The Missouri Pacific poetic promotion of Ozark float tripping

Before Jim Owen and later John Morris pitched fishing the Ozarks, the Missouri Pacific railroad lured visitors to “the White River Country in the Missouri Ozarks” with romantic descriptions: 

A 1922 Missouri Pacific booklet, 31 pages, photographically illustrated. This gem rhapsodically describes recreational assets of the upper White River. The artist-illustrated cover depicts the target middle class traveler looking for an idyllic vacation.

“One cannot analyze the perfume of a wild rose, nor may one explain wholly the lure of the White River country — the noblest pleasure ground of the Missouri Ozarks. 

“After you have fished its streams, floated in a canoe through the blue magic of its moonlight, cantered over its trails in the freshness of early morning, and slept, night after night, beneath its stars, you will understand — a little.”

The cover of this 1920s-era brochure depicts an urban couple in a canoe but describes and pictures “the Famous James-White River Float Trip,” which was made in guided wooden johnboats.

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