Lens and Pen Press

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NIGHT HAWKS TAVERN in Camdenton

Trophy bass came from the new lake, but not as humongous as the one shown in this 1935 largemouth parade float (right). It was made by Lake of the Ozarks Post 193 of the American Legion. Toots and Jack Stotler operated this thriving business 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…

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The Weaver Brothers and Elviry

The Weaver Brothers and Elviry were native Ozarkers whose hillbilly light comedy was successful on the vaudeville stage and in movies. Their “Hill-Billy Review” is shown in this 1930s press photo. 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…

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HA HA TONKA – A Phony Indian Name And A Natural Wonder With A Tragic History

Ha Ha Tonka castle (upper right corner) seen from the banks of the spring branch. Photograph likely pre-1910. The fanciful Indian name of the spring below the bluff is attributed to Col. R. G. Scott who came from Iowa to the Ozarks in the 1890s and partnered with R. D. Kelly to acquire the land around Gunter Spring. Col. Scott published the first article extolling Ha Ha Tonka’s natural wonders in…

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Mystic Springs Captured By Gray Bros. View Artists

Throughout the United States are scenic spots where subterranean waters surface. Attaching “mystic” to the place name is not uncommon and evokes their poetic charm. Eureka Springs, Arkansas has two. This detailed cabinet photograph, circa 1900, by the local photographic firm, shows one of the springs still in its natural state. The second spring, Mystic Blue Springs (not illustrated) today is a…

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“ROUGHING IN THE OZARKS”

Real photo postcard, circa 1910. 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 so no guarantee. Not that their scribbled title isn’t descriptive, but we wished we knew their names and where they came from. Sadly, we know nothing about the family, place or circumstance. These real photo postcards…

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FERN SPRING - EUREKA!

Each spring in the vicinity of Eureka was held to have a particular medicinal power. Eureka Springs called itself “The City that Water Built.” 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…

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Fruitful Opportunity in the Ozarks

Specialty crops like strawberries, apples and tomatoes, where produced in the hilly Ozarks. As early as the 1870s the rail corporations promoted the region as “the Land of Big Red Apples.” 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, DC, Star Sunday Magazine asked, “why don’t you take your family to…

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Shorty Wilks And His Jolly Ranch Hands

“Shorty, as everyone called him, was born October 7, 1901,” read the 1965 obituary of Clifford Wilkinson. It mentions his string band called “Shorty Wilks and his Jolly Ranch Hands.” For his day job, he operated a confectionary in Sullivan, Missouri. We’ve seen “Shorty” identified in one photo as the tall bass player, but in another shot the same gent is holding a fiddle. Calling tall folks…

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Keith McCanse Linked Conservation with Tourism

1931 issue of Where to go in the Ozarks by Keith McCanse, subtitled “The Book of the Ozarks.” 138 pages chock full of ads. Includes establishments on the new Lake of the Ozarks. Also includes excellent maps. “Outside the realm of ordinary vacation literature, this publication … serves you with actual, definite facts without exaggeration.” Keith McCanse’s Scotch-Irish family settled in the Ozarks…

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The Enduring Fascination With Ozark Streams

On the back of this circa 1920, sharp and nicely composed real photo postcard is written in script: “Scene at Sugar Creek, Mo. George watching the fish.” The card is stamped, “O. C. Kuehn, Photo. St. Louis, Mo.” 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…

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Springfield's Own "Strange Tribe of Nimrods" - the Molly Joggers

“What is a Molly Jogger?” you ask. Read on  to learn of Springfield’s own “strange tribe of nimrods.”   Early 1900s photograph of the Molly Joggers, an unknown boy, and their cook Shorty. The club was organized in the late 1800s by Pennsylvania-born Cyrus H. Patterson. It became extinct in 1930 when Patterson died. Through these decades there had been a total of ten members.   The Springfield…

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Irish Wilderness travels remembered

Tim Reeves’ grave is in a small, chain-link fenced plot north of Doniphan. Weathering (in 2011) had almost obliterated the lettering, which reads: “Col. Tim Reeves, born Apr 28,1821 Died Mar 10 1885  Separation is our lot. Meeting is our hope.” This image popped up  from my ‘google pics memory’ bank this morning. Fourteen years ago, on an equally beautiful spring morning as today, we searched out…

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FISHING HUMOR OZARKS STYLE

There is considerable writing on this 1910 real photo postcard, but we are left guessing about its exact meaning. Along the top is scribbled in ink, “Uncle Bill Tracy.” More legibly in white is “Davis Phots” inscribed on a beam supporting the bridge behind him. Also, in white along the beam is “OUT OZARKS MTNS Fishing for Rock Trout.” Indeed, the nattily dressed gent has a stick with a line…

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CLARK MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT CO. – PIEDMONT CANYON, WAYNE COUNTY

The 1920s saw a surge in optimistic developers vying to attract the leisure class to vacation destinations in the Ozarks. Springfield’s own John T. Woodruff bought an unfinished health resort in Siloam Spring, near the North Fork River, where he built the impressive four-story Pinebrook Inn, a nine-hole golf course, dance pavilion and dug a swimming pool. (More on that story in our book James…

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OLD GLORY WAVES OVER HOOVER DAM

The bins of postcard dealers are well stocked with postcards of Hoover (Boulder) Dam. A surprising percentage of these overproduced cards have an American flag adding a patriotic note to the gargantuan concrete structure. Why shouldn’t the Bureau of Reclamation fly our sacred flag? Here America fought and beat the enemy Colorado River. Loyal citizens should make a pilgrimage here to salute this…

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BUCKLE UP WITH A DAM GOOD BELT BUCKLE

Like Hoover (Boulder) Dam, all dams and reservoirs, even small ones, can generate images that promote purposes beyond their hydrological justifications. Cultural and symbolic meanings, Dr. Arrigo, author of Imaging Hoover Dam, convincingly asserts, can be perceived in advertising, souvenirs, and a variety of artifacts that celebrate the mystique of that particular river-blockage. We further his…

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DAMS AS SOUVENIR MOTIF

Imaging Hoover Dam: The Making of a Cultural Idol was published eleven years ago but the book only came to our attention recently. Author Anthony Arrigo of course deals primarily with that gigantic plug on the Colorado River that generates electricity and diverts much of the Colorado’s flow to thirsty southern California. Our collection of dam memorabilia contains material imaging Hoover as well…

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