The October issue leads off with a story about the River Witch, the kind of boat with which most outdoorsmen have had some experience. By Zenon Duda, it chronicals the experience he had with buying a used boat to use for duck hunting. It could be most any kind of boat, or equipment, really. You'll laugh as you recognze yourself in this story, as well as one or more possessions you've probably aquired over a period of time. That, or you're pretty young. Just wait! We understand the story is sort of true.

On the serious side, there's a story about Marble Creek Campground - between Fredericktown and Arcadia - and how volunteers choose to take it over after the U.S. Forest Service threatened to close it this fall. The campground will be open through the winter, especially for deer seasons.

Jim Featherston's history story this month recounts a murder in Ripley County before his time as sheriff there, and he learned about it.

Bob Todd takes a look at the issue of behavior on Ozark rivers. He says it is a myth that floaters are made up of families with 2.4 children, waving to Bambi as they coast down a river. But what he calls "family tolerant" should be the goal for behavior on the rivers.

Bill Cooper writes about floating or boating to deer hunt. He says you reach areas where you can hunt in solitude along some rivers.

Traveler publisher Emery Styron recounts a float trip on Big Piney River. This story is repeated below. Emery also comments on the controversial informercial aired on KSDK in St. Louis about the Taum Sauk reservoir collapse. It is a good piece of public relations, he says, but its not journalistm.

Charlie Slovensky writes about some embarrassing things that have happened to him in the outdoors - he's glad there were no witnesses.

The new Twin Pines nature center and conservation education center on U.S. 60 near Winona is mostly complete and is being furnished. It is set to open to the public about the first of the year.

Jo Schaper writers about Lane Spring and an interesting geologic feature there - Blossom Rock. Bob Todd writes about remembering his grandfather by catching a fish from Vermont's Lake Champlain

This is the time of year woodcock are passing through the area and Bryan Gragg writes about his first experience hunting them.

There's also news about the food supply in the forest this coming winter, a new boat ramp proposed to Current River, a park proposed for that area, recipes, sunrise/moonrise tables and much more.

Big Piney River float a fine day out of the office

By Emery Styron
Traveler Publisher
The secret of a successful float trip is to know why you’re floating, plan carefully and be a little bit lucky. Once in a while, all three elements come together.
That’s how it was for friend Steve Kenny and me on a fine late August day. We weren’t seeking a pristine wilderness experience so much as a convenient meeting place. I planned to fish, but not in any serious way. We both wanted a day out of the office to enjoy nature and continue an annual tradition we established 20 years ago.
So we ended up on the Big Piney, easily accessible from I-44, just three miles from St. Robert.
Andy Shelden of Route 66 Canoe Rental was our outfitter, and like most of the outfitter breed, he’s a character. His family has lived on the river for generations, and he amiably filled us in on area history as we bounced over the rocky roads to our put-in point. This stretch of the Big Piney is intertwined with the nostalgic flavor of old Route 66, “the mother road,” as John Steinbeck termed it.
Andy’s headquarters are near the ancient community of Hooker, close to the famous Hooker Cut on the realigned Route 66. We are pretty much calloused to this sort of thing now, but at the time Route 66 was chiseled through this hillside and rerouted around the town of Devil’s Elbow, Hooker Cut was said to be the deepest road cut in America. It is still impressive. Route 66, officially Route Z, may be one of the few four-lane, alphabetically-designated rural county roads in Missouri.
Our guide pointed out to us the high lattice work of an old wooden train trestle, the sort of thing you see in old movies, but rarely in real life. He recommended we visit Shelden’s Market in Devil’s Elbow, operated by his relatives. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and will have to stop there another trip.
He also related the history of Devil’s Elbow. Near the town and the place where the Big Piney sharply bends is boulder embedded in the river, where log rafts would invariably jam in the old timber-cutting days.
When Route 66 came through, Devil’s Elbow developed into a famous resort town with cabins, inns, canoe rentals, etc. The 1920s era steel truss bridge still stands. That boulder is still in the bottom of the river and one of the few real hazards we encountered on our float. A few of the old-time businesses are still around.
The float itself was peaceful and relaxing. We took kayaks to make the trip more conversational and eliminate any criticism of each other’s paddle techniques. I managed to lose three or four lures hook two or three fish no bigger than the lures they were biting. My angling efforts did evoke a certain amount of derision from my non-fishing companion.
Payback came just above Devil’s Elbow, when a friendly flock of domestic ducks surrounded his kayak and escorted him for maybe 100 yards, as if he were some kind of visiting avian potentate.
We were never far from the whine of traffic on I-44. As we drifted past magnificent dolomite bluffs under the old Route 66 steel truss bridge, the graceful concrete arches of its Route 66 replacement and lofty green framework of the I-44 bridges, we knew the trip was nearly at an end.
It wasn’t a wilderness experience or a fishing bonanza, but it was a nice day on the river, and a nostalgic trip along a short stretch of old Route 66. It beats working.

Two dozen years ago, October 1983

Hawn State Park was featured in photos and story in the October, 1983 edition of Traveler. Like so many places in the Ozarks, Hawn is more comfortable in the spring and fall and gets a great deal of usage in the fall.
The park’s dark green pines contrast with the coming peak of the colors for hardwoods, creating spectacular scenes.
Fall turkey hunting was a fairly new thing and Charlie Slovensky wrote about a fall hunt the previous season.
Charlie also wrote about hunting terms. He noted that people who walk and hunt are said to be “still hunting”, while people who sit and wait are said to be “standing”. And you should lock your car before you make a “drive”.
Moses Austin, founder of Potosi and a leader in early lead mining, was the subject of a historical story by Emma Comfort Dunn.
“House dogs”, as Russell Keay calls them, bark. Fox hounds seldom bark. They make more of a “yip”. That’s one way of telling what is going on at a distance in the middle of the night. Traveler accompanied him on a fox hunt near Bismarck one night.
The arrival of autumn was noted early one morning as a band of teal rocketed down Black River and a couple woodcock crossed, heading south. It was just daylight in a fishing camp.
Grand Gulf, a geologic wonder owned by the LAD Foundation, was offered to the state as the next state park. The collapsed cavern is 50 to 200 feet wide and about 200 feet deep. It is west of Thayer.
Council Bluff Lake was not yet open for fishing, but some folks were sneaking in. A St. Louis couple paid $500 - each - for attempting to take fish before the lake opened.

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