Springfield “a Gem of a City”

 James Fork of the White, Lens & Pen Press, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Oct 222023
 

John T. Woodruff and the Chamber of Commerce had encouraged private companies in the 1920s and ’30s to harness the hydropower from Ozark streams. When they didn’t and the Army Corps of Engineers embarked on their massive White River multi-purpose dam campaign, Woodruff and packs of Springfield leaders traveled to Washington, DC, to testify before Congress on behalf of these projects.

An anonymous letter to the editor in the October 31, 1925, Springfield Leader captures the mystical association dams, roads, and prosperity had for that era’s believers in progress. Springfield, the author implies, should become the Queen City of Ozark water resource development. Transforming the free-flowing streams into reservoirs, along with “excellent highways,” would make the town a “fountainhead” of wealth:

“Springfield is the nipple on the breast of the Ozarks. Within the circumference of this Ozarkian breast are more stupendous hydro-electric projects than in any same area in America. No less than six enormous projects, involving $200,000,000! … Not dreams, but projects as sure to be developed as water runs down hill, and its running may be changed into gold. Why Florida is a piker compared to our Ozarks. And these enormous dams will empound vast inland lakes, converting the Ozarks into a wonderland for the tourists developing hotels and pleasure resorts rivaling the dreams of Florida. Now consider our excellent highways, draining like milk ducts, the wealth and patronage of these marvelous Ozarks into Springfield, its fountain’s head. Will Springfield grow? We guess yes.”

Taken from James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River, now on sale for $17.50 (half price) postage paid, at www.beautifulozarks.com

 

A True Ozark Icon: the Hillbilly

 Beautiful Ozarks, James Fork of the White, Lens & Pen Press, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Oct 172023
 

Controversy over viewing the Ozarks as a refuge of degenerate primitives has a long history. This symbol of profound rusticity upset promoters and businessmen like John Woodruff but defenders of the premodern Ozarks rushed to defend even the stereotypical hillbilly. On March 27, 1934, The Springfield Leader and Press reprinted highlights of the disastrous meeting of the Springfield Folk Festival advisory committee with Chamber of Commerce leadership. Replying to accusations that they were “advertising to the world that we are ignorant”:

“We are not trying to present freaks or ignoramuses,” the honorable district chairman said. “We are just trying to preserve some of the old, lovely, beautiful, wonderful things that went into the making of the country. I am not ashamed of some of the things my parents did.” “Of course, it does not have to be rough, rowdy, and hoedownish,” the Springfield city chairman said. “Oh, yes it does,” put another leader. “It wouldn’t be the Ozarks if it didn’t.” “You mean we’re not going to have hill billies with beards?”

Taken from James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River, now on sale for $17.50 (half price) postage paid, at www.beautifulozarks.com

 

Woodruff Believed Springfield’s 1934 Folk Festival was “a lot of freaks”

 James Fork of the White, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Sep 122023
 

 

 The committee for the first Springfield Folk Festival, held in 1933. Vance Randolph is third from left, and Sarah Gertrude Knott, the woman he was attracted to, is on the far right. Bascom Lamar Lunsford, who also fancied Miss Knott, is the gent with the bow tie. May Kennedy McCord is fifth from the left.

In the spring of 1934, the Springfield Chamber of Commerce was presented with a very different opportunity to celebrate the Ozarks Empire. May Kennedy McCord, of KWTO’s radio show “Hillbilly Heartbeats,” was on the advisory committee for the upcoming First National Folk Festival to be held in St. Louis, Missouri, beginning April 29. Folk-play and folk-dance enthusiast Sarah Gertrude Knott conceived of that four-day event. Banjo-playing, bowtie-wearing, ballad-singing Bascom Lamar Lunsford, “Minstrel of the Appalachians,” assisted her. The St. Louis Chamber of Commerce enthusiastically backed the venture. Leading up to the main event, contests at smaller festivals would decide who would take the stage in St. Louis to fiddle, yodel, or clog. McCord’s friend Vance Randolph was asked to be one of the judges. She asked if the local committee could meet in late March with the Chamber to solicit support for a Springfield venue.

That meeting did not go well. A blow-by-blow account appeared in The Pittsburgh (Kansas) Headlight of March 22, 1934. On March 27, the Springfield Leader and Press reprinted highlights from it entitled, “The Ozarks and Culture.” “A lot of freaks should not be selected to go to the national festival,” John T. Woodruff, a Chamber official told the shocked group. “Why call back the things we’ve been trying to forget for fifty years? Why advertise to the world that we are ignorant?”

Taken from James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River, now on sale for $17.50 (half price) postage paid, at www.beautifulozarks.com