Just below Warsaw on the Osage River is a Lover’s Leap with a vague legend. This was a modest leap, even before Lake of the Ozarks flooded its base. Although it lacks a retrievable story, this Lover’s Leap has been pictured on postcards from
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
Caves have been inhabited and served as the stage for mythological tales in most cultures, past and present. Indigenous peoples used Missouri’s numerous caves for shelter long before Europeans arrived. For a century-and-a-half, Meramec Cave it was mined for saltpeter (potassium nitrate, which is used
Toots and Jack Stotler operated this thriving business — Night Hawks Tavern — from 1933 until selling to Buford and Anna May Foster in 1945. The Fosters changed the name to Night Hawk Café. A stunning large neon sign with a flying night hawk whose
This circa 1910 unsent, real photo postcard shows a large family camping out in the woods. We assume it’s a family but the subjects are unidentified. Not that their scribbled title isn’t descriptive, but we wished we knew their names and where they came from.
The Springfield hunting and fishing club once had their headquarters near Janesville. 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” —
The cursive writing around the image of an impressive bluff identified as “White Rock” conveys the message, “Having a good time, wish you were here,” a classic tourist communique to the folks back home. Surrounding the not-too-sharp halftone image is written, “In camp — Ozark
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, Mo., provided shelter for Native Americans but not the club-bearing Neanderthal pictured in this roadside ad. Wikipedia’s entry for Bluff
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
Sportsmen and vacationers were not the only groups invited to come and see the Ozarks. The Frisco Line’s full-page ad in a 1912 Washington, D.C., Star Sunday Magazine asked, “Why don’t you take your family to live in the beautiful Ozarks? A small farm in
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
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
