STORY INDEX
Art...................... 3, 10 Books................. 13 Calendar................. 14 Classified........... 17-18 Editorial.................... 5 Fishing..................... 8 History............... 2, 16
Hunting............ 4, 6, 7 Indians.................... 16 Nature..........11, 13, 19 Outdoor news........... 6 Recipes................... 15 SunMoon................ 14 RV Show...........Insert
VOL. 41, NO. 6
Traveler River Hills
Art of the Ozarks EDITION
ISSN 87501899
DECEMBER 1, 2013
ST. CLAIR, MO 63077
Riverways Draft GMP recommends
Fewer roads, lower boat hp, horse trails By JO SCHAPER The long awaited Draft General Management Plan (DGMP) for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, in its preferred alternative, calls for reducing road access to the Current and Jacks Fork rivers, lowering boat horsepower limits on some stretches, eliminating motorized boats on others and generally moving management of the Riverways to a more environmentally-protective position. A federallyprotected Wilderness Area at Big Spring is also proposed. The DGMP was posted on the National Park Service planning website on Nov. 8. Due to the massive size of the document (534 pages) the NPS distributed only a few paper copies to local libraries and officials, leaving much of the non-digitally adept public wondering what it contains, even two weeks later as we go to press. The Plan consists of four alternatives; No Action, and Alternatives A, B and C. Here’s a brief summary of each alternative, all of which are subject to a 60-day comment period and three public meetings. When a final plan is finally adopted, it will be used to guide management of the Riverways over the next 20 years. Alternative B, the Park Service’s preference The NPS Preferred Alternative (Plan B) would: • move park management to a more environmentally conservative position • restrict road access to the rivers
and initiate designated vehicle camping only on others. • initiate a rule change to permit 60/40 motors • establish an education center at Powder Mill, and ramp up historic and cultural research and add more park programs to tell visitors about the natural and cultural Ozarks. Plan B would add 35 miles of new horse trail, re-
Division of State Parks scoops up Camp Zoe
Missouri state parks announced November 25 that the state has acquired the 330-acre Camp Zoe property. It is located near Current River State Park and downstream from Montauk State Park. It also abuts the 64,000-acre Roger Pryor Pioneer Backcountry, a L-A-D Foundation property managed by Continued on Page 13 HEAVY READING — The Draft General Management Plan for the Ozark National Riverways is 534 pages long and when put in binders, as tall as a standard ink pen. District 3 U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer’s office was good enough to give Traveler a copy. The document is available online. Jo Schaper photo.
• lower horsepower limits • establish non-motorized stretches on both the Jacks Fork and Current Rivers • change protocols for backcountry camping • eliminate motorized access to certain gravel bars
vise the 23 miles now existing, and remove 65 miles of unauthorized trail. Some river trail crossings and informal vehicle paths would be obliterated. The Upper Jacks Fork (Blue Spring) and Logyard campgrounds would be expanded and improved. Campers at backcountry campsites would incur a fee, with some continuing to have tables, restrooms, and other amenities. Primitive campgrounds would not incur a fee, but some roads to such campgrounds would be closed. Continued on Page 13
Agnew’s passion for art, outdoors takes him far
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By BARBARA GIBBS OSTMANN his month’s cover subject, Al Agnew, one of the country’s most respected fish and wildlife artists, has supplied many cover illustrtions for Traveler over the past 30 years. Agnew is a man who is blessed to be able to earn a living doing what he loves to do. Agnew, who was born in Desloge and now lives near Ste. Genevieve, has been interested in the outdoors and art his entire life. He has successfully combined the two in his art career. His father and grandfather took him fishing or hunting almost every weekend when he was a boy. When he was nine, he rode his bike to the river to fish, and by the time he was 14, he floated the river in a small johnboat. He won some local bass fishing tournaments while in high school and used the winnings to buy a canoe and bass boat. By the time he enrolled in Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, he had already sold some paintings. He graduated with a teaching degree and
Art of the Ozarks
IN HIS ELEMENT — Al Agnew divides time between Montana, where he has a home and studio on the banks of the Yellowstone River, and Missouri, where he has a home on an acreage near Ste. Genevieve. Photos and paintings courtesy of Al Agnew.
an art major. For seven years in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Agnew taught art to elementary and high school students in Advance, which is southwest of Cape Girardeau. It was during this time that he became
friends and fishing buddies with Bob and Pat Todd, founders of River Hills Traveler. “I don’t remember exactly how we got to know each other, but Bob started writing about our fishing trips and I provided artwork to go with his stories. It was all black and white back then,” says Agnew. “Later I started writing some articles. I’ve heard Bob say that he’d have taken the articles no matter how bad they were just to get the artwork.” DETAILS, DETAILS — Lifelike It was the details, down to each glistening beginning of fish scale and water droplet, are a treasured hallmarks of the Agnew style. friendship between Agnew, the Todds and the readers of Continued on Page 11
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December 2013-January 2014
RIVER HILLS TRAVELER -- PAGE 2
Osage County culture clash, circa 1920
Belsnickle scares kids set for gentle, jolly Santa
By STEVE PARSONS cookies offered to him by the lady of Grace Virginia Bacon Ferrier the house, and imbibed hard cider or passed away home-made wine from the flowing jug February 26, 2011, proffered by the children’s father. two days short of Following several such village stops, her 98th birthday. the old elf became jolly—very jolly. She taught for Over time, the traditions associated over 40 years in with the Feast of St. Nicholas merged Missouri’s public with the celebration of the birth of school systems Christ, and became part of American and authored two culture. Clement Clarke Moore, with acclaimed books: his poetry, and Thomas Nast, with “Teacher, Teacher, I Done It! I Done his imagery, pieced together, and it! I Done Done It!,” in 1986, and cemented forever, in our collective “Post Oak Sprouts Along Belly Ache mind, the Santa we know today. Creek,” in 2001. Grace was a mentor, Christmas Eve 1920. Osage County, an inspiration to all who knew her, Missouri. The Bacon children eagerly and a dear friend. She held a wealth await the arrival of Santa Claus of knowledge and stories. Here is one at their isolated country home. A she gave me. new Santa. A different Santa. (An enturies ago, in early unreconstructed Santa.) A rumble December, Germans— and a grumble, accompanied by loud especially Bavarians and footsteps, approaches their front Rhinelanders—celebrated door, then stops. Four young minds, the feast day of Saint Nicholas, the on the other side, spin wildly with patron saint of anticipation. Santa schoolboys, through Claus! No knock. their creation of Pelz The door bursts Nichol, German for wide open. Santa “Furry Nicholas,” Claus??!! as an alter-ego to Wonderment kindly old St. Nick. quickly changed to These Teutons fear for six-year-old evidently wanted to Grace. Who was remind villagers that this impostor? He God could be either was old and he kind harsh or loving. of looked like an Think “Bad Santa” elf, alright, but he vs. “Good Santa.” certainly wasn’t In each village, the jolly! He growled local Pelz Nichol and fumed and (Americanized now, demanded that she to “Belsnickle.”) recite the “piece” COCA-COLA SANTA — Advertising she had learned for a masked man dressed in furs, went illustrations by Coca-Cola, such as church that night. In this one from 1947, depict the jolfrom door to door, a language she could lier Santa of American culture that barely understand. exhorting children emerged in the first half of the 1900s. And he looked like a to recite their grischtdachs schtick, bear! And he carried the poems they had memorized for a whip! church services that evening. Grace had just met Cooper Hill’s After each command performance, resident “Belsnickle,” the community Belsnickle withdrew several handsful physician, Doctor Leach, in disguise. of nuts and sweets from his robes, Grace had grown up in a fullyscattering the goodies across the Americanized French-Irish-Methodist floors of the homes he visited. As enclave several miles to the west. Now the children scurried to pick up the she was surrounded by old-country treats, Furry Nicholas whipped them German Evangelical Lutherans and lightly about the legs with a peeled the culture clash had just jumped up a willow wand. Finished with his fun, notch. Belsnickle snacked on freshly baked “Doc used to play Santa Claus
C
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whether you wanted him to, or not,” everyone could have a choice. Grace reminisced at the time. “He was She also arranged recitals of the a short, little man, almost as wide as Christmas story by some of her he was tall. He had a bearskin coat younger pupils, a dialogue to be and brought a whip and he would performed by the older students, demand that we kids give a speech.” and a solo vocalist to round out the Although Grace’s entertainment. To early impression cap off the festivities, of Doc was not she had coaxed her favorable, he was a 16-year-old brother, big-hearted, gentle “Bud” (George, man, and eventually Jr.), to play Santa, became part of the disguised in a costume Bacon family when sister Mae had sewn his son, Irvin, married together from material Grace’s sister, Mae. mail-ordered from Nevertheless, Sears. Doc’s desire to weld Afternoon came, the community and all was going together at times, well. Too well. had unintended Then Bud pulled consequences. in an hour before “When I was about FURRY NICHOLAS — Pelz Nichol, schedule, chugging 10 years old,” Grace Americanized to Belnickle, was up unheralded into recalled, “Doc fixed a darker sort of St. Nick in the the schoolyard in the bags of candy with Teutonic tradition. Photo courtesy Bacon’s yellow Model cotton netting (for the of The National Christmas Center. “T” Ford in full Christmas program view of the children— at school). The weather turned warm as parents were still arriving. Bud, as by Christmas Eve and the candy got Santa, was busted. Figuratively and sticky. What a mess! We were all literally. Grace’s mother had failed stuck together.” to provide Bud with enough rope to By the time the “Coca-Cola” version tie up his pillow-stuffed girth. As of Santa had become universal in the Bud departed the buggy, he looked Cooper Hill area, Grace had graduated less like Santa bearing gifts and high school and had become the more like Napoleon having fits as teacher at Osage County’s Horseshoe he desperately clutched at one sack Bend School, high on a ridge overof feathers (which had settled into a looking the Gasconade River. pants leg) with his left hand, while The Friday before Christmas, 1932. keeping his right hand thrust between The weather that year had been the buttons of his jacket to hold up the unseasonably warm for some time. other pillow. He lurched into school During the last three weeks, Grace, thoroughly embarrassed, miserably and six of her 13 pupils, had planned hot, and remained seated during the and refined the “singing” they were to entire program. Bud later vowed to his put on that afternoon. They rehearsed mother that he would never play Santa over and over again such favorites as again. “Silent Night, Holy Night,” “O Little Although Bud’s day as St. Nicholas Town of Bethlehem” and “Away in the was over, the costume carried on Manger.” (This, of course, was before without him. It was passed around courts banned religious observances in from school to school and from church schools.) Teachers, at the time, were to church, to anyone who wanted to expected to provide treats for their use it. charges, so Grace ordered, by mail, “The last time I saw that suit was a three-gallon galvanized bucket of about 25 years later,” Grace recalled. candy from Sears for $1.49. “It was in rags and tatters, but had She placed the candy into paper served its purpose well.” bags, adding oranges and peanuts By this time, Doc’s bearskin coat for variety. For visiting families and was also in rags and tatters. It, too, friends, Grace bought a box of lemon had served its purpose well. and peppermint candy sticks, so that
“Kenny” by Judy Ressell 2nd Place - People in Nature Adult Division Mingo Swamp Friends Photo Contest 2013 See the exhibit of winning photos at the August A. Busch Wildlife Nature Center, Weldon Springs, in December, and Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center, Kirkwood, in January.
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December 2013-Janary 2014
RIVER HILLS TRAVELER -- PAGE 3
Potosi loom builder promotes weaving as path to peace
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By BARBARA GIBBS OSTMANN len Broombaugh of Potosi wants to help you weave some memories. Weaving is a pastime that combines soothing repetitive motions with artistic satisfaction, as the results of one’s efforts materialize in in the final woven product, be it place mat, table runner, shawl or rug. Many Potosi. During this time, he combined people would like to learn to weave, his interest in weaving with his skill but are stymied by the size and cost in building and made himself a loom, of traditional floor using a set of plans he looms. found in a book. He “As the shuttles go back then became interested To the rescue comes Glen and in spinning, built a and forth, may your his Shannondale thoughts be pleasant and spinning wheel, and loom, an taught himself to spin. the thread you weave In 1993, he began affordable, portable, fourfrom day to day be in teaching four-harness harness loom. weaving at the harmony with God’s Glen, 81, is Christianson Native plan.” a tinkerer and Craft Workshop, a weaver from way — Glen Broombaugh week-long event back. His first held each summer weaving project at the Shannondale was for an art class in college. He Community Center near Salem in taught high school industrial arts for Shannon County. He taught there nine years in Caledonia and 21 years Continued on Page 6
Art of the Ozarks
Glen Broombaugh crafts his Shannondale looms from red oak and finishes them with tung oil. The loom’s name is a tribute to the Christianson Native Craft Workshop held annually at Shannondale. He wants weavers who use the loom to experience the tranquility found at Shannondale. Barbara Gibbs Ostmann photo.
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December 2013- January 2014
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Fall is the time for hunting. Most Missouri hunting takes place on private land, simply because there is more of if, but what if you are Archery
from the city, or you are a beginning hunter, and don't have a connection to good private hunting land? There are thousands of acres of public land available for hunting in Missouri. River Hills Traveler has put together an online information center to tell what public hunting lands are available, and the rules and regula-
tions that apply. The short version is: most Missouri Department of Conservation land is open to hunting, as is most National Forest land. National park land and Army Corps of Engineers land is a mixed bag. National Wildlife Refuges are open for some seasons. Generally state parks and historic
sites are no-hunting lands, but there are exceptions. The devil is in the details. Please go to http://rhtrav.com/wordpress/ where-to-hunt-public-land/Then, plan your first (or next) public lands hunting trip.
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by John Meacham Meacham’s cast of recurring smalltown characters resides in or around ONLY mythical Kickapoo County. Meet $10 Ferguson “Two-By” Foreman and Tobias Oarknott of the Reddy-Oarknott Funeral Home and many others. The Red Green Show doesn't have a thing on Meacham's brand of outdoors humor. 192 pages, paperback. $10
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December 2013-January 2014
RIVER HILLS TRAVELER -- PAGE 5
Year-end issue spotlights artists, RV owners, Riverways future
W
ow! That was a quick trip. It’s hard to believe 2013 is all but gone. Believe it or not, but, this is the last issue of the old year and the first of 2014. ••••• In keeping with our year-end tradition, we spotlight three Ozarks artists in this issue who work in different media to interpret the natural beauty of our region. You no doubt have already noticed that our cover and Page 1 subject is Al Agnew of Ste. Genevieve, an artist well-known both to long-time Traveler readers and to a lot more people who never heard of us. Al has shared his talents with Traveler readers for many years and we’re happy for the opportunity to help you know him and his wife Mary a little better. Weaver and loom builder Glen Broombaugh of Potosi is a pillar of the Christianson Native Craft Workshop at Shannondale, where Barbara Gibbs Ostmann met him and many another story subject. Barb’s portrait of Glen, starting on Page 3, makes me think that weaving might be good therapy for a stressed-out publisher. We often read that Native Americans let no part of the wild animals they killed go to waste. I was reminded of that when I read Jo Schaper’s piece on our third artist. John Hub-
bard of Houston, Mo., makes man who combines RVing highly-artistic and functional and kayaking, Jo interviewed objects from animal parts like a blind fellow who gets a lot turkey toes, deer jawbones of pleasure out of camping in and water buffalo horns. his trailer. We sighted people The photo on Page 10 of could probably learn someJohn and his antler-handled thing from him about listening fishing rod made me want to to the sounds of nature. heft that rod in my hand. For Barb’s subjects included a me, one mark of good art is Chesterfield couple who use MAKIN’ whether it makes me want their motorhome to boost TRACKS fundraising for Big Brothers to touch it. That’s caused me By Emery Styron problems in museums. Big Sisters, an Illinois hus••••• band and wife who enjoy taking their Jo Schaper and Barbara Gibbs golden retriever along in the motorOstmann, who wrote our artist stories, home and an O’Fallon pair who found have become my go-to people on an unexpected second career leading major Traveler projects like last sumRV caravans to Mexico, Canada and mer’s Float Trip Edition, this fall’s Alaska and other fun places. Route 66/Fall Festival section and When my wife reads these stories this month’s St. Louis RV, Vacation & the pressure will mount for us to adopt Travel Show Guide. an RV lifestyle. It does sound attrac I had a good idea, albeit late, to tive. interview RV owners and put those The one RV story we admire but stories in the show guide. It was one won’t emulate is the one I wrote about of those things so obvious that I didn’t a Wildwood man who uses his RV think of it until the last possible minto travel the country hang gliding — ute. when he’s not using it for crime scene I put the word out to the RV dealers, investigation. got the names of some customers who Don’t miss the RV Show Guide do interesting things or just have an inside this issue. And come see us at extra good time with their RVs. Then the Let’s Go Fishing Show in CollinsJo and Barb went to work. ville, Ill., Jan. 3-5 and the St. Louis I think you’ll enjoy their stories. RV Vacation Travel Show, downtown Along with a St. Peters man who St. Louis, Jan. 9-12. loves his fifth wheel camper but not ••••• too-small campsites, and a Kirkwood Veteran Traveler writer Charlie
Slovensky was seriously injured when his deer stand collapsed near New Florence. His family has requested thoughts and prayers. His wife, Ramona, says Charlie has a challenging journey ahead as he heals. Send cards to 46 Guylyn Place, Valley Park, MO 63088. ••••• The creaking bureaucracy of the National Park Service has issued its Draft General Management Plan for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. The GMP, when finalized, will shape management of the Riverways over the next two decades. As always, the issues look much different to those who have deep roots in the river country, own property and earn their living there and to those who come from outside the area to enjoy the resource once or several times a year. These two groups often knock heads and it’s easy to forget how much they need each other. Absent the visitors and much of the jobs and tax revenue in the river country go too. Without local businesses, visitors would be hard-pressed to find canoe outfitters, motels, cabins, restaurants and other services. Consider, too, the Park Service, charged by Congress with preserving the resource. It’s fitting in this season of goodwill to remind ourselves that we’re all in this outdoor world together.
Pucky Huddle Store was unpretentious heart of rural community Emery, I was saddened to learn that the Pucky Huddle store burned (http:// rhtrav.com/wordpress/davisville-general-store-aka-pucky-huddle-burns/ ) In all my wanderings, only Davisville, Red Bird, and Bay (the latter two in Gasconade County) encapsulated what life must have been like a hundred or more years ago. Here were three, intact, basically untouched communities, far off traveled roads, that clung to their identities despite pressures from the outside world and the ever-pervasive encroachment of mass media. These three villages, at the times I
A DYING BREED — The Davisville Store, centerpiece of Davisville, a.k.a. Pucky Huddle, in southern Crawford County, was destroyed by fire Oct. 24. Photo courtesy of Davisville General Store Facebook page. visited them, still had their general to shop, gossip, mail letters, and just stores, and a sense of community you generally socialize. All existed withcould experience as locals came in out pretense. I know that the end of the store shouldn't mean the end of all the things that made Davisville different. But you never know. I was reared near Bessville. In an area so far out in the 780 N. Commercial, St. Clair, MO 63077 boonies that even the roosters had TOLL-FREE PHONE OR FAX: 800-874-8423 watches. Periodical Rate postage paid at St. Louis, MO (ISSN 87501899) Copyright, 2011. All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced in any form or by electronic means When our store (which my grandincluding information storage systems, without written permission of the publisher. However, father owned from the mid-'20's to the reviewers may quote brief passages, freelance writers may remarket materials, advertisers may reuse late 40's) closed in the 1970's, Besstheir ad layouts without permission. ville ceased to exist. My uncle, and a Published monthly (except December and January are combined) by Traveler Publishing Co. Known Office of Publication is 780 N. Commercial Ave., St. Clair, MO 63077. few others, inaugurated a "Bessville Festival" to try to keep the sense of Editor & Publisher: Emery Styron belonging alive. We had games, Assistant Editor: Jo Schaper horse rides, a sound system, snacks,
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Frequent Contributing Communicators: Charlie Slovensky, Al Agnew, Bill Cooper, Don Rathert, Kathleen Brotherton, Donna Featherston, Howard Helgenberg, Jo Schaper, Greg Rudroff, Josephine Cozean Styron, Bob Todd, Pat Todd, Steve Parsons, Barbara Gibbs Ostmann
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and drinks. My uncle died. So did "Bess Fest" just a few years later. Without the movtivator, the motivation was gone. After I did a story on Pucky Huddle for Bob Todd, I just had to take my mom, my sister, Sheila, and her husband, Delzie, to see this out-ofthe-way place. We enjoyed the cool, sheltered, valley. Saw the rocked in course that once powered the mill. Marveled at the geodes encrusted in the old school house and roamed the creek below the spring branch to see what we might find on our own. While researching my story for the Traveler, the postmistress told me her family once managed an elder care center next door. One spring, the creeks started rising so fast that they decided to evacuate. An elderly female resident, I was told, was raring to go. She already had her essentials bound up in a kerchief attached to a bindle and was ready for an adventure. Where will tomorrow's stories come from? Steve Parsons Marble Hill
There’s nothing Trav likes better than letters from our readers. Send to P.O. Box 245, St. Clair, MO 63077 or email estyron@rhtrav.com
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On the cover...
At work in his home studio near Ste. Genevieve, Al Agnew paints a scene from one of his other favorite places, the Mountain West. Al is one of three nature artists featured in this month’s issue. Photo by Mary Agnew.
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