Branson’s College of the Ozarks had its beginnings in Forsythe

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May 062020
 

Real photo postcard of some faculty of the School of the Ozarks on a 1909 outing at Swan Creek.

Along with Harold Bell Wright’s moralistic Shepherd of the Hills influence, a component of the region’s image has been the School of the Ozarks, now called College of the Ozarks (“Hard Work U.”). It began as an effort by the Presbyterian Church to expand the limited educational opportunities for Ozark children in the early 1900s. A $20,000 brick building was built on a hill overlooking Swan Creek. A fire destroyed it in 1915. The school used the facilities of the Forsyth Public School for a time until a campus was started at Point Lookout in Hollister where the College is today.

The Christian ethical influence of Harold Bell Wright and College of the Ozarks is in sharp contrast with the more secular origins of another Ozark tourist draw, Lake of the Ozarks. Two of the three men most influential in the creation of Bagnell Dam and the Lake did time in federal penitentiaries.

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CLASSIC OZARK HICKORY BASKETS. Real Photo Postcard, circa 1915

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May 162018
 

Basket-making was a pioneer necessity that became a commodity for early souvenir shops. This selection of handmade baskets of split hickory is not only beautifully made, the composition of the photograph and its technical qualities are excellent.

Ozark crafts had some reinforcement from benevolent institutions and government programs but it was much less and more sporadic than it was for Appalachian craft industries. The crafts business seems to have revolved more around roadside souvenir shops, with some encouragement from School of the Ozarks and later from WPA programs. Silver Dollar City was an early supporter of the original souvenir-shop products and provided an environment where people could see these and other traditional handmade items being made by local craftsmen. Handmade baskets are still produced but they join additional Arts & Crafts technologies like glassblowing, woodcarving and pottery making. An original Ozarks craft centered in Hollister was the making of concrete yard ornaments and flowerpots decorated with drip paint (“Ozark drip pottery”), a process invented by Harold Horine.

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