May 2018

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VOL. 45, NO. 11

MAY 2018

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The gun that settled the west

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Stop in, get a smile, soak up some of the last of an era and help a small business keep the lights on.

Gone, but not forgotten ‘Mom & Pop’ stores disappearing fast

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By Roger Smith t one time ‘Mom & Pop’ stores were THE thing of the area, scattered all over the Ozarks and offered up a little bit of everything.

Each were different in their own little way but the one thing they had in common was the atmosphere, true customer service with a smile!

You could find a wall lined with a few old .22 rifles and shotguns, pick up a box of 22 shells for a quarter.

Another corner dedicated to fishing bobbers, hooks and sinkers, some even had rods-n-reels and if you asked the lady behind the counter she’d want to know whether you preferred night crawlers or red wigglers.

By Bill Wakefield he state of Missouri is unequal in its phenomenal history. There are people, places, items and events that changed the history of Missouri and also of the United States.

Such was the Hawken family who moved to St. Louis in 1807, and the invention was a new style of rifle.

The Hawken Rifle is sometimes referred to as “the gun that settled the west.” It is reported that many famous people carried these handmade guns of choice, including Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, Jeremiah Johnson, Joseph Meek, John Fremont and Teddy Roosevelt.

The United States was growing and as people traveled from east to west to explore new lands and opportunities, they encountered new animals not found east of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

The .45-caliber long-rifle worked well for deer and the occasional black bear, but was simply not powerful enough to deal Please see RIFLE, 19

If you needed catfish bait you could usually find it, as some was what we called “store bought” but oftentimes it was some concoction made up by one of the locals and they called it stink bait for a reason.

You could even buy your hunting and fishing license at most of these stores. An old soda machine sitting along the wall with a low, steady hum offering up some of the coldest pop you could find.

Of course, you could also pick up a few groceries while you were there.

A couple of these stores stand out in my memory. One was in Womack Missouri, had an old rusty gas pump out

Please see STORES, 18 The historic Hawken House.

Mother Nature changed our plans

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By Michelle Turner ou know what they say about the best-laid plans, right? I know I do! They often go awry.

Or, in the case of Spring Break 2018, they get drenched.

I had this vision of taking my mom and daughter to explore parts of northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri in late March.

I had dreams of strolling paths leading to waterfalls along spring-fed creeks, as well as discovering the art on the nature

trails at Crystal Bridges.

Mother Nature decided a lot of our time would be spent indoors or on scenic drives avoiding flash floods.

The bright side is that, thankfully, there are many great indoor attractions that are free to explore.

However, one sticks out in my mind as a must-see for people of all ages: The Museum of Native American History (MONAH).

What first started as a way to keep out of the rain became an intriguing and ed-

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ucational experience for my family. The amount of artifacts and displays at this museum overwhelmed me at times. It is indeed a lot to take in!

Keep in mind, I have been to the Museum of the Cherokee in North Carolina and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. So, when I saw MONAH listed as a free indoor activity in Bentonville, Ark., I was interested.

However, what the TripAdvisor rePlease see MONAW, 18

Page 2 • May 2018

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Morel hunting just got a little easier

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e have been really hammering turkey hunting for the past few weeks and for good

reason.

I like my columns to be timely for the current season of the year.

Well, there is another very popular season in full-swing right now: mushroom season.

For some folks in our area, mushroom hunting/eating is more than just a pastime, it is an obsession.

I have heard of fist fights that have broken out over mushroom spots. I know one guy who accused his neighbor of “poaching” his morels.

There are some people who have posted signs at their favorite mushroom locations reading, “KEEP OUT! NUCLEAR WASTE!” In reality mushroom hunting is one of the least expensive of all outdoor Mike Roux sports in which to ———— participate. No special equipment is needed. There is no license needed to hunt them.

Comfortable clothing and something in which to carry your prizes covers the basic requirements.

There are, however, certain things you can do ahead of time that can make your mushrooming safer and more enjoyable.

Wear comfortable, old clothes. Long pants and long sleeves are best to prevent direct contact of your skin with threatening plants like poison ivy or thistle. These precautions will also protect you from biting insects.

Garden gloves and sunglasses may also come in handy, as may a water bottle.

I know “mushroom pros” who hunt with a walking stick. Some of these folks find a new stick every time while others have their old favorite they have used for years.

This tool is used to clear weeds from the path, as a probe in thick cover and as a stabilizer in rough terrain. They are useful for flicking leaves out of the

way, too.

Personally, I keep one handy to ward off the occasional snake that invariably attends my mushroom hunts.

Believe it or not there are ways to increase the morel population on the ground on which you hunt.

Having sharp scissors or a sharp knife to snip morels off just above the ground is important. You should try not to disturb the mycelium by pulling the mushrooms entirely out of the ground.

If you are careful you can pinch them off at the very base of the stem. Keep your ‘shrooms as free from dirt as possible.

Morels come through the forest floor with no loose soil or grit on them. Try to keep them that way.

Another great way to promote future morel growth is to be very aware of the container in which you carry your mushrooms as you gather them.

Remember, these tasty plants come from spores, not seeds. You cannot see the spores but you can trust me that they are present.

If you carry your mushrooms in paper or plastic bags you take all these spores (future mushrooms) home with you. If you rinse them in the sink you flush hundreds, if not thousands, of potential meals down the drain.

That thought is painful.

The very best way to transport mushrooms in the field is in a net bag like grapes or oranges come in. This allows the spores that are jostled off the mature plants to fall to the ground for next year’s crop.

To be even more shroud, do collect them in paper or plastic and take them out and shake the bags where you want mushrooms to grow in the future.

Remember, you cannot see this happen… but it does. In this way you can develop your own mushroom patch in the backyard.

Along those same lines, do not rinse your mushrooms in the sink. Put them in a large bowl and fill it with water.

Gently agitate them to rinse.

Remove the mushrooms carefully and place them very delicately on a paper towel. Then take the water to your new mushroom patch and pour it out there.

A typical batch of mushrooms from the Lewis ranch.

Go back in and repeat the entire process. This could put millions of spores right where you want them. But be patient. It might take two or three seasons for them to pop up.

I do not consider myself a morel expert, but I certainly do some real pros.

Pat and Mike Patterson, of Springfield, will find many dozens of pounds of morels each spring. They look for sycamore and elm trees in creek bottoms.

My best friend, Roger Lewis, and his wife, Jeannie, along with their grandkids have found over 200 morels in the past two weeks in their backyard.

Roger told me, from another good

friend, Mark Hardy, the best way to preserve morels for meals weeks or even months from now. Mark cleans and cuts his morels in half. He then rolls them in flour just as if he was getting ready to fry them.

He then lays them on a piece of cardboard and freezes them just like that.

After frozen they go in bag and then back in the freezer.

It is the very best method I know of to preserve morels.

Good luck this year in the mushroom woods.

(Mike Roux can be reached at 217257-7895.)

May 2018 • Page 3

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Fire tower lookouts share their experiences

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By Becky Ewing he men and women who have served as fire tower lookouts have played an important role in wildland firefighting throughout Forest Service history.

Working in solitude, they scanned the horizon for smoke and alerted dispatchers to potential wildfires.

Mark Twain National Forest still employs the use of fire lookouts to aid in early detection of wildfires. Forest Service employees are routinely posted at Czar Tower in Crawford County and Buick Tower in Iron County when high fire danger conditions exist.

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a lookout?

Bill Bodimer is Potosi Ranger Station’s customer service representative, but has been stationed in the towers many times over his 15-year career.

“Grab plenty of water, snacks, and a lunch, and don’t forget some warm clothes before you make the 100-foot climb to the tower cab,” he advised.

“I always open the trap door in the floor very slowly, just in case some critter got in there! Turkey vultures have gotten in to Buick Tower and made a mess because the last person in there forgot to close the windows.”

Ron Moon has worked more than 25 years in a variety of forest management positions at Mark Twain National Forest and has staffed the towers over the past six to eight years.

“We have an Osbourne Firefinder inside the tower cab that we use to get a horizontal bearing of the smoke we see off in the distance,” Ron explained. “If I am up in Czar Tower and spot smoke,

The fire spotter will use the Osbourne Firefinder to pinpoint smoke by looking through the rear sight and centering the crosshairs of the front sight on the smoke column.

I’ll look through the rear sight of the Firefinder and line up the crosshairs with the smoke, and then send an azimuth reading to dispatch.

“The lookout in Buick Tower will do the same thing and then dispatch can locate the wildfire where the two azimuth readings cross on the map.”

On average, lookouts are searching for smoke within an 8-10 mile area around the tower.

“On a clear day, I can see the water towers in Cuba, Missouri, about 25 miles away,” exclaimed Bodimer. “They are small, but they shine and stick out on

the landscape.”

Moon recalled one day where he could see for a long distance.

“I was seeing smoke on the horizon one day and called it in to dispatch. They sent firefighters out, but no fire could be found,” he said.

“Believe it or not, I was seeing smoke from a fire at Peck Ranch, which was nearly 50 miles away as the crow flies and beyond the horizon. I was seeing the very top of the smoke column that was actually thousands of feet up in the atmosphere.”

Weather conditions make for memo-

rable experiences in the tower. Bodimer recalled a time he could see a storm moving toward him in the distance.

“I started seeing lightning in the distance and about that time dispatch told me to get out of the tower,” said Bodimer. “They did not have to tell me twice because those towers are nothing by glorified lightning rods.”

“Windy days can be rough,” remarked Moon. “The tower sways in the wind and you have to get used to it, but one day there were very high gusts. I really thought the tower was going to blow over and all I could think of is what I was going to do if it starts to go!”

The Potosi Ranger Station is open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. You can reach us by calling (573) 438-5427.

(Becky Ewing is the district ranger for the Mark Twain National Forest, PotosiFredericktown Ranger District. She can be reached by email at rewing@fs. fed.us.)

Forest Service employees still use Czar Tower in Crawford County and Buick Tower in Iron County to detect smoke from wildfires.

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Page 4 • May 2018

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Alley Spring pedestrian bridge set for removal

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he pedestrian bridge over the Jacks Fork River along Highway 106 at Alley Spring is permanently closed, and the Jacks Fork River beneath and adjacent to the bridge is temporarily closed to all visitor use.!

This includes all activities such as swimming, floating, fishing and gravel bar use within 100 feet of the bridge.!This closure does not affect the highway bridge, which is next to the pedestrian bridge.!

The pedestrian bridge was structurally damaged during the April 2017 flood and was closed to foot traffic Jimmy Sexton at that time while ———— the park sought Journey On funding to repair the bridge and the damaged water and sewer utilities beneath.!

However, in February 2018, additional flooding caused an eight foot rise of the Jacks Fork River. An emergency inspection recently performed by a Federal Highway Administration bridge engineer determined the stability of the pedestrian bridge has been further compromised and has now created a safety hazard to anyone nearby.

The National Park Service has been notified that ongoing movement of two of the bridge piers has increased.!Based on field observations and evaluation of the bridge plans, any increase in water volume or wind has the potential to

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cause the structure to collapse. Closure of the river below it is required to avoid injury to park visitors. This temporary closure is intended to prevent river users from passing under the bridge to avoid personal injury should the bridge collapse.! !

Park visitors who are floating upstream from the bridge must take out at the Alley Spring gravel bar above the bridge (near the campground) and are prohibited from floating underneath the bridge.!The Burr Oak day use area just downstream from the bridge will serve as an alternate river access for concession operations and visitors who want to float downstream from Alley Spring.

The Burr Oak day use area is located on the north side of the Jacks Fork River, just south of the Alley Mill parking lot.!!

Signage will be posted to alert river users approaching the closure so they can avoid exposure to the hazard.!Park concessioners are available to provide shuttle service around the closure.!Park visitors who need to make arrangements to shuttle around the closure area should contact one of the Jacks Fork concession operators: • Alley Spring (Harvey’s) Canoe Rental: (888) 963-5628 • Windy’s Canoe Rental: (886) 8898177 • Jacks Fork Canoe Rental: (800) 333-5628 The Alley Spring pedestrian bridge is scheduled for removal as soon as possible, but that will likely occur later this year.

The pedestrian bridge and adjacent section of the Jacks Fork River will remain closed until demolition is complete and the hazard is removed.

• Everyone at the Traveler is busy working on our 9th annual Ozarks Float Trippin’ camping & floating spe-

Do madstones have curative powers?

ack before there was a preventative vaccination, and before the vaccine had made its way to the Ozark hills and hollows, the deadly threat of rabies was very real.

By the time human beings exhibit symptoms, the end result of contracting the virus, usually transmitted through animal bites, was oftentimes fatal.

Never fear, though. The Ozark hillman and hillwoman of yesteryear had a cure that Louie Pasteur himself would have been proud to use: madstones.

Now what, you might ask, is a madstone? I asked the same question. Believe it or not, madWes Franklin stones do exist, ———— although their curaNative Ozarker tive powers might be questionable.

Madstones, also called bezoar stones or enteroliths, are mineral deposits sometimes found in the bowels of herbivore animals, such as cows and deer, and compacted into a rock-like substance.

They are called madstones because they were oftentimes used to treat rabies, one of the better known symptoms of which is hallucinations and hyper erratic activity.

In plain speak, rabies seems to make the victim go crazy, or “mad.”

Supposedly, madstones from a deer in particular were the most effective as a healing substance, and I’ve also read that madstones from albino deer specifically were the ones to use.

Folklorist Vance Randolph (18921980) talked to a number of folks in the

early 20th century who had used madstones to treat rabies, though he admitted he had never actually seen it done.

The stone – which was described as typically whitish and porous – is applied to the bite wound where the rabies virus was transmitted.

The stone is supposed to just stick onto the wound all by itself without any kind of binding. Depending on the source, when the stone finally falls off the wound on its own – be it a matter of hours or even days – you dip it in fresh milk and reapply the stone. This is done repeatedly.

Although treatments vary, milk seems to be a common factor. Some say that when the milk no longer turns green after the stone is place in it, the patient is safe.

Others say that when the stone no longer will stick to the wound on its own accord, the bite victim is out of the woods as far as rabies is concerned.

One thing that seems to stand out to me is that the madstone needed to be applied just after the bite occurred, indicating that it was supposed to be

more of a preventative measure, rather than something that was used to treat rabies days after infection by the virus, after the symptoms were already obvious.

At that point, even modern medicine says the prognosis isn’t good, and Ozark healers might have been more pragmatic about it in those cases as well. “Well, there’s only so much we can do.”

I suspect at that point the patient would be placed in God’s hands to wait on a miracle. Incidentally, Randolph also wrote about faith healers in the old Ozarks too, which is interesting stuff.

As to madstones themselves, I’ve never seen one. And if it takes one to save my life from rabies, I hope I never do.

Fortunately, as far as health goes, we live in modern times, where society is armed with advanced medicine to hopefully extend our poor mortal lives a little bit on this rock.

Still, people obviously used the madstone rabies treatment for SOME reason for centuries. If it obviously wasn’t effective, why continue to do it? Just for the sake of doing SOMETHING? I can understand that. Real or not, like most of our old Ozark superstitions, it’s fun to think about.

(Wes Franklin!can be reached by email at cato.uticensis46@gmail.com, or by USPS mail at 12161 Norway Road, Neosho, MO 64850.)

On the Cover Dave Tucker introduces techniques for fishing with midges at Roaring River, Taneycomo & other places.

cial section that will publish in June.

Full of stories and interesting informration about Missouri’s rivers and the best places to camp and float, we’re very excited about this edition and can’t wait for you to read it!

If you’re a campground, restaurant, winery, fishing guide, outfitter, bait store, boat shop, resort or have anything to do with spending time on the river and you haven’t heard from someone at the Traveler yet, please give us a shout or email at the information below and we will get in touch with you ASAP. And as always, if you have a story idea that you think our readers would enjoy, or would like to share your outdoors/travel photos with our readers, please call or email me.

Have a great May, and I look forward to hearing from you!

(Jimmy Sexton is owner and publisher of the River Hills Traveler. He can be reached at (800) 874-8423, ext.

1, or jimmy@riverhillstraveler.com.)

River Hills Traveler 212 E. Main St., Neosho, MO 64850 Phone & Fax: 800-874-8423

www.riverhillstraveler.com Email: jimmy@riverhillstraveler. com Owner & Publisher Jimmy Sexton Managing Editor Madeleine Link Circulation Manager Amanda Harvel Staff Writers Wes Franklin • Mike Roux Bill Wakefield • Bill Oder Tom Boydston • Judy Smith Michelle Turner • Dana Sturgeon Chuck Smick • Ryan Walker Richard Whiteside • Roger Smith Advertising Jimmy Sexton & Madeleine Link

River Hills Traveler, established in 1973, is published monthly by Sexton Media Group and Traveler Publishing Company at 212 E. Main St., Neosho, MO 64850. Postmaster: Send change of address notices to: River Hills Traveler, 212 E. Main St., Neosho, MO 64850. Subscription prices: $22 per year; 2 years, $40. Back issues available up to one year from publication, $5 plus sales tax & shipping.

COPYRIGHT © 2018 No part of this publication may be reproduced without the express written permission of the publisher of the River Hills Traveler or his duly appointed agent. The publisher reserves the right to reject any advertising or editorial submission for any reason.

May 2018 • Page 5

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VINTAGE OZARKS: Coon Ridge Novelty Shop

oadside souvenir, crafts and novelty shops were a feature of automobile-era Ozark tourism. Much of the merchandise was locally produced.

Some were traditional pioneer crafts; some were recent innovations like the concrete drip vessels. Sometimes chenille bedspreads produced in factories in

5 years ago • May is an excellent month to explore the hiking trails in the Current River area.

The Current River section of the Ozark Trail is almost 30 miles but can be divided into several day hikes ranging from 1.2 miles to 10 miles.

This section takes you along the Current River, past an old mill, by Rocky Falls, over unique glade areas, and through Peck Ranch Conservation Area.

With an average high of 75 degrees and a low of 54 degrees, moderate temperatures will help make the activity more enjoyable on this shoulder season than either winter or summer. (Dave Tobey) • On the start-up side of things, Ozark stream bass come into season May 25.

Squirrel season opens the next day.

On the unofficial calendar, May is the month to catch bluegill. The classic setup is a farm pond that has an abundance of small bass.

Typically they are small because there is a shortage of bluegill, which is unusually the food source for bass in the ponds. The key here is the bluegill that survive tend to be very large.

And when they are spawning, in May, fishermen can find them sufficiently schooled in one or two places in the pond to make for some really good fishing. (Bob Todd) 10 years ago • It’s a great feeling to know that you might have had a positive influence on someone. Made a good impression. Set an example that changed a person, perhaps forever, in a positive way.

Sometimes this can be achieved as

southern Appalachians flapped in the breeze. By the 1950s, inexpensive souvenir ware from Japan had arrived on some shelves. “Giraffe stone” buildings made from local sandstone were distinctive, but not indigenous.

Today, hand crafters still create their wares in specialty shops in Branson and Silver Dollar City.

(This feature is courtesy of Leland and Crystal Payton at Lens & Pen Press, publishers of all-color books on the Ozarks. Their new book, James Fork of the White, was published in 2017. Some pages from this book can be seen on www.beautifulozarks.com. Their earlier river book, Damming the Osage, can be at seen www.dammingtheosage.com)

REMEMBER WHEN

project is not moving as fast as first scheduled, but is finally off the ground.

The idea originated 15 years ago among members of the Missouri Chapter of the Society of American Foresters.

easily as taking a kid fishing. For some of us there is no better way to spend a day than to head for the lake or stream for some fresh fish or just some catch and release fishing.

A hobby that some enjoy over an entire lifetime. (Howard Helgenberg) • National Park Services (NPS) Midwest Regional Director Ernest Quintana has announced the appointment of Reed E. Detring as the new superintendent of Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

Detring currently serves as superintendent at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Oneida, Tenn. He will start in Van Buren on June 22.

15 years ago • Hunting wild turkey gobblers in the Ozarks during the last week of the season may very well be one of the toughest hunting challenges available to outdoorsmen.

Wild turkeys are not given much credit for being smart, but I would love to have an old tom by my side should a war ever start on our soil.

Sly old toms possess a keen ability to disappear into thin air shortly after the shooting starts. Not a bad survival tactic!

(Bill Cooper) • Ground was recently broken for construction of the Forest Heritage Center, a 6,000 square foot museum to be located on U.S. 60 east of Winona. The

20 years ago • The idea to spend a weekend backpacking on the Taum Sauk section of Ozark Trail came from my father. He is approaching 60 years old and enjoys hiking two or three times a year.

So, when he called with the suggestion that my two brothers and I join him on a fall weekend excursion in the Ozark hills, I hesitantly consented.

A year ago, my father and younger brother hoisted over-weighted packs and hiked some remote portion of the Ozark Trail. They proudly professed that they had not seen another human being for three days.

They had hiked hard, slept on the ground and dined on freeze-dried foods — all admirable feats. (John M. Wilson, Jr.) • People who keep statistics on tourism in all its forms are going to have trouble with this — one of the elk that will be taken in the first modern elk hunt in Arkansas this fall has already generated a $42,500 expenditure by a Michigan man.

And that’s not all.

Arkansas has an elk population of about 500 in the Buffalo River country.

The herd is growing to the point that it needs to be thinned, and this year, Arkansas is issuing permits for 20 elk to be taken.

30 years ago • An ATV law has been passed which

may make operation of the vehicles safer, but may not do much to prevent continued damage to streams.

Basically, the new law will require the vehicles to be “street legal” to operate on most public roads. It will also require riders on public roads to be licensed, and those 18 or younger must wear helmets.

• Missouri has as many known bald eagle nests this spring as there were decades since the last known nest.

There are four active nests (and possibly two more). It was four decades between the last known nest and the first recent one.

Bald eagle nests are protected by federal law. Anyone harassing nesting eagles, or disturbing the nest, faces a possible $20,000 fine and a year in jail.

Two of the known nests are in central and southeast Missouri at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge and nearby Duck Creek Wildlife Area.

40 years ago • Just to be on the safe side, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, responsible for protecting endangered species, has placed Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster on the official list of endangered species.

• The vacation season in Missouri’s state parks and historic sites officially began April 15 with the start of the regular camping season.

The state parks and historic sites, administered by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, encompasses 89,000 acres and provides recreational opportunities including swimming, fishing, hiking and boating, as well as preserved natural areas and museums.

Page 6 • May 2018

The best tackle for you

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here are many people out there who want to learn to fish, and many who have been fishing for years who have questions about the right tackle.

One of the most-asked questions is...

What should I get to fish with? Every guide knows that the success of a fisherman who hires him depends to a great extent on whether or not he can use what he has properly.

I can take you fishing, but you have to make the lure land where it should, and do what it should in the water.

We’ll take it on a species by species bass. If you want to catch bass, you need to learn to use an open-faced casting reel, and it needs to hold relatively heavy line.

I use some of those casting reels for bigger bass on reservoirs, and fish with plastic baits.

For those I use Larry heavier line and Dablemont stronger rods.

———— When you are Lightnin’ fishing in lakes for Ridge larger bass, one perhaps eight or10 pounds, you need 14 pound line, minimum. Heavier line stretches less, so it is easier to set a large hook in the bony jaw of a big bass or walleye or catfish with the heavier line.

If I want to fish a stream for big smallmouth, I might want to go with a more limber rod, a little shorter because of the restrictions of overhanging limbs when I am casting, and lighter line, perhaps eight or ten pound test.

And some smallmouth fishermen would argue that they prefer spinning gear with line only six pounds. I use that, too, of course, when I’m fishing smaller lures.

You can’t effectively fish large crankbaits, large spinner baits, buzz baits and big topwater lures with a light spinning reel.

Heavy spinning reels can be used for heavy fish, of course, with stronger line and stiffer rods. Up north they go for trout and walleye of considerable size with heavy spinning gear and 10- to 12-pound line.

But here in the Ozarks, my spinning reels are used for lighter fish, smaller lures with lighter line. Casting reels should be used with lures and weights of 3/8 ounce or larger. Light spinning

reels should be used with lures smaller than 1/4 ounce.

No, you can’t effectively cast a little quarter-ounce jig with an open-faced casting reel and 12- or 14-pound line.

Fishermen learn with experience that a jig falls in the water in direct proportion to the diameter of the line.

With four-pound line, a small jig drops much faster than it will with eight-pound line. That’s why crappie fishermen like the spinning reels with light line.

For crappie, use a light, limber little rod which helps you feel a slight tap, and gives you a fight out of a fish that doesn’t resist all that hard, and doesn’t take a strong hook-set.

I use medium spinning gear and 6pound line for white bass when they are hefty, the three- or four-pound specimens not found often. Most of the time, when I am fishing a spring spawning run for whites that only average a pound, I want four-pound line on a light spinning rod.

If I am going to fish for hybrids or stripers, I want to use heavy casting gear, and if the stripers are big enough, strong rods and 14- or 20-pound line.

Same thing for big catfish when using live bait.

When I go to Canada to fish for smallmouth, muskies, largemouth or northerns, I use casting gear and strong line 10 to 14 pounds. Sometimes, just for kicks, I fish for smallmouth in Canada lakes with light action spinning tackle and six-pound line.

For walleyes that are usually less than four pounds, I use that same gear, but heavier spinning gear for lakes which have six- or eight-pound walleye.

The thing about walleyes is, they usually are found in unobstructed waters up there, and they aren’t going to run away from you. They usually stay deep and under you.

Big bass don’t do that, they find something to get around, and you have to horse them a little.

But though I often fish with the heavy casting gear and catch bigger fish with it, I just love to fish with an ultralight spinning outfit, and fourpound line for smaller fish; trout, white bass and crappie, even goggle-eye and bluegill.

Sometimes in the summer, I like to find a cool shoal on an Ozark river late in the afternoon and cast a small floating minnow-type lure for smallmouth from 10- to 15-inches long.

What fun that is on the light tackle.

Of course, sometimes an 18- or 20-inch bruiser takes your lure and leaves you wishing you had a heavier outfit.

It is wise to stay away from pushbutton spin-casting reels if you want to become a serious fisherman. I guess they are OK for kids, or inexperienced fishermen who won’t go very often, and with a really small youngster that’s only five or six years old that’s what you begin them on.

But start a youngster that is 10 or 12 years old learning to cast the better tackle, and you’ll be glad you did.

Well, I am taking a variety of tackle up to Canada this spring to spend some time out on a peaceful little lake where there will be no motors to be heard, and no other fishermen to be seen.

I don’t know if I will catch anything impressive, but I know I’m going to eat

RiverHillsTraveler.com fish ‘til I am sick of it. And there, where you can see the northern lights and hear wolves howling and loons wailing, I intend to listen to the voice of the Creator, who is so hard to hear over the TV sets and the politicians, the roar of traffic and the din of civilization.

I do not intend to sound sacrilegious, but on occasion, there in Canada’s wilderness, I have heard Him whisper...

“Throw a topwater lure in along that weed-bed, there’s a big northern there!”

There are other things I hear, of course, but that’s between the two of us.

You will find that if you get off away from all of man’s mess, into the woodlands or along an isolated stream, God has things to say to you as well.

But do not listen with your ears, you must listen with your heart and soul.

(Larry Dablemont lives in southwest Missouri. He can be reached by email at lightninridge@windstream.net, or by phone at 417-777-5227.)

Share your outdoors experiences & photos with the River Hills Traveler!

Send them to us by email or Facebook post, or text them to (417) 451-3798 and we’ll publish them in the Traveler.

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May 2018 • Page 7

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Bucksaw Marina home to trophy-size hybrid bass

T

he predominant color of both smallmouth and largemouth bass are varying shades of green.

Depending upon water clarity and the depth at which they are living, these greens can range from pale or very vivid.

All bass, however, do not share these color characteristics.

Striped bass, white bass and hybrid bass all sport a broken-lines of stripes pattern on a white to silver background.

These sub-species also differ in their preferred habitat and behavior.

There is an ever-growing population of anglers that are targeting these fish and for good reasons: they are all great fighters and they all grill or fry up very tasty.

I have some previous experience with white bass on Truman Lake in west/central Missouri. My good friend Steve Custer was a fishing guide Mike Roux on Truman until he ———— went home to be with the Lord many years ago.

He put me on both white and largemouth bass there, but since his death I have not been back to fish these waters.

That all changed not long ago.

I hooked up with Truman Lake fishing guide Jeff Faulkenberry for a catfish adventure. We were fishing out of Bucksaw Resort and Marina.

This is a full-service marina and has some of the best lakefront accommodations I have ever seen. You can literally step out your door and into your boat.

Shortly after Faulkenberry and I started our catfish trip, other species wanted to get into the act.

Jeff’s technique to catch big blue catfish is to drift over the flats in the lake where the wind has blown shad up onto the shallows. He drags cut shad behind the boat and is a master at finding and catching these big predators.

As we drifted he suggested that I cast a crankbait to see if perhaps white bass were also feeding on the shad on the flat.

I picked-up a level-wind outfit and tied on my favorite crankbait. I love the Excalibur XCS 200 Series in a Black Shad pattern for whites and largemouth alike.

On the third cast I knew I had chosen correctly. A fourteen-inch white bass went into the live well and I was on my

Jeff Faulkenberry and Mike Roux at Bucksaw Marina on Truman Lake with a nice mess of white bass that were bonus fish on their big day.

way.

We were catching blue cats on every other pass over the flat. I was picking up a half-dozen white bass on every pass. I was keeping every white bass over 12 inches and releasing the rest.

Jeff called these “bonus fish” since the blues were our primary targets. I was very happy because I saw a pile of fillets growing in my mind.

As I was casting I saw one of the catfish rigs get hit. I grabbed it and set the hook with a quick snap of my wrists.

The hook-set was not really necessary because Jeff uses 8/0 Gamakatsu circle hooks. These hooks are self-setting, but force of habit makes me back that up with a quick jerk.

Faulkenberry would rather use 10/0 hooks but Gamakatsu does not make them that big. He is constantly in communication with the company to produce a larger circle hook.

As soon as I set the hook Jeff said, “That is not a catfish! It’s running too fast.”

The fight was good and Jeff was right. This fish fought totally different than the catfish I had been catching.

It ran faster and stayed deeper and the fight was more frantic than the steady pull of a big cat.

As the fish came near the surface Jeff yelled that it was a hybrid bass and a good one. He netted the fish and again commented on its size. I weighed it at 4 pounds, 6 ounces.

My guide then told me that hybrids in Truman get bigger than this one but

they are few and far between. He said he sees only a very few big hybrids each season.

He also told me these fish are very fragile and that releasing him would be a mistake. He assured me that the trauma of the catch would kill the nice fish.

He suggested that I add this fish to the ever-growing population in the live well.

I continued casting for and catching whites as we continued drifting and catching blues. If I could have caught a fish with some red on it we would have a very patriotic looking stringer.

A few minutes passed and another shad rod got hammered, and again it was a huge hybrid bass. This one weighed just a tad over 8 pounds.

Faulkenberry went nuts.

“That is a monster hybrid,” he yelled as he lifted it out of the net.

After he saw the weight on the scale he told me he had never had an 8pounder in his boat before. I was tick-

led and took a couple photos on the way to the live well.

Almost immediately I got hit again and again a trophy-sized hybrid fought me all the way to the boat. Jeff yelled a war whoop as he netted yet another incredible shiny bass.

It weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces. We now had two hybrid bass over 8 pounds and Jeff was calling everyone he knew to meet us at Bucksaw when we returned.

By now I had a limit of blue catfish and 16 nice whites to fillet. Jeff was getting anxious to get to the marina and show off our hybrid catch.

“One more pass and we are out of here,” he told me.

On that last pass I got hit again.

Unbelievably I had hooked another trophy-class hybrid. This one was the heaviest at 8 pounds, 12 ounces.

Jeff Faulkenberry sat down hard on the front deck of his boat and took a long, deep breath.

“This is a day that I will never forget,” he said, with a wide smile. “I guess now I am a hybrid guide, too.”

(Mike Roux can be reached at 217257-7895.)

Two eight-pound hybrid bass were only half of the big hybrids Roux caught that day on Truman Lake.

Page 8 • May 2018

RiverHillsTraveler.com

An introduction to midge fishing techniques

I

By Dave Tucker use a specific midge leader-tippet arrangement for each fishing locale. My experiences include Roaring River, Taneycomo, Bennett Springs, Montauk, White River, San Juan in New Mexico, and North Platte in Wyoming).

Later, I will describe my process at Roaring River in detail. At Bennett Springs, the water is clearer and I use a smaller final tippet and many times I go from 4 lb. mono to 6x fluorocarbon tippet below the indicator, depending on the depth of fish.

Taneycomo midge fishing involves most often not seeing the fish and I start out with 4 lb. Seaguar as my final tippet. If 4 lb. works, I stay with it.

If the Taney fish are midging and I have no strikes on 4 lb. Seaguar fluorocarbon, I put on 5.5 or 6x Trout Hunter until I find the midge that works.

I like to use 4 lb. fluorocarbon at Taney because of the potential of hooking bigger fish. Tungsten beads are preferred to get the midge into the feeding lanes.

Ninety-five percent of the time, I begin with the Harvester midge size 20 or 22. If not productive, I try Primrose and Pearl (P&P), Ruby Red, and then back to variations of the Harvester currently not named.

Here are five considerations to properly present small tungsten bead midges: 1. A floating fly line and mono tapered leader are required. Fly line floatant should be applied to the fly line and butt section of the leader if the line and leader fails to float.

Cleaning the fly line and leader before your next fishing trip generally solves the floating issue.

2. Use fluorocarbon tippet.

3. There must be a little downstream water flow. At Taneycomo, if the turbines are off and the wind is out of the east, go home or fish something other than midges.

In slack pools where the movement is as little as one foot per 10-30 seconds, you can create strikes.

Very slow water flow provides the opportunity to “twitch” the indicator to move the midge about onequarter inch.

Usually by the third or fourth “twitch” you have a strike when you have a midge match.

4. Fast water may require “high sticking” such that no leader is floating on the water. If the fast water proves to be productive, you may need to re-tie the leader-tippet to get the midge into feeding lanes.

5. Experiment adjusting the midge’s depth. Styrofoam balls with a toothpick allow for adjustment.

Sometimes, six inches up or down will generate more strikes.

The indicator size must be large enough to see and not too big to make resistance to the take. Toothpick size also matters. Large toothpicks will split the indicator.

You may need to use a small 1/16th drill bit to enlarge the hole to fit the thinner Great Value toothpicks. Indicator color is not an issue.

Tippet material I carry eight spools in this arrangement — monofilament 6 lb. and 4 lb., fluorocarbon 6 lb., 4 lb., Trout Hunter 5x, 5.5x, 6x.

I arrange all spools such that the tippet comes off in the same direction, but I’m left-handed.

Use a Dremel tool to remove any of the excess plastic manufacturers use to “allow their spools to snap together” so different brands of spools slide together and spin easily.

I prefer Rio spools because they are larger spools, and the tippet comes off with fewer curls. Their tippet retainer elastic band has a little brass rivet with a hole that allows the tippet to be removed easily.

If I pull out too much tippet, I can spin the spool backward and put the tippet back on the spool.

Building the leader Here are six steps to making midge leaders in lengths of 9 feet to 18 feet.

Use an 18 ft. leader in the lower section of Roaring River while standing on the high bank. Also with sunny calm conditions at Taneycomo, White River at Wildcat Shoals, and below Navajo Dam in New Mexico.

Step 1. Purchase any inexpensive monofilament tapered leader ending in 4x or 5x and cut off the perfection loop.

Attach the butt end to fly the line with a nail knot.

Apply UV knot sealer to the nail knot. This allows knot passage through the smallest eyelet.

When netting a fish with an 18 ft. leader, you will reel most of the fly line onto the reel. The nail knot

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RiverHillsTraveler.com

MIDGE from 8 goes smoothly through the eyelets as the line goes on and off the reel.

When a new leader is needed, cut back the fly line until all cracks are eliminated. You may lose 3-4 inches of fly line. The plastic coating on the fly line will crack above the nail knot and the fly line sinks.

Step 2. At the other end of the tapered leader, cut back to about 6 lb. mono for the end of the tapered leader.

I use the standard 2-loop surgeon’s knot for attaching all leader and tippet material.

Add as much 6 lb. and 4 lb. monofilament leader extensions, as needed, to make the length of the leader to the indicator at least 9 feet (9 to 18 feet).

At the end of the 4 lb. monofilament extension, attach 4 lb. fluorocarbon.

This tapered leader mono/fluoro surgeon’s knot will be the location of the indicator.

The midge can be presented many times in the same water without alarming the fish, providing the fly line does not go over the fish.

Cast 5-10 feet above a fish or school of fish and let the midge naturally drift over the fish or school. Allow the midge to drift past the fish, or through the school, and retrieve only after water drag appears to be diverting the natural drift.

Continue covering more water by casting farther across and upstream.

The feeding depth of the fish determines the fluorocarbon tippet to midge length.

Secure the surgeon knot with UV glue. Four-pound fluorocarbon cut at a diagonal can fit through a size 20 tungsten bead midge.

Four-pound tippet is appropriate when the water is a little dingy, or a windy day with waves on top of the water, cloudy, etc.

If the day is sunny, no wind, clear water, use a 6x tippet. I prefer Seaguar as my terminal 4 lb. fluorocarbon tippet. If I have success with 4 lb. tippet, I do not fish a smaller tippet.

Watch the fish and if they turn off at the last second, try 6x tippet. If the fish continue to “turn off” before the strike, change midges and/or tie on a 7x tippet until you find a winning midge.

Use the Pitzen knot to attach the midge to the fluorocarbon tippet. Discard leader/tippet in a “tippet saver.”

The leader is deadly to wildlife. Adding two “7/16th” nuts to the stem improves handling with wet fingers.

I use Dr. Slick “extra hand tweezers” to hold small midges for tying.

Step 3. Generally, fish will move very little (less than 1 or 2 feet) to take a midge because the meal is so small.

On occasion, fish travel 3-6 feet to take the midge.

The indicator immediately goes under as the fish returns to its feeding lane. The fish generally sip in the midge, which gives a little “blip” on the indicator.

Erratic fish behavior is also an indication that the midge may have been taken.

Step 4. Set the hook by gently, but quickly, raising the rod tip such that the midge only moves 1 or 2 inches. This reduces break-off.

While fish are ‘midging’ and you have a midge match, you will have 2 or 3 times as many strikes as netted fish.

Test your drag from time to time to assure your drag is set light.

Have all the line on the reel and be ready for a strike. When you detect a strike, set the hook by raising the rod up and over your head.

The reel drag will “whine” and the line tension should be light enough to have a hook set and the tippet does not break. Leave the drag set light.

To put pressure on the fish, move the fly rod from vertical to near horizontal right or left to weaken the fish. I play the fish with the rod and reel without touching the line.

When a run occurs, return the rod to a low vertical position (45 to 60 degrees) to reduce tippet pressure. Continue the change from vertical to horizontal as you recover line and play the fish.

One of your goals is to never leave a midge in a fish. Always take the barb off all midge hooks, even size 20 to 26.

You can purchase flat-surface curved pliers at Harbor Freight for about $2.

Step 5. Releasing the fish. The preferred net is rubber mesh. Often you can release the fish from a rubber net without touching the fish (barbless hook).

Generally, the midge hook will catch the fish by hooking the top jaw lip.

Allow the fish a few seconds to swim around in the net or arrange the fish with its head against the rubber net and move the net back and forth.

Often the midge will pop out and the fish can be released without being touched. If the midge does not pop out, I pull the tippet until I can see the midge and try again.

I touchless release midge-caught fish 65 percent of the time.

Step 6. If you see fish “midging” and cannot match the midge, try a Griffith’s gnat dry fly. It will be successful if the fish are looking up, taking midges off the water surface.

Re-tie your leader with 24 inches mono to within about 12 inches of the gnat, then use 6x fluorocarbon to the gnat.

Generally, this small amount of fluorocarbon will not sink the gnat.

(Dave Tucker can be reached by email at tuckerdl@sbcglobal.net.)

Page 10 • May 2018

RiverHillsTraveler.com

May 2018 • Page 11

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Critter of the Month: Virile crayfish

• Species: Virile crayfish (also called the northern crayfish).

• Scientific name: Faxonius virilis.

• Nicknames: Crawdad, crawfish.

• Claim to fame: Virile crayfish are the most commonly found species of crayfish in the Ozarks and throughout much of Missouri.

Crayfish have gained prominence in the Ozarks for several reasons. One is that they are popular bait for anglers who fish Ozarks streams.

The virile crayfish serves as prey for more than 200 aquatic, terrestrial, and avian animals and, thus are valuable food items for a number of food chains.

As far as consumption by humans is concerned, they don’t receive as much publicity as a food item as their larger cousins harvested from commercial farms in Louisiana.

However, Ozarks crayfish can be tasty table fare for those with adventurous palates.

(Check the Wildlife Code of Missouri for regulations pertaining to crayfish.)

• Species status: The native range of the virile crayfish in Missouri was all of the state’s prairie regions in the northern and western parts of the state, as well as the northern and western border of the Ozarks plateau.

However, due to accidental bait-bucket introductions, virile crayfish can now be found throughout most of Missouri.

• First discovered: The first scientific description of the virile crayfish was written in 1870 by the German entomologist Hermann August Hagen.

• Family matters: Virile crayfish belong to the Cambaridae family of crustaceans.

This is the most abundant of the world’s three crayfish families (Astacidae and Parastacidae are the other two), containing more than 70 percent of the world’s freshwater crayfish species.

Crayfish are arthropods and, thus, are in the same phylum as spiders and insects.

However, crayfish are more closely related to shrimps, crabs, lobster and other marine

crustaceans in the order Decapoda, meaning “10-legged.”

The northern crayfish is one of 36 crayfish species found in Missouri.

• Length: The virile crayfish is one of the largest species found in Missouri, measuring between 1.8 inches and 4.9 inches in length.

• Diet: Virile crayfish, which are primarily nocturnal, feed on a variety of plant and animal material, both living and dead.

• Weight: Not available.

• Distinguishing characteristics: Virile crayfish are large reddish-brown or greenishbrown creatures with prominent yellow knobs along the inner margin of their pincers.

The pincers, technically known as chelipeds, are the best-known feature of all crayfish. Pincers (or “pinchers” as they’re sometimes called) assist crayfish in capturing food, self-defense and in social interaction.

• Life span: Approximately three years.

• Habitat: Virile crayfish appear primarily

The redwoods are blooming!

S

pringtime is always beautiful in Missouri. It is like a beginning or rebirth of things that were dormant in the wintertime.

The eastern redbud is one of these trees.

Caesalpiniaceae (sennas) is the family name and sometimes in the Fabaceae (beans, peas) family. It has small clusDana tered, rose-purple flowers covSturgeon ering the bare branches before ———— the leaves.

Eleven Leaves are simple, alternate, Point River 2-6 inches long, 1.25-6 inches wide, oval to heart-shaped, tip-pointed, and leaf stalks are 1.25-5 inches long (smooth).

The bark is reddish brown to gray and smooth.

The flowers are small with 2-8 in a cluster. These beautiful shrubs or small trees bloom in late March to early May. In maturity these redbud trees may grow up to 40 feet tall and 35 feet wide.

Redbud trees are found in open woodland, borders of woods, dolomite glades, and along rocky streams and bluffs.

Landscape planting is also popular with these beautiful trees. The flowers are edible and can be eaten in salads, either raw or pickled. In Mexico, they are fried.

Between the white dogwood and the eastern redbuds, flowering trees in Missouri give our dormant forest colors of springtime!

Next time, enjoy a drive or hike into our Missouri forest to see for yourself.

(Dana Sturgeon lives in southern Missouri. She can be reached at mo_dana@hotmail.com.)

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in streams and are most abundant in those waterways that are fertile, warm, and moderately turbid and have abundant cover in the form of slab rock, logs and organic debris.

• Life cycle: Virile crayfish eggs are laid in mid-March to mid-April. Young are produced from mid-May until mid-June. Fe-

males construct special tunnels in which mating and subsequent care of the eggs and young take place. Maturity in the virile crayfish is not reached until the second year after the creature goes through a series of molts. (source: MDC)

Page 12 • May 2018

RiverHillsTraveler.com

MISSOURI ENDANGERED SPECIES OF THE MONTH

Western prairie fringed orchid

E

ndangered species” is a term often associated with animals but the plight of Missouri’s western prairie fringed orchid shows habitat fragility exists in the plant world, too.

Throughout its range in the central and western U.S., the western prairie fringed orchid has become one of the symbols of North America’s vanishing tallgrass prairie.

Here in the Show-Me state, there’s little to show – the plant which once grew on a number of prairies in western Missouri is now known to exist in only three counties in the northwest part of the state.

It is one of the state’s endangered species and has a federal classification of “threatened.”

How this showy wildflower has become one of the rarest of rare beauties found on Missouri’s prairies is a story of changes that occurred in land uses and landscapes.

Before getting to that, here’s more about the flower.

The western prairie fringed orchid is one of 33 species of orchids native to Missouri. (A 34th species of orchid found in the wild in the state – helleborine – was introduced from Europe.)

The western prairie fringed orchid is a stout, erect perennial that stands 1-4 feet tall. It blooms from mid-June into early July. A single plant can be adorned with up to 20 white to greenish-white flowers.

Each flower has a hood-shaped petal with three deeply fringed lobes and a long nectar spur in back. Its preferred habitat is the moist areas of upland or bottomland prairies.

In a unique twist to plant propagation, the western prairie fringed orchid’s flowers are pollinated at night.

The fragrance they emit at night, coupled with their white color, attracts moths known as “hawk moths” or “sphinx moths” (insect family Sphingidae).

In pre-settlement times, life was

E

ndangered species are specifically designated in the Wildlife Code of Missouri.

Here’s the text from the code: (2) The exportation, transportation, or sale of any endangered species of plant or parts thereof, or the sale of or possession with intent to sell any product made in whole or in part from any parts of any endangered species of plant is prohibited.

(3) For the purpose of this rule, endangered species of wildlife and plants shall include the following native species designated as endangered in

Characteristics What does it look like?

The western prairie fringed orchid is a stout, erect plant ranging from 1-4 feet in height.

Flowers are creamy to greenishwhite. Flowers have hoodshaped petals with three deeply fringed lobes and a long nectar spur in the back.

Blossoms occur in showy clusters at the top of each plant. The flowers are in clusters along the tops of the stems, often with more than 20 flowers per plant. good for Missouri’s western prairie fringed orchids and the moths that pollinated them. More than one-third of the state – approximately 15 million acres – consisted of tallgrass prairie.

As the state became settled, much of the state’s prairie was reduced to cropland and non-native grasses were introduced. These landscape changes greatly reduced the state’s prairie areas.

Today, fewer than 90,000 acres of original prairie remains in Missouri.

That’s less than one percent of the state’s pre-settlement prairie habitat.

This diminishing prairie acreage has meant a drastic reduction in suitable habitat for the western prairie fringed orchid. Like most orchids, the western prairie fringed variety has specific habitat requirements and does not tolerate disturbance.

Transplanting this wildflower to preserve it has never been an option for preservation. Western prairie fringed orchids – like many of North America’s native orchids – have what is known as a mycorrhizal association with the soil.

In a nutshell, what this means is that a specific fungus colonizes the host plant’s root tissues and helps the plant obtain nutrients that it couldn’t get otherwise.

When the soil is dug – or the plant is dug in an attempt to replant it – this fungus-plant relationship is destroyed and the plant doesn’t survive.

Readers may be scratching their heads wondering why it matters whether or not one wildflower species continues to hang on in Missouri or it disappears.

The reason all Missourians should be rooting for the western prairie fringed orchid to hang on to its existence is because it’s not just a matter of a single plant species – it’s about an entire habitat.

As long as this flower exists in the state, it means prairies continue to exist here, too.

This means Missouri’s outdoors are more diverse and with diversity comes advantages like increased amounts of pollinating insects, songbirds, game species and all the other wild elements that make our state so special. (source: MDC)

Nearly gone from Missouri

While running buffalo clover has not disappeared completely from Missouri, this plant that was grazed upon by bison is gone from virtually everywhere it once grew in the state.

Though not a prairie plant (it grows in partial shade along creeks and small river bottoms), running buffalo clover was one of the plants that helped sustain a prairie species – the bison – in pre-settlement Missouri.

Prior to 1990, it was thought this perennial had completely disappeared from the state as a naturally occurring plant until it was found growing in the wild in a a few locations.

The actions and seasonal movements of large herbivores such as bison, elk and deer created sparsely wooded habitat in some areas and this provided the right mix of sun and shade for this plant.

Bison also spread the plant by consuming the seed heads and “planting” the seed at new locations in manure deposits.

The elimination of these factors, along with the invasion of exotic plant species and the introduction of agriculture, are thought to be primary reasons why running buffalo clover has nearly vanished from Missouri and is now classified as an endangered species in the state.

Platanthera praeclara

The western prairie fringed orchid belongs to the Orchidaceae family – a group of plant species commonly known as “the orchid family.” The orchid family is one of the two largest flowering plant families in the world (the other being Asteraceae, “the asters”).

Common characteristics all orchids share are bilateral symmetry of the flowers, multiple upside-down (resupinate) flowers per plant, fused stamens and carpels, and extremely small seeds.

Where is it found?

The western prairie fringed orchid was originally found across the tallgrass prairie habitat that once spanned large areas of the central and western U.S. Today, the plant is declining in all parts of its range. In Missouri, it is presently found in Atchison, Holt and Harrison counties. (source: MDC)

WILDLIFE CODE OF MISSOURI Missouri: (A) Mammals: Gray bat, Ozark big-eared bat, Indiana bat, northern long-eared bat, black-tailed jackrabbit, spotted skunk.

(B) Birds: Northern harrier, interior least tern, Swainson’s warbler, snowy egret, king rail, Bachman’s sparrow, peregrine falcon, American bittern, greater prairie-chicken.

(C) Reptiles: Western chicken turtle, Blanding’s turtle, Illinois mud turtle, yellow mud turtle, Mississippi green water snake, massasauga rattlesnake. (D) Amphibians: eastern hell-

bender, Ozark hellbender.

(E) Fishes: Lake sturgeon, pallid sturgeon, taillight shiner, Neosho madtom, spring cavefish, harlequin darter, goldstripe darter, cypress minnow, central mudminnow, crystal darter, swamp darter, Ozark cavefish, Niangua darter, Sabine shiner, mountain madtom, redfin darter, longnose darter, flathead chub, Topeka shiner, grotto sculpin.

(F) Mussels: Curtis pearlymussel, Higgins’ eye, pink mucket, fat pocketbook, ebonyshell, elephant ear, winged mapleleaf, sheepnose, snuffbox,

scaleshell, spectaclecase, Neosho mucket, rabbitsfoot, salamander mussel, slippershell mussel.

(G) Other Invertebrates: American burying beetle, Hine’s emerald dragonfly, Tumbling Creek cavesnail.

(H) Plants: Small whorled pogonia, Mead’s milkweed, decurrent false aster, Missouri bladderpod, geocarpon, running buffalo clover, pondberry, eastern prairie fringed orchid, western prairie fringed orchid, Virginia sneezeweed. (source: MDC)

May 2018 • Page 13

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Yearning for the days of old

W

hen I was 13-years-old my parents took me, my sister, Grampa J.D. and Mickey out

west.

I will never forget my Grampa J.D. saying several times during our time out west that he wouldn’t trade all this country with one acre of Ripley County land.

He would say how he couldn’t wait to get back to Ripley County.

One day my grampa said that he and many of his friends went to war in the South Pacific, and he beamed with pride as he spoke of the fine land and water that we had here in Ripley County.

Richard The pride that my Whiteside grampa had for our ———— Ripley County and Current country was something I did not understand when I was 13-years-old.

Stacking square bails in the hot days of the summer, we would cool off in the old well house and my grampa would say we were standing over millions of dollars of water.

Again, I did not understand as I was just a kid.

The pride that he exhibited was something that always caused me to be curious, and I searched for answers as I grew older.

Growing up along the shoals and hills of the Ozarks, I rambled like your average dumb kid.

The day of understanding would come, but time and experiences had to

Charles Bowman (left) and Klenn Wiley, an old-timer that knew every nook and crevus in the county.

first happen.

Years later I was one day standing in my barber shop and two men by the names of Charles Bowman and Eugene Braschler walked in and strong-armed me out the door and down the street to a meeting.

Both men were my customers. I pleaded with them that I was not the man, nor was I qualified, to be apart of some board that had to do with history and heritage of this county.

These two men that are no longer with us insisted that, in fact, I was the very person they wanted on the board.

Feeling too young and out of place, I would attend the meetings but would sit silently while!others would speak.

After a few years both men pulled up at the same time. They walked in with a firm look on both of their faces.

I knew there was a problem instantly.

These men were way, way up in years. I did not know it then but in just a few years they would forever be gone

from the home they loved so much.

The pride they exhibited for their county and its history was identical to my Grampa J.D.’s.

They came in and sat down, and asked me to sit across from them.

Needless to say, I was concerned. Gene was the first to speak.

He asked me if I remembered the day when they came in to basically strongarm me down the road to the board and I said, yes.

Charles spoke and told me that ever since that day I have sat on that board in silence. Gene told me that wasn’t why they insisted I be on the board.

They both preceded to explain to me that they knew my thoughts and my bloodline, and sitting silent was no longer acceptable.

They insisted that from that moment forward I was to speak my mind, otherwise they said that their decision for me to be on the board was of no account.

That was years ago. I often think about the men that have passed on in our country. Times have changed so much.

No longer do I see the rich pride of Ripley County. The old times and old ways have been replaced with new ways.

The board is now mostly filled with folks that have moved in from somewhere else. Their understanding is not like the understanding of my grampa, or Charles and Eugene.

What was important enough for these men to die for is no longer enough to even discuss. The old blood, the old days and the old ways have been replaced with new blood and new ways.

The old handmade wooden john

3 Th T ings You Can Do to Help

Mon narchs AND Pollinators 1

Plant Naatives

Common Comm m on milkw milkweed kweed

Showy Sho owyy golde goldenrod enrrod

Native plants are a food source for monarch butterflies and other pollinators. Add these plants to your landscape:

2

eep it Blooming

Keep something in bloom each season. Some species bloom all year, others only in April and May, still others in July and August. Learn more at mdc.mo.gov/monarch.

3

Get Invoolved

Protect native grasslands, provide nesting places, and become a wildlife gardener. To learn how, visit GrowNative.org.

New England New Engl glaand asteer

Prairie Pra a irii e blazing blaa zing star s taa r

Wiild ld bbergamot berrgaa m ot

Eugene Braschler.

boats and tie rafts have been replaced with rainbow flags. They have been replaced with walls for grieving and crying.

The rich history of the county is rapidly leaving. The roots of our Ozark heritage are all but gone and being replaced with something new.

I now know what my grampa meant when he said he wouldn’t trade all of the west for one acre of Current Country. My heart aches for the old days.

Oh, how I wish for just a little of the old ways of the Ozarkers that have passed on.

(Richard Whiteside lives in Doniphan, Mo., and can be reached at rlwhiteside72@gmail.com. His blog can be followed at www.ozarkriverman.wordpress. com.)

Page 14 • May 2018

T

he following account is mostly true although somewhat embellished but does conform to rules for stories told around the campfire.

Our family has been an outdoors bunch for years. Usually the outdoor experience involved water.

We have water-skied, went swimming, diving, snorkeling, fishing, boating and camped near the water almost all the time.

A few times we even left the comfort of our house while it was raining Saturday morning, drove to a campsite near the water, set up camp in the rain and stayed out in the rain the whole weekend. We drove home and unpacked wet gear on Sunday night.

My dad was a great inventor; he made a camping trailer out of a boat trailer. The boat would sit on the trailer he built, all the camping equipment would set in the boat, and a removable lid would cover the boat and equipment to protect everything.

When we got to the camp we unloaded the camping equipment from the Bob Brennecke ———— boat, put the boat in the water and begin the set-up of the camping trailer.

Dad used the bottom of the trailer as the floor of the camper, set the removable lids on poles to make a roof and discarded parachutes were used to wrap the walls.

There was an awning that was attached to the side of the trailer-top that made an awning which made a good place to cook, eat or just get out of the sun.

This was a part of our family for many years and I get nostalgic just thinking back on all the good times we had.

We went camping and fishing with some German friends of our family for years. Their name was Frenz. Yes, our friends’ name were Frenz; the father Carl, the mother Ruth, the children Tom, George, and Melissa.

We all grew up together. George and Tom were in Boy scouts with my brother, Luke, and me. Melissa was always there with us, a cute tomboy that would do anything we would do.

One campout we went on a float trip.

Luke and I were in a canvas-covered Old Town canoe my dad owned when he was a young man and Tom, George, and Melissa were in another canoe.

While we were running a shoot on the river there were many overhanging tree branches sticking out from the bank. As we passed by these thick branches, Luke’s glasses got brushed

It’s great to have a brother Especially when we have stories like this to tell

off his head.

Since the water was so swift and deep, and there was no area to pull over to retrieve the glasses, we continued down the river and back to camp.

When we returned to camp Luke told his story of how he lost his glasses.

Mom and Dad took Luke’s bad luck pretty well, after all accidents happen and Luke did need glasses to be able to function.

The Monday after the camping trip Mom ordered his glasses and by Friday he was wearing a new pair.

Two weekends after the float trip we went to Clearwater Lake near Piedmont, Mo., to go camping and waterskiing.

Luke was always better at water-skiing than I was, I guess because his butt wasn’t as big as mine.

I had a hard time getting out of the water but once I did, I was OK. Luke said that he wanted to go first this time and threw the skis into the water and followed them with a dive from the side of the boat into the water.

When he came to the surface of the water the first thing he gasped to us was, “Are my glasses in the boat?”

Well, we looked and looked and found no glasses.

Needless to say, my dad was not overcome with joy knowing that another new pair of glasses would need to be ordered Monday.

The glasses came in again for the weekend and Luke and I went camping with the Boy Scouts, this time in the woods at Beaumont Scout Camp near St Louis.

His glasses only got bent and scratched when he was swinging on a vine in the woods, but at least he did come home with them this time.

A few weeks later the Brennecke and the Frenz families went camping and fishing together again. While George and Luke were fishing amongst the standing dead trees in the water, George smacked Luke inside of the face with his fishing lure while casting.

Luckily, the hooks did not imbed into Luke’s head or eye when the lure hit

his face, but unfortunately the lure did pull his glasses off, dropping then into about 20 feet of water.

Luke was afraid to go back to camp without his glasses, so Tom and I went back to camp to get a diving mask for the retrieval of the glasses.

When we got back to the spot where the glasses had dropped into the depths, we took turns diving down between the limbs of the tree to see if we could find them.

Since it was fairly deep we conserved our energy by pulling ourselves down deeper by grabbing the limbs of the tree as we went down.

There were two big disadvantages to this method of getting to the bottom of the lake.

First disadvantage was, as we grabbed the branches to pull ourselves down, puffs of silt and waterlogged bark filled the water making it nearly impossible to see where we going.

Second disadvantage was, since it was so deep we tried to stay down there as long as possible to look for the glasses, and this made us out of breath and wanting to come up fast to get oxygen.

The limbs that helped us get to the bottom were hindering our ascent. Not only could we not see in the water, the limbs forced us to wiggle through the maze above us to get to the surface so we could breath.

We all worked hard trying to find the glasses for the rest of the day and I don’t know why anyone wasn’t drowned because of the adverse conditions.

By that afternoon Luke was sick to his stomach knowing he was going to have to admit another pair of his glasses was gone.

When we returned to camp and the bomb was dropped about the loss of the glasses, Dad did a lot of swearing and said that if he was going to buy another pair of glasses for Luke he was going to sheet metal screw the glasses to his head.

Things did calm down when we told everyone how it happened and the ex-

RiverHillsTraveler.com tensive search we all went through to retrieve the glasses.

Since Luke was on his fourth set of glasses that summer he was very careful not to wear them around water... until we went to Bluff View at Clearwater Lake with the Scouts.

While camping across from the bluff a group of scouts, along with Luke, went over to the bluffs to explore what looked like a cave on the face of the bluff.

When they were about halfway across the lake, I decided to go, too. By the time I had arrived at the bluff, Luke and the rest of the scouts had decided that it was just a shallow inlet and was not a cave.

While climbing back down, someone decided it would be a lot easier to jump into the water from where they were, rather than climb down.

One by one they each jumped and made quite a splash. Just as Luke was ready to jump, I yelled, “Don’t jump with your glasses on!”

Man, he almost forgot about his glasses again.

Luke then took his glasses off and said, “Here catch.”

I said, “Noooo” as they left his hand.

The glasses looked like they were going to be short of me being able to reach them. I stood up in the canoe and reached out to grab the glasses.

I lost my balance and fell into the water at the same time the glasses hit the water.

When I entered the water I thought I would be able to out-swim the downward fluttering of the specks. I swam deeper and deeper, losing the race as I was also losing my breath.

The glasses then fluttered toward the rock bluff and precariously perched on the edge of a small shelf about six inches wide in about 20 five feet of water.

I carefully snatched them up and stuck them in my swimming suit and rushed to the surface.

After I gasped my first breath of air after surfacing, I yelled, “Your Screwed” (or words to that effect).

I could see his expression of despair as he entered the water near my canoe, and then surfaced.

He then said, “What am I going to do? I am not going home this time.”

I left him stew about the problem while we paddled back to camp to eat lunch. While Luke was eating lunch I slipped into his tent and put his glasses on his sleeping bag.

When he put his mess kit back into his tent, he found the glasses and was angry and happy at the same time.

Boy, it is great to have a brother.

(Bob Brennecke lives in Ballwin, Mo., and can be reached at robertbrennecke@hotmail.com.)

May 2018 • Page 15

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Taking a closer look at the movie, ‘Deliverance’

I

think every single time I have gone on a canoe trip with my buddies in the Ozarks since 1972, sooner or later, someone jokes about hearing a banjo.

They are referring to a scene from the movie, “Deliverance.”

This persistent joke is not really intended as a comment about people living in the Ozarks; it is, instead, an ongoing recognition that for many of us the movie “Deliverance” was and still is a very powerful film, one that we can’t easily forget — even after 45 years.

“Deliverance” is not a “chick-flick.”

It is a “guy-flick” and it is a “guyflick” for a lot of reasons.

Many of us have taken that ill-advised trip into the wilderness just to prove our “manhood.” And we all know people who are exactly like the characters in the movie.

In short, we can relate. While some guys are offended by the movie, in my opinion, most are not.

The movie was released in 1972. It was nominated for an Oscar as Best Picture of 1972 by Bill the Academy Hoagland Awards folks that ———— year and, frankly, would have won but for the fact that “The Godfather” was released the same year and it won the award.

As memorable as “Deliverance” has been for many of us, there are probably things about the movie, the actors and where it was filmed that might surprise you.

So, here are some things you might not know about “Deliverance”: • The director for this film, John Boorman, was British, not American.

He had spent some time in the United States before doing this movie, but not a lot.

The fact that a Brit would even attempt to do a movie about Southern Appalachian culture is remarkable in itself, but I think he nailed it.

And Boorman, as director, was somewhat handicapped by the fact that this was a low-budget film. This meant he could not go out and hire the bestknown actors for the major roles in the movie.

Both Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson wanted to play the lead role of Lewis, which was eventually awarded to Bert Reynolds, but Brando and Nicholson each wanted too much money and because this was a lowbudget film, they could not be hired.

Actually, Reynolds was a perfect fit for this role, with his alpha-dog personality and physical appearance to match.

I am glad he got the part instead of Brando or Nicholson. He was believable.

In fact, Reynolds was so macho on the set that he insisted on doing his stunts, including the scene in which his canoe breaks up in the rapids. He actually fractured his coccyx (tailbone) while doing that particular scene.

• The plot for the film was based on a novel and screenplay written by James Dickey, a brilliant but controversial college professor and novelist who, in real life, had a serious alcohol problem.

His personal life and his trouble with

(L-r) Ronny Cox, Ned Beatty, Bert Reynolds, and Jon Voight.

the bottle are detailed in a tell-all book written by his own son which is entitled “Summer of Deliverance,” and which describes Dickey’s conduct on the set.

At the outset of the filming of the movie, Dickey and his son, then 16 years old, were on the set every day until Dickey became so drunk and obnoxious that he was permanently ordered off the set by Boorman.

They finally compromised and as a part of that compromise, Dickey was given a part in the movie.

He played the inquisitive sheriff at the end of the film and despite his drinking problems, he was very effective in that role.

• The lead role went to Bert Reynolds, who at that time had been on some television programs but was essentially an unknown actor as far as movies were concerned.

Reynolds was originally a stunt man in Hollywood who eventually worked his way into acting. Despite his inexperience as an actor, his performance in this movie may have been his best.

Jon Voight was the only recognizable “name” actor in the film; he was a good fit in the role of “Ed,” the passive, wide-eyed suburbanite friend of “Lewis” who winds up having to lead the men out of the wilderness.

Ronny Cox played “Drew,” who plays the guitar in the duet with “banjo boy” on the porch of the cottage at the outset of the movie.

Cox thinks he got the role only because he actually could play the guitar.

One sidelight about Cox is that he is double-jointed.

In the film, he drowns and his body is later found downstream by the others. His body is grotesquely wrapped around a log. This is not trick photography. The image is due to the fact that Cox is double-jointed and able to look so contorted without much effort.

The final actor in the gang of four was Ned Beatty, who will be forever remembered for his role as “Bobby,” who in the film learns “how to squeal like a pig.”

Beatty had always been a stage actor — actually a part-time Shakespearean actor — and this was his first movie role, but what a memorable first role to have!

The “squeal like a pig” line, by the way, was not in the original script; the actors came up with this line as they were rehearsing that scene in the woods.

• The two mountain men were played

by Bill McKinney, a tree surgeon and

part-time actor from California, and Herbert “Cowboy” Coward, the toothless sidekick.

McKinney did a wonderful job playing “dead” in the scene where the men are trying to decide what to do with his body.

According to the director, McKinney never moved or flinched during this scene despite the fact that bugs and mosquitos were swarming his face and body. (If it were up to Boorman, McKinney would have received a academy award for playing dead.)

As for Coward, he was a friend of Reynolds and had worked with Reynolds as a rodeo clown at a dude ranch in North Carolina. The sidekick role required someone with no teeth and Reynolds suggested Coward.

Coward actually has a speech defect.

He talks with a terrible stutter but he only had one line in the movie — a memorable one at that — and he was able to pull it off without stuttering.

• And now we come to “banjo boy,” played by Billy Redden. This is the kid on the porch with the banjo.

At the time of casting, which took place in Clayton, Georgia, Redden was a local 16-year-old high school kid. He had a rather odd appearance as a teenager and although he is mentally “normal,” he certainly did not look it.

He was selected for the role, frankly, because his appearance suggested that he was the result of some in-breeding.

Despite how it looked in the movie, Redden was not really playing the banjo himself. The left hand and arm was actually that of another teenager who could play the banjo.

This teenager was positioned behind Redden, hidden from the camera and working the strings with his left hand.

Redden was paid $500 for his performance in the movie, which seems like a pittance in light of the impact that his performance had.

Today, Redden still lives in Clayton and works at the local Walmart but presumably not as a “greeter.” He also still receives a royalty payment of about $25 every six months for his role in the movie.

• Because this was a low-budget movie, the actors had to do the stunts themselves.

For example, when Voight climbed the bluff to kill the shooter on top, that is not a stunt man going up the cliff; that is Voight doing it himself.

And when they are lowering the shooter’s body down by a rope after Voight kills him, that is actually Coward being lowered on the rope, not a

stunt man or a phony body.

Oddly enough, when they began filming, the only person who knew how to paddle a canoe was Ned Beatty, so the director had his hands full when they were filming on the water.

The director was so concerned about the dangers of the river that he hired a professional diver to be present during the whitewater scenes.

In fact, Beatty fell out of one of the canoes and nearly drowned during one of those scenes.

• The river depicted in the film is the Chattooga River (except for one river scene that was filmed elsewhere).

Located in the northeast corner of Georgia, the Chattooga begins in the North Carolina mountains and flows southeast through Georgia.

It constitutes the border between Georgia and South Carolina for about 40 miles. In the space of that 40 miles, the Chattooga drops more than 2,000 feet through several rock canyons and in spots is a Class V stream even at normal water levels.

Back in 1971, when they were filming on the Chattooga, it was still a remote stream that very few people had heard of.

But since then, and primarily because of the film, the Chattooga has become the most popular rafting and kayaking stream in the south.

Unfortunately, it is extremely dangerous despite its popularity. In fact, since 1972, more than 40 people have drowned in those portions of the river that were depicted in the movie.

To be sure, some of those deaths occurred because floaters were careless but some deaths occurred during professional rafting trips, when whitewater life jackets, helmets and whitewater rafts were being used and when drownings are not supposed to occur.

• In 1974, Congress passed legislation making the Chattooga River a “Wild and Scenic River,” similar to the designations for the Current River and the Eleven Point River.

Under the rules for the Chattooga, there can be no motorized vehicles or development within a quarter-mile of the stream and there are significant restrictions on where you can float and when you can float.

I have been to see the Chattooga twice — once to trout fish with a buddy from Atlanta. and once with Annie, my wife, to walk the trails that border the river.

It is a beautiful place and reminds me of the Upper Jacks Forks in Missouri.

No, I did not hear any banjos while I was there but believe me, I was listening.

(Bill Hoagland has practiced law for more than 50 years in Madison County, Ill., and lives in the Alton area. He and his wife, Annie, have been outdoor enthusiasts all of their lives. He can be reached at billhoagland70@gmail. com.)

Billy Redden

Page 16 • May 2018

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Commission issues fines, suspensions

The Missouri Conservation Commission met on Thursday, April 5, and suspended or revoked one or more hunting, fishing, or trapping privileges of 38 individuals for cause: • Justin R. Angermeier, Clinton, all sports, one year; • David H. Berry, Sr., Everton, all sports, lifetime; • David H. Berry Jr., Everton, all sports, lifetime; • Ridge E. Betke, Salem, hunting, one year; • Bailey Brown, Miller, hunting, three years; • Matthew E. Byler, Weatherby, hunting, one year; • Tyler Carmichael, Boonville, hunting and trapping, one year; • Robert Cave, Excelsior Springs, hunting, one year; • Bryan S. Densmore, Springfield, hunting, three years; • George Douglas, Fair Grove, hunting, five years; • Steven Eason, El Dorado Springs, hunting, one year; • Ernest Gage, Blytheville (Arkansas), hunting, one year;

• James Gay, Raymore, hunting, one year; • Craig Gilmore, Springfield, all sport, must comply with Colorado requirements; • Anthony W. Gray, Chillicothe, all sports, one year; • Shane A. Green, Macks Creek, all sports, one year; • Dustin Hill, Buffalo, hunting, one year; • Christopher J. Janda, Santa Fe, hunting and fishing, one year; • Timothy Johnston, Macon, hunting, one year; • Zachery W. Kelley, Pittsburg, all sports, one year; • Morgan Celeste Long, Kansas City, all sports, must comply with Kansas requirements; • Seth M. Neeley, Camdenton, hunting, three years; • Robert C. Ostrander, Louisiana, hunting and fishing, one year; • Charles N. Phillips, Holts Summit, fishing, one year; • Jevan Pierce, Dexter, hunting, one year; • Ken Polm, Cabool, hunting, two years; • Donald E. Potter, Fair Play, hunting and fishing, two years; • Sabian Salais, Dixon, hunting, three

years; • Benton D. Simpson, St. Joseph, all sports, two years; • William F. Stephens, Clinton, all sports, one year; • James Story, Maitland (Florida), hunting, one year; • Doug T. Tiefenthaler, Salem, hunting, 13 years; • Mark B. Vollintine, St. Joseph, all sports, one year; • Lawrence A. VonRuden, Steele, all sports, must comply with Wisconsin requirements; • Kristofer Wilson, Neosho, hunting, one year; • Mathew B. Watson, Purdy, hunting,

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three years; • Robert A. Williams, Hermitage, hunting, three years; and • Kobe A. Hubbert, East Prairie, hunting, Revoked until 2/2/2019.

• Suspended or revoked all hunting and fishing privileges of 259 individuals who are not in compliance with applicable child support laws.

• Suspended or revoked one or more hunting, fishing, and trapping privileges of 483 individuals in accordance with the terms of the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact.

• Reinstated privileges of one individual.

READER PHOTO After the cold spell lifted, all the bucks came out to feed mid-day and seemed to be yarded up Jan. 7 on this property near Ste. Genevieve, Mo. One had already shed both antlers while a couple others had shed one with one remaining.

(Photo courtesy Roger Smith)

May 2018 • Page 17

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Great fishing & scenery at Blue Springs Creek

I

am, without any doubt whatsoever, partial to the trout fishing waters at Montauk State Park. That’s where I caught my first trout 50 years ago.

That’s where our family camped when our kids were little and the place holds many fond memories.

I hope I’m not sounding boastful when I say there’s not a spot on that stream that’s in the boundary of the park that I haven’t cast my line.

However, Missouri offers a host of other trout fishing streams of which the fly fisherman should take advantage.

Along with the trout parks at Montauk, Roaring River, Bennett Springs and Maramec Springs, there are several other interesting spots that shouldn’t be overlooked.

My wife and I veered from our normal trout routine at Montauk State Park and decided to try something different and headed for Blue Springs Creek in Crawford County.

I had fished this creek once before about 30 years ago and my memory of that experience was very vague, so this was like fishing an entirely new place for me.

According to everything that I Bill Oder read online about ———— this creek, it is very unique in that it boasts a self-sustaining trout population. Rainbow trout were stocked here once and since then they have been reproducing on their own.

So you are dealing with “wild” trout here as opposed to the hatchery bred fish that one encounters at the trout parks.

The Missouri Department of Conservation labels all trout fishing areas in the state with designations of Blue Ribbon, Red Ribbon or White Ribbon.

Each color dictates the daily limit of fish caught in these areas along with length limits.

Blue Springs Creek has a Blue Ribbon designation which allows for only one fish to be kept, and it must be at least 18 inches in length.

The stream itself flows through the Blue Springs Creek Conservation Area which encompasses 859 acres in Crawford County. It is all fishable except at its origin, which is located on private property at Camp Mihaska, a facility I understand that is sponsored by the Salvation Army.

I understand that there are four springs on the private property. Four miles of the stream flow on public property, though, before it empties into the Meramec River.

The conservation department says that the springs provide a flow of about 4-7 million gallons of water a day, which seems to me to be a lot of water but the stream itself is quite small.

With all that water, you would think the end result would be a very big stream. Still, it is a beautiful stream; what spring fed stream isn’t.

There’s a lot of riffles and a lot of sound of running water. I’m a big fan of that sound.

We enjoyed the day tremendously even though there were only a few very small (in the 4-5 inch category) fish caught. Hardly anything that required a tape measure or a photo or a search in the phonebook for the taxidermist’s

number.

Of course, we didn’t fish the whole four miles of the stream that was available to us and maybe we weren’t at the right spots but I don’t think we were too far off.

Information online had warned us that “wild” trout can be extremely wary so perhaps our fish stalking skills need some honing.

I tried to keep a low profile and be as sneaky as I was able to, but still could not come up with any decent fish.

On one of the conservation department’s websites about this creek I had read that the stream had been adversely affected by the floods of 2015 and 2017.

They said the spawning success had been diminished and that trout of less than 12 inches will make up the biggest part of any fish caught, but were hopeful that trout of greater than 15 inches could be caught in 2018.

Of course, this was written before the floods of this year. I spoke to one local resident, who admitted to not being a fisherman, who said the entire area was flooded earlier this spring and believed that probably had an effect on the fishing.

His theory was that the trout were all washed away downstream into the Meramec. That’s possible, I suppose.

There’s a lot of tree limbs on both sides of the stream, so you unquestionably have to watch your back casting.

Take my word for it, there’s a lot of places to get hung up. Bring plenty of flies and a good supply of tippet material because it will be needed.

We found the area easy to find. Just a few miles off of Interstate 44 at Bourbon, Mo. Exit there on Highway N and go south. You will note Camp Mihaska on the right first, just a couple of miles south of town and then shortly after on the left you will see a small parking area with all the signs furnishing important information for the fly fisherman.

Porous-soled wading boots aren’t allowed. Fishing is legal at this area all year. There is no night fishing allowed and the area is closed from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

No camping or open fires allowed.

Only artificial flies and lures can be used. No live bait or plastics.

A little further down Highway N, there’s a turnoff to the left that crosses over the creek and goes all the way to the Meramec River. We found a parking spot along that road, also.

There is no road sign for this road but I’m pretty sure it’s Blue Springs Road.

Further down Highway N you will find a larger parking spot, also on the left.

When fishing conservation areas like this, you will be reminded of just how handy the trout parks are, in that they offer convenient access to restrooms, nearby restaurants, campgrounds with all kinds of modern conveniences,

stores where shelves are stocked with all kinds of gear for both the fisherman and the camper and oh, did I mention RESTROOMS? The only amenity you will find at Blue Springs Creek are the parking areas…no restrooms, but a lot of trees.

The best part of the day was the warm temperature. The weatherman was correct in his prediction of a warm, sunny day. The thermometer in the car read 85 degrees.

We had taken sweatshirts as a precaution but were not needed. It’s always better to have too many clothes than not enough.

Like I said, the stream is beautiful. I reached down and touched the water as soon as we arrived and found it to be icy cold.

We did see some dogwood blooming but not in full swing yet. Didn’t see any red bud. I found a patch of some small pinkish flowers that were really showing off.

I noticed a lot of bird sounds but I’m not an expert on matching the kind of bird with its song.

The sky maintained its brilliant blue all day with not a cloud so we were able to soak up some wonderful sunshine which is always nice after a long winter.

All in all, it was a nice day. An advantage of being retired — sorry I don’t mean to rub that in if you’re still working — is that my wife and I are able to cherry-pick nice days during the entire week for our fishing trips.

Almost all of our trips are made during the week. Crowds are avoided and we experience no difficulty in finding lodging.

When you retire you will find that every week consists of six Saturdays and one Sunday. Again, I don’t mean to rub that in.

A trip to this place, even if you’re not a fisherman, wouldn’t be considered wasted time because this is such a beautiful area.

Be sure to bring your camera because you will see some marvelous Missouri scenery.

(Bill Oder can be reached at oderbill@yahoo.com.)

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STORES from 1 front and you could actually buy gas (if you dared).

But we could stop in and pick up nails of any size, the old fella would fix us up a sandwich, we’d grab a cold Pepsi, sit out on the porch and enjoy lunch before we continued on down to work on our old deer stands or headed to the local fishing hole.

Another was a little country store in French Village. If you blinked you would miss the town, but you could stop in to grab a fresh-made sandwich.

While it was being prepared you could browse over the small selection of guns and fishing gear, then grab a cold pop, a bag of chips and retreat to the porch to enjoy your fare with a beautiful view.

It was also the local Post Office for a town of maybe 30 people as a lot of these little shops were.

As kids of 8 or 9 we also had a little store run by a little old widow woman and she’d tell us kids she was ready for a mess of fish.

So, we’d go over to a local pond and catch a stringer of the biggest Black Perch and she’d buy them from us, even clean them herself and boy, were we walking in tall cotton.

It didn’t seem like you could drive through any rural area without coming up on one of these little stores. Most had an old bench or two out front for folks to enjoy a sandwich, and usually you’d have the regulars there swapping tales, and you could listen in on for entertainment.

Now, if you presented yourself just right and got on these fellas’ good side,

MONAW from 1 views stated were not accurate. They downplayed this beautifully displayed and extensive collection.

I can safely say that this gem in Bentonville exceeded my expectations.

The MONAH tour goes through time, starting with the Paleo Period. Each individual on the tour is given an audio wand. By pressing the numbers found on certain exhibits, individuals can listen to information about that artifact. There are also short films at various points of the tour.

Fun fact: I learned what an atlatl is. I had no idea that this precursor to the bow and arrow was once used to bring down mammoths.

I was so interested by this information that I soon found myself looking up YouTube videos of atlatls in action.

Even at the age of 44 I am learning new things and hope my education never stops!

While St. Louis is closer to me than the Ozarks are, I really do hope to revisit this part of the country again sooner than later. Perhaps I will even get a moment where there’s some sunshine!

they might just share where that honey hole was down by the willows, or how deep the crappie were at the moment, whether the white bass had started running yet or not, and maybe point you to a good patch of morels.

But they really had to take a liking to you to give up that secret information.

And I imagine, on occasion, they’d send you on a wild goose chase then snicker as you drove away.

We had a couple of these places here in the small town where I grew up. One was named Korner Market where I bought my very first cane pole, bobbers and hooks and headed for the local pond.

Another was Hare’s Store, which had a big pot belly stove right in the middle of the store. You could stand around that old thing on those cold winter days and learn a lesson or two if you perked up your ears.

Most of them had a musty smell to them and that scent lingers with me today. I’ll never forget, as I got a little I can safely say that rain or shine, I will find my way back to MONAH. It is a place worth revisiting.

If you would like to learn more, visit them online at monah.us or call them at (479) 273-2456. MONAH is open Monday through Saturday, 9 to 5. Admission is free and it is handicap accessible.

They are located on 202 SW O Street in Bentonville, Arkansas.

(Michelle Turner lives in Union, Mo.)

older an old-timer asked me if I had ever fished for white bass, which I hadn’t at the time.

He said, “Son, when the flowers on a forsythia bush get as big as a mouse’s ear, the white bass will start running for their spawn and that’s the time to get them.”

Here in the Leadbelt we had a little store named Honbecks which is now long gone, but they fixed the best coldcut sandwich you ever had.

In high school that was where I spent most of my lunch periods, along with a lot of other students. They had turkey calls and they didn’t mind if you picked them up and scratched out a few yelps on one.

Like a lot of the others, they had a mix of a little bit of everything along with a good atmosphere and a good conversation offered up.

Now a bare little gravel parking lot stands where that thriving business once was.

The majority of those little stores and

shops are a thing of the past, just a memory in our mind and a part of history to pass on to the younger generations.

The big retail chains came in, opened up and the smaller shops just couldn’t compete.

And these days, if you don’t feel like driving to Bass Pro or similar, you just go online and order what you need.

Most of the old buildings were torn down to make way for more modern buildings. A few remain that time is trying to push down, turned into a Friday night auction house.

But, if you’re lucky while driving out an old winding road you will come up on one of these little places that still has an open sign in the window and if you do, please don’t drive on by.

Stop in, get a smile, soak up some of the last of an era and help a small business keep the lights on.

I know when I pass one I feel like a kid on Christmas morning, can’t wait to get inside and browse around while making conversation with whomever is behind the counter.

I always spend a little, always buy a cold soda, chat about the local area and 9 times out of 10 I’ll pick up a container of worms, just because I can.

When I pass places where one once stood and is no longer, it saddens me, but if I’ve learned any lesson over my life it’s that time goes on, changes take place and there’s no stopping it.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t still hold those little shops dear to your heart.

(Roger Smith lives in Bonne Terre, Mo., and can be reached at n0uss@yahoo.com)

May 2018 • Page 19

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RIFLE from 1 with very large beasts such as bison, grizzly bears and elk.

Brothers Samuel and Jacob Hawken were trained by their father as rifle gunsmiths, building long-rifles. The brothers formed a partnership around 1820 and set up a rifle shop roughly where the Gateway Arch stands today.

Jacob and Samuel saw the need for a different muzzleloading rifle to satisfy the requirements of the fur trappers and explorers of the west.

They developed a rifle that would have a 36- to 38-inch octagon-shaped barrel featuring a slow rifling twist and typically .50-caliber or .54-caliber, but could go as high as .68-caliber.

The ammunition would typically be the lead round ball bullet. The rifle’s action would be a sidelock, early production would be flintlock, and later production would be caplock.

This rifle is what their customers needed — a muzzle-loading rifle capable of knocking down big animals. They called their muzzle-loading rifles, “Rocky Mountain” rifles.

The Hawkens did not mass-produce their rifles but rather made each one by hand.

Some of the special features of their new “Rocky Mountain” rifle was the larger caliber with a shorter barrel and a weight of about 10.5 pounds. The shorter barrel made it much easier to shoot from the back of a horse.

The walnut or maple stocks had a curved cheek piece, often looking like a beaver’s tail and thus, it was nicknamed that.!

They tended to have!double triggers.

The rear trigger is a “set” trigger; when the rear trigger is pulled, the hammer does not fall but rather the action “sets” the front trigger, the front trigger becoming a “hair trigger,” tripped with a light touch.

In many examples, when the front trigger is used without using the rear “set” trigger, it requires a firm pull and others require the trigger to be set before the front trigger will drop the hammer at all.

The front sight was a!blade sight. Unlike many modern reproductions, the butt plate and other trim was not made of brass, but of iron.

These special features and the attention to detail established the J&S Hawken rifle reputation for both accuracy, ease of use and dependability.

Jacob and Samuel Hawken also produced light sporting rifles, shotguns, and pistols.!

Initially the brothers made their own barrels at their forge near St. Louis with the help of hired workers, but later they followed the trend of buying factorymade barrels, which enabled them to increase production.!

Locks were both made in the Hawken shop and purchased from other sources, while stocking operations were most likely carried out by the brothers and their employees.

The heyday of the original Hawken was undoubtedly the late 1840’s and the 1850’s, the period of the Great Western migration to Oregon, Utah, and California.!

The demand for the Hawken brothers rifles during this period made these their most prolific years.

Although popular with mountain men and hunters of the fur trade era, up through the middle part of the 19th century,!muzzleloaders were generally replaced by mass-produced,! breech-loading weapons! such as the! Sharps rifle! and

the!Winchester rifle.

Samuel Hawken continued to operate the business after Jacob’s death in the cholera epidemic of 1849.!In addition to his business ventures, Samuel was also active in the civic affairs of his adopted hometown, both serving on the fire department and, on at least one occasion, he was a candidate for mayor of St. Louis.!

Samuel continued producing these quality rifles until the late 1850’s. In the early 1860’s ownership transferred to J.P. Gemmer, who held true to tradition and maintained the “Hawken” quality until the shop closed in 1915.

The tools and machinery lay unused in Gemmer’s St. Louis home for over 550 years. Early in the 1960’s the remnants of the “Hawken Gun Shop” were acquired by Art Ressel through the sale of the Gemmer estate.

Mr. Ressel, a Hawken enthusiast, felt obligated to continue the Hawken tradition and reopened the “Hawken” gun shop.

Less than 300 Hawken guns were produced during this period before Mr. Ressel closed the gun shop in the early 1980’s.

Again, the original “Hawken” quality was unobtainable and a valued part of American history ceased to exist.

In December of 1990 a new and equally great period of the “Hawken” story began. Mr. Ressel sold the entire shop to a small, family-owned business located in the state of Washington.

Greg Roberts and Claudette Greene purchased “The Hawken Shop” to preserve this valued part of Americana.

Once again, the classic “Hawken” had returned!

Current planning was to wait two years before proceeding with the “Hawken” venture. At that time, Greg and Claudette were absorbed in the planning and development of a traditional muzzleloading rifle in the style of Dimmick and Leman, and felt they could not devote additional time to the “Hawken.”

However, fate intervened and a foundry fire destroyed all other tools and parts, except for the Hawken tooling.

Consequently, Hawken was back in business, producing Hawken rifles once again.

In this age of substitutes and clones, the very idea of owning an original is incomprehensible. Originals are normally reserved for only the very wealthy and influential.

Not so with “The Hawken Shop.” This quality and originality is again available to anyone who desires to own the finest.

Go online to www.thehawkenshop.com.

There you will find original Hawken rifle kits, collectables, rifle parts, knives and tomahawks, historic information and blogs.

The Hawken rifle is an American icon and deserves a prominent place in the history of the United States, and the Hawken Shop is keeping this tradition alive.

Christopher Hawken was born in 1825 and worked in his father’s shop until Jacob died of cholera during the epidemic in St. Louis in 1849.

After his father’s death, Christopher headed west to California during the Gold Rush. He returned in 1854 and married Mary Ann Eads, and settled down to life as a farmer.

He purchased 100 acres of land in the country near the intersection of Big Bend and Grant Road at 25 cents an acre, and began farming and building a home.

The Hawken House was completed in 1857. Mary Ann and Christopher had nine children; eight boys and one girl.

Only three of the children survived to adulthood, including their only daughter, Mary Emma.

It is believed Mary Ann died of typhoid fever in 1878. Christopher never remarried.

Following a fall from his hayloft in 1900, he left Hawken House to live with his son, Jacob, a graduate of Washington University who practiced law and lived in Kirkwood. Christopher died in 1905 at age 79.

The Historic Christopher Hawken House is the oldest house in suburban Webster Groves. It was the first home in Missouri to receive federal funds for restoration, which matched the amount raised by the citizens of Webster Groves,

and is listed on the National Historic Register.

It is now maintained and operated by the Webster Groves Historical Society.

Furnished entirely in the Victorian decor of that period, it is open to the public and special tours are available.

Renovations were undertaken and completed in the early 1970’s. The home is decorated with several pieces that belonged to the Hawken family.

The residents of Webster Groves donated the rest of the furnishings. A curator researched the period and used only items that would have been found in the house during its early days.

In the basement of the house is an extensive collection of dolls from around the world dressed in their native costumes, and a gift shop.

Behind the house is the Webster Groves History Center, a rustic-looking barn constructed in 1976 that houses the Society’s extensive archives collection.

A garden at the rear of the house is a gift of the Webster Groves Herb Society.

Visitors can picnic in the adjacent Southwest Park following their tour of the home.

The historic Hawken House is located at 1155 S. Rock Hill Road, Webster Groves, MO 63119. It is well worth the time and the small visitation fee to get a little history lesson from the guides in the home who are very knowledgeable.

The house is quite lovely with original antiques belonging to the Hawken family, as well as other antiques of the time period.

The Hawken House Museum is open for tours on Tuesday and Thursday from 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m. The last tour starts promptly at 2:30 p.m. Please arrive early.

To arrange for a special tour, please call Judy Seltzer, Hawken House manager, at (314) 968-1857 or e-mail hawkenhouse@hawkenhouse.org.

(Bill Wakefield runs the Traveler’s St. Louis office and can be reached at w3@charter.net.)

AROUND the WORLD with the River Hills Traveler

Bill Juengel, of House Springs, Mo., with his copy of the River Hills Traveler at his property on Big Creek in southern Iron County near Des Arc, Mo. ———

If you're going on a trip or vacation, please take the River Hills Traveler with you and have someone photograph you and the magazine in front of a landmark or somewhere pretty neat. Then email the picture & info to us at jimmy@riverhillstraveler.com and we will publish it an upcoming issue. You can also text your photos & info to (417) 451-3798 or send them to us via our Facebook page.

Thank you very much and we look forward to seeing your family’s adventures!