In Damming the Osage, we wrote about the connection between Col. R. G. Scott and Robert M. Snyder, who built Ha Ha Tonka.
Colonel R. G. Scott came from Iowa to the Ozarks around 1890 where he futilely attempted to promote a railroad linking Jefferson City and Springfield. He and a friend, Major R. D. Kelly, bought or optioned a large parcel of land around Gunter Spring from Jack Roach. His son, Sydney Roach, was an attorney on the Snyder legal team.
Likely, it was the Colonel who built the low dam that created the lake that would be subsumed by Lake 
of the Ozarks. Possibly, it was he who stocked it with rainbow trout. Probably, it was Scott who coined the name Ha Ha Tonka, although he claimed a Captain Lodge learned that name from a group of visiting Osage Indians. Certainly, it was Colonel Scott who published the first article extolling Ha Ha Tonka’s natural wonders in an 1898 issue of Carter’s Magazine.
A 1929 article in The Springfield Press (Oct. 19), “Pioneer Enthusiast Of the Ozarks, Who Dreamed of Dams, Hopes to Live to See Vision Accomplished Fact,” confirms our supposition: “(Ha Ha Tonka was) the first development in the Camden county Ozarks and came through the vision of Colonel Scott, who sold the land and the idea to the late R. M. Snyder, and incidentally it resulted in Scott building the first dam in the Ozarks to form Ha-Ha-Tonka lake. “
“Colonel Scott said he named the Snyder tract Ha-Ha-Tonka because it is the Osage Indian name for Laughing Water.” This was the beginning of our awareness of the bogus nature of many “Indian legends,” which some years later led us to research and write our recent book, Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco.
After the death of R.M. Snyder as the backed-up Osage obliterated Ha Ha Tonka’s small lake, the sons battled Union Electric for compensation for damages for their lost trout lake. From 1930 to 1936, trials and appeals continued in the courts. At his death on February 9, 1937, Robert McClure Snyder, Jr. was planning an appeal to the Supreme Court.
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.