on its rivers. Check out Damming the Osage and James Fork of the White on www.beautifulozarks.com All our books are now on sale for half price, postage paid. Order on www.dammingtheosage.com

 

SURREAL 1907 OSAGE RIVER POSTCARD

 Damming the Osage, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Feb 182021
 

Real photo postcard marked, “Osage River” and “Becraft Photog. (21).”

What in the world is that ball on a stick  doing in the middle of the Osage River, poking up from the bottom of this real photo postcard?

This enigmatic view is postmarked “Monegaw Springs Aug. 23, 1907.” It was addressed to Miss Mary Mifflin Kansas City, Mo: “Dear Sister, this is a splendid picture of the Osage. Having a royal good time. Am rather used to the strange country ways by now … lovingly, Edna.” “Strange country” indeed—what IS that ball on a stick?

Did surrealism, the art of incongruous imagery, hit the Ozarks a decade before the term was even coined in Paris? If you’ve got any idea what that ball and stick are please let us know at lensandpen@yahoo.com

We have half a dozen Becraft real photo postcards, mostly of Osceola and the upriver spa, Monegaw Springs. In our book Damming the Osage, we used a wonderful image of his showing a 68 lb. blue cat proudly displayed by two men and a boy on the streets of that old river town.

NOTE: In 1905 a group of Kansas City businessmen acquired the old Monegaw log hotel (once a favorite haunt of the James and Younger brothers while laying low from the law) and began development of a resort on the Osage. It’s entirely possible Miss Edna was a guest at the Monegaw Club.  Watch for a future post on the post-outlaw life of the old hotel in Monegaw.

Several Lens & Pen Press books discuss the evolution of the Ozark landscape and our effects on its rivers. Check out Damming the Osage which has an extended explanation of Monegaw Springs and its outlaw history. All our books are now on sale for half price, postage paid. Order on www.dammingtheosage.com

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 

ANNOUNCING A HOLIDAY BOOK SALE!

 Beautiful Ozarks, Damming the Osage, Irish Wilderness, James Fork of the White, Lover's Leap Legends, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  1 Response »
Nov 142020
 

The holiday season is upon us all and BOOKS MAKE SPLENDID GIFTS!

We are pleased to offer a 50% discount on our current inventory with free shipping.
Click here to visit our storefront to order now.

Lover’s Leap Legends Price now: $17.50
James Fork of the White Price now: $17.50
Damming the Osage: Price now: $17.50
Mystery of the Irish Wilderness: Price now: $9.95
On the Mission in Missouri Price now: $10.50
The Beautiful and Enduring Ozarks Price now: $9.95
See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image Price now: $12.50

We have videos about our books on our Youtube channel.

 

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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.

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.

Postscript to construction of Bagnell Dam

 Damming the Osage  No Responses »
Oct 242019
 

On our more expansive website, Hypercommon.com, we created a section just for Dams. Research on the two big Osage River dams (Bagnell and Harry S. Truman Dam) led us to considering the role of dams – i.e. huge public works projects that speak to the masses/electorate of the power and progress of the political forces who build them. They prove man’s mastery (for a time perhaps) over nature and the forces of relentlessly moving water. They create jobs (short term) and remodel landscape, to the benefit of some and the great detriment of others.

We pondered another, larger project examining dams worldwide and their relationship to the politics of power and money – as evidenced in the materials left behind, the ephemera of propaganda. To explore this idea after the completion of Damming the Osage, we kept collecting, searching out the souvenirs and show pieces of dams worldwide both built and only proposed.

 

 

 

 

One of our initial finds was this photograph showing Louis Egan, former president of union Electric, heading to federal prison after being sentenced under the corrupt practices act. It would have made it into Damming the Osage if we’d had it when still working on the book.

Click on this link to read the full post: “The Fall of Union Electric’s Louis Egan.”

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