The Weaver Brothers and Elviry

 James Fork of the White, See The Ozarks, Tourism, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Sep 272025
 

The Weaver Brothers and Elviry were native Ozarkers whose hillbilly light comedy was successful on the vaudeville stage and in movies. Their “Hill-Billy Review” is shown in this 1930s press photo.

The Weaver Brothers and Elviry became headliners after World War I, and performed with top vaudeville names like Al Jolson, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jack Benny and Beatrice Lillie. Elviry’s comic catchphrase was, “If I had my druthers, I druther…”  They starred in movies for Republic Pictures in the 1930s and ‘40s. Elviry (June Petrie) was born in Chicago but raised in rural Missouri. The brothers, Abner (Leon) and Cicero (Frank) Weaver were from Ozark, Missouri. They have their own Wikipedia page.

A staple of early Branson music shows was a rube or hillbilly comic. In recent years some shows have dropped that genre of humor. Much ink, and a little blood, has been spilled over classifying the natives of the Ozarks. Though the term “hillbilly” did not appear in print until 1900, early educated travelers found the character of the southern mountaineer a tad raw, but raw material for literature, nevertheless.

Leon was adept at mandolin, guitar, fiddle and handsaw, while Frank played novelty instruments including a spinning banjo and a one-man band. June could play piano, mandolin and ukulele.

When tourists found backwoods Ozarkers’ anachronistic lifestyle quaint, even reminiscent of our pioneer ancestors, they were deemed “hillfolk.” When locals resisted development, such as dams and highways or were disinterested in changing a vacationer’s flat tire in the rain, they were “hillbillies.”

In the 1930s and 1940s, hillbilly-ness was hot. Some of this was jokey, even demeaning, but many of the portraits of rural rubes were good-hearted. The audience for such fare brought with it a collective recent memory of rural poverty and the lifestyle it dictated. European immigrants and transplanted Okies alike had personal experiences — both positive and negative — with impoverished country life, as well Ozarkers. The hillbilly became a classic American stereotype. Ill-educated, musically talented, unintentionally funny, and fabulously indifferent to the disciplines of the workaday world, their corny predicaments delighted audiences across the land. Even in the Great Depression, their antics were worth the price of admission.

Check out  See The Ozarks: The Touristic Image.  for more information and gorgeous pictures of early tourism in the Ozarks

 

HA HA TONKA – A Phony Indian Name And A Natural Wonder With A Tragic History

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks, Tourism, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Aug 072025
 

Ha Ha Tonka castle (upper right corner) seen from the banks of the spring branch. Photograph likely pre-1910.

The fanciful Indian name of the spring below the bluff is attributed to Col. R. G. Scott who came from Iowa to the Ozarks in the 1890s and partnered with R. D. Kelly to acquire the land around Gunter Spring. Col. Scott published the first article extolling Ha Ha Tonka’s natural wonders in an 1898 issue of Carter’s Magazine. In it he claimed the name is Osage for “Laughing Water.”

We don’t know the name of the photographer of this arty picture of the spring branch at Ha Ha Tonka with the young man (or possibly a young woman – what do you think?) gazing across the spring branch below the castle on the bluff, but we’re guessing its builder, Robert M. Snyder, commissioned the shot. (Snyder acquired the spring and lands from Col. Scott). If that’s so, we can date it before October 1906 when the Kansas City millionaire died in a freak car accident. “Robert M. Snyder has brains dashed out against an iron trolley pole,” wrote the Springfield News-Leader. (When did that kind of descriptive writing disappear from journalism?)

Most accounts of his death mention his “boodling” (bribery) problems. At trial he had been sentenced to five years. On appeal the court ordered a new trial, but prosecutors failed to pursue it. Surviving him were his widow and three sons. Not long before, another son had been murdered in Oregon where he was a suspect in a bank robbery. That son had already done time for highway robbery.

The spectacle of the unfinished castle inspired The Kansas City Journal to wax poetic in a 1907 article entitled, “HIS BARONIAL ESTATE: Wrecking of R. M. Snyder’s Ambition to Live in Splendor as a Feudal Lord.” It begins: “A pathetic monument to one man’s unachieved ambition is an unfinished baronial castle on the north slope of the Ozarks.”

Lake of the Ozarks backed up into the trout-stocked spring branch below the castle. The three sons unsuccessfully sued Union Electric, the builder of Bagnell Dam, for damages for their lost trout lake. Snyder’s boys finally finished the great stone mansion, and it functioned for a short time as a hotel before being destroyed by fire in 1942.

Five thousand acres of wild, undeveloped land the castle sits on was purchased by the state of Missouri in 1978 and made a state park. It’s an extreme example of karst topography, which includes the great spring, caves, sinkholes and a natural bridge, making it popular with hikers. The ruins of Snyder’s castle are now a tourist draw. An attempt to architecturally stabilize the gaunt walls was made in the 1980s, but access is limited now due to continued deterioration. Signage tells the tragic tale of the unlucky “boodler” at an observation point near the park’s office.

Vintage Images is a column we provide to River Hills Traveler, a monthly publication on the Missouri outdoors.  Lens & Pen Press publishes all-color books on the Ozarks. Our book, “See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image,” showcases many of the primary tourist destinations across the Ozarks. It is available for $22.50 (10% off retail), postage paid. Click on Buy our Books

FERN SPRING – EUREKA!

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks, Tourism, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jul 082025
 

Each spring in the vicinity of Eureka was held to have a particular medicinal power. Eureka Springs called itself “The City that Water Built.”

EUREKA SPRINGS PROMISED ITS SPRINGS HAD HEALING PROPERTIES

No rusticated place this. Improbably built into the side of some of the Ozarks’ steepest real estate is an authentic Victorian village. One hundred years ago, nattily attired ladies and gentlemen strolled miles of winding paths along hand-cut stone wall, pausing to sip the waters of the various springs. … “The city of healing waters—there’s health in every glass,” was only one of many taglines for the city’s promotional literature. Stories of the diseases cured by Eureka’s springs fall flat now, but the boasts of the place’s overall attractiveness hold up. As one brochure proclaimed:

“The lure of the Ozarks and the all-year charm of Eureka Springs as a place of restful enjoyment is not alone for those who journey in the quest of health. The country surrounding Eureka Springs is a great shaded park and playground, a land of hills and valleys arched with translucent blue on its many cloudless days.” (See the Ozarks, p. 14)

Twenty-first-century tourists are considerably more casually dressed than these two gents. Few today (we hope) believe the spring waters will cure anything but the thirst that comes from touring “the stair step town” on foot.

Vintage Ozarks is a feature we provide to River Hills Traveler, a monthly publication. Lens & Pen Press publishes all color books on the Ozarks, especially its rivers. This image is taken from See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image. This hardback, all-color book on early tourism in our region is sale priced at $22.50, postage paid.  Order the book by clicking on the “Buy our Books” tab.

Bluff Dwellers Cave, Noel

 James Fork of the White, See The Ozarks, Tourism, Uncategorized  No Responses »
May 292025
 

Real photo postcard: “See My Cave:  Bluff Dwellers Cave, Noel, Missouri”

Caves have been inhabited by humans and served as the stage for mythological tales in most cultures, past and present. Bluff Dwellers Cave near Noel, Missouri provided shelter for Native Americans but not the club-bearing Neanderthal pictured in this roadside ad.

Wikipedia’s entry for Bluff Dwellers’ Cave says it was discovered by C. Arthur Browning while checking traps on his family’s land. According to the family, it was a Sunday in April when he felt that telling breeze of cold air indicating a hidden cave. According to the attraction’s website:

In 1925 C. Arthur Browning was checking traps on property his family had owned his whole life when he came across a cool breeze blowing from a limestone outcrop. It was here that Bluff Dwellers Cave was discovered by Mr. Browning when he brought back help. Bob Ford and Bryan Gilmore, employed by the highway department, helped Arthur Browning move loose rock and debris so that he could explore.

Note the mention of the highway department. Highways were being built across southwest Missouri in the 1920s, opening up the possibility of lucrative businesses to serve and entertain the traveling public.

In the mid-20s tourism was “the next big thing,” and many looked to capitalize on it. One of those was John A. Truitt, aka “the Cave Man of the Ozarks.” He had arrived in Noel in 1914, looking for caves to commercialize. His obituary in the Pineville paper stated that “he was employed for a time at “Cave of the Winds” in Colorado. It was there that he heard from tourists of the caves in the Southwest Mo Ozarks.”

“Dad” Truitt was famed for having opened and developed many of the interesting caves of Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas Ozarks, including Ozark Wonder Cave at Elk Springs, Truitt’s Cave and Elk-O-Zar Cave at Lanagan, Bluff Dwellers Cave near Noel and Spanish Treasure Cave south of Sulphur Springs. He has contributed much to the development of this section of the Ozarks for tourists and vacationers.

In a Kansas City Journal, Nov. 13, 1927, profile, “Dad” Truitt claimed to have discovered Bluff Dwellers Cave, that he and he alone felt that telltale cool breeze emanating from the bluff. However, according to the Cave’s records and family history, Arthur Browning was the actual discoverer. “Dad” Truitt only held the contract for managing the touring part of the cave for four years, until 1931.

Bluff Dwellers Cave continues today as an active tourist attraction, still owned and operated by the Browning family.