Real photo postcard, 1930s. Written on the postcard, “looking down on Gasconade River from Portuguese Point. S-243.” Inevitably, photographs of the panoramic landscape contain a figure poised at the edge of the cliff. There is a bluff called Portuguese Point overlooking the Gasconade River valley about 11 miles south of Dixon, Mo. It’s a…
Redings Mill is long gone, but survives as a place name There were actually two smaller early mills on Shoal Creek south of Joplin but the third mill was an impressive, multi-story structure of stone, burr and white oak, built in 1868 by John S. Reding. It burned on Nov. 8, 1936, but its visual…
Harold Bell Wright’s erstwhile melodrama jump-starts Ozarks tourism In his just-published “Volume 2, A History of the Ozarks, The Conflicted Ozarks,” Brooks Blevins gives credit to Harold Bell Wright’s 1907 novel, The Shepherd of the Hills, for fixing an image of the Ozarks as a homeland of dramatically primitive but appealing Americans. Blevins attended a…
Real photo postcards were produced one at a time, usually by the photographer himself, which made them ideal for small regional markets; it also means they are less common today on the collector’s market. As Ozark tourism grew, entrepreneurs turned to producing printed postcards, which could be printed in large runs. After A.K. Bishop,…
Printed on back: “Views of White River Dam, Camp Ozark, by A.K. Bishop, Forsyth, Mo.” Written in pencil, “Taneycomo Dam, Ozarks, June–1912.” Real photo postcard. Powersite Dam, originally called White River Dam, was built by the Ambursen Hydraulic Construction Company of Boston. It is a hollow cement-slab and buttress structure. As we wrote in James…
Ha Ha Tonka – Raines Family photo Ha Ha Tonka, one of Missouri’s most popular state parks, features a great spring, several large caves, and the stabilized ruins of a stone castle. Seen in this family snapshot from the 1930s, Ha Ha Tonka was the second home of the Snyder family of Kansas City. This…
The Dalton family with their catch at Arnhold’s Mill, 1920s. German immigrants George and Dorotha Arnhold bought Cleman Mill on the Niangua River in Camden County in 1878. Its scenic location, abundant game, good fishing and congenial owners attracted sportsmen from across the state. Arnhold’s Mill became an early sportsmen’s resort. Such was his popularity…
Dalton family gathering at Arnhold’s Mill Fishing Club, 1920s Before Bagnell Dam created Lake of the Ozarks, there were few tourist attractions in this region. Arnhold’s Mill was a commercial mill site certainly, but also an early fishing camp/resort on the Niangua River in Camden County not far from Ha Ha Tonka’s springs. In 1896,…
