Back in the summer of 2019, 13 forest lookout towers cleared “historical review” which cleared the way for disposal by the Missouri Department of Conservation. This meant that in the estimation of the company doing that review, they did not merit enough historical importance to warrant saving. The towers were Potosi (tower sold with site),…
Over the last half-century, my fire tower and canoeing hobbies have sent me to many a corner of the Ozarks. It is a journey filled with many wonderful memories. Some areas have been visited many times and others not as much. The area below Riverton on the Eleven Point River is one I have checked…
By Bob Frakes I have written twice now in regard to the mystery tower above Little Antire Creek that showed on several topography maps. This was called to my attention by Kevin Meyer and Chris Polka. My second article on the subject noted that I was contacted by Gary Strohmeyer after seeing the piece in…
By Bob Frakes You will recall I wrote a piece in The River Hills Traveler recently about a tower that showed on an old topography map. It sat above Little Antire Creek south of I-44 near several Scout facilities. I have had lots of luck getting answers by putting it out there in the River…
Today, it seems some want to move south to the “Sun Belt.” But thanks to some help and ingenuity from Irwin Zimmerman of Rutledge, Missouri, the fire tower from near Benton, Florida, has turned the table. Irwin, like many including myself, has held a longtime fascination with the towers. My interest first showed over half…
The Shannondale chute. By Bob Frakes I receive information and pictures from the “tower hobbyists” from time to time. The other day I received a picture from Kenzie Cooper. Kenzie and a friend had canoed the stretch of the Current River above Round Spring and had taken a picture of Shannondale Tower from the river. …
Over the half-century of my fire tower hobby, I made many friends. Max Gorman, who worked the Shannondale Tower and still lives nearby, became one of my closest. Max sent me this picture from one of his farms. Fourteen years ago, as a road was being worked through, a bulldozer pushed the large rock into…
As always, I enjoyed Michelle Turner’s latest piece on where the two great rivers meet. It jogged my memory back to a program I attended years ago by noted lecturer John Lynn. He had canoed the entire Mississippi River from Lake Itasca to New Orleans. He made the comment that at the point where the…
