lensandpenpress

[lensandpenpress]

Indian Creek McDonald County - timeless

                                         Real photo postcard: Indian Creek Scouts, Anderson, MO. September 4, 1913 “Shall we gather at the river? The beautiful, the beautiful river?” Familiar lyrics bring images such as this to mind. Since before photography people have gathered at the river to play, to relax, to share momentous events and ceremonies like baptizings. Indian Creek flows from the…

[lensandpenpress]

Meramec Cave - early tourism

              Real photo postcard. Entrance to Meramec Cave in Stanton, Missouri. Probably 1930s 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 after that, it was mined for saltpeter (potassium nitrate, which is used in…

[lensandpenpress]

Early Branding of the Ozarks - salubrious climate and agricultural opportunities, lures settlers

            The St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway brochure advertises Resorts and Attractions of the Southwest. Circa 1910. This brochure is part of the Payton Ozarks Collection now housed in the Ozarks Studies Institute at Missouri State University   Railroads were built to facilitate timbering and mining. The Iron Mountain Railway was an American railway company that operated from…

[lensandpenpress]

"A Native Hunter"

Circa 1910 postcard, captioned “A Native Hunter, Eureka Springs, Ark.” Eureka Springs’ main tourist attraction was “taking the spring waters” which were thought to have medicinal value. Luxury accommodations were available and attracted upscale tourists to “The City that Water Built” in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There was a Eureka Springs Gun Club and although local…

[lensandpenpress]

“Taking his medicine”

Real photo postcard, circa 1920. “Taking his medicine in the Ozarks, Anderson Missouri.” Note the long gun on the ground by his feet. This hunter was thirsty! The spring-fed creeks and  of the Ozarks were promoted in tourism literature from the beginning. Claims were made that additional benefits came from bathing and drinking from the pure waters flowing throughout the region. These met with…

[lensandpenpress]

PEARL SPURLOCK, the Tourist’s Friend

Pearl Spurlock, tourist guide and raconteur extraordinaire of the early Shepherd of the Hills days in Branson. “Sparky” was such a legend herself; we used this photograph as a full page illustration in See The Ozarks Pearl Spurlock became as well known as the characters and locations of Harold Bell Wright’s best-selling 1906 novel, The Shepherd of the Hills. As ‘furners’ traveled to Branson to…

[lensandpenpress]

Ozark Chair Shop, Beaver Dam.

Ozark Chair Shop, Beaver Dam.  Real photo postcard. Although this was called Ozark Chair Shop, for the passing tourist what caught the eye were the colorful drip-glaze pots in many sizes that filled the shelves and yard. Nut head dolls, cedar boxes and wood carvings were more locally made souvenirs sold along the highways. “You may also see many small jars in a very attractive variety of colors…

[lensandpenpress]

COON RIDGE NOVELTY SHOP

  The caption of this real photo postcard reads: “Rube St. Clair, Champion Basket Maker of the Ozarks, Coon Ridge Novelty Shop, Ozark Route US 65 … Reeds Spring, Mo.  Con Jock Studio.” This is a sharp, well-fixed image from a photographer/studio we have not encountered before. Unfortunately, a search of newspapers.com did not pull up any ads for the “Con Jock Studio.” Distinctive souvenirs were…

[lensandpenpress]

Scenes along the Mississippi 1848 and 2017

Hogan describes the scenery along the river as the tug pulls the clipper ship slowly toward New Orleans, 107 miles distant. Once I looked out over the ship’s bulwarks and saw we were between what seemed to be two long, low earth-mounds, one on either side of the river; there was a bend in the river at the place. These mounds, on which there were trees and houses and gardens and people, were the…

[lensandpenpress]

"Alas! No help for me now; I am on the Mississippi, and must go it."

The Berlin was picked up by aptly named ‘tug’ boats, that tugged it through sandy shallows to the deeper water of the main channel. Then one tug headed back out for another incoming ship and one “began its hard task, towing us up against the current to New Orleans, 107 miles distant.” My 2017 exploration was a reverse course – downriver from Baton Rouge to meet my guide, Richie Blink (Delta…

[lensandpenpress]

"The Mouths of the Mississippi"

Thursday, December 14, 1848, Hogan’s ship approached the continent. As the outflow of the Mississippi River reached the Berlin, he wrote: To a person from the British Isles, the United States, as seen at the mouths of the Mississippi, is a mockery of sublime anticipations. This is possibly my favorite sentence of all the sentences in both memoirs. Encapsulated in those five words (“a mockery of…

[lensandpenpress]

Clipper ship Berlin, north from the Dry Tortugas

A brick lighthouse replaced the original in 1858 – about the time Hogan was making land claims in the Ozarks. The Dry Tortugas lighthouse, along with the Garden Key lighthouse at Fort Jefferson, were the only lights on the Gulf coast that stayed in full operation throughout the American Civil War. It was decommissioned in December 2015. Having passed Key West, the next landmark was the Tortugas.…

[lensandpenpress]

COMPETING OZARK TOURISM ICONS: Old Matt’s Cabin vs. Bagnell Dam

The two biggest tourist centers of the Ozarks are Branson and Lake of the Ozarks. While graphics used to promote travel do not necessarily accurately or honestly represent those places, they can betray the character and history of places. Such is the case with the imagery used to advertise and decorate souvenirs of these two attractions. Souvenirs from the Shepherd of the Hills Country (Branson).…

[lensandpenpress]

John Hogan's Journey to America - Part 2: Liverpool to the Florida Keys

We left young John Hogan in Liverpool a week (and 175 years) ago. After his arrival from Dublin, he walked the docks and scanned the ships waiting for cargo and preparing to sail. There among them was the Forfarshire, on which he had already engaged his passage to New Orleans. The sight of it was a let-down: She was a wide, large, dirty, heavy-looking ship. Her sails were anything but snow white,…

[lensandpenpress]

CAN YOU TOP THESE? Moving ads for Lake of the Ozarks Recreation

Painted aluminum license plate topper, 1940s. Aluminum replaced steel in almost everything due to the World War 2 war effort. As aluminum didn’t rust it continued to be used post war. Below it is a less detailed image of the icon of Lake of the Ozarks, Bagnell Dam. Painted steel. Possibly in the late 1930s. When Americans took to the highways for family vacations, license plate toppers were…

[lensandpenpress]

COMPETING OZARK TOURISM ICONS: Old Matt’s Cabin vs. Bagnell Dam

The two biggest tourist centers of the Ozarks are Branson and Lake of the Ozarks. While graphics used to promote travel do not necessarily accurately or honestly represent those places, they can betray the character and history of places. Such is the case with the imagery used to advertise and decorate souvenirs of these two attractions. Souvenirs from the Shepherd of the Hills Country (Branson).…

[lensandpenpress]

WHERE MISFITS FIT: Counterculture and influence in the Ozarks

A while back Leland reviewed an intriguing new book by Thomas Michael Kersen looking at a very different, non-traditional side of our Ozarks. Read the review: The saga of young anti-moderns settling in a region renowned for its pre-modern image is the subject of an intriguing new book, “WHERE MISFITS FIT: COUNTERCULTURE AND INFLUENCE IN THE OZARKS”    Available at the University Press of…