Keith McCanse Linked Conservation with Tourism

 Beautiful Ozarks, Lens & Pen Press, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jun 062025
 

1931 issue of Where to go in the Ozarks by Keith McCanse, subtitled “The Book of the Ozarks.” 138 pages chock full of ads. Includes establishments on the new Lake of the Ozarks. Also includes excellent maps. “Outside the realm of ordinary vacation literature, this publication … serves you with actual, definite facts without exaggeration.”

Keith McCanse’s Scotch-Irish family settled in the Ozarks in the 1840s. His father, George, co-founded a bank and was a true believer in Republican politics. He took his son numerous times on the legendary Galena-to-Branson float trip.

After a stint as a stockbroker in Kansas City, Keith moved his family to Taney County due to touchy health issues. He fished and hunted and became active in organizations like the Isaac Walton League dedicated to the preservation of natural resources. In 1921 he became a game warden and gave talks on the value of protecting wildlife. In 1925, Governor Sam A. Baker appointed him commissioner of Missouri’s Game and Fish Department.

Having expertise in accounting and banking he remade the department, appointing more than 100 deputies, and producing movies and appearing on radio advancing the “gospel of conservation.” McCanse transformed the good-ole-boy political sinecure into a meritocracy, staffed by trained biologists. He increased revenue, grew the state park system from four to fourteen, and fish hatcheries from two to seven. Missouri Game & Fish News was expanded and improved. It became the template for the exemplary Missouri Conservationist magazine.

In 1929, lured by an offer that doubled his salary, he took a job with KMDX, St. Louis. He promoted tourism for the Ozarks, linking it to valuing the native landscape and its fauna. He worked with the Ozark Playgrounds Association and began producing a similar travel guide to theirs listing more than 1,000 places to “fish, camp, tour, play, and rest.” The guides cost fifty cents. Even with the support of the Sinclair Automobile Service Corporation and ads from every resort, town, and village in the region or near to it, given the work involved, Where to Go in the Ozarks probably wasn’t profitable.

Like many, McCanse invested in land near Sunrise Beach on the shores of the new Lake of the Ozarks. The crash of 1929 and the Depression caused the tourism industry to go flat for more than a decade.

Keith McCanse ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor in 1932. He moved to Texas soon after and became involved in real estate promotion and Republican politics. We don’t know the extent of his involvement with conservation after he left Missouri. His role in the creation of a natural image of the Ozarks was significant. He died in 1964.

Vintage Images is a column we provide to River Hills Traveler, a monthly publication.  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

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.

FREDERICKSBURG MILITARY BAND, CIRCA 1915

 Beautiful Ozarks, Lens & Pen Press, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
May 212025
 

The decorative cardboard mat has the embossed name Schuster Studio, Hermann, Mo. Martin Anthony Schuster was born in 1871, was a veteran of the Spanish-American War, and a widely known photographer in the Hermann area. He opened a studio there on Schiller St. in 1910. The first ad we could find for the studio noted that as well as portraiture, they offered film development and printing.

How does a marching brass band cross an unbridged Ozark river? On a cable-driven ferry, of course. This sharp focus cabinet photograph preserves the record of a lost musical tradition and a vanished transportation technology. In its entry about Fredericksburg, the Gasconade Historical Society documents the population of the tiny village in 1879 population at 40. It likely never much exceeded that.

Throughout much of the 20th century the ferry permitted crossing that bridgeless section of the Gasconade River. Originally the little barge was propelled by oars, then a cable system was followed by an outboard motor, and finally an electric motor. In the mid-20th century, a bridge at last rendered it obsolete. Both the ferry and the band survived long after their prime.

The brass band posed on the ferry was organized in 1902. An ad in the May 29, 1953, Advertiser-Courier of Hermann Missouri announced an upcoming performance:

Ice Cream

SOCIAL

St. Peter’s E. & R. Church

Fredericksburg, Mo.

Saturday, June 6,

6 p.m.

Sandwiches and Refreshments

Music by Fredericksburg Military Band

Welcome Everybody

Following the Fredericksburg band promo was the announcement that music by the Charlotte Cornet Band (an even smaller community than Fredericksburg) would be provided for an ice cream social at the Salem Presby Church at Holt, Mo. That the northeast corner of the Ozarks was heavily settled by German immigrants explains how a tiny village could supply five trombone players, four cornet players and several other wind instruments. Most Ozark highland pioneers were of Scots Irish heritage and favored stringed instruments and the ballad tradition of the British Isles.

Vintage Images is a column we provide to the monthly publication, River Hills Traveler. This photograph, along with hundreds more, are among our collection now housed at Missouri State University Libraries-Ozarks Studies Institute.

The Enduring Fascination With Ozark Streams

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Apr 222025
 

On the back of this circa 1920, sharp and nicely composed real photo postcard is written in script: “Scene at Sugar Creek, Mo. George watching the fish.” The card is stamped, “O. C. Kuehn, Photo. St. Louis, Mo.”

Oscar C. Kuehn (1877-1949) was an enthusiastic amateur photographer, and an “ardent camera devotee,” who exhibited his characteristically corny posed shots of cute kids and dogs and a gnarled old timer strumming a guitar. This may have been a family snapshot as it has a more authentic look than his more standard posed pictures. He served as president of the St. Louis Camera Club in the 1920s. That he was a well-known amateur photographer in St. Louis leads us to believe this image was taken at the Sugar Creek running through Kirkwood in southwest St. Louis. It shows a typical headwaters Ozarkian stream.

As we all know, the boundaries of the Ozark Plateau have been subject of much discussion. Per Missouri State University Libraries Notes, July 2023: “The boundaries of the Ozark region always have been open to debate and discussion. Most previous maps of the Ozarks tended to use bold, solid lines as a border for the region. The new map uses a hashed line to indicate that the boundaries are a bit murky and fluid.”

By most maps, St. Louis lies just beyond the northeast edge of the Ozarks. However, the more permeable edges of this newest map could include this watershed. Recent news (well, 2018) from the Webster-Kirkwood Times describes it as: “Sugar Creek Valley in Kirkwood has been called a wildflower haven, painters’ paradise and architects’ alley.” And neighborhood residents had organized a “Save Sugar Creek” group to resist development to keep their stream clean.

Start Googling around the internet and you’ll find several other Sugar Creeks in Missouri. One in Adair County, near Kirksville, and of course Big Sugar Creek State Park in McDonald County. Big Sugar Creek is a tributary of the Elk River, whose watershed drains south into the Arkansas River Basin. The state park features a variety of plants and animals that are less common or absent farther into Missouri. Begun in 1992 with 640 acres of land, it now comprises more than 2,000 acres. MDC notes the park is still in development stage, so check their website for more information before heading to it.

Vintage Images is a column we provide to River Hills Traveler, a monthly publication.  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

Irish Wilderness travels remembered

 Irish Wilderness, Lens & Pen Press, On the Mission and Fifty Years Ago, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Apr 112025
 

Tim Reeves’ grave is in a small, chain-link fenced plot north of Doniphan. Weathering (in 2011) had almost obliterated the lettering, which reads: “Col. Tim Reeves, born Apr 28,1821 Died Mar 10 1885  Separation is our lot. Meeting is our hope.”

This image popped up  from my ‘google pics memory’ bank this morning. Fourteen years ago, on an equally beautiful spring morning as today, we searched out the grave of Timothy Reeves – itinerant preacher whose suspicions of Father Hogan and the Catholic Church were voiced to the early settlers of Oregon and Ripley counties – well before the Civil War. Reeves became a Colonel for the 15th Missouri Cavalry Regiment, “a local southern-sympathizing militia” during the Civil War.  Our chapter “Wars Devastations” in Mystery of the Irish Wilderness carries many more details of the brutal guerrilla warfare in the Ozarks.

This image however calls to mind wonderful days seeking out isolated or abandoned places associated with Father John Joseph Hogan’s Irish settlement, begun with such hope and purpose, scattered and torn by “war’s devastation.”  Still the story echoes in local history to this day and is solidified in a national account by the area’s designation as “The Irish Wilderness.”

Springfield’s Own “Strange Tribe of Nimrods” – the Molly Joggers

 James Fork of the White, Lens & Pen Press  No Responses »
Apr 082025
 

“What is a Molly Jogger?” you ask. We, too, were puzzled. Read on  to learn more about this “strange tribe of nimrods.”

 

Early 1900s photograph of the Molly Joggers, an unknown boy, and their cook Shorty. The club was organized in the late 1800s by Pennsylvania-born Cyrus H. Patterson. It became extinct in 1930 when Patterson died. Through these decades there had been a total of ten members.

The Springfield hunting and fishing club once had their headquarters near Jamesville. It was a singular, even bizarre group, kind of an Animal-House-on-the-James. One of its members, John Dunckel, a lumberman-turned-drummer, published a book, The Molly Joggers: Tales of the Camp-fire, in 1906 ostensibly based on the organization’s outings. Most of its eighty-eight pages consist of ethnic jokes told in dialect – which is what one might expect from the pen of a traveling salesman at the turn of the last century. Irish, Swedish, Dutch, and of course African-American stereotypes fill the book, but no hillbillies. That word was just beginning to appear in print around 1906 and had not yet replaced the hick, rube, or mountaineer as the naïve rustic of choice.

Twice a year they pitched large tents along the James and an accomplished black cook named Shorty furnished repasts like “fried biscuits in butter, country-cured hickory-smoked ham, fried eggs, fried potatoes and onions with wild honey and sorghum on your biscuits for dessert, washed down by a cup of good coffee.”

This amused-at-their-own-antics group did range beyond their encampment at the junction of the James and Finley. A November 6, 1899, piece in the Leader-Democrat gleefully related their outdoor adventures:

The festive “Molly Joggers” of Springfield are again out on their annual hunt. Their favorite haunts are the picturesque wilds of the lower James river. They sometimes extend their savage excursions down below the mouth of the James and the fierce and reckless hunters have now and then descended the torturous White river as far as Forsyth. The “Molly Joggers” are a strange tribe of nimrods whose real character no one ever learns till he has been initiated into this fraternity of sportsmen and taken one trip with the hunters.

Woe to the squeamish-hearted tenderfoot who rashly takes the vow to obey the regulations of this fraternity, and sets out with the “Molly Joggers” on one of their autumnal expeditions. The “Molly Joggers” at home are ordinary conventional citizens. Some of them are very prominent businessmen. They are honest and industrious, make money and spend it liberally. … When required to do so by the proprieties of a social function these gentlemen wear dress coats with practiced ease and exhibit those refined manners which the best form of the times demand.” (From James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River)

We must forgive our ancestors. They were a pretty “incorrect” group!

“Vintage Ozarks” is a feature we provide to the monthly publication, River Hills Traveler.  Lens & Pen Press  publishes all color books on the Ozarks. James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River is a 352-page all-color book that looks at the effect of development on a famous float stream and our efforts to protect riverine resources. Once the James River, which flows through Springfield, was the premier float-fishing stream of the Ozarks.  Even though transformed and still changing, the watershed of the James Fork of the White is still in many places scenic and beautiful. It is available for $31.50 postage paid.

FISHING HUMOR OZARKS STYLE

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Apr 012025
 

HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY!

This humorous real photo postcard – FISHING FOR ROCK TROUT – seems an appropriate post for April Fool’s Day!

There is considerable writing on this 1910 real photo postcard, but we are left guessing about its exact meaning. Along the top is scribbled in ink, “Uncle Bill Tracy.” More legibly in white is “Davis Phots” inscribed on a beam supporting the bridge behind him. Also, in white along the beam is “OUT OZARKS MTNS Fishing for Rock Trout.” Indeed, the nattily dressed gent has a stick with a line attached dangling down to some stones on the streambank. Other inscriptions are “Fish Point” and “Bate Date May 14th, 1910.” Perhaps these refer to some absurd event known only to Uncle Bill and the photographer. That still leaves us guessing about what stream this is. Without a location or some other information our Google search fell short.

It isn’t surprising there are jokes about Ozark angling. Sport fishing and hunting are pastimes that have the raw material of humor – men engaging in activities of little economic benefit while consuming intoxicating beverages. The Ozarks is famed for the sarcastic, self-effacing humor of its native. The hillbilly persona, drawn from its inhabitants’ lighthearted indifference to propriety, created its pop culture portrayal in the media. Legendary mountaineers may have been indifferent to game laws, but they relished being in nature, were skilled with rod and gun, and were valued guides for urban sportsmen.

Vintage Ozarks is a column we provide to River Hills Traveler monthly magazine. We are Leland and Crystal Payton at Lens & Pen Press, publishers of 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

LOST HAMLETS OF THE OZARKS PRESERVED ON REAL PHOTO POSTCARDS

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Mar 052025
 

The great spring that significantly increases the flow of the Niangua River attracted homesteaders in the 1830s. James and Ann Brice arrived from Illinois and purchased 400 acres and in 1837 constructed a watermill. Other pioneers settled nearby, and a community called Brice was created.

Another millwright, Peter Bennett, built a competing mill at the confluence of the spring branch and the Niangua. Somehow, Bennett’s name became attached to the spring which was then called Brice. Today, the Brice name is known only to historians and preserved in vintage photographs. The only relic of that early settlement is a frame church, which was protectively clad in stone in the 1950s.

Recreationalists have found the setting alluring since before the Civil War. In 1900 the Missouri Fish Commission released 40,000 mountain trout into the branch. Bennett Spring State Park became one of Missouri’s earliest state parks, when the spring and some surrounding land were purchased by the state for that purpose in 1924. Though evidence of its earliest settlement is scant, the park has numerous Arts and Crafts style stone structures, and several handsome bridges built during the Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Twelve miles of hiking trails wind through the wild and rugged surrounding terrain. A hatchery raises both brown and rainbow trout for release. The dawn of opening day of trout season attracts hundreds of anglers, including, often, the current governor. It’s a Missouri tradition. It’s also a spectacle, covered extensively by media.

Vintage Images is a column we provide to River Hills Traveler, a monthly magazine. We are Leland and Crystal Payton at Lens & Pen Press, publishers of all-color books on the Ozarks. “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.

CLARK MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT CO. – PIEDMONT CANYON, WAYNE COUNTY

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

The 1920s saw a surge in optimistic developers vying to attract the leisure class to vacation destinations in the Ozarks. Springfield’s own John T. Woodruff bought an unfinished health resort in Siloam Spring, near the North Fork River, where he built the impressive four-story Pinebrook Inn, a nine-hole golf course, dance pavilion and dug a swimming pool. (More on that story in our book James Fork of the White.)

Across the hills on the eastern side of the Ozarks, entrepreneurs formulated designs for a tourist development of the Clark Mountain Park just north of Piedmont.

Photograph, circa 1925-1930. Through the canyon, McKenzie Creek encounters outcroppings of very hard igneous rock (blue granite), creating a miniature version of the famous Johnson Shut-Ins. The Wayne County Journal-Banner, Sept. 1, 1927, carried an article noting that, “T. J. Elliott has a large force of men and teams at work on the construction of a gravel highway along the south side of the canyon.” We think the folks seen here are either investors or prospective buyers of lots in the development of Clark Mountain Park, just north of Piedmont in Wayne County.

St. Louis businessman Col. Lon Sanders, president of the Clark Mountain Development company, had elaborate designs for the scenic canyon and McKenzie Creek shut-ins. In 1927, 53 lots had been laid out. A water system and electric lights were planned, as well as a 9-hole golf course, tennis courts, and baseball diamond. The company envisioned a low dam on McKenzie Creek to create a 30-acre lake.

Today the canyon is managed by the Missouri Conservation Department as the Lon Sanders Conservation Area. This 130-acre area is intended as a wildlife study, hiking and nature resource. The Department’s brochure notes: “He (Sanders) built small dams, lily pools, flower gardens, shelter houses, and foot paths. He also planted non-native ornamental plants, some of which grow here to this day.” Remnants of Sanders’ small rock dams remain in the creek, creating small waterfalls. His stone steps are incorporated into the hiking trails. The loop trail is about half a mile long.

Fun fact from Wikipedia:

“In August of 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of alleged unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings in Piedmont, the Missouri General Assembly passed SB139 designating Piedmont and Wayne County as the UFO Capital of Missouri.

Between February and April 1973, residents of Piedmont and the surrounding area witnessed unexplained activity in the sky. Several hundred calls were made to local police, sheriffs and newspapers. The incidents made local headlines and eventually national news outlets began reporting the sightings. Today, the city of Piedmont celebrates this designation every April with its annual UFO Festival.”

Vintage Images are courtesy of Leland and Crystal Payton of Lens & Pen Press, publishers of books on the Ozarks region. James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River, with more information on regional development, is available for $31.50, postage paid, from www.beautifulozarks.com

Indian Creek McDonald County – timeless

 Lens & Pen Press, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Oct 292024
 

                                         Real photo postcard: Indian Creek Scouts, Anderson, MO. September 4, 1913

“Shall we gather at the river? The beautiful, the beautiful river?” Familiar lyrics bring images such as this to mind. Since before photography people have gathered at the river to play, to relax, to share momentous events and ceremonies like baptizings.

Indian Creek flows from the north into the Elk River in McDonald County. The clear, spring-fed streams of the Ozarks have always attracted folks for recreation. As this photo attests, Indian Creek outside Anderson has long been a magnet for summer recreation – fishing, swimming, boating, for generations. Today, it still attracts recreationists. Indian Creek is noted for spring floats especially, with 25 miles of a good, steady, fast run through relatively undisturbed countryside, despite its proximity to development. The Conservation Department has developed an access point to Indian Creek right in Anderson. The Dabbs Greer Town Hole Park and Access is in Anderson on Main Street next to the Post Office.

Describing a pleasant day’s float, the NW Arkansas Democrat Gazette (July 25, 2013) waxed eloquent:  “…Indian Creek, an Ozark waterway that is truly a stream of dreams.” –

This and many other vintage images of Ozarks recreation and activities are now in the collection of the Ozarks Studies Institute at MSU.

The Payton’s book on early tourism and recreation in our region, See The Ozarks: The Touristic Image, is now available on the website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $22.50 (10% off retail price of $24.95), postage paid.

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