First issue

Waterfalls Mills & Springs Photographers & Authors And much more!

The Ozark Mountain region is made up of the St. Francois Mountains, Salem Plateau, SpringďŹ eld Plateau and the Boston Mountains. A gradient area of the Ozarks drifts across the Mississippi River into southwest Illinois, and is captured within the Shawnee Hills.

Our Ozarks Magazine

Find Your Way...Find Yourself

Vol 1, Issue 1

January 2016

Editor/Publisher: Jerey Haskins Mission Statement

The mission of Our Ozarks is to help preserve the history, culture, beauty and all that is the Ozarks.

Our Ozarks Magazine is published bi-monthly. Any correspondence can be directed to the editor at: Our Ozarks 266 Red Cedar Ozark, MO 65721 or email us at OurOzarks@yahoo.com

Find More Great Photos and Information on our website at OurOzarks.com!

Our Ozarks Magazine thanks these folks who helped us jump start the publication through their Heritage Level support of our GoFundMe campaign!

Anthony Pon Doug Mack Ian Heath Donna Kline Morgan Bearden Martin Jennen Charles Dillman Jim Zalenski Jacqueline Be ale Rosemary Teel Michael Denman Monte Roy Kelli Shelton Dave Stewart Retha Willis

And a special thanks to a couple of anonymous donors, as well as those who jumped aboard to pre-order the Special First Issue!

First Issue

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THIS ISSUE

Book Reviews...........................Page 1-3 Ellen Gray Massey Tribute.....Page Mills & Springs.......................Page

4

6

Waterfalls..................................Page 10

REGULAR FEATURES

THROUGH THE LENS.........Page 12

LAY OF THE LAND...............Page 25 All content copyright by Our Ozarks & Contributors 2016

www.Our Ozarks.com

THE WEST PLAINS DANCE HALL EXPLOSION

by Lin Waterhouse This author’s books can be purchased on Amazon.com

REVIEWED by JIM McFARLAND Jim McFarland is a native of West Plains, is a retired hotelier and now works as Executive Director of Trillium Trust a small non-profit with the mission of helping to “Sustain and Support the Ozarks Spirit.” Trillium Trust seeks to fulfill this mission in part through place based education that may help us to be er understand who we are and where we are going by examining where we come from.

The West Plains Dance Hall Explosion by Lin Waterhouse is a gripping, real life historic mystery that fully transports the reader into the Ozark’s roaring Twenties. Rural migration had not fully hit West Plains yet, so anything was possible. Southern Missouri and North Arkansas residents were full of their can-do spirit. As Waterhouse develops the story line, the reader is drawn to the enduring question. Why?

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From the very first paragraph ... “ ‘Virtually an earthly hell’ - that was the description from a witness to the firestorm that swept the 100 Block of East Main Street in the south-central Missouri town of West Plains on April 1928. The conflagration followed a massive explosion at 11:05 on a rainy Friday the thirteenth.” ... To the last paragraph, this mystery helps us to be er understand our world and the people in it, therefore helping us to be er understand who we are and where we come from. Beyond the exercise in history, the Dance Hall Explosion reminds us that sometimes the question “WHY?”, simply cannot be answered, or that we may not want to know. Be that what it may, Waterhouse brings all the facts and many of the theories together in a great story so that we may develop our own answer to the question.

Ki y (Mary Katherine) McFarland was my grandmother and was killed in that April, Friday the thirteenth, 1928 inferno. As I was growing up, I slowly began to comprehend the absence of my paternal grandparents, and that it wasn’t something we talked about. In fact, the community still had that “just leave it alone” mentality. Then one day, deep in the a ic of our house, I discovered a 1928 West Plains Daily Quill from the first press run after The Explosion. I read every word and searched for more. As I grew up, went away to college and then returned, I came to find a (Continued page 3)

Our Ozarks

1

Crosspatch

Cranky Musings On Gardening In Rocky Ground by Marideth Sisco

Ozarks storyteller, veteran journalist and author, teacher, singer and musician, and a student of folklore. That is Marideth Sisco. Her humor and wisdom appeared in her column “Crosspatch” in the West Plains Daily Quill and on air with “These Ozarks Hills,” on public radio KSMU-FM. Crosspatch is a collection of those essays and thoughts.

Sisco was also a music consultant and feature singer in the award winning feature film “Winter’s Bone”, and a music consultant on the documentary “Stray Dog: The Movie”.

She lives in the southern Missouri Ozarks. Copies of Crosspatch and other works by Marideth Sisco can be found via Yarnspinner Media at h ps://squareup.com/market/yarnspinner-media. Follow her on Facebook at Yarnspinner Media!

Photo by Dennis Crider

Crosspatch cover illustration by Diana Jayne

REVIEWED by FRED PFISTER Fred Pfister is a retired teacher, writer, and editor. His work includes previously serving as editor at the Ozark Mountaineer magazine.

Google “Meredith Sisco images” and various young and glamorous Merediths pop up: news anchors, journalists, models, actresses.

They are not our Marideth Sisco. Our Marideth is as rocky and earthy as the garden ground she writes about in Crosspatch: Cranky Musings on Gardening in Rocky Ground.

I say “Our Marideth” because she has been singing, writing and telling stories about these Ozarks hills for a very long time, as she collects pieces of the culture, music, and always in a poignant, sometimes hilarious and often inexplicable way. You have probably heard “These Ozarks Hills” on KSMU, National Public Radio—that’s OUR Marideth—with a voice like a rusty double shovel first pulled through a rocky garden in spring. But rocks and our chert soil polish, just as they also wear away our plows and machinery, garden tools—anything with an edge—river banks and gravel bars, customs, old-time culture and superstitions, and people.

However, that wear and polish can make that gruff and raspy voice become sweet in song, as evidenced by her singing with Blackberry Winter in the ground breaking movie, Winter’s Bone. She may not be as 2

young as the movie’s star, Jennifer Lawrence, but she has as much grit and character as the character Lawrence portrayed, a quality intensified by age and her shock of white hair.

Her book of gardening essays is “jam-packed with thoughts, notions, some wee bits of wisdom and loads of odds and ends on gardening as the valuable, healing meditative expression of hands in dirt and head in the clouds – a uniquely human effort that feeds both body and soul.”

If some of its 254 pages seem vaguely familiar, you may have heard it on “These Ozarks Hills.” Most are drawn from her long-running gardening column in the West Plains Daily Quill. Not all are about gardening, and the topic can wander like a row of beans planted by a drunk, but you always get to the end of that row. Whether radio or print essays, all have that front-porch si in’, story telling’ quality, and you can almost hear her read it.

Marideth, like most Ozarkers who garden, is a survivor: Her parents survived the dust bowl droughts and the starving times of the Great Depression; she and her parents survived the drought of the early ‘50s (by gardening, canning, curing, hunting and trapwww.Our Ozarks.com

ping, and cu ing brush for the ca le to eat, and when “some farmers couldn’t even afford gas to drive their suffering livestock to market, nor get a decent enough price to drive home, and so shot some ca le to end their suffering, in hopes the rest would have enough to stay alive”); and she has survived cancer. She knows she won’t survive old age, but she is adapting.

She is using raised beds (prevents “bad back aches”), trying new varieties of tomatoes and le uce, nutrient rich soil additives, and intensive cultivation. She (and I) are old enough to remember those hippies who wanted “to get back to the Garden” and came to the Ozarks and “California colonized” Eureka Springs, Branson, and remote corners of other towns and counties. Many of them didn’t find their Eden and “starved out.” Those that survived had taken advice and sustenance from their Ozark neighbors.

Now, a second round, “millennials,” are doing the same thing, with “fancy, painted chicken coops” on wheels, copper-topped bee hives that look like li le homes, and talk of becoming “sustainable, buying local, and ‘ge ing off the grid’”–– admirable ambitions and goals.

The hard times were “awful enough that we hope never to repeat them. One would hope such experiences would teach us to be frugal instead of profligate with our resources. To care for what we have. And to be generous with our neighbors who have it worse than we do. For that is the way of the Ozarks in which I grew up.”

In another essay, she remarks, “It took me decades to understand why my grandmother said every year, with a satisfied smile, over the mounds of produce that poured from our own garden. ‘Enough is enough,’ she proclaimed, and then never failed to add: ‘And too much is plenty.’”

Gardening in our rocky, worn-out soil makes philosophers of us all, but with her “hands in the dirt and head in the clouds” outlook, your heart will find meaning of life. The world changes, and so do we.

Gardening practices may also change, but Sisco would agree with George Bernard Shaw’s observation: “If you want to find God, dig for him in the garden.”

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The West Plains Dance Hall Explosion (Cont’d)

satisfaction in knowing that I walked the same streets and even entered some of the same buildings that my Grandmother Ki y walked. Still, The Dance Hall Explosion was not something we talked about. The West Plains Dance Hall Explosion takes me back to that first newspaper account of the disaster and that first glimpse of something we weren’t supposed to talk about, and gives us more.

Waterhouse walks the reader through every character of the story with her research and a ention to detail.

Names that I knew from childhood, but were just characters without a story, became real. From Bob Mullins, Nancy Wade and Eugene Smith (Dummy McFarland); to A.W. Landis, Howard Kelle and Page and Dorothy Robertson; the characters become old friends. In her storytelling, Waterhouse brings the story alive; not only for folks like me that grew up with a desire for more information, but also for those that are hearing of the mystery for the first time. Why, why, why?

The West Plains Dance Hall Explosion brings to life an era defined by prohibition, the aftermath of the Civil War and World War I, and short years before the Great Depression and World War II. An era where men and women had already lived through overwhelming challenges, yet persevered. An era where life was to be embraced and lived to the fullest; entrepreneurship was held to a premium, yet death was to be expected, if not accepted. These men a women had already overcome tremendous obstacles and this story shows just how tenacious and resilient they were.

Although Waterhouse offers no clear cause to this tragedy and leaves the unending question of why to the reader; we come away from the story with a feeling of resilience, that we aren’t in this alone and that the suffering of our ancestors proves that we can overcome. Both as frightening and as compelling as that prospect may be, sometimes we are best served to live and not spend too much time on the question why.

Contact us at OurOzarks@yahoo.com if you have a book for us to consider for review!

Our Ozarks

3

Bi ersweet Memories:

Looking Back At An Ozarks’ Legend

In the fall of 1973, Bi ersweet Magazine began a journey to discover the history, culture, and lore of the Ozarks. Founder Ellen Gray Massey, and the students of Lebanon High School, toted us along as they wrote about one room schoolhouses, customs and crafts of the region. We would learn of the rural condition, the spirit of the people, and the history of the land. Forty issues of Bi ersweet Magazine would be published during that ten-year journey.

Just over forty years after that journey began, Ellen Gray Massey would leave the Ozarks and the world, as she began a different chapter. Born the seventh of eight children to Chester Harold Gray and Pearl Welch Gray on November 14, 1921; Ellen Francis Gray Massey passed away July 13, 2014. Through her books and the pages of Bi ersweet Magazine, she left us with a wonderful legacy and great trail to follow.

In 2011, we sat and talked with Ellen, and regret there were not more visits and conversations. When asked about her love of writing, you could tell she felt she had so much more within her:

“I have always wanted to write. As a child, I read a lot. Most of my siblings wrote in some way or another. My brother, Ralph Gray was editor of The National Geographic World, a weekly periodical for students. One reason I majored in English was to learn more about writing and enjoy the great literature of the world. I wanted to write about rural life, which was why I’ve made my home in Missouri, not in the East as most of my brothers and sisters did. However, many things intervened in my life, so that it was not until after I retired that I fully devoted myself to writing.”

Most writers can understand that endless desire to create the next passage, and as readers, we are lucky that Ellen allowed that passion to flourish within her. She blazed a trail for us to follow.

Ellen had fond memories of “a great childhood”, as she put it. The family held a farm near Nevada, Missouri, but the Grays spent the school year in Washington, D.C. The father was the representative of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Ellen noted, “I was part of both very different environments.”

She would graduate from the University of Maryland, College Park; but the Ozarks’ environment called to Ellen, and she would return to rural Missouri and complete a degree in home economics at the University of Missouri, so she could qualify for a position as an agent in the Agricultural Extension Service. Her work would take her to Laclede County Missouri, where she married Lane Massey and had three children.

Lane passed away in 1959 and Ellen began raising the children and running the farm on her own, while taking on a teaching position in Webster County Missouri at the one room schoolhouse called Eureka. Fi ing, as Ellen Gray Massey began to again find that creative drive within her. Four years later, Ellen sold the farm and moved the children (David, Ruth and Frances) to Lebanon, Missouri and started teaching high school English.

Ten years later, Bi ersweet Magazine was born. Ellen recalled the start:

4

“While I was teaching English at Lebanon High School, my brother Ralph urged me to create an Ozark cultural magazine such as Foxfire in northern Georgia. With the approval of my su-

www.Our Ozarks.com

perintendent, in 1973 I offered a writing course for students to publish a quarterly magazine about the Ozarks. Students received English credit and could take it for one or two hours and continue with it for three years if they wanted. We named the publication Bi ersweet.

We traveled all over the Ozarks, interviewing older men and women about their experiences and expertise in the early twentieth century, and about a way of life that was rapidly disappearing. We published 40 issues of the magazine in the 10 years and there were three books that resulted from the material previously included in the magazines.”

Those compilations of Ozarks’ stories and information, were Bi ersweet Country, 1978, Bi ersweet Earth, 1985, and The Bi ersweet Ozarks at a Glance, 2003.

Ellen Gray Massey published a total of 29 books, as well as numerous short stories and articles, and one play.

She received many awards and honors during her lifetime, including being named to the Writers Hall of Fame of America in 1995. Massey won the Ozarks Heritage Award in 1980, and was also inducted to the Lebanon Missouri Wall of Honor in 2012. Even at 92, the accolades continued to come as Ellen was awarded the Western Writers Spur Award for her youth book Papa’s Gold, as best western work of juvenile fiction in 2014.

Ellen Gray Massey touched many, not just through her work with students, or the pages of Bi ersweet Magazine and her books; but also through her never ending drive to help others in publishing their works with her involvement in the Missouri Writers Guild, Heartland Writers Guild and Ozarks Writers Guild. Copies and additional information about Bi ersweet Magazine can be found through the Greene County Missouri Library website at: h ps://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/bi ersweet/ Carolyn Gray Thornton, sister to Ellen Gray Massey, is a popular Ozark’s author and journalist as well. The 90-year young still provides articles to the Nevada Daily Mail in Missouri. We appreciate her memories of Ellen Gray Massey and thoughts on the legacy left for us to follow:

Hearing about a new magazine about the Ozarks has brought back many memories to me. First, I remember si ing in our living room at The Wayside near Nevada, Missouri (which is borderline Prairie and Ozarks) and hearing my brother Ralph Gray talking to my sister Ellen Gray Massey about a publication he had become interested in. (He had experience with periodicals as Editor of the Geographic School Bulletin, later called “World” by the National Geographic Society.)

Ralph was telling Ellen about a magazine put out by students in a high school in the Appalachians telling how crafts and needed skills were used in that rural lifestyle. The students interviewed the residents living there now and asked for directions which appeared in the magazine.

Ellen became very interested in trying to do this in the Ozarks, where she was already an English teacher at the Lebanon High School, and was teaching an experimental class called Ozarkia... After ge ing permission from the Superintendent, Ellen developed a two hour class called “Bi ersweet”. This class did everything about publishing a magazine. They interviewed local people, took zillions of pictures, climbed in caves, floated on rivers, made quilts, churned bu er. In fact they actually did themselves what they wrote about in the articles. They also handled the business end and the postage and handling requirements to make “Bi ersweet” a success.

After ten years, 40 issues, Ellen resigned from her position and centered on her calling of being a writer of fiction or fact, mainly about the Ozarks In addition to her own writing, she was instrumental in helping other aspiring writers become published, or at least to improve their writing. She was editor of many books, including three of mine, as well as her own work.

I think she would applaud another magazine, similar to the predecessors, but not copies. I’m sure if she were still alive she would want to be on the Board of Directors.

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Best of luck to your endeavor, Carolyn Gray Thornton.

Our Ozarks

5

Photo by Mike McArthy

The Mills & Springs Of Our Ozarks

Modern Ozarkians are a racted to the hills and hollers of the region for much of the same reason as the ancestors who first se led here. Native Americans were drawn to plentiful game, and the abundant springs and streams. Those waterways had long ago carved out the multitude of caves and bluff formations within the Karst topography of Ozarks’ fame.

As the European se lers began to find their way into the Ozarks, they found the aux Arcs to be home. To many of the Sco ish and Irish homesteaders, not only did the land have the familiarity of their homelands, but those springs and rivers provided another important resource besides just the water. Power to drive mills.

Communities would grow around the mills. Although many mills operated from the power of the waterways, others used simple animal driven power, and after the Civil War, others found energy from steam and electricity. Often victims to flood, or fire, or the wages of war, the face of the mills changed over time. Large complexes, with modern equipment, took over as communities grew. Older, and less sophisticated mills were abandoned, or just not rebuilt after suffering damage. Some of the more noted mills of the area carry a great history, but the majority of mill names and locations are forgo en, perhaps only found by a trace of an old mill race or pond, or the name of a miller found in dusty records.

Nowadays, most enjoy the picturesque scenery about the old mills that still stand, and the tidbits of the history they can find. We will explore some of the images and history of some of the Ozarks’ mills and springs in this issue and future issues of Our Ozarks Magazine.

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www.Our Ozarks.com

A Peek At Douglas and Ozark County Mills & Springs

The Missouri counties of Douglas and Ozark provide an enjoyable weekend trip for both the beauty and history. Civil War skirmishes and ba les, family feuds and moonshiners are just a few of the tales to come out of the area.

HODGSON MILL is located south of Dora, Missouri on Hwy 181 in Ozark County. The Spring discharges an average of 29 million gallons of water per day & is the 19th largest spring in Missouri.

GPS Location: 36.709504, -92.266954

Hodgson Mill is powered by the force of a spring (15th largest in Missouri) that empties into Bryant Creek, a tributary of the North Fork River. The mill has been home to grain and flour milling operations, a co on gin, and an overall factory. Hodgson Mill flour products are still produced in Illinois, but the stones no longer turn at the mill itself and the company has no business interest in the site anymore.

History does not tell us, but the original mill of 1837 either fell into disrepair, or succumbed to flood or fire. William Holmen would raise a new mill in 1861, but operations were cut short by the advance of the Civil War and Holmen took up arms for the Union forces We do not know if the mill withstood the ravages of that war, or if it was torched like so many mills during that time. Nonetheless, whether it was still standing or rebuilt, Holmen returned to milling after the war and kept the mill operable until it was destroyed by the flood of 1876. The miller would pass away in 1879 and his widow sold off the mill.

The “modern” history of Hodgson Mill begins with Alva Hodgson, who purchased the mill from owners Manuel and Elizabeth Smith (Alva married their daughter Mary). Alva constructed a new mill at the site in 1897 (the current structure now standing), and he and his brother George started the wheels turning again.

George Hodgson also ran a lumber mill upstream on Bryant Creek, just southwest of Dora, Missouri and his home stood up on the hillside from that location, with a small company store down near the mill. He had married and moved to Washington state for a time, but returned and entered business with his mother at that mill location. The brothers would run Hodgson Mill together until 1901, when George took over operations and Alva traveled downstream to First Issue

Dawt Mill on the North Fork River.

A master millwright, Alva rebuilt Dawt. He would later move on to other enterprises in Henderson, Arkansas, including a co on gin. The elder Hodgson would eventually return to Hodgson Mill in his last years. Suffering with poor eyesight, it has been stated that Alva still managed to help run the mill until his death in 1921.

Future owners of the mill turned to new improvements in mill technology and exchanged the water wheel for a water turbine, which helped generate more power and milling efficiency. At one time, the output of the mill was capable of producing 3,000 pounds of flour or 2,500 pounds of meal daily.

After George Hodgson passed away in 1927, the mill sold several times until it came into the hands of Charles Theodore Aid of West Plains, Missouri and the name of the mill became the Aid-Hodgson Mill.

A tinsmith by trade, Mr. Aid had grown his business in West Plains into a thriving hardware store that grew into a department store. He then added the mill to his collection. Aid would pass away in 1939.

During those fifteen years of ownership, the mill was leased out to several parties and it enjoyed only sporadic use.

In 1949, Fred Leach assumed the lease of the mill and launched a campaign to market the flour and mill as a tourist a raction. A grocery store once stood near the mill and it along with the mill, continued to operate until the early 1960s.

Later, Ken and Teena Harrington became owners and incorporated their antique business into Hodgson Mill and also began marketing the flour on a commercial scale. By 1974, even with improvements, the old mill could not keep up with demand and most of the

(Continued on Page 9)

Find interactive maps to the mills and springs of the Ozarks, as well as additional information for those travel plans by visiting our website or use this QR Code from your smart phone or tablet!

OurOzarks.com Our Ozarks

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Winternight Terrors

- (With a nod to Frost: The Man and the Condensation.

And if the reader should decide, the Metaphor as well.)

Toward the trees, I fear to step

Standing on my backyard deck In white winter’s will With soul so tame Like flying through an open steppe Chasing silent kills Yet hemmed by the same.

At peace with dwellings’ dampening phase, Centered in the city sound, With ravens at bay As se led as tracks of bunny’s bounds That li er my snow-ways.

And if I stopped, even Stepped by the wooded, Banked fields that hearken To my birthing, my belonging, I should find them frightening.

Fulfilling a dark and brooding dream An aortic throb of wolven pace, A dappled, shrouded scene, A barreling chase In the moon-shadows of trees.

And that is why I moon to the lees Even as my boot quivers To step into any dream.

For Fear is why I breathe.

Fear - of all that shivers In lunar-iced seas Under the cold gaze of trees.

- Ian Heath

Photography by Mike Martin

Hodgson Mill-Cont’d from Page 7 operations were moved to a new plant in Gainesville, Missouri. The plant would later be moved to Effingham, Illinois and all production at the old mill would cease in 1977.

Extreme flooding hit Hodgson Mill in 1982 and 1985, and marks could once be found on the timbers that showed the levels of those floods and others. In the 1990s, Hank and Jean Macler purchased Hodgson, and with the help of community fundraising, Amish and local work crews restored some strength to the timbers that had now lived some 100 years.

The mill now sits empty and visitors are left to stroll about the edges of the property and take photos.

Dawt Mill

DAWT MILL is located near Tecumseh, Missouri off US Highway 160. Turn North on PP and then West on County Road 318 (left turn).

GPS Location 36.610120, -92.277549

A mill had been established at Dawt as early as 1866.

Land ownership transferred multiple times over the years. In 1892 John Cauldwell became owner and he would hire L.A. Rogers to build a new dam and millrace. One year later, Rogers drowned in the mill pond, and shortly thereafter, the log building burned.

Historical rumors point to the owner of the Friend Mill, a local competitor, as having paid a young man to burn down the mill.

The Hodgsons purchased Dawt in 1909 and Alva Hodgson would rebuild, pu ing in a three-story structure that housed steel rollers for grinding, and was powered by a water turbine, rather than a water wheel. A store, blacksmith shop, co on gin, sawmill and post office were also added. The post office would close in 1934.

Alva would leave Dawt, and several owners would have possession of the mill over the years. Wayne and Ruth Dinnel purchased the mill in 1967, and had an overshot wheel installed, mostly as a tourist a raction to meet expectations of what a mill “should look like.” The Dinnell’s continued to grind cornmeal to be sold at the location until 1971, when the mill again began changing hands.

The current owner, Dr. Ed Henegar, has added lodging, the Grist Mill Restaurant and a General Store, as well as kayak and canoe rental.

TOPAZ MILL is located on the North Fork River southeast of Vanzant, Missouri. Turn south on State Highway EE off MO Highway 76 until you turn left First Issue

Topaz Mill

on County Road 274. 274 will fork at a sharp right turn. Stay right on this dirt road until you reach mill. GPS Location 36.945583, -92.202149

The Friday of November 20, 1818 found Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and his companion, Levi Pe ibone, within the valleys of the North Fork River of what is now Douglas County Missouri. They were making their historic trip through the Ozarks, a lone packhorse in tow. On that day, Schoolcraft made this observation: “The stream which we are pursuing is devious beyond all example, and is further characterized by being made up wholly of springs, which bubble up from the rocks along its banks.........We have passed one of these springs to-day, which deserves to be ranked among the natural phenomena of this region.

It rushes out of an aperture in a lime-stone rock, at least fifty yards across, and where it joins the main river, about 1,000 yards below, is equal to it, both in (Continued on Page 16)

Our Ozarks

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Waterfalls of the Ozarks

The waterfalls of the Ozarks encompass every volume of water flow, every height and every imaginable location. Tim Ernst’s book by itself, Arkansas Waterfalls, identifies over 200 waterfalls and cascades in “The Natural State.” We can delve into the definitions and parameters of waterfalls, seeking to filter through the myriad of watery slopes found in our area, but how most people identify a waterfall is the beauty it holds. And that is a ma er of personal perspective and preference.

Waterfalls, just as the streams that provides their energy, are subject to weather conditions. Many “waterfalls”, found by folks who hike the backwoods, are not even linked to a regular water source, but blossom into beauty with a good rainfall or snow melt. Picking the right time of year and weather conditions is paramount to catching the full glory of certain waterfalls, as is the proper hiking equipment and preparedness.

Some waterfalls can be found near the roadside, and others require some fairly expert hiking.

We’ve provided a map to many of the waterfalls that have been mapped out by others over the years, and other maps and resources are available at bookstores and libraries, as well as online. Enjoy the next couple pages, as we share some photographs of waterfalls of the Ozarks!

Find additional Information & Maps at www.OurOzarks.com or use the QR Code below to link your smart phone or tablets!

Photograph courtesy of Mike Martin

Our Ozarks Magazine will be bringing more photographs of the natural areas of the region in our coming issues. We’ll also expand into topics on homesteading, crafts and lore of the Ozarks, and the stories of the people themselves! Get your subscription today at OurOzarks.com Our Ozarks 11

Bridge at Co er, Arkansas

___A Look Through The Lens___

Mike Martin

Mike Martin, who is a native Arkansan, has been an avid nature and wildlife photographer for over 20 years. His photos have been published by the New York City Parks Department, the New York State Parks Department, the California Parks Department, and the Mississippi Wildlife Federation.

He has also had several of his photos published by Cornell University’s Ornithology Department’s award winning website, “All About Birds”.

Mike is the author of a photography book entitled, Arkansas Wildlife and Landscapes, published in 2010. In 2011, Mike’s photo of a great blue heron won “Best in Show” at the Mid-America Photographic Symposium in Eureka Springs, AR. In 2012, his photo of a Krider’s hawk was selected by the Field Museum in Chicago for a kiosk display in the museum’s new “Hall of Birds” exhibit that opened in October 2012. In July of 2013, one of Mike’s bald eagle photos was selected as the featured photo in the annual “Wildlife” magazine produced by the Mississippi Wildlife Federation.

Several of his photos have been published in two editions of the book entitled Capture Arkansas.

Mike is a regular speaker at Arkansas State Parks, Photographic Clubs, and Museums where he speaks on topics ranging from nature and wildlife photography to birds of Arkansas and bald eagles. He also regularly teaches photographic workshops on Nature and Wildlife Photography technique. He has served as a career Human Resources Professional for over 35 years.

More of his works and information can be found on his website: h p://www.ozarknaturegallery.com 12

www.Our Ozarks.com

Hemmed-In Hollow Falls

by Keith Pierson.

A photography hobbyist, Keith Pierson got his start during his stint as editor of his high school journalism staff. He has spent his life growing up in the Ozarks and enjoys landscape and wildlife photography.

Hemmed-In Hollow is the tallest waterfall within the Ozarks and is located along the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. The easiest hike to get there is to take Hwy 43 North from Ponca to Compton ( this is about 9 miles), turn right on gravel road across from old vacant store. The road is marked by a wooden sign that says “Wilderness Access.” Go a few hundred feet and road turns right. One mile down will be another wooden sign that marks the right turn you will need to take. A li le further will be a hard right. Another mile further will be wooden sign marking the left turn to the Hemmed-In Hollow trail head. There is another trail to the right for Sneeds Creek.

Fuzzy Bu Falls by David Dedman

Dedman is from Pine Bluff, Arkansas and pursues photography as a hobby, but does provide prints.

Fuzzy Bu Falls is located on Falling Water Creek in the Richland Creek Wilderness portion of the Ozark National Forest in the Boston Mountain region of Arkansas.

GPS location is 35.762686, -92.937662

Curveball Falls by Jim Fitsimones.

There are five waterfalls in the area, all accessed from the Richland Creek Campground area located southwest of Wi s Springs, Arkansas. Horsetail Falls, Fuzzybu Falls, Intersection Falls, Six Finger Falls, and Keefe Falls are located there.

Take County Road 265 west from AR-Highway 16 and then north (right) on County Road 1 (Forest Service Rd 1205)

Jim Fitsimones moved to Arkansas from California and photographs as a hobby and mesmerized by the amazing neon green colors of springtime and the waterfalls of the Ozarks.

Curveball Falls can be found off Highway 103 out of Clarksville, Arkansas on Cove Creek. GPS location is 35.60983, -93.58327 First Issue

Future Issues More Articles & More Photographs of Waterfalls In The Ozarks!

Our Ozarks 15

Topaz Mill-Con’td from Page 9 width and depth, the waters possessing the purity of crystal. I set my gun against a tree, and unbuckled my belt, preparatory to a drink, and in taking a few steps towards the brink of the spring, discovered an elk’s horn of most astonishing size, which I afterwards hung upon a limb of contiguous oak, to advertise the future traveler that he had been preceded by human footsteps to his visit to the Elkhorn Spring.”

That spring is now called Topaz Spring. At some ten million gallons per day, the waters of the spring were more than enough to draw the a ention of Native American tribes, and later Schoolcraft, but also early se lers to the area.

In 1840, Aaron “Posey” Freeman and his Choctaw wife, Alabeth “Dolly”, erected a grist mill and distillery at Topaz. In his book Searching for Booger County, Sandy Ray Chapin notes that people were particularly fond of the Freeman’s peach brandy. The mill was destroyed by flood.

Hammond Mill

HAMMOND MILL is located southeast of Thornfield, Missouri. Travel east on MO-Highway 95 out of Thornfield. Turn south (right) on County Road 844. Take 844 to County Road 855 and turn southwest (right). Take 855 to Hammond.

GPS Location 36.675775, -92.644712

In 1895, Robartus “Bart” Hutcheson would hire Master Carpenter Lawrence Smith of Vanzant to build the new mill. Smith also built the Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and supervised the building of part of Drury College in Springfield. He also built several buildings that still stand on the square in Mountain Grove.

Hammond was started by Stoney Williams, John Squires and John Grudier around the turn of the 20th century on the banks of the Li le North Fork River in Ozark County. Lum Noonkester had operated a mill south of the town at one time, and parts of the old dam are still visible. The “Old Salt Road” ran through the town at that time, helping the town grow. The road took its name because it was used by freight wagons hauling salt in earlier years.

Joe O’Neal later purchased the mill and was fond of giving tours. An autolathe was installed and spun out ax handles and such. O’Neal added a wooden water wheel, but it has since been damaged and removed.

Sadly, Joe O’Neal passed away in 2010.

The town all but disappeared during the depression years and milling stopped at Hammond in 1940. The store and other buildings were torn down in 1946.

The old mill is now used as a private home.

The old store still sits near Topaz Mill. At its peak, Topaz boasted a large cannery, the aforementioned store that had five clerks, a post office, a blacksmith shop and a barber. The mill housed three small steel rollers for flour, and a stone buhr for milling corn. During the 1930s and 40s, the depression grasped the nation and the mill closed.

Zanoni Mill

John Grudier built the three-story tall mill that was built of wood and stone. Stoney Williams operated a whiskey still nearby, and Squires opened the dry goods store. Squires also operated a small bank in Hammond, and the old stone vault can still be found nearby. The town boasted a blacksmith shop, a church, a barber and a drug store, and an old swinging foot bridge at one time.

ZANONI MILL is located southwest of Sycamore, Missouri (location of Hodgson Mill). Take MO-Highway 181 southwest approximately 5 miles.

Zanoni will be on northside of road on banks of Pine Creek

Si ing on Pine Creek of Ozark County Missouri, Zanoni Mill trends its history back to the Civil War, when milling first began there by a John Cody. In 1900 the land was purchased by Aaron Preston “Doc” Morrison. The old mill was replaced and a sawmill

added, but those structures would burn just before 1905. Doc built a third mill with a two-story building that still stands. It was equipped with a overshot wheel and flint buhr stones.

The mill is powered by a small spring that pours out from the hillside and runs into a small lake at Zanoni.

The spring is noted as having a flow rate of 225,000 gallons per day. Due to the small size of the mill, the capacity was limited to about twenty bushels of corn a day.

The property added a co on gin and an overall factory in 1920. The mill property also had the post office for a time, a blacksmith shop and general store (store still standing). The mill also generated electricity during the 1940s.

Milling ceased in 1951 and the property operated as a private residence, bed and breakfast, and even wedding chapel over the years since. A ranch house was constructed adjacent to the mill and store, and is pa erned after the South Fork Ranch of the show “Dallas”.

We’ll explore the mills of Bollinger, Britain, Dillard, Hulston, Jolly, War Eagle and more in our next issue coming the la er part of March!

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ROCKBRIDGE MILL is located southeast of Ava, Missouri. Take Highway 5 south of Ava approximately 26 miles and turn east (left) on State Road N. Travel on N approximately 18 miles to State Road 142 and turn west (left).

GPS Location 36.790823, -92.409388 It was late in the summer of 1841 when Captain Kim Amyx and several other families loaded up three ox and horse drawn wagons, and headed to the Ozarks.

They left Kentucky to find new homesteads and finally stopped near the juncture of Spring Creek and Bryant Creek in what is now Ozark County Missouri.

A mill was built and a community established itself there called Rockbridge.

Rockbridge would become county seat of Ozark County. However, during the Civil War, the town and mill were burned to the ground. The county seat was moved to Gainesville and in 1868, B.V. Morris built the present day Rockbridge Mill upstream on Spring Creek.. With the building of the mill, Rockbridge would be reborn.

The post office was reinstated for Rockbridge and a general store was built, followed by a bank, church, school, blacksmith shop, a Masonic Lodge, and a farm house that is known today as the White House.

(Continued on Next Page)

Photograph courtesy of Mike McArthy

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Our Ozarks 17

Rockbridge Mill-Con’td from page 17 The town flourished until the 1930s, but as with many milling communities off the beaten path, Rockbridge almost became a ghost town as the depression years approached, with only a post office remaining.

In 1946, the Amyx family were again owners of the mill, and in 1954, they started development on the Rockbridge Rainbow Trout & Game Ranch.

A historical marker was dedicated at Rockbridge in 1961 by the White River Valley Historical Society because of its historical importance. The marker still stands off to the side of the mill.

The Rockbridge Rainbow Trout & Game Ranch now features guest accommodations, including spectacular log cabins. Trout fishing and game hunting is available, as well as horseback riding and hiking, and target ranges. A wonderful restaurant is available to the public, as well as a bar within the Grist Mill Club located inside the old mill.

REED SPRINGS MILL (not to be confused with Reeds Spring, MO) was built in 1881 on the West Fork of the Black River in Centerville, Missouri GPS Location 37.433154, -90.948880

Mike McArthy is an award winning photographer and published author.

Historic Ozarks Mills will take you on a scenic tour of some of the Ozarks’ mill locations like Reed Springs Mill shown below. Visit his website to learn more: h p://www.photozarks.com/

Carter, Shannon & Texas County Mills & Springs

SUMMERSVILLE MILL is located at the corner of Elm and 2nd Street in Summersville, Missouri.

GPS Location 37.17992, -91.65331

The McCaskills left a large footprint on the establishment of successful mills in Shannon and Texas Counties of Missouri. Sparked by the era of a booming timber trade in the Ozarks, and helped along by new railroad lines, their influence spread.

The McCaskill family would migrate to Winona, Missouri in 1855. William McCaskill would serve in the Confederate army during the Civil War, following his father into the military, who had served under Andrew Jackson “Old Hickory” during the War of 1812.

Alley Spring & Mill

William’s son, James McCaskill, would remain at home until the age of 24, when he married Alcy Summers, daughter of Jesse and Ditha Summers.

The Summers family were early se lers of the Texas County town of Summersville, Missouri (Summersville sits within both Texas and Shannon County currently and is named for the Summers family). Alcy would pass away in 1881 and James would continue operating his farm and store with brother George Washington McCaskill.

A grist mill was added to the store’s operations in 1886, but differed in that it ran from steam power.

With no source of running water, a large pond structure provided water for the steam engine to run the mill. Folks were no longer required to make the ten mile trip to Barricklow Mill (Bear Claw) for milling.

To keep up with demand, a larger mill was completed in 1894, and a roller process was added. That mill still stands, complete with the milling equipment.

ALLEY SPRING MILL is located west of Eminence, Missouri. From MO Highway 106, turn north on County Road 305. Mill approximately 500 foot on right. GPS Location 37.157477, -91.441311

George McCaskill, the younger brother of James McCaskill, was also busy moving on to his own business ventures. In 1890, he purchased property in the Rocky Creek area with partner Joshua Sholar, with intentions of starting a mill there. Those plans may have been thwarted by a severe flood that struck the area, the same flooding that also struck the small crude (Continued on Next Page)

First Issue

Summersville Mill

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Alley Spring-Cont’d from Page 19 mill of Charles Klepzig at Alley Spring, pu ing that man out of business. In 1893, George McCaskill purchased Alley Spring from Klepzig, after selling his share of the Rocky Creek to Sholar.

Alley Spring was first homesteaded by James Tacke in 1848. A mill would be built there in 1873, by a John Daugherty and his father-in-law, Stephen Barksdale, and the community would be known as Barksdale Spring, and the mill was known then as Daugherty-Barksdale Mill. The mill was a simple water wheel and crude shed over the millstones, with a small dam below the spring branch.

Daugherty’s father served in the Confederate army under General Price in Missouri. He was wounded at the Ba le of Wilson’s Creek and died from the wounds three days later. Young John would marry Mary V. Barksdale in 1860 and like his father, served in the Confederate army. Daugherty was captured at one time, and suffered some sort of disability during his campaigns. He would be released from captivity on pardon, as long as he agreed to not return to service of the Confederacy. He returned to Shannon County and in 1873, he and Barksdale built the mill and ran it until approximately 1881.

John Daugherty would move to Salem, Missouri in 1881 after selling the mill to the German immigrant, Charles Klepzig, a German immigrant. Klepzig would open a post office at the mill and in his application put in for either “Shannon” or “Alley”. Alley was chosen, apparently for the name of a prominent farmer in the area and the name Alley Spring Mill stuck.

The aforementioned sale from Klepzig to George McCaskill would then follow in 1893, and McCaskill would set to update and enlarge the milling operations at Alley Spring. That mill structure is the one that still stands at the site.

Tragedy would strike the McCaskill family just as Alley Spring Mill was being completed. A tornado tore through the area and Lizzie, the sister to the two McCaskill brothers would perish, along with her infant child. George would soon move to Eminence to be closer to the Alley Spring operations, and also served as treasurer of Shannon County for a time.

The new Alley Spring Mill would use a turbine, rather than a water wheel, and used steel rollers rather than a stone grist to grind the grain. McCaskill sold the mill site in 1897, and Alley Spring Mill would then 20

pass through several owners until shu ing down as an operating mill in 1924.

The Missouri State Park system purchased the mill and 427 acres of land that same year. The old general store, blacksmith shop and spring house were removed. In 1927 a flood destroyed much of the dam and head gate, and footbridges. Federal work programs in the 1930s completed repairs and development of the park through a Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) project. The mill became part of the Ozarks National Scenic Riverways in 1971.

Not to be outdone, yet another McCaskill brother jumped into the milling business. At the age of twenty, John C. McCaskill entered the mercantile business in Eminence at the age of 27, and later teamed up with brother George in the mercantile and milling trade. John McCaskill became president of the McCaskill Mercantile and Lumber Company in 1881.

He would go on to erect mills at Shawnee Creek (a tributary of the Jacks Fork River near Eminence), and has been credited with construction of some twenty or so mills in that area. John also owned a mercantile at Bartle , which lies south of Alley Spring on what is now U.S. Highway 60.

KLEPZIG MILL is located northeast of Winona, Missouri. From US-Highway 60, turn north towards Winona and will then turn east on County Road H. Travel approx. 7 miles and turn east on Country Road NN. Travel to end of NN and gravel roads will fork. Take left (there is sign stating Klepzig Mill).

Road is moderately rough. Mill is on right approximately 2 miles.

George Walter Klepzig, son of previously noted Charles Klepzig, enter into the milling business with his purchase of the property at Rocky Creek, previously owned by George McCaskill and Joshua Sholar.

While McCaskill had stepped away from the Rocky Creek property, Sholar continued to operate the farm.

The mill likely suffered damage in the “Winona Flood” of 1895. Extreme flooding occurred in the Ozarks during that storm and Winona was noted to have had lost over a dozen lives, and suffered damages to buildings and railroads lines.

The Rocky Creek location provided a natural mill seat, with a narrow section of the creek providing some narrow gorges called “shut-ins”. This made damming easier. However, the same shut-ins likely helped aggravate the flood waters, leaving the mill

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area severely damaged.

Mr. Sholar was also editor of the Current Wave paper in Shannon County, and was a strong advocate of the New Ozarks South business order, a progressive view of farming, timber trade and business which the influx of the railroad helped spur. George Walter Klepzig was probably the perfect fit for following in Sholar’s footsteps at Rocky Creek.

Klepzig repaired the mill race and reconstructed a simple mill shed over the milling stones, but by 1928, Klepzig’s progressive thinking pushed him to install a turbine well to replace the overshot wheel being used.

The old building was reused and was moved to cover the turbine operation. That building is the one still standing at the site.

Klepzig was noted of being generous in his help of grinding and cu ing lumber for those who otherwise could not have afforded the normal fees. He was also noted as being progressively minded in being the first in the area to use barbed and woven wire fencing, and introducing more refined breeds to his dairy herd and even shipping his cream to Beatrice, Nebraska for processing. The family was also noted as having the first radio in that neck of the woods.

Klepzig Mill

The farm and mill would be sold to A.C. Brandt in 1935, and he would own the property until it became part of the Ozarks National Scenic Riverways in 1974.

ROCKY FALLS are located northeast of Winona, Missouri near the Klepzig Mill area. Will take same County Road NN as going to Klepzig, but will turn on County Road 526 (approximately two miles before Klepzig Mill).

Rocky Falls

Also nearby is the Peck Wildlife Management Area where an elk herd is kept. The area began as the dream of a wealthy Chicago businessman, George Peck. After acquiring 19,000 acres along Mill and Rogers creeks, Peck established the Mid-Continent Iron Company. 200 families were employed at the smelter and company town which became known as Midco.

BIG SPRING is located in Carter County Missouri and discharges 286 million gallons of water per day, making it the largest spring in the Ozarks, and one of the largest in the United States and world. The Current River flow is nearly doubled when the flow from Big Spring merges. It is part of the Ozarks National Scenic Riverways.

GPS Location: 36.952616, -90.994251 First Issue

Big Spring

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Oregon County Missouri Mills & Springs

Several mill sites and springs of historical note lie along the Eleven Point National Scenic River that is part of the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System established in 1968.

Greer Spring

GREER SPRING & MILL are located between Alton and Winona, Missouri off MO-Highway 19.

The Mill sits atop the hill right on Hwy 19, and the spring area is accessed just south of the mill via hiking trail on west side of Hwy 19.

In 1850, Samuel Greer, and his father John, would build a small mill at Greer Spring. The spring is the second largest in the Ozarks with water flow of 222 million gallons. A few years later, the Civil War would interrupt operations, as it did with many milling locations in the Ozarks.

Greer rose to lieutenant in the Confederate army and fought in several campaigns. He returned from the war effort and found that bushwhackers had burned the mill. In 1867, his father would die and it would be 1870 before Samuel began construction on a new mill that would be powered by a waterwheel and be set up to grind corn, saw lumber and run a co on gin.

Greer Mill

The trip up the steep hills was hard, and the old mill was not meeting demand, so in 1883, Greer teamed up with George Mainprize of Thayer, Missouri to begin construction on a new roller mill at the top of the hill. The plans entailed the use of a sophisticated system of cables and belts to transfer the power of the spring below and up the hill to the new mill.

Tragedy struck during construction. Lewis Greer, the 23 year old son of Samuel, would be hit by a timber and would die in 1884. Construction would resume a month later despite the lingering grief upon Samuel Greer. Greer would remain involved in daily operations at the mill until 1891, and would sell his share to Mainprize in 1899.

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Falling Spring Mill

While Mainprize maintained ownership of the mill for a time, the land and spring were sold to Louis Houck in 1904. Houck led the Cape Girardeau and Springfield Railroad Company. Although Houck a empted to change the name of the spring to Big Ozark, it never stuck. Eventually, other owners of the mill would come and go before the mill ceased operations in 1920. www.Our Ozarks.com

The beauty of Greer Spring was threatened at one point when the ownership of the spring passed from Houck to the Missouri Iron and Steel Corporation.

At its earliest visits by the Spanish, French and other prospectors, silver and gold were sought in the Ozarks. Later, iron and lead deposits were prized, spurred by the Civil War and later World War I. One such enterprise was a large charcoal smelter being developed at Haigart, Missouri in Howell County (near Brandsville). Greer Spring caught the a ention of the Missouri Iron and Steel Corporation.

At first, the company looked to develop a resort for the iron magnates, using the Greer homestead as the club house. But the power of the spring created a new vision of a large dam and hydroelectric supply.

Iron ore development dwindled in the area, and the close of World War I lowered demand, so for that and possibly other reasons, Haigart and the Greer Spring plans drifted into history.

FALLING SPRING MILL is between Alton and Winona, Missouri. From MO-Highway 19 turn east on Farm Road 3170. The road immediately forks and take left (Farm Road 3164). Follow until road makes a T. Turn south (right). Will pass Falling Spring Cemetery, mill area on right.

tinue up hill and then turn right on Farm Road 3190.

Follow 3190 all the way to parking area.

Surprise, Missouri was a bustling li le village at one point in Oregon County and the site of a spring that would power a grain and lumber mill. A train rail was even built from Winona to nearby Wilderness to carry lumber from the mill that operated in the early 1900s.

Jesse Fletcher Clay Turner applied for a post office and made the town’s name Surprise.

The area is now known as Turner Mill and the twenty-five foot tall iron wheel and parts of the foundation piers, as well as part of the concrete millrace are the only relics remaining of the old mill. The beautiful spring still boils out from a small cave entrance up above the wheel and flows into the Eleven Point River a couple hundred yards or so farther down.

Southeast of the spring, remnants of the old Surprise Schoolhouse can still be found up from the river banks. The last graduating class of the one-room schoolhouse was in 1945.

Falling Spring has a flow of 500,000 gallons of water per day, with a mill pond that eventually empties into the Eleven Point River. The Thomas Brown Cabin sits nearby.

Thomas and Jane Brown came from Tennessee to homestead the Falling Spring area of Missouri in 1851. They built the cabin and a small mill. That mill was replaced by the current structure between 1927 and 1929.

There was a community at Falling Spring at one time, with the nearby cemetery providing a reminder of earlier times. The old Thomasville Road connected the mining town of Midco to Thomasville and brought daily traffic. Stops were numerous for travelers to enjoy the cool spring.

TURNER MILL is located northeast of Alton, MO. From MO-Highway 19, north of Greer Spring & Mill, take Country Road 3152 east. This road winds about for approx. 5 miles. You will pass Farm Road 154 (it turns to left but stay straight). Will finally come to a T in valley. Turn right and proceed to Fox Hollow where road bends to left across bridge. ConFirst Issue

Turner Mill

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BOZE MILL SPRING is located just above the Riverton Access of the Eleven Point River, southeast of Alton, Missouri. From US Highway 160, turn north on County Road 152 approximately 2 1/2 miles to spring. GPS Location 36.666962, -91.197147

Boze Mill Spring is a beautiful blue pool that produces twelve million gallons of water per day. Lucas Boze purchased what had originally been called the Williams Mill in the la er 1800s. Even though the mill and land would pass through other owners, the spot would continue to be called the Boze Spring Mill. The 1880s turbine and parts of the rock wall from the old grist mill are still found here.

The likely reason for the Boze name taking hold to the area would result from the colorful story of “Devil Dick” Boze, a family relation of Lucas.

Another mill operated upstream, closer to Thomasville. Richard Boze, lived nearby, and it has been noted at times that he and his brother Tom, were owners of that mill.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Richard Boze was 23 and married with family. Believing the family to be Southern sympathizers, a Union patrol burned the mill and killed Tom. Afterwards, Boze led a gang that wreaked havoc within the community along the Eleven Point River. His band of outlaws was gaining such notoriety that the Oregon County court ordered a county militia to be formed to hunt them down.

Most of the Boze Gang fled, but Devil Dick made a last stand. A patrol of the 7th Kansas sent from Pilot Knob to eradicate Devil Dick Boze, located him at the Widow Huddleston’s home at Yellow Bluff on the Eleven Point River, and shot him dead on June 15, 1865. “Devil Dick” Boze is buried in old Spring Creek Cemetery.

MAMMOTH SPRING is located off US Highway 63 in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, just south of Thayer, Missouri. GPS Location 36.520889, -91.547421 The largest mill complex within the Ozarks would have been that at Mammoth Spring, Arkansas. At one time, the spring powered flour mill, co on gin, a factory for clothes and shoes, and an electrical plant. 234 million gallons of water per day flow through these headwaters of the Spring River.

Se lers began building around the spring in the 1820s and at that time called it “the Big Spring”.

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Mammoth Spring Dam

William Allen constructed the first mill at Mammoth Spring in 1836. Also known as the “Head of the River” during this time, Mammoth Spring gained a larger mill in 1850, when brothers Joe and William Mills built a dam and began operating a grist mill.

The brothers’ father-in-law, Daniel Woolford, opened the areas first store at the site.

Federal troops would burn the mill and store during the Civil War. Later, a corn mill was built to replace the burned out mill and in 1874, John Deadrick added a flour mill and co on gin, as well as another store.

The railroad came in the 1880s and growth was set to explode. A fortuitous visit by Napolean Hill in 1886 only helped to further those ends. A wealthy businessman from Tennessee, Hill held the moniker of “Merchant Prince of Memphis”. He had made his wealth while operating a store and saloon during the gold rush in California, and returned to Tennessee to create a business empire and become director of Union Planters bank.

Hill was enthralled with Mammoth Spring and returned with an investment group that would construct the Mammoth Spring Dam. The dam’s turbines powered the Mammoth Spring Roller Mill and the Mammoth Spring Co on Mill and Co on Gin.

The bustling town of Mammoth Spring, Arkansas became a huge shipper of co on, fruit and vegetable produce, and of course, flour from the huge mill.

Hotels, saloons, and other businesses sprang up. With the beautiful se ing of a 16-acre lake created by the (Continued on Back Cover)

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following the lay of the land...

Understanding the science of the Ozarks

This regular feature will seek to look at the science of the Ozarks. We will follow the geological, botanical and animal world, as well as keep up on issues in air and water quality, and other subjects of earth & nature.

Jack Frost’s Bouquet

A killing frost is usually the marker of an end of a season. Summer has retreated into the shadows of fall, and winter is nipping at the heels of the new fallen leaves. The red, yellow and golden hues are all but gone.

Jack Frost has not yet relinquished the scepter to Old Man Winter and there is magic yet to be weaved into the Ozarks’ hills.

Photo by Pa y Wheatley Bishop.

Find her work on Facebook at Pa y In The Country

One benefit of taking an early morning walk on those nippy days may be for you to come upon a frost flower. These icy formations can be an most amazing display of nature’s beauty of creation. While many surfaces may lend themselves to allowing icy formations to form, frost flowers sprout from simple plants themselves.

Frost Flowers form when the plants’ stems are ruptured when they freeze, but the roots are still sending up sap from the warmer ground.

The sap is released from the plant and freezes on contact with the cold air. This continues, over and over, as more sap makes it way out, creating sometimes very ornate ribbons that look like flower petals. Generally, only four plants in the Ozarks are known to produce frost flowers. White Crownbeard (Verbesina virginica) which also goes by the name frost flower; and di any (Cunila origanoides) are the more common. Stinkweed (Pluchea camphorate) is not as widespread, and Frost Weed (Crocanthemum bicknelli of the Cistaceae family) is only found in the extreme northwest Arkansas, most usually Benton County.

The drawing of White Crownbeard (at left) is shared by illustrator Linda S. Ellis. Ellis is a botanical and horticultural illustrator and nature watercolor artist with over 30 years of experience. Her career has included work at the University of Missouri Extension, to being Botanical Illustrator at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Ellis is currently a freelance illustrator with numerous works to her name.

You can find additional examples of her work at her website: h p://www.lindasellis.com/ First Issue

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Mammoth Spring-Cont’d from Page 25 dam, and large industry, population and businesses prospered. In 1889, the Mammoth Spring Co on Mill and Cotton Gin was noted as the town’s largest employer, running 132 looms and other equipment within the two-story brick building. Add the presence of the huge four-story brick Empire-style building, a large grain elevator and the backdrop of the lake, the site was most impressive.

In 1903, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service established the Mammoth Spring National Fish Hatchery, making the Spring River a great fishing destination.

Setbacks began in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Lawsuits developed within the business of the roller mill, as it began to lose money due to mishandling, and also as its equipment began to age. Napolean Hill suffered two strokes, and he would pass away in 1909, leaving his holdings in the hands of his estate.

The roller mill would be destroyed by fire and by the 1920s, the co on mill and gin business would falter as well. The Arkansas Shoe Manufacturing Company leased the building for a time from 1906, but had to close only after six months of operations. The building would be vacant again until 1914, when the Planter’s Gin Company would open operations. But by 1926, the co on mill closed for good and the buildings were leveled.

The Arkansas-Missouri Power Company purchased the Mammoth Spring Dam in 1925 and by 1927, and hydroelectric turbines were added, making Mammoth Spring the first town in the area to have electricity. The power plant would run until 1972, when it was donated to the Arkansas State Parks.

Mammoth Spring State Park was established by an act of the Arkansas State Legislature in 1957 and the abandoned Kansas City, Fort Sco , and Memphis Railroad Depot was restored later as a museum.

Mammoth Spring State Park now holds the Mammoth Spring head, Spring Lake, the Mammoth Spring Dam and powerhouse, the Queen Anne-style depot, a Tourist Information Center, playground, picnic area, interpretive trail, boat rentals, baseball field, and more.

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