THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY
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[2] MissouriLife
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[3] June 2011
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Branson Visitor TV
Check out everything you need to know about Branson from the comfort of your own home.
Watch our live stream of performances from Branson’s hottest shows and fascinating Ozark history. Visit unique shops and attractions‌all from the comfort of your own home! Search our extensive archives for clips from your favorite shows! When planning your trip, visit bransonvisitortv.com for selections and information about hotels, shows, attractions, shopping, dining, outdoor locations, and exclusive Branson extras.
Weather every quarter hour provided by KY3 Weather Service. The #1 Source for Weather Information in the Ozarks.
Be part of the Branson excitement!
Watch television from Branson at home
www.BransonVisitorTV.com
While visiting Branson watch us on Branson Cable Channel 5.
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A
stroke is caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. When the brain doesn’t get the blood and oxygen it needs, it starts to die. That means loss of memory and loss of function. That’s why it is crucial to recognize symptoms of stroke and signs that a stroke is occurring. Stroke warning signs • Sudden numbness or weakness in face, arm or leg • Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding • Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes • Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination • Sudden, severe headache with no known cause If you or someone you know experiences stroke symptoms, seek medical assistance immediately. Learn more about stroke prevention and risk factors at www.muhealth.org/stroke.
www.facebook.com/muhealthcare
[6] MissouriLife
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Contents JUNE 2011
departments>
Route 66:
[12] MISSOURI MEMO
[48] THE MISSOURI LEG
A real Missouri deal and 14 scenic byways
Our writer treks the Mother Road and dishes about dives he finds. Plus, iconic signs get second lives.
[14] LETTERS Flying with Missouri Life and a recipe critique
[18] ZEST FOR LIFE Glittering gold paint, the oldest tavern, Custer’s Last Rally for sale, plus new books
[28] MADE IN MISSOURI Soaps for soldiers, hunk of burnin’ candle, and more
[86] DINING DELIGHTS [84] MISSOURI BEER AND WINE Two Joshes brew in Rolla, and why you won’t find Missouri wine in Missouri restaurants (page 88)
featured>
[90] MUSINGS
The King of the Road explores the edge of wild while tracing the Meramec River from I-44 .
[103] ALL AROUND MISSOURI
On Buddhism, storage, and why we keep all this stuff
[32] WILD HAVENS
Our listing of 77 events and festivals
[44] CIVIL WAR RETALIATION Events this summer commemorate the four battles near or in Independence.
Last bits on beer, baseball, and Route 66
[70] BAWK! Free-range chicken farms, backyard chickens, and tasty recipes for chicken salad and more.
[78] BEER HERE Missouri brewers create artisan beers in microbreweries, brew pubs, at home, and in brew clubs. COVER: NOTLEY HAWKINS; NOTLEY HAWKINS
[114] MISSOURIANA
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Content by Location 28
112 87
[94] WALK UNDER THE RIVER Come along on a journey few Missourians have ever made: below the Missouri River.
[99] BEYOND TWAIN: HANNIBAL’S HISTORY
114 44
18
94
87
29 18
71 86,114
A new tour, a new museum, and a new book explore Hannibal beyond Mark Twain’s legacy. 58
[100] LOVELY LAVENDER
104 99
28
28
108
101 24, 86 29 87 103 18
In Eureka, the state’s only lavender farm gives visitors a scented breath of fresh air.
[7] June 2011
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[8] MissouriLife
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Announcing the
– MORE STORIES ON THE WEB –
MissouriLife.com JUNE 2011
featured>
NEW DAILY POSTINGS Look for stories added daily in our new travel, life, and food
MissouriLife.com brings you a new way to save money with a weekly Deal delivered right to your inbox. The
and dining sections! Also look for web-extras from this issue, such as more microbreweries and brew pubs, as well as even more tasty chicken recipes, and restaurants that serve Missouri wine.
behind the scenes>
VIDEO ALONG THE MOTHER ROAD
Show-Me Steal
Meet the people along the Mother Road. Videographer and photographer Notley Hawkins recorded interviews with
will save you up to 50% or more on your favorite places, lodging, products, and services throughout Missouri for your next vacation, weekend getaway, or weeknight treat!
shop owners and people who grew up along Route 66.
natural beauty> 13 SCENIC BYWAYS
Explore Missouri this summer on a scenic byways. Two are designated as America’s byways, and 11 more will give you great getaway ideas. Some can be driven in an afternoon or a day, and others will require an extended road trip.
our history>
TOP 50 CIVIL WAR SITES IN MISSOURI The Civil War began 150 years ago this year, and Missouri saw more battles than any other state except Virginia and Ten-
Just visit MissouriLife.com and sign up for the Show-Me Steal— it’s that easy!
nessee. Commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War by visiting these top sites in our state. Our guide tells you where and why and what you need to know before you go.
on the cover>
SUNSET MOTEL, ROUTE 66 Photographer Notley Hawkins captured the Sunset Motel on his jaunt across the state on the Mother Road. A regular photographer for Missouri Life, Notley was born and raised in Missouri and studied painting and drawing. He picked up a camera in 2005 and is now firmly entrenched in the photographic arts. See more of his work at www.notleyhawkins.com.
[10] MissouriLife
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THE SPIR IT OF DISCOV ERY 515 East Morgan Street, Boonville, MO 65233 660-882-9898 • Info@MissouriLife.com
Publisher Greg Wood Editor in Chief Danita Allen Wood Executive Office Manager Amy Stapleton EDITORIAL & ART Creative Director Andrew Barton Graphic Designer & Assistant Editor Sarah Herrera Graphic Designer Thomas Sullivan Calendar Editor Amy Stapleton Assistant Editors Sarah Alban, Lauren Hughes, Melissa Williams Columnists Tom Bradley, Doug Frost, Nina Furstenau, Ron W. Marr, John Robinson Contributing Writers and Editors Leigh Bishop, Barbara Carrow, Sandy Clark, Frances Folsom, Nic Halverson, Joe McCune, Sheree K. Nielsen, Barbara Gibbs Ostmann, Jim Thole Contributing Photographers Sandy Clark, Jeff Farabee, Nic Halverson, Notley Hawkins, Chris Mackler, Forester Michael, Sheree K. Nielsen, Barbara Gibbs Ostmann, Jim Thole MARKETING Senior Account Manager Brad Keller, 636-675-5852 Show Me Steal Manager Rebecca Smith DIGITAL MEDIA MissouriLife.com, Missouri Lifelines & Missouri eLife Editor Sarah Herrera ADMINISTRATION Administrative Assistant Dana Eatherton
TO SUBSCRIBE OR GIVE A GIFT AND MORE Use your credit card and visit MissouriLife.com or call 877-570-9898, or mail a check for $19.99 (special offer for 6 issues) to: Missouri Life, 515 East Morgan Street, Boonville, MO 65233-1252. Change address: Visit mol.magserv.com/scc.php and enter email address or your label information to access your account, or send both old and new addresses to us.
OTHER INFORMATION Custom Publishing: For your special publications, call 800-492-2593, ext. 106 or email Greg.Wood@MissouriLife.com. Back Issues: Order from website, call, or send check for $7.50.
RAILROAD dAYS June 8th to 11Th downtown
moberly MO
Carnival
Wed Afternoon To Sat Evening Arm Bands Available
Beer Garden Sponsored by The Eagles Club Opens at 4:30 p.m.
live entertainment! wednesday june 8th
5 – 7 p.m. To be announced 7 p.m. Karoke – sponsored by Moberly Parks and Recreation
thursday june 9th
7 p.m. Fourth Street Follies Variety – Municipal Auditorium $5 8-10 p.m. Music by Keota
friday june 10th
6-8 p.m. Next of Ken 8:30-10:30 p.m. The Fender Benders
saturday june 11th
Railroad Museum Open 8 a.m. Registration for 5K Run 9 a.m. 5K Run Starts 9-10:30 a.m. Baby Show – Sponsored by Main Street Moberly 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Art On The Block at MACC 11 a.m.-Noon Little Mr. and Miss Railroad Days Sponsored by Moberly Altrusa Club 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Randolph County Historical Society Ice Cream Social (at Museum) 1-3 p.m. The Farnum Family Band 3:30-5:30 p.m. Entertainment – Ironweed 6-7 p.m. Sycamore Queen Contest 7:30-8:30 p.m. The Legendary Fantastics 8:30-10:30 p.m. Kansas City Street Band
Check our web site for more info and a detailed schedule
MoberlyChamber.com
For advance tickets call or come by the chamber office at 660-263-6070 211 W Reed, Moberly MO [11] April 2011
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Memo
MISSOURI
A “REAL” MISSOURI DEAL WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT
that because the Taum Sauk dam gave way at Johnson’s Shut-Ins that bicyclists would one day have a dedicated bike trail going all the way from Kansas City to St. Louis? How could a dam breaking open in southeast Missouri have anything to do with a bike trail across the center of the state? Well, as I like to say, “This is a Missouri deal.” If you’ve lived in Missouri long enough, nothing else really needs to be said. The short story is that Ameren owned the old Rock Island Line roadbed that runs from Windsor to Pleasant Hill, and as part of the settlement with the DNR for the Taum Sauk dam giving way, Ameren signed a lease that allows the DNR to connect the Katy Trail where it intersects with the Rock Island Line at Windsor. This new GREG WOOD, 46-mile connector will run all the way to PUBLISHER Pleasant Hill and soon into Kansas City. Missouri’s trail network continues to grow. There’s a new connector from the Katy Trail across the Missouri River into Jefferson City. The new bridge at Hermann offers the same kind of safe bike-path connection. Plus, many miles of bike trails are being added in and around towns all over Missouri. In fact, the Katy Trail with all eight of its connectors added is now over 273 miles long, not counting the new one to KC. (For more information, go to www.MoBikeFed.org.) Marlene Nagel, director of the Mid-America Regional Council in Kansas City, told me that the first four miles of the trail are completed. “The entire trail is scheduled to be completed next year,” she says. “In addition, we are working on bringing the trail all the way to the Arrowhead and Royals Stadium sports complex, near I-70.” The Katy Trail was already the longest continuous rails-to-trails bike trail in America, and the new connectors expand the fun. It’s so nice to think that we’ve got so-called progressive states like California and Colorado beat in such a cool way. Sure, they may have oceans and mountains and vast stretches of desert wasteland, but we have the longest bike path! Now, that’s a Missouri deal if I ever heard one.
New Franklin
K as City Kans
Windsor Clinton
I HAVE ALWAYS ENJOYED
trails, and I have a strange compulsion not merely to sample them, but to explore them completely. One time on a bike path in the Rocky Mountains, Greg and I started towing our first two kids up the mountain. I was towing baby Marissa, while Greg was towing three-year-old Callina. Unfazed by my lighter load and to Greg’s chagrin, I insisted on going to the top of the mountain! Nor could I be satisfied with biking the in segments but had to do it all in one trip (in July, mind you). Fortunately, I should be able to do the 46mile extension Greg writes about at left, maybe even in July. I once added up the entire number of miles of in our borders DANITA ALLEN WOOD, EDITOR and wanted to float it. So far, I’ve managed only a three-day float. That just whets my appetite! Missouri has so much to see and do. We have in the state, including Route 66, which is the focus in this issue. And now that I know that, of course, I won’t be satisfied until I’ve driven them all! These close-by and scenic drives are great ways to explore the beauty of our state this summer. Some of the trails won’t take more than a hour or an afternoon, and others could probably be done in a day, but you’ll want to spend more time than that on the two longest, Route 66 and the , which runs along our edge and the Mississippi River north to south. I resolve to drive them myself—not all this summer, of course. I think I’ll start with the most romantically named ones: Sugar Camp Scenic Byway, Old Trails Road, and the Glade Top Trail. Blue Buck Knob Scenic Byway is intriguing, too. Also on my bucket list is the Ozark Trail. There’s so much to do here that I rarely get out of state. But I confess I am looking forward to Missouri Life’s Tour. I plan to be along as we travel with Mark Twain, a.k.a. actor Richard Garey, who plays Twain in his theater in Hannibal. He will portray Twain’s wit and wisdom every day of the tour to the destinations Twain visited. See page 19 for details and the early sign-up discount. Finally, you can indulge your own by visiting our newly relaunched website, where we will be bringing you new content daily (well, not on weekends), including the best of Missouri events and destinations but also stories about all aspects of life here. You can find the complete list of our 14 scenic byways there. So many trails and byways! I’ll see you on the road!
Katy Trail
Missouri River
14 scenic byways
Great River Road
Innocents Abroad
wanderlust
Machens Columbia St. Charles Portland McKittrick Huntsdale H g Sprin McBaine Mokane Bluffton M Treloar T H Defiance Sedalia Clifton City Matson land lle Rhine Marthasvi M N Jefferson A Ridge R Green Tebbetts Hermann T Dutzow Washington Jefferson City Calhoun Boonville
Hill Pleasant H
Rocheport
Katy Trail
OUR SCENIC BYWAYS
www.MissouriLife.com.
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Upcoming Events JUNE 8-9 Miss Missouri Outstanding Teen PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 573-581-2765 JUNE 8-11 Miss Missouri Pageant: MISSOURI MILITARY ACADEMY 573-581-2765 JUNE 13-18 Prairie Pine Quilt Guild Annual Quilt Show ST. JOHN’S LUTHERAN CHURCH 573-581-2765 JUNE 25 Summer Camp I - “Aristocats” PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER www.presserpac.com | 573-581-5592 JULY 9 20 11 Mexico Jaycees’ Soybean Festival DOWNTOWN MEXICO 573-581-2765
WELCOME TO MEXICO, MISSOURI
JULY 10 Pops Concert & Ice Cream Social PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER www.presserpac.com |573-581-5592
Mexico is a perfect combination of small town charm and urban style. Artsy boutiques, jewelry, quilt shops, scrapbooking, antiques and cultural offerings give Mexico a sophisticated air, but with a family-friendly attitude. Come visit us today!
PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER With a 920-seat auditorium Presser Performing Arts Center is active with many arts education programs for the public, such as Dance, Piano, Voice, Film, Writing, Photography, and of course THEATRE!!! The Calendar fills up fast year after year with concerts, ballets, plays, musicals, lectures, gallery shows, special events, and classes. Our summer camps draw students from the surrounding area and many from out of state. We strive to offer the BEST professional highly qualified instructors in the state of Missouri. Summer 2011 offers a new Film Camp for participants 14 years old and up. The art of filmmaking includes writing, cinematography, directing, and editing. It will conclude with a film festival August 13, 2011. The ARTS. Ask for more! Presser Performing Arts Center is centrally located in the state of Missouri, serving mid America with quality cultural performing arts. Dedicated to the promotion and appreciation of the arts. Check out the upcoming events page at www.presserpac.com.
JULY 15-20 Audrain County 4-H & Youth Fair 4-H FAIRGROUNDS 573-581-2765 JULY 16-17 Summer Camp II - “Alice in Wonderland” PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Www.presserpac.com | 573-581-5592
MEXICO AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE We work hard as a Chamber of Commerce to be the pulse of the community, assisting all to provide services that will nurture and encourage our businesses and strengthen our community. www.mexico-chamber.org | 573-581-2765 Tour the AUDRAIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY Tues.-Sat. 10 AM-4 PM and Sun. 1 PM-4 PM www.audrain.org | 573-581-3910
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JUNE 2011
LETTERS from all over You write them. We print them. A RECIPE RECOMMENDATION I spoke with one of your pleasant representatives yesterday about the Quick Fruit and Nut Bread recipe on page 66 in the December 2010 issue of Missouri Life. She was most helpful in reassuring me that five tablespoons of baking powder would not compromise this recipe. Well, I made it this morning, and contrary to my fears, it did not blow out of the pan and all over
This is actually Gregg Higginbotham
the interior of the oven. Instead, the texture is quite light, not really a cake texture but more of a soft cracker quality. From that point of view, it was good. However, my husband and I found it to be too salty. The recipe has one teaspoon of salt in the list of ingredients, but baking powder is salty in itself. Perhaps a half a teaspoon, if that much. We also got a bitter taste from the baking powder, and I wondered if a teaspoon of vanilla
Most libraries in the state do subscribe, and we do-
mushroom experts can identify the mushroom that
would mask the bitterness.
nate books we review to our local libraries. —Editor
was inadvertently labeled a chanterelle, they believe it
—Peg Sutcliffe, New Hampshire
is not a chanterelle that grows in Missouri. As was ad-
CORRECTIONS TO APRIL 2011 ISSUE
vised in the story, novice mushroom hunters should go
MISSOURI LIFE AT THE AIRPORT
I saw your current issue at my dentist’s of-
with an expert or use a detailed field guide. —Editor
Last month, I needed a magazine for a flight to
fice this morning and read the article about
Phoenix. I picked up your magazine because I
mushrooms. One of the photos indicated the
Thanks for a great April issue. You’re the best!
was curious. I had never seen or heard of your
mushrooms depicted were chanterelles. As an
However, on page 60, there is the caption
magazine before. What a surprise. I did not
avid mushroomer, I can tell you that those are
“Gregg Higginbotham fixes a bayonet on a
put the magazine down until I read it cover to
definitely NOT chanterelles. It is very dangerous
reenactors musket.” When I saw this I thought,
cover. Your articles are so interesting and infor-
to publish photos of mushrooms that are not
“Gregg Higginbotham is a friend of mine. I’ve had
mative, and your photos are remarkable. You
accurately named.
dinner with Gregg Higginbotham. And you, sir,
sold me. I just paid for a three-year subscription
—Steve Tower, via email
are no Gregg Higginbotham.” Seriously, if that
Indeed, the photograph on page 76 (April issue) is
gentleman holding a scabbard in his left hand is
Thank you for printing such a great magazine.
likely not a chanterelle, proving the point you have
Gregg, I will eat a year’s worth of Missouri Lifes.
—Nancy Burrell via website comment
to be very careful when hunting. While none of our
Gregg got me started in the hobby, is a reenacting legend, and is worthy of a Missouri Life story.
All the major airports in the state now carry Missouri Life for your flying fun.—Editor
SEND US A LETTER
LOVE YOUR LIBRARY I had a chance to view a copy of this magazine,
He hails from Independence. Give him a call. —David M. Kesinger, Warrensburg Even though we try to be a tasty treat, you won’t have to eat any issues. That’s not Gregg. We have had the plea-
and I was so thrilled. It is so well done and has
Email:
sure of getting to know Gregg, too, as he has masterfully
such pretty pages. I think I will have to order a
Fax:
reenacted Frank James at two past Missouri Life festi-
subscription if our local library does not get a
Address:
vals. We tracked back, and we had the above picture of
copy to loan.
Gregg in that spot on all prior versions of the page, right
—Nina and Ralph Barnhart, Warrensburg
up until the final page that was sent to press. We don’t
We’re happy to have you read the magazine, no mat-
know how that other guy crept in and kicked Gregg off
ter whether you subscribe or read at the library.
the page. We apologize for our error. —Editor
COURTESY OF WIDE AWAKE FILMS
and I can’t wait for my first issue to arrive.
[14] MissouriLife
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Joe Machens Columbia, MO
Cadillac
11
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Joe Machens Nissan
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Joe Machens Rental 1908 W. Worley
573.445.4282 • 800.745.4454
Shop 24/7 at machens.com [15] June 2011
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PROMO-
M
AwAken to Fulton’s rich history with exciting sights and sounds all wrapped up in the warmth of small-town charm, with brick streets, elegant architecture, and 67 buildings on the historic register. Unwind at two of Missouri’s top 10 Inns, the historic Loganberry Inn where Margaret Thatcher stayed or Romancing the Past B&B in the historic Jameson home. ConneCt to our history at the newly renovated National Churchill Museum. This four-million-dollar museum inside a priceless piece of architecture will give you a look back at living history. immerse yourself in the arts and music at Kemper Center for the Arts or Westminster gallery. mArvel at the impressive collection of 84 historic automobiles displayed in Hollywood-style sets for their era at the new Backer Auto World Museum. sAmple some distinctive Missouri wines and a creative bistro menu at Summit Lake Winery. sAvor scrumptious dining at one of our great restaurants, like Beks, for a unique blend of old and new where Internet and espresso meet 1902 architecture. CAptUre a sense of local history at the Historical Society Museum, or pay your respects at the Missouri Firefighters Memorial. he ational Churchill Museum features interactive displays that engage and educate visitors of all ages.
smile at the offbeat collection at Crane’s Museum in Williamsburg, and before you head out, stop by Marlene’s Restaurant. A pulled-pork sandwich and warm slice of pie will leave you grinning.
Savor a Brown Cow at Sault’s authentic soda fountain.
revisit the 1930s by sharing a shake made with locally made premium ice cream at Sault’s authentic soda fountain.
Backer uto orld Museum displays an impressive collection of 84 historic automobiles in ollywood-style sets. [54] MissouriLife MissouriLife [16]
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Calendar of Events Girlfriend Summer Get-A-Way
“Chocolate for Chicks” and “Spa Packages” are two of the girlfriend getaways at Loganberry Inn.
June 1 through August 30 Loganberry Inn B&B Two nights stay, two breakfasts, and spa services $239/person 573-642-9229 www.loganberryinn.com
Wine and Dine
June 3rd, 6:30pm Winetasting, Dinner, and Entertainment Crane’s Museum & Shoppes 10665 Old Hwy 40 Williamsburg, MO 573-254-3356 cranesmuseum@yahoo.com
Fulton Street Fair
June 17 and 18 Historic streets of downtown Fulton Carnival, craft vendors, and great entertainment 573-220-4135 fultonstreetfair.com
Hazel Kinder’s Lighthouse Theater June 23, 7:30 Mystery Men Quartet Southern Gospel Concert 3078 Lighthouse Lane Shows every Saturday, call or go online for full schedule. 573-474-4040 www.lighthousetheater.com hazelkinder@yahoo.com Beks, in historic downtown, features local seasonal fare for lunch or dinner and an extensive beer selection and hand-selected wine list.
Crane’s 4,000-square-foot museum is a one-of-a-kind viewing experience featuring rural Missouri history dating back to the 1800s. [17] June 2011 [55] December 2010
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Bill Backer Car Show
July 9, 10 to 3 Variety of Cars Dairy Queen parking lot Free Admission 573-220-7589 or 573-642-5479
For your next getaway or family vacation, visit Fulton and Callaway County. For more information and calendar of events, visit www.visitfulton.com or call 573-642-3055.
4/29/11 2:34:45 PM
Zest FOR LIFE
Marshall >
Lake of the Ozarks >
Oldest Tavern
“CUSTER’S LAST RALLY”
IN ARROW ROCK, J. Huston Tavern, the oldest continuously operating restaurant west of the Mississippi River, is now serving up hands-on experience for Hospitality and Tourism Management students of the Missouri Valley College in Marshall. The program works in conjunction with Pfoodman Holdings, and now lets students intern at the Tavern and work in a variety of areas: waiting tables, cooking meals, and managing the restaurant. Built in 1834 by Joseph Huston, Sr., the building functioned as the Huston family home. Using the outdoor summer night lodging to westward-traveling immigrants.
JUNE MARKS the 135th anniversary of General George Armstrong Custer’s last
By the mid-1800s, the tavern had added a store,
stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Irish immigrant John Mulvany served in the Civil War and spent several years in Chicago, Cinncinnati, and St. Louis. But he is most remembered for the time he spent in Kansas City painting “Custer’s Last Rally,” one of the famous paintings of the battle. H.J. Heinz commissioned Mulvany in 1879 to commemorate Little Bighorn, which took place in Montana on June 25, 1876. The result was an 11-by-20-foot painting. Current owner Dan Francis, of the Lake of the Ozarks, purchased the painting in 2001 but is now selling it. It has been appraised by an art consultant with the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art for $10 million, Dan says. —Melissa Williams
ballroom, dining room, and indoor kitchen. Today, visitors can enjoy drinks in the old mercantile and eat in any of the three dining rooms: the Sappington Parlor, Huston Room, or Bingham Room. Lunch features sandwiches, salads, and seasonal specials. On nights when the Lyceum Theatre has a performance, the tavern offers family-style dining, with fried chicken, glazed ham, and
•
country sides. The regular dinner menu includes steaks, seafood, and pasta. —Lauren Hughes www.jhustontavern.com
Essex > WHICH WAY TO DRY LAND? Spring storms flooded many parts of Missouri. Below, April Gensler, Josh Sherfield, and Steve Hyten cross the westbound lanes of U.S. 60 in late April. The group failed to reach April’s home to collect
CHRIS MACKLER; COURTESY OF DAN FRANCIS AND J HUSTON TAVERN
kitchen, Huston began offering meals and over-
belongings left behind during evacuation. The current was too strong. Donations will help flood victims. www.semoredcross.org
[18] MissouriLife
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Sign up before June 20 for the early bird discount.
Travel With Twain
Join Missouri Life’s Innocents Abroad Tour
“…all Italy lay spread out befo re us!”
: SPECIAL TREASURES FOR THE INNOCENTS ABROAD • DaVinci’s The Last Supper world • The Duomo, the largest Gothic cathedral in the • Cruise on Lake Como rail • The Bernina Express, one of the most beautiful routes in the world • Cruise on the Grand Canal in Venice • St. Mark’s Square and the Basilica San Marco • Saint Mark’s Cathedral, an impressive Byzantine monument • Water taxi from Venice to Murano, home of the Murano Glass Factory • The famous Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence and lined with jewelry shops • Michelangelo’s monumental David in • The Uffizi Gallery, one of the finest art museums by bled the world with artwork of the masters assem the Medici family • Luxury accommodations and fine dining
019 ML0611.indd 19
– Twain wrote of his view
from the top of the Cathe
dral of Milan
October 14-26
Come and join us for a “S mall Group” tour of north ern Italy. Let us handle the details. Each day on thi s 12-day luxury excursion , Mark Twain (actor Richard Garey) will make an appearance and enligh ten us as only he can.
Call 507-456-6611 or visit www.missourilife.com for more information or to sign up.
[19] June 2011
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Zest FOR LIFE
ROAD READING Find these books at bookstores or at www.amazon.com unless otherwise noted. BY MELISSA WILLIAMS
Walt Before Mickey: Disney’s Early Years, 1919-1928 By Timothy S. Susanin, 384 pages, University of Mississippi Press, softcover, nonfiction, $35 Though many documentaries and biographies exist of Walt Disney’s life, the first 10 years before the release of Steamboat Willie in 1928 often go unmentioned. These early years were full of more failure than success and thus offer insight into Walt’s dreams and determination. The book also includes a foreword by Diane Disney Miller, Walt’s daughter.
Branson’s Entertainment Pioneers By Bob McGill, 64 pages, White Oak Publishing, softcover, nonfiction, $12.95 The author chronicles the many performers who got their start in Branson. With stories of The Baldknobbers, the Presleys, Shepherd of the Hills, Silver Dollar City, and more, this book tells the tales of the people that made the region what it is today.
Live! At the Ozark Opry
By Norma Maret Bolin, 466 pages, St. Louis Transitions, softcover, nonfiction, $29.95 Author Norma Bolin tells a St. Louis version of Route 66 history from the perspectives of the people that lived there. She focuses not only on Route 66 staples such as Ted Drewes and the infamous Coral Court, but her interest and research into the area brought numerous forgotten establishments to the surface, such as Lubeley’s Bakery, Chuck-A-Burger, and The Green Parrot Inn. She follows the path Route 66 made throughout St. Louis, mentioning historic sites, bridges, and even the town’s history with baseball. With nearly a thousand photographs and more than 200 never-before-told stories, she presents a behindthe-scenes look into the past, giving a voice to the people behind all the businesses that sprung up along the Mother Road.
By Dan William Peek, 126 pages, History Press, softcover, nonfiction, $19.99 The Ozark Opry show played to enthusiastic audiences at the Lake of the Ozarks for more than 50 years. Author and former performer Dan Peek tells the story of owners Lee and Joyce Mace and favorite Opry performers, such as Seymour Weiss, Sarah Gertrude Knott, Chuck Foster, and the Mabe Brothers. It includes a forward by Joyce Mace, who relates her husband’s passion for providing a good time.
The Voice of Water: Reflections on a Rural Life By T.L. Jamieson, 95 pages, PenUltimate Press, softcover, nonfiction, $14.95 Part of the Missouri Lives Series, T.L. Jamieson tells his memories of growing up in the Ozarks and how the natural beauty of the area and the calming properties of running water helped heal the scars from his childhood. In these heartfelt and lyrically told tales, he shares the pain of his childhood, the realizations that came from his connection to nature, and how they helped him move forward.
ANDREW BARTON
Route 66 St. Louis: From the Bridges to the Diamonds
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Classes Cooking efs souri Ch from Mis
Celebra te Mi Garden ssouri ing
Tips and Consumer novation In Product
396 acres, 15 buildings Hundreds of demonstrations on creating the ideal country lifestyle. Shopping B onanza and Barga ins
Quality cattle entries
Like a virtual experience of your favorite how-to reality television show!
Outstanding swine entries
First-rate sheep competitions
Supreme poultry entries
Exceptional equine competitions
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.
SILVER DOLLAR
CITY GAZETTE
VOL. I NO. 2
ALL ABOARD! _____
BRANSON, MISSOURI
DAILY CRUISES!
The Showboat Branson _____Belle New Shows! New Menu! New Performers!
_____
Catch one or both of the 700-seat paddlewheeler’s new shows, cruising now through December 31. Word on the City streets is that it’s a tough choice whether to catch ENCORE! or FUNNY FIDDLE! This editor recommends you make two visits this summer to see both. ENCORE! consists of three acts: 1. WORLD-RENOWNED aerial violinist Janice Martin will be singing and performing her thrilling act. She’s not only the BEST aerial violinist; she’s the world’s ONLY aerial violinist. Newspaper critics from the New York Times and the Miami Herald call her a stunning talent. 2. Encore! is hosted by MAGICIAN and COMEDIAN Christopher James, who will have you in fits of laughter and then deadpan wonderment, and then laughter again. You will be spellbound by his improvisational comedy-magic mashup. 3. Recruited from among the best vocalists on this Earth, six-man vocal group THE SHOWMEN offer song after song of talented and diverse voice and dance. Come for the Gershwin or the Beatles, then stay for the Black Eyed Peas and their classical, classic-rock, and contemporary likes. Encore! is backed by the Showboat’s 5-piece live band, Rockin’ Dockers. FUNNY FIDDLE, the Belle’s second all-new show, welcomes COMEDIAN and MUSICIAN Chris Pendleton to the stage.
There’s the cruise with the BEAUTIFUL view of the Ozark Hills and Table Rock Lake. And the FOOD! Showboat Chef Larry dishes up succulent Beef Tenderloin in Cabernet sauce, Mediterranean Chicken Kabobs, and Chicken Focaccia with Dijon sauce. Premium dining op tions include Captain’s Cut K.C. Strip, Mahi Mahi, Caribbean Stuffed Chicken, and the Mate’s Choice surf-and-turf. (Vegetarian and children’s options are also available.) Chef Larry caps off the meal with the indulgent Golden Brittle LemonBerry Tor te. (Editor’s Note: Your taste
buds will love Chef Larry. We are not liable if they leave you for him.) One of the biggest changes in Showboat Branson Belle’s history brings you Broadway production values—LED lighting and video screens, a double-deck stage, and REVOLVING baby grand piano—mixed seamlessly with traditional showboat elegance and ambience. Call 800-775-BOAT (2628) or visit www. showboatbransonbelle.com, where you can take a 360-degree virtual tour.
GENERAL INFORMATION: 1-800-831-4FUN (4386)
WWW.SILVERDOLLARCITY.COM
Tickets, turnstiles, and Main Street open 1 hour prior to the City.
Chris has appeared nationally on Lifetime, A&E, and countless other programs. EMCEE Dean Church and the Showboat’s LIVE BAND, The Castaways, join her.
BUT YOUR TICKET BUYS A BOATLOAD MORE!
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NEW at White Water
Aloha River! Sample the SOUTH PACIFIC at Branson. The Ozarks’ largest water park and attraction JUST GOT BIGGER! Cast off to ALOHA RIVER, the all-new nearly three-football-field-long Polynesian tropics ride at Hula Hula Bay in White Water water park! Soak your toes while tubing past a lulling WILDISLAND landscape. Beware a 30-foot TIKI WATER TOWER plus twists and turns
while you feel the liquid breeze of bubblers, GEYSERS, misters, and fountains on 12 acres of water fun! 300,000 GALLONS OF WATER make this an allday adventure! Head over to the brandnew shaded CABANA seating area, too far from the splash to get wet but close enough to keep an eye on the kids. Enjoy favorite family treats, including pizza, beneath leaf-roofed ordering stations. After lunch, relax and float down the tropic river in a tube of your choice. When the day ends, be thankful you purchased a season pass and can come back tomorrow! Getting the recommended daily dose of water, exercise, and vitamin D has never been this easy! Season passes start at $75, $79, and $85 for children, seniors, and adults. White Water passes can be purchased as a combined package with Silver Dollar City park passes. Say Aloha to fun!
BY LAND OR BY SEA! WIN a Family Land and Sea Escape: four tickets to Silver Dollar City, Showboat Branson Belle, and White Water! But wait, there’s more! Win two nights’ lodging at a lakeside resort! This is a
HALF DOLLAR HOLLER Fun looks like a verdant forest at Silver Dollar City’s newest addition: Half Dollar Holler, a treescape of climby things, tall things, sandy things, and swingy things! Builders got it right: Give 3-to-7-year-olds a million dollars, and they would build this! Half Dollar Holler unleashes young guests to explore woodlands by four-paw crawling along climbing nets to treetop houses where activities and fun await. Safe, single-access entries to each attraction ensure you won’t have to chase after the wee ones! Nearby, the hand-carved Hugo and Mary’s Carousel provides a calm respite for kids and mom and dad or granny and gramps, with soft melodies, customcarved horses and bears, bench-style fancy carriages, and smooth, slow twists. The carousel is better than ever! Sand pits and imagination bring out budding artists. Then shake the sand off at the Lil’ Swings ride. For downtime, settle on a tree-stump seat around the professional story circle, where from June 11 to August 7, Highlights magazine will energize and mobilize minds with stories that encourage learning.
$900 Value, folks! Enter now!
Enter and read rules at www.MissouriLife.com or send your name, address, and phone number to Missouri Life, 515 E. Morgan Street, Boonville, MO 65233 before June 31! Winner will be selected by random drawing.
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ALL THAT GLITTERS
VIC MASTIS, part-owner of Gateway Gallery in Clayton, began her artistic journey early. Throughout school, she took art classes, which she believes kept her from dropping out. In junior high school, she won her first art award and, at the age of 15, sold her first piece, a series of large abstract paintings. Then Vic took things a step further—her first job was as a portrait artist at Six Flags when she was 16, working with pastels. Her passion for art took a detour for several years as she ran a beauty shop and cared for her children. Vic was content waiting until her children were in college to begin creating art again, but in 1997 she discovered she had breast cancer. After one of her chemotherapy sessions, she attended a pastel convention in Kansas City, which reignited her artistic drive. “I put on my wig and attended the convention,” Vic says. “I was so elated when I got home, I started the Gateway Pastel Artists, which is still in existence today.” Vic’s mission is to give strong feelings to those who view her work. She calls her paintings “total effect paintings,” and hopes
they evoke something for each viewer, much in the way her own personal artwork collection speaks to her. “My walls at home are decorated with other artists’ paintings,” she says. “I remember where I purchased each piece and the feeling it gave me when I first saw it.” Vic uses a specialized technique that took several years to develop. She layers gold leaf with oil glazes, which gives her work a luminous quality. Although layering gold leaf is time-consuming, she believes the technique creates an inner glow within her pieces, giving traditional subjects such as flowers and nature a modern twist. Nature is a recurrent theme in her work. The flower paintings sell best, something that does not surprise Vic. “Flowers brighten the surroundings, create a romantic mood, and bring joy and beauty to any room in which they are placed, whether it be real flowers or a painting of flowers,” she says. “People want to experience these feelings in their home on a permanent basis, so they purchase paintings that will give them joy indefinitely.” The sunflower is the most common
flower seen in Vic’s paintings, and for good reason. “Sunflowers were my mother’s favorite,” she says. Her mother asked her to paint sunflowers on her cutting board, and then she hung it in the kitchen. “I love to paint sturdy flowers with thick stems. They make a statement. I am not too fond of wimpy flowers,” Vic says. She is also working on a series entitled Into the Woods, a reflection of the outdoor world she admires so much. “My husband and I camp a lot, and I grew up hunting, so I have a deep respect for the woods,” she says. “In this series, my intentions are to take the viewer down the path—be it a part of their life, a path to escape or discover something.” Vic paints every season, and like most artists, she has a favorite: fall. “Colors are so bright and, if they are not, I make them glow anyway,” she says. “That is the fun of being an artist,” she says. “I can interpret or change anything to give the painting the feeling I want.” Above: Into the Woods—Orange. Right top: 180º View. Bottom: Misty Orange Trees and Into the Woods—Green.
COURTESY OF GARRY MCMICHAEL AND FRANK MASTIS
Layers of gold leaf brighten the outlook of a St. Louis cancer survivor. BY LEIGH BISHOP
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WHERE TO FIND VIC'S WORK Gateway Gallery
Art Trends Gallery
Artistica Art Gallery
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Heirloom-quality Great Missouri 100% wool blankets, socks &Art more! Heirloom-quality
6th Annual Christmas in July
100% wool blankets, socks & more!
unrisePastures Swww.sunrisepastures.com 660-963-2685*Laclede, Mo
Need a case for your Missouri Life magazines? Call 800-492-2593.
July 23 & 24
10 AM to 5 PM daily Featuring guest artists from Early American Life magazine and Patti Zieche-Davisson, wire-wrap jeweler.
ASL Pewter $2
5
123 S. Third St., Louisiana, MO 573-754-3435 • www.aslpewter.com
Where American Crafts Are Made By American Craftsmen
MACAA.net Your connection to Missouri’s community arts agencies, artists and arts events! Artists: Click on the
icon to list yourself on Missouri’s Creative Artist Resource Directory. It’s FREE!
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Bent Tree Gallery The
HISTORIC CLARKSVILLE MISSOURI
Rustic Furniture and Accents One-of-a-Kind Leather Handbags Baskets & Fiber Art Tues.–Sat. 10–5 • Sun. 12–5 • Call for our workshop schedule. 573-242-3200 • www.thebenttree.com • www.stacyleigh.etsy.com
JUST RIGHT FOR YOUR COFFEE BREAK! Bookmark features original, hand-etched scrimshaw on a recycled antique ivory piano key with genuine leather and handmade paper accents. $22, plus $2 shipping/handling Check/Money Order/Visa/MasterCard 31 High Trail, Eureka, MO 63025 • www.stonehollowstudio.com
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Made
IN MISSOURI
Keytesville >
BY MELISSA WILLIAMS
www.archertool.com 660-288-3257
Nixa >
Soap for soldiers MAKING SOAP ON HER STOVE began as a way for Nancy Bogart to make extra money. Eleven years later, Jordan Essentials offers high-quality products made with ingredients such as shea butter, soy, and grape seed oils, and is now made in a professional manufacturing facility. Try the Happy Feet Spa Retreat or the Military Lotion Bar, wrapped in camouflauge, which can
Macon >
Fishing for Freshwater Reels “MADE BY FISHERMEN for fishermen,” Ardent Reels hand assembles and performance tests each of its products. Ardent Reels is the only freshwater casting and spinning reels manufacturer in the country. Ardent products come with a three-year warranty to ensure the company’s claim of high-quality performance and durability. The most popular reel is the F700 Denny Brauer Flip and Pitch reel. Ardent Reels offers other products and accessories as well, such as its Reel Cleaning Kit, Reel Butter Bearing Lube, and Reel Kleen Cleaner and Swabs. Team Ardent, 10 Bass Master Elite Series professionals who use the products, helps contribute to Ardent’s award-winning credentials. Products are avail-
be sent overseas to soldiers.
able through a network of authorized dealers
www.jordanessentials.com
listed on the website or by ordering online.
877-662-8669
www.ardentreels.com • 660-395-9200
COURTESY OF ARCHER TOOL, JORDAN ESSENTIALS, AND ARDENT REELS
A NEED FOR BETTER and more accessible welding tools prompted James Archer to start making them independently in 1986. A year later, Archer Tool Company was born with four core products and two new designs. Now Archer offers more than 80 different products, small tools, and accessories used in five primary markets—welding, hardware, automotive, industrial, and medical. All are distributed nationwide and in some foreign markets. They also offer tools for hobbyists and do-it-yourselfers, including hobby knives, hand tools such as wrenches and pliers, bend-it mirrors, and safety glasses. Tools can come in kits, including a welding kit or hobby kit.
THE FIRST SLICED BREAD WAS SOLD IN CHILLICOTHE IN 1928.
WELDING FOR THE WORLD
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Lonedell >
Herbals for horses A LIFELONG LOVE of animals and all things organic made Karen Brown want organic products for her own horses. After researching healthcare products and available treat-
ditioners, and treatments for skin conditions and pest control.
ments, she decided to make her own. Karen, a trained herbal-
Her products are all-natural and made from essential oils from
ist and Certified Master Aroma Therapist, developed EQ Care,
a local company. At her 200-acre residence, shared with her
a line of products for people, pets, and large animals. She
animals, she explores the healing power of nature.
offers antiseptic cleansers, arthritis balm, shampoos and con-
www.agrimissouri.com • 636-584-5255
Westphalia >
ANDREW BARTON
A HUNK, A HUNK OF BURNING SOY CANDLES THE GARAGE has been converted into a candlemaking factory at Brenda K. Rehagen’s house. She bought Giddy Up Soy Candles about four years ago and makes soy wax candles that are made from American-grown soybeans. These soy candles burn cleaner than regular paraffin wax and are non-toxic, she says. Plus, they won’t leave black soot marks on furniture and walls or in air ducts. The candles, available in 40 different botanical oil fragrances, come in several different sizes and styles of jars, but she can custom-make candles as well. Brenda offers a unique Merlot wine glass candle, sold in local wineries. Other scents include Hot Apple Dumpling, Caramel Pecan, Fresh Spring (honeysuckle and hyacinth), Geranium and Grapefruit, Lemon Grass, and “Hunk’a Burn’in Love,” which smells like Elvis’s signature Caesar’s Man cologne. She offers fundraisers for organizations and sells candles in several retail locations across the state, which are listed on her website. www.giddyupsoycandles.com • 866-884-0086
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PRESENTS
CRYSTAL GAYLE FRIDAY, JUNE 17 AT 8:00PM
Purchase tickets now for just $ 25 by calling 660-882-1239 or online at www.jestersjam.com. CONNECT WITH US
100 Isle of Capri Blvd. • Boonville, MO 65233 1-800-THE-ISLE • www.isleofcapricasinos.com © 2011 Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. Must be 21 to attend. Tickets are non-refundable. Subject to change/ cancellation without notice. Bet with your head, not over it. Gambling problem? Call 1-888-BETS-OFF or e-mail gamblingcounselor@lifecrisis.org. [31] June 2011
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Road
Listen for the call of the wild on the shores of the Meramec River. BY JOHN ROBINSON THE GATEWAY to the West isn’t really known for its stockyards, like its western sisters St. Joseph and Sedalia and Kansas City are. Still, there’s one cattle drive I always look forward to making, the drive to Lindbergh Boulevard. It’s fitting that Kreis’ Restaurant is on the western fringe of the city. Kreis has been kicking steakhouse butt longer than I’ve been alive. Oh, the dining room’s atmosphere is rich with dark wood paneling and deep red trim. The ambience and the service fit like hand in glove, but really, a restaurant’s décor is just a frame for the painting. Let’s talk marbling. I respect the posthumous reward that fewer than three in 100 bovines achieve: prime. As a patron of less regal stature, I save uneaten portions of my ample prime rib and take a bag of bovine home to my canines, who truly appreciate the gesture. It
appeals to the wolf in every dog. And every dog has the instincts of Canis lupus at its core, no matter how much breeding has altered its outward appearance. For the most remarkable display of the results of breeding this side of Windsor Castle, I drove a couple of miles to Queeny Park, where the old Jarville mansion has morphed into the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog. There’s no taxidermy
here, which is understandable because the subject of this museum is the greatest animal ever: your dog and hundreds like it. I didn’t bring Baskin and Queenie, our Yorkies, because they don’t really appreciate art. But for dogs who like looking at dog pictures, this museum puts out the mat, a veritable Met for a mutt, exhibiting more than 500 paintings, watercolors, drawings, sculptures, and decorative arts dedicated to man’s best friend. The museum opened in New York 280 dog years ago in 1982, an effort by the Westminster Kennel Club to “improve the life of the dog.” By 1985, the museum outgrew its Manhattan quarters, and Queeny Park out-bid Los Angeles, Orlando, and Denver for this doozy of a doghouse. If you can’t find the greatest dog ever in this compendium of canine culture, it must mean that you left an important family member at home.
COURTESY MISSOURI STATE PARKS, ENDANGERED WOLF CENTER, AND AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB MUSEUM OF THE DOG
THE EDGE OF WILD
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Left: The Meramec River winds through Castlewood State Park. Right: Ten miles south by highway, the Endangered Wolf Center houses about 40 to 50 endangered wolves, such as this Mexican gray, one of the world’s two most endangered wolf species.
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Nobody knows Missouri like John Robinson.
Granted, the main displays at the dog museum are not wild animals. For the wild side, I drove down the road to see some pups. Not just any pups, these are the children of the canids from which every other breed springs. Wolf pups. Calling itself “the alternative to extinction,” the Endangered Wolf Center sits just off I-44 in Eureka. It began as the wild canid sanctuary back in 1971, shepherded by Carol and Marlin Perkins. Marlin was director of the St. Louis Zoo at the time. This nonprofit center gets much credit for helping keep at least one wolf species from going extinct. Five Mexican gray wolf pups were born a year ago at the center, to proud parents Perkins and Abby. That’s a big deal, because the Mexican gray wolf is the most endangered species on the North American continent, according to Pamela Braasch, education director at the center. Only 42 such Mexican gray wolves live outside captivity in the wilds of New Mexico and Arizona. It used to be worse: at one point, only seven Mexican gray wolves were surviving in the wild. This center has been the key to increasing that number. Along with Abby and Perkins, other residents—including Anna, Apache, Bob, Frijole, Redford, Rocky, and Picaron—are doing their best to propagate the species. In fact, Abby is expecting again. Everyone hopes Inapa will bear pups,
too. She used to be the lone red wolf here, and she walks on three legs, due to a mysterious injury to her left foreleg. Inapa won’t be released back to the wild. But if she has pups, they could eventually be released into a refuge in North Carolina. Recently,
If you're wondering how the wolves get their names, think Betty White. the center received two red wolves from the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Maybe Inapa will start a family. “Our procedure is hands-off,” Pam explains. “We have minimal contact with the animals and only touch them when they’re vaccinated.” The hands-off approach gives the animals a better chance to acclimate back to the wild. “They don’t even know their names,” Pam says. If you’re wondering how the wolves get their names, think Betty White. “Betty is
one of our strongest supporters,” Pam says. “For a benefit a few years ago, she challenged supporters to pony up and name a wolf.” The price tag: $2,500 per name. She put her money down and named Perkins for you know who and another male Redford, for, well, you know who. If you like a cappella voices, don’t miss the center’s Campfire Wolf Howl. Several times a year, registrants gather around a campfire and hear Pam and others tell tales of wolves—not the tales your mother read to you. These are tales from the wolves’ points of view, about family life and working together. Then it’s time for a concert. The group leaves the campfire and walks past the wolf habitat. As most dog owners can attest, it’s usually easy to get a canine to sing. The howl you hear is the real McCoy. The howl of the wolf fell silent in Missouri’s remnant wilds as civilization pushed them from their habitat. But you might still hear a stray howl, even in the city. Coyotes, close relatives to wolves, roam the metro St. Louis area. City coyotes adapt to the urban lifestyle and can be seen by humans often more readily than their country cousins. But like the wolf, the wolf center itself is endangered, as a tough economy makes things hard for a menagerie of canids that depend on the kindness of strangers. Not a mile from the wolves, as the crow
COURTESY OF MISSOURI STATE PARKS AND THE WORLD BIRD SANCTUARY
the next one.
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The Meramec River offers wild release to St. Louis city dwellers. Rio the macaw will star this year in Boston’s Stone Zoo Bird Show but will return to the World Bird Sanctuary after Labor Day. Becky Gardiner introduces one of the birds to visitors.
flies, needy creatures from another animal class find comfort. That’s where Rio winters. He’s a semi-retired actor who grew up performing at Reptile Gardens in Florida. When he arrived at the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, his rap sheet said he was “territorial and an unreliable flier.” But the folks at the sanctuary saw promise in this bright red macaw with stunning blue and green trim. Now the talkative teen does summer repertory in zoos from Boston to Minneapolis. While Rio hits the road, Nemo, Guapo, Arizona, and other parrots hold down the
fort, along with a veritable who’s who of owls and eagles, and the world’s fastest animal, a peregrine falcon. It’s no accident that the World Bird Sanctuary sits so close to the Endangered Wolf Center. This bird haven was hatched in 1977 by ornithologist Walter C. Crawford, Jr., who began his career at the St. Louis Zoo, working closely with zoo director Marlin Perkins. Originally called the Raptor Rehabilitation and Propagation Project, the sanctuary is designed to care for birds of prey, especially injured raptors and exotic birds illegally smuggled into the
United States. The hospital takes patients with broken wings and aviary ailments, but the worst malady is neglect. The parrot rehab and placement program has successfully relocated more than 900 birds, including abandoned parrots who outlived their owners’ welcome, or their owners. Parrots live a long time. And they remember things. Standing next to these amazing birds is the closest I’ve come to a pet that can pronounce my name. Up close, I saw eagles and owls that have survived gunshot wounds and red-tailed hawks that survived tangles with cars.
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Over the decades, my car has taken me a thousand times up and down I-44, past these refuges, never stopping, in a habitual hurry. Yet the rugged terrain and lack of urban sprawl always intrigued me. After all, this area is only a moderate cab ride from city congestion. In my decades of travel past Powder Valley, I’d never slowed to learn the Civil War history that preceded the Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center at I-44 and I-270—Union forces stored gunpowder in nearby caves—or its natural history either. In the tightly folded hills near Antire Road, I’d seen the exit sign for the Beaumont Scout Reservation, but I never realized that across old Route 66, there were animal kingdoms in the wild outback just inches from the highway. Within a few square acres, these two rehab centers offer hundreds of lessons for scouts, and for all of us, about stewardship or lack thereof. The centers adjoin Washington University’s Tyson Research Center, a 2,000-acre outdoor laboratory studying the ecology of everything from earthworms to earthquakes, amphibians to acid rain. I was finding out just how little I knew about the area. The Henry Shaw Ozark Cor-
Lions, tigers, bears—oh my! St. Louis doesn't get wilder than its zoo. Below: Hike three miles of paved trails at this center.
ridor stretches along old Route 66 for 24 miles, from Powder Valley to the Shaw Nature Reserve just minutes north of Robertsville State Park. Yes, Henry Shaw founded the world-renowned Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. The western bookend of this corridor is a preserve purchased by Shaw’s successors, now called Shaw Nature Reserve. In between is a patchwork quilt of 30 such preserves, an archipelago so extensive that only its larger components show up on the state highway map. The corridor includes conservation areas, city and county parks, state parks, the Fenton terraces and the Meramec bottoms, the Antire Hills and the Pacific Palisades, all tied together by a string called the Meramec River. The Tyson Valley has a long history that has evolved from natural area to quarry, from military munitions depot during World War II to wild animal preserve with buffalo and elk, and back to a military storage depot during the Korean War. In that latter phase, after a bull elk rammed an Army vehicle during rut season, officials rounded up the wild elk and killed them. But one lone elk either hid or was young enough to be mistaken for a deer. When the land reverted back to civilian use, Lone Elk Park was named for this survivor. Today, the elk and buffalo are back, thanks to repopulation efforts. I got back on I-44, and drove toward the sunset like I had done so many times be-
fore. But I made one more stop to stretch my legs among the Missouri wildflowers at the Shaw Nature Reserve, established in 1925 by the Missouri Botanical Garden to save orchids and other plants when air pollution in St. Louis threatened the city garden’s plant population. The reserve and the Whitmire Wildflower Garden surround the 1879 Joseph H. Bascom mansion, where an exhibit chronicles this area’s 12,000 years of humans interacting with nature. I hiked portions of the 13 miles of trails through the 2,500-acre reserve, across glades, through tall-grass prairie and savanna and oak-hickory woods. I learned how Native Americans used fire to control growth on prairie and keep canopies from crowding out the native grasses. I kept an eye out for tarantulas and scorpions and learned about the evening primrose with its five-inch cone, pollinated by the Sphinx moth with a fiveinch tongue. Nifty. Most people do what I usually do when traveling I-44: hurry on to their destination, unaware that they’re in close proximity to a wolf on three legs or Rio the semi-retired parrot. But if you have the time, stop in to say hello to somebody that just might repeat your name. Pick a night when the moon is full, and go listen for the voices that signal what the gateway has been saying all along: You’re on the edge of the Wild Wild West.
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ILLINOIS
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MISSOURI
WILD WILD WEST ALONG THE MERAMEC
A. The American Kennel Club: Museum of the Dog
G. Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center
See more than 700 paintings, sculptures, figurines, and other artworks.
Learn firsthand about Missouri wildlife at a 3,000-gallon aquarium, live
1721 S. Mason Rd. (Queeny Park), St. Louis • 314-821-3647
beehive, wildlife-viewing area, snake exhibit, or library.
www.museumofthedog.org
11715 Cragwold Rd., Kirkwood • 314-301-1500 • www.mdc.mo.gov
B. Castlewood State Park
H. Robertsville State Park
Mountain-biking trails, hiking trails, and fishing holes let other hobby-
Bring the family to the mighty Meramec River and Calvey Creek for boat
ists roam around, while wildlife and meadows offer calm Meramec River
launches, river rides, water birds, campgrounds, and picnic areas.
scenery to those who seek serenity. 1401 Kiefer Creek Rd., Ballwin
900 State Park Dr., Robertsville • 573-468-6072
636-227-4433 • www.mostateparks.com
www.mostateparks.com
C. Endangered Wolf Center
I. Rockwoods Reservation
Study pelts, paw prints, and wolves. An indoor program plus outdoor tour
Walk through springs, caves, rock formations, ravines, creek bottoms,
lasts 2 hours ($10); the tour alone lasts 1 hour ($8). Reserve in advance.
slopes, and ridge tops in the hill-country environment.
1000 Antire Rd., Eureka • 636-938-5900
2751 Glencoe Rd., Wildwood • 636-458-2236 • www.mdc.mo.gov
www.endangeredwolfcenter.org
ST. LOUIS ZOO; POWDER VALLEY NATURE CONSERVATION CENTER
J. Shaw Nature Reserve D. Green Rock Trail
June is known for the riot of white wildflowers at the preserve, and July’s
Hike through rocky terrain just outside the city in Wildwood. Enjoy an
heat brings peak color to the prairie, from then until September.
oasis from urban areas while savoring the lookout spots.
Exit #253 on I-44 at Gray Summit • 636-451-3512
Trailhead lies at Rockwoods Range • Trail ends at Rockwoods
www.shawnature.org
Education Center K. St. Louis Zoo E. Kreis’ Restaurant
Explore five zones: Red Rocks, Historic Hill, River’s Edge, The Wild, Lake-
Bite into what John Robinson calls “the last word on prime rib,” aged corn-
side Crossing, and Discover Corner.
fed beef, and other meats.
One Government Drive, St. Louis • 314-781-0900 • www.stlzoo.org
535 Lindbergh, St. Louis • 314-993-0735 • www.kreisrestaurant.com L. World Bird Sanctuary F. Pacific Palisades Conservation Area
Meet the threatened birds: Bald eagles, owls, hawks, falcons, and vultures.
For non-game fish, bass, crappie, and bluegill, fish two unstocked, unman-
Attend free seasonal shows and learn how the sanctuary preserves diversity.
aged gravel pits that fill with Meramec River runoff.
125 Bald Eagle Ridge Rd., Valley Park • 636-861-3225
636-458-2236 • www.mdc.mo.gov
www.worldbirdsanctuary.org
[37] June 2011
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special advertising section
Commemorate
the Civil War in Columbia This year is the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War. Come to Columbia for a unique glimpse into the struggles of Missourians and the lives of civilians and soldiers, leaders and visionaries.
The Civil War almost put an end to MU! On January 2, 1862, a group of Union volunteers known as “Merrill’s Horse” rode into Columbia and pitched their tents on the University of Missouri campus, taking over the school. For 10 months, classes were suspended due to staff shortages. Enrollment declined from 112 in 1860 to just 40 during the war. One faculty member joined the Confederacy—Edward T. Fristoe, chairman of the math department. An unlikely rest area for Civil War soldiers, the first Chancellor’s esidence, then known as the President’s esidence, served as soldiers’ quarters for 300 Union troops. In 1865, it was destroyed in a fire unrelated to the war. The current esidence, built in , has been host to several celebrities such as Walter Cronkite, Joseph Pulitzer, Mark Twain, Harry S. Truman, and Eleanor oosevelt. The famous columns are the relic and memorial of Academic Hall, another university building that housed Union troops and served as a jail for Confederate soldiers. It burned down in 1892. Speculation and reports suggest that a group of Union soldiers discovered a box of blank diplomas and held their own graduation ceremony in which they were awarded degrees from the University. Damages to the University during the War were extensive—horses and wagons destroyed the grounds, books were used as fuel for fire, and prisoners attempting to escape cut holes into walls and oors. The University filed claims against the Federal government for these
038 ML0611.indd 38
damages, and they were settled for , in 1915—well after the War, and long after Academic Hall had been burned in 1892. Strolling through the MU campus, which is also a botanical garden, is a wonderful way to spend the day.
See War Diaries and Letters
Or you can visit the State Historical Society to read Civil War letters, diaries, affidavits, news papers, and more housed in the State Historical Society of Missouri. Located on the ground oor of the eastern side of Ellis Library, the State Historical Society offers books, maps, and more to Civil War aficionados. ead through Missouri newspaper coverage of the war, which describes battles, troop movements, and guerrilla attacks. The newspapers include multiple calls to action for citizens to remain loyal. These letters and diaries provide insight into how Missouri citizens and soldiers experienced the Civil War. One unique collection visitors can browse is the letters of Lewis iley, a Union cavalryman from the 6th Infantry of Missouri. n his letters, iley writes to his wife, offering a unique perspective on one soldier’s experiences as he describes the battles throughout the South, including Memphis, Little ock, and Vicksburg. Viewing this vast collection is free. The news paper, reference, and manuscript collections are open Mondays through Fridays, 8 am to 4:45 pm, and Saturdays 8 am to 3:30 pm. The photograph, map, and editorial collections are open Mondays through Fridays, 8 am to 4:45 pm. http://shs.umsystem.edu | 573-882-7083
STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, MU PUBLICATIONS
At MU, Classes Were Suspended
5/4/11 3:41:37 PM
special advertising section
Chancellor’s Residence
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5/4/11 3:42:26 PM
J.W. Boone Home Rachel Boone, a slave given to a family in Sedalia by the Boone family of Columbia, ed to Miami, Missouri, where she found a Union Army Camp nearby. Rachel took refuge with the regiment as a cook and soon met a bugler in the camp. They had a child in 1864 and named him John William Boone. Better known as J.W. “Blind” Boone, Boone was a key leader in the evolution of the first merican music ragtime. Before he reached the age of one, Boone fell ill with “brain fever,” a commonly diagnosed yet illdefined disease. n order to relieve the swelling in young Boone’s brain, doctors completely removed both of his eyes. Though he lost his sight, he did not lose his talent and ambition he became a mu sical sensation and a well-loved citizen of Columbia. He attended private music lessons at Christian College, now Columbia College, and was soon on his way to becoming an outstanding composer and concert pianist who toured the world. n , Boone moved into the still standing J.W. “Blind” Boone home, though the structure was not yet complete. At the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets, the J.W. “Blind” Boone home is designated as ationally Significant on the National Register of Historic Places. A museum dedicated to honoring Boone’s accomplishments as an African American musician, the home is undergoing major renovations and will one day tell the story of how the original American music, ragtime, was first created. While the outside of the home is finished, the John William Boone Heritage Foundation is working closely with the City of Columbia to finish renovation of the inside of the home. Once completed, visitors can glimpse what life was like for J.W. Boone and the unique struggles and accomplishments he met as a nationally recognized musician. For now, you can stroll past the two-story downtown home and hum a jaunty ragtime tune in thanks.
J.W. “Blind” Boone moved into his home at 10 North Fourth Street in 1889, even though the structure was not yet complete. It is thought that his marriage to Eugenia Lange took place in 1892, the same year that the house was deeded to the couple.
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NOTLEY HAWKINS, MISSOURI STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, JIM LICKLIDER
Son of a Slave Played Ragtime
5/4/11 3:43:12 PM
special advertising section
Special Exhibit Follows War Progression
COURTESY OF BOONE COUNTY MUSEUM
For an in-depth glimpse into Boone County’s role during the Civil War, visit the Walters Boone County Museum and Galleries on Ponderosa Drive in historic Nifong Park. The museum and galleries offer a variety of exhibits, and guided tours are available for a small fee. Inside the Boone County Museum, visitors walk through a Civil War exhibit, open until 2013. Visitors can experience history with a detailed battle map and timeline starting in , which will both be updated every five to six months and will follow the progression of the War through its end in 1865. Life-size models will depict a “slice-oflife” scene for visitors. Come see how Boone County’s Henry Martyn Cheavens, a Confederate supporter, set up camp waiting for his commander to alert him to the time and place of the next Civil War engagement. Throughout the exhibit’s lifetime, other displays will be featured, including one depicting field surgeons, medics, and nurses at work in a military camp hospital, and an officer’s tent. The exhibit tells the story of mid-Missouri during the Civil War, from the role of women
and slaves to the legacies of local battles. On display is the uniform tunic and sword of General Odon Guitar, a Union General from Boone County, from the permanent collection. Art lovers will have a special opportunity through June 26 to see an exhibit of the work of American Realist Dan Woodward in the Montminy Art Gallery. Galleries and museums all over the country and internationally have hosted shows for Woodward. In honor of the Civil War sesquicentennial, Woodward’s show includes a collection of Civil War paintings. The Montminy Art Gallery, the largest gallery in central Missouri, is located inside the museum. Behind the Walters Boone County Museum is the Maplewood House, the renovated late Victorian-era home of the Lenoirs, one of Boone
County’s founding families, and the Village at Boone Junction, a collection of authentic originals and replicas of historic homes in Boone County. Among them is the McQuitty House, originally built and owned by Luther McQuitty in 1911. McQuitty was the child of a freed slave who became one of the first black realtors and contractors in Boone County and was known for building shotgun houses in Columbia. The museum is open Wednesdays through Saturdays, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Tours of the Historic Maplewood House are from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. every Sunday afternoon, May through September. Tours of the Village at Boone Junction are available to groups of four or more. Call to schedule a tour. www.boonehistory.org | 573-443-8936
Above: General Odon Guitar’s uniform tunic is on display. Right: One pair of fieldglasses in the museum’s collection comes with a bullet hole. The museum has an impressive collection of daguerreotypes.
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special advertising section
NOTLEY HAWKINS, RYAN CALHOUN
Columbia Cemetery
Colored Infantry Buried Here
As the oldest cemetery in the city, Columbia Cemetery covers nearly 35 acres and overlooks the University of Missouri and downtown area. Founded in 1820, the Columbia Cemetery is home to in uential Boone families, fallen sol diers, respected Columbia leaders, and others. Columbia Cemetery contains the graves of 31 members of the U.S. Colored Infantry, including members of Missouri’s 62nd and 65th Infantry. The 62nd was a part of the last major engagement of the Civil War on May 15, 1865, at Palmetto anch, Texas, more than a month after Gen. ob ert E. Lee’s surrender. The 65th was in Louisiana at the end of the war. After the war, members of the 62nd and the th egiments of the Colored nfantry estab lished Lincoln nstitute, now Lincoln Universi
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ty, in Jefferson City, for black students. In 1866, classes began. Also buried here is General Odon Guitar , who led Missouri Union forces during the Civil War and eventually became Brigadier General. While Guitar fought for the Union, his brother David served as an officer of the Confederate Army. Veterans from every war since the War of 1812 are buried in the cemetery, and two Revolutionary War soldiers also lie within the cemetery. Six presidents of the University of Missouri, presidents of Stephens and Columbia colleges, and short term governor braham . Williams are buried here. .W. Blind Boone, the famous ragtime musician and concert pia nist, also rests in the cemetery. www.columbiacemetery.org | 573-449-6320
The Columbia Cemetery has been in use since before the City of Columbia was incorporated, making the cemetery the oldest business in Columbia.
Stop by the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau for visitor guides, maps, festival information, and more www.visitcolumbiamo.com 300 South Providence Road
5/4/11 3:44:19 PM
2011-12 highights
Kathy Griffin Fri., Dec. 9, 2011, 7 p.m.
Buddy Guy Sun., Oct. 23, 2011, 7 p.m.
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Mon., Oct. 31, 2011, 7 p.m. Elvis Lives Wed. Feb. 1, 2012, 7 p.m.
My Fair Lady Mon., Nov. 7, 2011, 7 p.m.
In the Heights Wed., March 7, 2012, 7 p.m.
For an entire season listing, visit www.concertseries.org Events are held at Jesse Auditorium, University of Missouri-Columbia (573) 882-3781 (800) 292-9136 [43] June 2011
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RETALIATION
RETALIATION
FRANCES FOLSOM & SARAH ALBAN
Civil War strife and revenge bound the town of Independence.
INDEPENDENCE, a prosperous frontier town near the Missouri River in 1827, was the gateway to the West. It was a strategic point for any traveler seeking new worlds via the Oregon, Santa Fe, and California trails. It’s fitting then that so many Civil War battles identified as “historic battles” by the National Park Service occurred in or near Independence, a town named for freedom. Although these battles all ended in Confederate victory, the Union finally prevailed at a battle just 10 miles west of Independence, in Westport, on October 23, 1864, putting an end to Confederate military efforts in Missouri. But before this Union Victory in 1864, retaliation among opposing forces was rampant. In Independence in 1863, women and children believed to have been smuggling information or aid to Confederates were being incarcerated. Some were placed in the Jackson County Jail (which today is part of an often-toured historic site known as the 1859 Jail, Marshal’s Home, and Museum). When this jail overflowed, other buildings in surrounding areas were used. On August 13, 1863, a jail in Kansas City collapsed from overcrowding. Four young women died, and one one was the sister of William “Bloody Bill” Anderson. Capt. William Clark Quantrill, a Confederate guerilla leader, was a close friend of Anderson’s, and the collapse likely intensified the violence of Quantrill’s raid in Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863. On that day, Quantrill’s 450 border ruffians executed 180 Union-supporting boys and men. Yet more retaliation was looming. Just four days after Quantrill’s raid, Union Gen. Thomas Ewing authorized General Order No. 11,
which forced everyone, both Union and Confederate supporters, to evacuate farms in four rural counties on the Missouri-Kansas border. Gen. Ewing hoped to shut down rural support of Confederate guerillas. Those who could prove Union loyalty were allowed to move to nearby military camps. General Order No. 11 depopulated the countryside. Homes stood abandoned; some were burned down. An artist and Union Army captain, George Caleb Bingham, warned Gen. Ewing not to go forth with the order. In a letter of protest, Bingham threatened to tarnish Ewing with his paintbrush: “If you execute this order,” Bingham writes, “I shall make you famous with pen and brush.” In 1868, Bingham made good on his promise and retaliated by painting General Order No. 11. The painting will hang in the Truman Library and Museum in Independence until September 8, as part of a Bingham exhibit. Bingham expressed his passionate opinons in his journal, in which he writes this about the order: “It is well-known that men were shot down in the very act of obeying the order, and their wagons and effects seized by their murderers. Large trains of wagons, extending over the prairies for miles in length, and moving Kansasward, were freighted with every description of household furniture and wearing apparel belonging to the exiled inhabitants. Dense columns of smoke arising in every direction marked the conflaFrom Left: An exhibit relating to General Order No. 11 commemorates the evacuation of the countryside at the 1859 Jail, Marshal’s Home, and Museum. A docent guides visitors through the office of the Union Provost Marshal, who had command of the jail at the time.
Missouri Life is commemorating the Civil War sesquicentennial by including stories of the war here in every issue. [44] MissouriLife
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One TOWN, SURROUNDED BY Four HISTORIC BATTLES ■ Battle of Rock Creek
June 13, 1861
The Battle of Rock Creek was the first battle of the Civil War in Missouri, although it has been called “The Battle That Wasn’t” by one author. ■ First Battle of Independence
August 11, 1862
This small battle left Independence under Confederate control. As dawn broke on August 11, 1862, Col. J.T. Hughes and his Confederate troops attacked Independence; William Quantrill was with the soldiers. Union Lt. Col. James T. Buel
Bingham-Waggoner Estate
attempted to hold out in a building in town but eventually surrendered. After taking the town, Confederate forces moved toward Kansas City. ■ Battle of the Little Blue
October 21, 1864
INDEPENDENCE Events
This battle was part of Maj. Gen. Sterling Price’s campaign along the Missouri River attempting to take control of the state. After Maj. Gen. Price’s Confederate troops had prevailed at Lexington, Union Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt retreated to the Little
Ongoing events:
Blue River just east of Independence, where they occupied a strong defensive po-
■ Steamboats to Steam Engines: George Caleb Bingham’s Missouri, 1819-1879
sition. But then Union Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis ordered Maj. Gen. Blunt to move
is open until September 8 at the President Harry S. Truman Library and Museum.
into Independence. A small force under Col. Thomas Moonlight was ordered to
The exhibit highlights, through visual narratives and artifacts, Missouri before,
engage the enemy, burn the bridge and retreat from the strong position they had
during, and after the Civil War. It also celebrates the 200th birthday of Bingham,
held. Then on October 21, 1864, Curtis ordered Blunt to return to Little Blue, but it was too late to regain the strong position they had held earlier. After a five-hour battle, ultimately the Union troops retreated to Independence. ■ Second Battle of Independence
one of Missouri’s most renowned artists. www.trumanlibrary.org ■ Self-guided map tour of Independence’s Civil War sites: Tour has optional
downloadable podcasts from the Independence Tourism Department. Nar-
October 22, 1864
rators orate first-person as Union and Confederate soldiers, children, slaves,
The next day, the battle continued as Union troops returned to the river and en-
and women; they tell of the impact of Gen. Ewing’s General Order No. 11, the
gaged the Confederate forces but ultimately retreated, giving the Confederates
two battles of Independence, the Battle of the Little Blue, and confronta-
victory for the day. That would all change the next day, October 23, at Westport,
tions at other Civil War sites. www.visitindependence.com
where Union forces had consolidated and the now outnumbered Maj. Gen Price
■ 1859 Jail, Marshal’s Home, and Museum: See where Jesse James’s brother,
could not break the Union line, forcing him to retreat and ending Confederate
Frank, was imprisoned. On display is a numbered and signed proof of Bing-
hope in Missouri.
ham’s General Order No. 11. www.jchs.org ■ Bingham-Waggoner Estate: George Caleb Bingham moved into this house
with his family shortly before the Civil War. While living here, he painted General Order No. 11. www.bwestate.org
grations of dwellings, many of the evidences of which are yet to be seen in the remains of seared and blackened chimneys, standing as melancholy monuments of a ruthless military despotism which spared neither age, sex, character, nor condition. There was neither aid nor protection afforded to the banished inhabitants by the heartless authority which expelled them from their rightful possessions. They crowded by hundreds upon the banks of the Missouri River, and were indebted to the charity of benevolent steamboat conductors for transportation to places of safety where friendly aid could be extended to them without danger to those who ventured to contribute it.” Ewing’s order did nothing to resolve the struggle for Independence—not even close. It increased the hotbed of resistance. But the area would finally cool with the Union’s capture of Westport. After that, so too would the nation begin cooling, with the close of the Civil War. And like so many other towns affected by the Civil War, Independence was left a scarred yet strengthened town—that remembers.
One-time events: ■
Talkin’ Truman: “Battle of Blue Mills Landing,” by Jay Jackson. Free with
admission to Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. June 11 at 11 AM. 816-2688200 or 800-833-1225. www.trumanlibrary.org. ■ Living Abe Lincoln: Actor Larry Greer’s presentation. July 14 at 7 PM. Mid-
west Genealogy Center. Free, but registration requested: 816-225-7228. ■
“George Caleb Bingham’s Uncivil Civil War.” Seminar for K-12 teachers
focusing on George Caleb Bingham’s life and times, with special emphasis on Bingham’s role in the Civil War. Graduate credit is offered through the University of Missouri-Kansas City. July 18 through 22. National Frontier Trails Museum. Register with Richard Edwards at 816-325-7575. www.frontiertrailsmuseum.org. ■ Crazy Quilt Order No. 11. Quilter Sharon Gregg leads workshop on General
Order No. 11. Fabric, thread, and decorations provided. $30 reservation (per person). Bring needle and scissors. September 17 from 10 AM to 1 PM. National Frontier Trails Museum. 816-325-7575 or www.frontiertrailsmuseum.org.
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Civil War Guide 500 REENACTORS 22 CANNONS
TONS OF HISTORY
111 N. Main, Liberty, MO • 816-781-9473 www.jamescountry.com • jamescntry@aol.com
JUNE 17-19 2011
FIRST BATTLE OF BOONVILLE CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTMENT BOONVILLE, MO
Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War and the First Battle of Boonville fought June 17, 1861. Learn more at www.goboonville.com or call Site Commander John Holtzclaw at 660-537-4000 for more information. Carrying a complete line of Civil War Living History needs for Ladies, Gentlemen, Civilian, Military – featuring patterns, weapons, accessories, research. Our specialty: the Border Wars. The best in Historical Accuracy • Documentation Value Service
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Missouri is a treasure trove of Civil War history. The Civil War’s First Blood: Missouri 1854-1861 and A Tour Guide to Missouri’s Civil War: Friend and Foe Alike are great additions to any historian or Civil War buff’s shelf. First Blood takes you by the hand and walks you through the back roads with thorough reports on ALL the action here as the war began, with 143 photos and illustrations of every major player. Greg Wolk’s Tour Guide outlines trips for you to explore the battles, and you will literally travel the pages of the Civil War. Call 800-492-2593 or visit www.missourilife.com to order these fascinating books and immerse yourself in Civil War history.
Some things you just can’t learn from a history book. Like what really happened when the North met South. With 15 distinctive museums and over 17 nationally-registered historic districts, it’s easy to see why St. Joseph was ranked the #1 Western Town in America. Commemorate the 150th of the Civil War at one of our many unique Civil War related sites.
www.missourilife.com 800-492-2593
[47] June 2011
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Jerry White was born and raised on Route 66 and owns Whitehall Mercantile, a collectibles store in Halltown. White sees visitors from all over the world.
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BY JOE McCUNE PHOTOGRAPHY BY NOTLEY HAWKINS
There’s a particular kind of restlessness in Americans, and throughout our history, that itch has led us from the first East Coast settlements to what author Louis L’Amour called the far blue mountains of the Appalachians, ever westward … wagon trains of the mid-1800s departing from Kansas City giving way to the smoke-blowing locomotives of the late 1800s and early 1900s … replaced by what mass producer Henry Ford wrought … leading finally to the late 1920s and a thin ribbon of concrete stretching from Chicago to California. The West was open, and Route 66 was the conduit, like the wagon trails and railroad tracks before it, of Americans’ unquenchable wanderlust. The bug bit me early, and when I was 16, I left my rural Missouri home early one morning on a trip to see a friend in Nashville, Tennessee. As I was driving on I-70 through St. Louis, the Beatles sang “Here Comes the Sun” as our star broke over the eastern horizon. The wonder of traveling—alone—hit me, and I sang along, happy to be on the road, happy to be driving, happy to be just, you know, going. Twenty-six years and several lifetimes later, I left the interstate behind and stepped into the past as present, traveling Route 66 across Missouri as millions before me had done, two lanes bridging the gap from the late 1920s to today. Americana was its lifeblood and nostalgia its currency, the first and last great American road. I began my east-to-west journey from St. Louis to Joplin, my long-hibernating traveling Jones awakened and ready for adventure. But first, I had to actually find Route 66 in St. Louis’s user-unfriendly maze of one-way streets and road construction. Thank you, Rand McNally.
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PART 1 |
Eat at Cash-Only Counter
I STAYED WITH an old college friend in St. Louis the Thursday night before my trip began, and of course we had to go out for a little while that evening, drinking beer at some Southside bar or three. I slept in. Before I began my trip, I decided that I didn’t really want an itinerary, preferring to go wherever the road took me, not exactly Kerouac — but also not a family vacation where Dad has everything planned down to the mile and minute, and what do you mean you have to go again? Besides, I was going solo, with no Dean Moriarty along to make things interesting. Because I didn’t have a plan, and because I got a late start, I decided to begin my trip downtown. Besides driving Route 66, the plan was to sample cuisine from various restaurants and diners and little hole-in-thewall places along the way. And because I was already downtown, that meant eating at the nearly 70-year-old Eat-Rite diner at 622 Chouteau Avenue. A squat white cinder block building, Eat-Rite is a 24-hour greasy spoon a blistered three-wood away from the Mississippi River. If you want something on the menu that isn’t fried, get a slice of pie. Or maybe a soda. Eat-Rite (cash only) has no booths or tables, only fixed stools around its L-shaped counter. Where each stool stands, the counter edge is rubbed yellow where forearms and elbows have rested for generations. On the counter top, yellow ovals mark the spot where hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of plates have sat. There’s a cigarette machine and an ATM to your left as you walk in the door; to your right is a Lord of the Rings pinball machine and a CD-
playing jukebox, and the latter three stick out like an atheist at an Alabama tent revival. Eat-Rite, which isn’t exactly on Route 66 but close enough to be a way station, is almost like home. Ken Ort, a St. Louis stagehand, has been a meal-a-day regular for 20 years. Eileen Cottrell (fired at least once, she says) has been a waitress and cook for 35 of her 66 years. And 81-year-old Opal Henderson, recently deposed neighborhood salvage yard queen (she was meeting her lawyer there), has buried a husband and four of her seven children during her 62 years of coming to Eat-Rite. With $2 in my pocket, I got a soda before I noticed the ATM. Flush with an extra $40, I got a cheeseburger and fries and immediately had buyer’s remorse—for on the menu is a variation of what seemingly every greasy spoon has. At EatRite, it’s called the Slinger: a combination of eggs, potatoes, meat, chili, and cheese. Alas, it was not to be, and I bid my diner companions adieu. A trip along Route 66 in St. Louis wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard at 6726 Chippewa Street for a concrete, which is like a Dairy Queen Blizzard on steroids. I ordered a mini with M&Ms. How in the world anyone could eat more than a mini is beyond me. Good stuff, but lord, it’s rich. Properly sated, I was ready to hit the road.
PART 2 |
Ike Liked Interstates
BLAME PRESIDENT EISENHOWER. After World War I ended, Ike, who was still a Lieutenant Colonel, traveled with a military convoy across the country on the nation’s first cross-country road, the Lincoln Highway. The convoy left July 9, 1919, from near the White House, and 62 days later it reached San Francisco and Lincoln Park. That experience, and the example of Germany’s autobahn that he saw later during World War II, shaped Eisenhower’s idea of what a highway system should and could be. As the 34th president of the United States from 1953 until 1961, Eisenhower championed a U.S. interstate plan, and in 1956, construction began on the system we know today. Missouri is bisected and dissected by four major interstates: I-70, which starts in Maryland and ends when it hits I-15 in Utah; I-55, which runs south out of Chicago and ends at the far end of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana; I-35, which goes from the Mexican border in Laredo, Texas, to Duluth, Minnesota; and I-44, which starts in St. Louis and ends in Wichita Falls, Texas. Chippewa Street, also called Highway 366, generally follows Route 66, and that’s the route I took out of St. Louis.
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Left: Route 66 crossed the Mississippi River on Chain of Rocks Bridge. Right: Eat-Rite diner is close enough to Route 66. Sample the Slinger.
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Right: The Diamonds Inn and Gardenway Motel near Gray Summit have shared a sign for a long time. Below:This bridge spans the Gasconade River near Hazelgreen.
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I met up with I-44 at Sunset Hills, merged into traffic and gunned my Toyota four-wheel-drive pickup up to 65 MPH to keep from getting run over. Any semblance of the original Route 66 was submerged beneath six lanes of concrete and asphalt, but onward I flew. Americans love to travel, it’s true, and we got our wanderlust honestly as a nation of immigrants from lands an ocean (or two) away. But it’s a peculiar thing. Since the interstate system really got up and running in the 1960s, it has become the automatic option when Americans take a trip by automobile. For all practical purposes, driving today is a means to an end rather than an end in itself, a chore to be endured rather than enjoyed. And I’m as guilty as the next person. In 1999, I went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans for the beads and the beer and the, ahem, clothing-optional women. I left Champaign, Illinois, at about 2 AM after working the second shift putting out the sports section for the NewsGazette newspaper. I drove 12 hours straight through, I-57 to I-55, stopping only for gas and bathroom breaks. By the time I got to my buddy’s house, I was nearly catatonic, roadwhipped and sleep-deprived into numbness. Oh, I’ve got other examples. Setting the cruise on my ’98 Mustang Cobra at 95 MPH, I flew along I-40 from Flagstaff, Arizona, to the Texas border, where state troopers were thicker than flies in a July feedlot, so I rediscovered the brake pedal. Driving from Jacksonville, Florida, to Columbia in one shot, I-10 to I-75 to I-24 to I-64 to I-70, 10 to 15 MPH over the speed limit at all times and a little less than 14 hours from door to door. I drive fast. I’ve got the 26-year speeding ticket history to prove it. But when I finally reconnected with Route 66 outside Pacific (and the Eastern Missouri Correctional Center, 18701 Old Highway 66), I fell into the rhythm of the two-lane road. I went from speeds of 65 to 70 on the interstate to 50 or slower on Route 66. It was a warm Friday, and my truck without a radio and I were headed to Cuba. We had all the time in the world to get there.
PART 3 |
Solitude Can Be Cruel
JOHN STEINBECK called Route 66 “the Mother Road” in The Grapes of Wrath, and the name stuck. Westward fled the Dust Bowl Oklahomans and Texans in the 1930s, the Mother Road birthing a generation of desperate dreamers hungry for the Promised Land called California. In its totality, Route 66 winds its way from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, more than 2,400 miles across eight states—including 317
miles across Missouri—and in the road’s heyday, it made small towns into boom towns to serve the weary travelers. It’s about 50 miles from Pacific to Cuba along Route 66. Pre-war bungalow-style sandstone houses dot the countryside. Single- and double-wide trailers are scattered just off the road here and yonder, ubiquitous features along Missouri’s two-lane blacktops and gravel roads. Cattle graze in hillside pastures, the ground too rocky to bother planting crops. Route 66 in these parts is almost always a Highway 66 byway, with very little of the original pavement and exact route remaining. Like many old highways, the road has been changed through the years to suit particular traffic and town needs. As such, the road hopscotches I-44, alternately running north or south of the interstate. As I was putting along on the outer-road byway, cars, trucks, vans, and semis flew by on the interstate, everyone rushing to get somewhere faster, faster, faster. But on Route 66, the pace is serene, and the farther away from I-44 I was, the better I liked it. Route 66 has hills and curves and character, Marilyn Monroe to I-44’s featureless Olive Oyl. Without a radio, I had nothing to distract me from the experience, nothing to intrude on my solitude. The only sounds were the truck’s engine, my knobby tires singing against the pavement, and the wind whistling through my open window. Although I didn’t measure it, I’m sure my blood pressure was the best it’s been in ages. My heart rate was about 60 beats per minute—I checked it with my wristwatch—and my breathing was slow and deep. Contemplation came easy, my mind adrift with free-association thoughts, one idea, one memory, one perception bleeding naturally into the next as Route 66 and its various byways dipped and curved, leading me south by southwest. Newly and for the first-time engaged, I thought about my fiancée and our two-year-old daughter, missing them more than a little, hearing their voices as the road unspooled before me. “Hi, Daddy! What doing?” my daughter hollers into the phone every time I talk to them on my trip, making me smile, making my heart swell. Solitude can be a cruel mistress, too. You try having the Sesame Street theme song run through your head over and over and over (and over) for a half-hour straight. Can you tell me how to get … how to get Sesame Street out of my head? How to get Sesame Street out of my head, out of my head … out of my head … out of my head … Believe me, it’s the 10th circle on the road to Dante’s hell. And you’re singing it now, aren’t you? Through or around little towns I went: St. Clair, Stanton, Oak Grove (yes, there are two Oak Groves in Missouri, which is so dumb there ought to be a law against it),
Above: Grapes along the road are destined to become wine at St. James Winery.
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Above: The Route-66 Drive-In Theatre in Carthage offers the nostalgic tradition of watching movies from your car from April to mid-September. Top Right: Phelps County Bank’s grand clock and neon lights are a landmark in Rolla.
Sullivan, Bourbon, and Leasburg. Before getting to Sullivan, road signs painted in rich blues, yellows, reds, and oranges cropped up every few miles, enticing travelers to visit Meramec Caverns. Road signs are a particular blight along Missouri highways, visual pollution that detracts from the state’s natural beauty. I-70 and I-44 are littered with them, giant metal poles reaching skyward, advertising everything from tractors to hotels to adult superstores. I fantasize about wielding a Paul Bunyanesque cutting torch and laying waste to them, a clear-cutting avenger stalking Missouri’s highways, giving travelers unencumbered views of the countryside— especially my beloved Ozark hollers and hills. Of course, I stopped and took pictures of a Meramec Caverns sign promoting it as a Jesse James hideout, but to my mind I’m only a little hypocritical for doing so. At least Meramec Caverns uses old-style wooden signs slung low to the ground that don’t pollute the view. Driving Route 66 away from eyeshot of I-44 afforded me an almost complete lack of road signs, which suited me just fine. I got to Cuba in the afternoon and cruised past my way station for the night, the Wagon Wheel Motel. A sign pimping the world’s largest rocking chair had caught my eye, so I drove through Cuba to Fanning, which is four miles west on Route 66. There the behemoth sat at the Fanning U.S. 66 Outpost, more than 42 feet tall, 20 feet across, and tipping the scales at nearly 14 tons; Paul Bunyan indeed. Brenda Lehmuth was behind the counter when I entered the combination store and gift shop. There wasn’t another soul around. However, Brenda, on the job all of four days, said she’d already met folks from across the United States and several countries. We chatted for a few minutes, and then I headed back to Cuba to check in and find a place to eat. Cuba is the Route 66 Mural City, as designated by the state legislature in 2002. Viva Cuba, a beautification organization, commissioned 12 murals painted on public buildings from 2001 to 2007, including one on the Cuba Free Press building commemorating Bette Davis’ 1948 stay in the town. Seems the paparazzi aren’t a new phenomenon. According to the city’s mural site, this is what happened: In November 1948, Academy Award actress Bette Davis arrived at the Southern Hotel with her husband. Reporter Wilbur Vaughn asked for a photo but was refused. He snapped a photo anyway and was chased away by Davis’s angry husband. He escaped, and the photo appeared in the Cuba News and Review. That’s just all kinds of awesome. My Wagon Wheel cabin was pretty darn nice, too, with
the best bed of the trip, no small thing to a guy who likes to sleep. In continuous operation since Robert Martin built the Tudor-style sandstone cabins in the 1930s, owner Connie Echols has been renovating them since buying the place in September 2009. Inside my room, the old radiator still stands, but there’s a new heating system mounted on the wall. There’s a new shower stall and a modern sink and vanity. A flat-screen TV with a boatload of channels (and why I watched Jerry Maguire late into the night, I have no idea). And in the biggest nod to life in the 21st century, free wi-fi. In the year and a half since she’s owned it, Connie, 61, has renovated 10 rooms to rent with four almost there and five that aren’t almost there yet. Even though she knew the place needed work, she didn’t know it, you know, needed work. She expects to be done renovating sometime this century. After getting back from supper and drinks at Frisco’s Grill and Pub downtown—I had the catfish—I slept well and late, and then it was off to Lebanon. I found Route 66 business owners along the way willing to share their time and stories. The best way to meet folks is just to talk to them, and everybody I met wanted to talk—and sometimes talk and talk and talk—for which I am most grateful.
PART 4 |
Look at the Guest Books
DIANA’S DINER in St. James is what you expect of a diner along Route 66: lots of chrome and stainless steel inside and out, Route 66 signs, a counter with red and black stools, and coconut cream pie covered in plastic wrap. Breakfast was cut off at noon, and I was able to get biscuits and gravy with 15 minutes to spare. Johnnie’s Bar, adorned with a Miller Lite banner celebrating 50 years on Route 66, was right down the street, but I figured it was a little too early in the day for a beer or three. You know, especially since I was driving and all. At St. Robert, I found the Route 66 All American Drive-
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In closed and gutted, but 5 and Diner was right up the street. It had been a couple hours since my late breakfast, so it was time for dessert at 5 and Diner, which has gone all-in on the 1950s Route 66 theme. Its exterior shines even in the rain, and little Route 66 road signs are etched into its window corners. The diner counter was just inside the front door. Hanging white lampshades had Route 66 road signs painted on them, and the seemingly requisite posters of Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause led the way to the bathrooms. The menus were adorned with all sorts of 1950s trivia: about Silly Putty, Mr. Potato Head, James Dean, and more. I drank a perfect vanilla milkshake, and although I didn’t need that piece of coconut cream pie, I wanted it. Stuffed, I waddled out to my truck and got back on the road. Before making my trip, I knew in a general, nonspecific sense that Route 66 was sort of a big deal. I knew nothing. There are preservation groups and associations in every state the road passes through, including the Route 66 Association of Missouri, which publishes the quarterly Show Me Route 66 magazine. A Google search of “Route 66 groups” turns up more than 11 million results, and a search for “Route 66 books” yields 1.3 million. I’m pretty sure there aren’t that many books about Route 66, but there’s a bunch. Among American roads, only the Pacific Coast Highway comes close to having the cachet that Route 66 does, and that’s only because of the scenery along the PCH. One of the easiest ways to get a sense of how big a deal the Mother Road is, to get a sense of just how many people
make it a part of their lives, is to look at guest books. On my way to Lebanon, I had to get back on I-44 for a spell, but at Exit 135, I got off the highway and back onto Route 66. And there I encountered Mr. C’s Route Post. Scott Cameron and his son, Matt, opened the souvenir shop last August after relocating from Wilmington, Illinois. Their guest book—like pretty much every guest book along Route 66—reads like a world travel map, with people from Japan, Australia, South Africa, Dubai UAE, all over Europe, and every state in the nation represented. I added my name to the list. As Scott showed me around, he told me little bits of his story and how he came to open a store a few miles east of Lebanon. He’s in his early 70s now, but when he was a kid, his family took trips via Route 66. He served a tour of duty in the Army as an ambulance driver from 1956 to ’58, and he took basic training at nearby Fort Leonard Wood. A year after getting out of the Army, he and a friend took Route 66 to Enid, Oklahoma, where they joined up with a traveling carnival for the summer, running the merry-go-round and the nickel pitch from Kansas to Texas, where they finally got off the ride. In later years, Scott worked in management for blues guitarists Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy, and he’s been involved in helping artists like those receive the royalties they were denied early in their careers. Scott sells candy from the 1950s—not candy that’s been lying around since 1950, which would be kind of adventurous, but candy that was popular in that decade, such as Moon Pies, Boston Baked Beans, and Cherry Mash, made about 200 miles north in St. Joseph. He also owns the Route
Above: At Elbow Inn, patrons sit under suspended and signed bras, typical of a Route-66 biker roadhouse, says owner Terry Roberson. Roberson reopened the Elbow Inn in 2006.
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66 Soda Company, which makes soda the way it should be made, without caffeine but with real cane sugar. The orange reminds me of the Nesbitt’s I loved as a kid, and the black cherry is better than anything Vess ever produced. I wish I were getting paid to say that. After talking to Scott for 20 minutes or so, I said goodbye and drove on to Lebanon to check in at the Munger Moss Motel. I opened my room to a faint whiff of that old hotel smell—the scent of history, timeless—which you can’t find in Holiday Inns or Mariotts along the interstate. The coolest feature was the original stucco archway leading into the tile shower stall. June marks 40 years that Bob and Ramona Lehman have owned the 65-year-old Munger Moss Motel, its famous sign a Route 66 welcome beacon. Last November, with grants, donations, and some of their own money, they spent $20,000 to refurbish the sign. Hundreds showed up at the relighting ceremony, Ramona said as we talked Sunday morning in the motel office. (See page 58 for more about neon signs that have been restored.) The Lehmans raised four children, two boys and two girls, leading to three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. But amid the joy, there’s also been heartbreak. It’s a hard, hard thing for a parent to outlive a child. Their oldest son was killed while riding a horse, Ramona said, a hitch in her voice, the fragile scab easily torn. “We cried awhile,” Ramona says, “and even crawled in a bottle for a while.” Then cancer took their youngest son when he was just 21. The Lehmans persevered. “You can let tragedy in your life destroy you,” she says, “but we had to become strong.” I didn’t know what to say, humbled that she shared this part of her life with me, a stranger. We talked a little while longer, and then it was time for me to leave. Springfield, Joplin, and the end of the road lay ahead.
PART 5 |
Top Left: Devil’s Elbow Bridge is named for a sharp bend in the river. Bottom Left: Owner Lisa Kelby says her favorite part of Hogs & Hot Rods is getting to meet new people.
Visit Gay Parita
SPRINGFIELD HAS A special place in the Route 66 story. In the many histories written about the road, Cyrus Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and John Woodruff of Springfield get much of the credit for championing the creation of Route 66, which gained traction after Congress passed legislation in 1925 to set up a national highway plan. One year later, the nascent road gained the “66” designation. Springfield, a short 40-mile drive from Lebanon, was a Route 66 traveler’s dream from the 1930s to the ’60s with a plethora of motels—most with stone exteriors—and gas stations and restaurants along the road. Today, the majority of these have gone out of business, have been turned into
something else, or cease to exist altogether. I drove around Springfield for a couple of hours, trying to spot some of the old businesses while going twice through the construction zone downtown, but it’s hard to see things that aren’t there. One place that’s still in business since it opened in 1947 is the Rest Haven Court motel, which is where I stayed Sunday night. I could have stayed at the Route 66 Rail Haven motel, which has been in the same location under different names since 1938, but it is run by Best Western these days. I figured a real Route 66 experience didn’t include staying in a hotel that, aside from the exterior, could pass for any Best Western across America. On Monday, I drove out of Springfield along four-lane Chestnut Expressway until it turned into highway 266, getting me back on track. Shortly after passing through blinkand-you’ll-miss-it Halltown, I took a right turn off 266 onto Old Route 66 headed for Gary Turner’s Gay Parita Sinclair gas station. I found Gary sitting in the office smoking a cigarette and talking on his cell phone. While he chatted, I took in the office, which is filled to overflowing with old oil cans, soda coolers, signs, toy Sinclair trucks, a 1903 cash register, a 1943 calendar, the oldest cigarette machine I have ever seen, and just stuff stacked and piled everywhere. Set Gary to talking, and all you have to do is nod and say “yep” every once in a while to keep the conversation going. He’ll tell you that he collects junk, that he loves junk, and after taking in the office, you might be inclined to believe him. He’ll tell you how it got the name Gay Parita: Gay and her husband Fred Mason built it in 1926 gets you the “Gay” part, and Parita means “equal” when translated from Italian, although Gary will tell you that Gay was more equal than Fred. Gary will tell you that he’s happy to pose for pictures, complete with an old-time service station attendant’s cap. He’ll pull out eight-by-ten glossy photos, sign “Gary to” and have you sign your own name below it. He’ll tell you at 12:30 PM that he has to meet his tax man at 2, so he can’t stay long—then he’ll stay as long as you’d like. He’ll ask if you want to see his garage—and then he’ll take you to his gift shop. He’ll tell you that everything in the gift shop is made in the USA and that he won’t sell anything that isn’t. He’ll take you to his garage where he stores his 1929 Ford touring car and his 1948 Ford truck painted bumblebee black and yellow. He’ll tell you that he once worked at the Knott’s Berry Farm theme park in California. He’ll tell you that his family worked as “fruit tramps” in California when he was eight years old. He’ll get in his car and pop into the tape deck a recording of a song he wrote, “Dream of My Life,” which is about traveling on Route 66. He’ll tell you that all he does is sit and talk to folks—and you’ll definitely believe him. And you’ll tell yourself that you’ve
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Illinois Kansas
Kansas City
Springfield
Carthage
St. Louis
Columbia
Sunset Hills Sullivan St. James St. Clair Cuba
Lebanon
Rolla
Webb City
Joplin Oklahoma just met one of the most interesting characters in your life. From Gay Parita, I took Old Route 66 to Spencer, a ghost town that is being restored as a tourist stop, complete with an old Phillips 66 station. I snapped a few pictures and headed on down the road to Carthage, where the 66 Drive-In sits on the town’s western edge. From Carthage, it’s on to Carterville and Webb City and then into downtown Joplin. Route 66, which is actually called “66” here, heads west out of town, and in a couple of miles I turn right onto Old Route 66, which is most definitely the real deal because it’s narrow and beat all to pieces. I pass the Hogs & Hot Rods saloon, and before I can hit the brakes, I’m in Galena, Kansas. I turn around and stop at Hogs & Hot Rods to chat up the locals, and I’m pretty sure I got a month’s worth of the recommended daily allowance of secondhand smoke
Arkansas
during the half-hour I was in there. A Kansas fan tells me he’s going to be sick when he sees my Mizzou hat, and I tell him I broke out in hives when I crossed the state line. The bartender, Michelle McDonald, tells tales of hundreds, maybe thousands, of bikers who stop in during the warm seasons. Behind the bar is a sign that says “Stupidity Should Be Painful.” It’s truly my kind of place. And that’s it. My tour of Route 66 in Missouri is done. I’m happy that I’ll be heading home soon to my fiancée and daughter, but I’m also a little wistful, too. I think back to all the things I’ve seen and especially the people I’ve met, the dreamers and adventurers who form a family along Route 66. Now the road—this road—is in my blood. I’m a part of that family, and I know someday soon, I’ll be back. Someday soon, I’ll be back.
Glory YEARS
THE
DURING THE MID-20TH CENTURY, Route 66
workforce traveling West to meet the production demands
became more than a highway. Miles of mere concrete be-
of the war.
came a national symbol of good times—better times.
After the war, automobile travel soared as Americans
During the Great Depression, dust storms drove tens
took newfound leisure time and affluence on the road,
of thousands to flee the Dust Bowl in the lower Midwest.
spawning the driving vacation, where the road trip was
The Mother Road was both an escape and a yellow brick
as important as the destination. Thus was born the era of
road leading westward to California, to what seemed a
“(Get your kicks on) Route 66,” the title of the song written
brighter future.
by Bobby Troup and first released in 1946 by Nat King Cole.
During World War II, Route 66 served as the main artery for military transportation and the continued migration of a
Legend has it that his wife first uttered the “get your kicks” words to Bobby, just outside of St. Louis. —Jim Thole
Above: The Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba has 19 cabins. Many buildings along Route 66 in Missouri used a mix of granite, limestone, and sandstone.
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g n i t h g i l e R – E H –T
They call you in from the road. They are the time-honored sentinels, the veterans of harsh weather and sunburn. They flare, with flair. “Have a meal,” they say. Or, “Try a cozy room for the night.” Some are arrow-shaped, others flash big circles, and some merely light up the darkness of an otherwise empty prairie on the side of an otherwise empty road. But that’s enough. They are the neon signs of Historic Route 66, and they have years of experience wooing tougher people than you. These signs are American icons. Some are still aglow with that familiar neon buzz. Sadly, others have fallen into disrepair, dark and silent, or neglected with burned-out letters. But like a 1957 Chevy, rusted and worn out, abandoned in a rural backyard, they could be restored to their former brilliance and put back on the Mother Road. After construction in the 1930s, some called the road “The Main Street of America.” They had something in that. Americans began get-
ting their kicks, and the neon signs lighted the way to new services: the motor courts, cafes, and service stations that sprang up. Most of the historic neon signs in Missouri were erected in the 1940s and 1950s. They blazed 24 hours, boasting about their business. But by the late 1950s, all that began to change. Business owners along Route 66 can tell you the exact day the new interstate highway system bypassed their town—they remember when their traffic and businesses came to a standstill. On October 13, 1984, the last section of interstate bypassed a town called Williams, Arizona. The next year, U.S. Route 66 was officially decommissioned and retired. Businesses moved, closed, or totally vanished. A few survived, sometimes by banding together. If they couldn’t match the modernity of the interstate highway, these businesses could offer a glimpse into a time-frozen culture, a culture so purely American that the strategy actually worked. The rebirth of Route 66 as a time capsule of nostalgic signs, cafes, and motels began in
COURTESY OF SHELLEE GRAHAM, THE SCHWARZ BROTHERS, AND JIM THOLE
Route 66 Association of Missouri restores brilliance along the Mother Road. BY JIM THOLE & SARAH ALBAN
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COURTESY OF SHELLEE GRAHAM, THE SCHWARZ BROTHERS, AND JIM THOLE
Above left: These signs once graced Route 66 but are now gone. The Donut Drive-In owners, the Route 66 Association of Missouri, and the National Park Service worked together to restore the neon sign. They turned it back on in 2008.
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Notley Hawkins, Courtesy of Shellee Graham and Jim Thole
The Sunset Motel sunset lit up for the first time in 30 years in November 2009, as the owners and association members cheered.
The massive Munger Moss Motel sign is one of the most photographed historic neon signs on Route 66 in Missouri.
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Two of these signs still beckon Historic Route 66 drivers to bed, but the Stanley Cour-Tel sign is no longer there.
Seligman, Arizona, just 40 miles down the road from Williams. The people of Seligman had been watching their town die for six years. On February 18, 1987, they did something about that, founding the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. They lobbied the state legislature. In one year, they had earned their portion of the road the title of “Historic” Route 66, and with it came entitlement to preservation. By 1990, all eight states that had hosted the highway had followed suit by creating an association and getting their portions of the old road officially designated as “historic.”
COURTESY OF JIM THOLE, SHELLEE GRAHAM
Notley Hawkins, Courtesy of Shellee Graham and Jim Thole
The first lighting On November 1, 2008, the neon sign at the Donut Drive-In at 6525 Chippewa (Route 66) was ready for its first lighting in 20 years. The drive-in owners, four brothers who had bought the shop a dozen years earlier, might have been remembering their childhood. It had been a Sunday morning ritual to stop by and pick up doughnuts for breakfast after church. Or they might have been remembering a wind storm badly damaging the sign just 18 months earlier. They might have been remembering the money collectors had offered them for the antique. They might have been appreciating the National Park Service’s (NPS) matching grant to restore the historic sign. Definitely on their mind would have been the Neon Heritage Preservation Committee (NHPC) of the Route 66 Association of Missouri, as their members were there for the lighting. When that wind storm left the sign swinging in the wind, forcing its immediate removal for safety, that committee came to the rescue with a plan to restore the sign. It was the NHPC’s first project. In truth, though, the brothers probably forgot all that and just stood, watching the neon sign, restored to full animation, watching the doughnuts as they appeared to drop as different doughnuts lit up in the winter night. One of the brothers, John Schwarz, says business has jumped five to 10 percent since the sign came back on. “Many people stop to take pictures of it and then come in for a doughnut, too,” John says. Since 2008, the NHPC has held an annual “Relighting Party” to commemorate yet another sign’s restoration. They have targeted prospects for 2011 and 2012 but are waiting to learn if they’ve been awarded federal grants.
A place that matters You’ll know you’re getting close to the Sunset Motel on Route 66, or Missouri Route AT, a couple miles west off exit 251 on I-44, when you see “the glow of the sunset.” At least, now you can see the glow. One year after the relighting of the Donut Drive-In, the NHPC rolled in to Villa Ridge, convincing the motel’s owners, Herman and Connie Grimes, to restore the Sunset’s neon sign. Despite a “For Sale”
sign appearing on the property awhile earlier, Herman and Connie said they had no intention of selling the sign, even when memorabilia collectors came knocking with money. “This sign is an essential part of the motel property, so it’s going to stay there,” Herman says. “It’s been a part of the family for almost 40 years now.” What began as a sign restoration turned into a catalyst for rejuvenating the whole property, including tuckpointing, a new roof and dormers, and a fresh fascia. And again, the park service helped with funding. At the relighting ceremony, Kaisa Barthuli, program manager for NPS Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, concluded by saying, “I’d like to present a plaque to the owners and the project team for their outstanding commitment to preserving the Sunset Motel as a place that matters.”
The look-alike “I’m embarrassed to turn it on,” the owner of the Munger Moss Motel at Lebanon told NHPC members when they first met with her. Ramona Lehman and her husband Bob own the Motel. You know the Munger Moss Motel sign: a familiar trapezoid with a yellow arrow curving around its edge, pointing travelers toward the motel. The sign imitated the Rest Haven Motel sign in Springfield, and both are similar to the iconic 1953 Holiday Inn sign. No one can verify whether the Rest Haven or the Holiday Inn sign came first. The sign was so massive it challenged the NHPC committee, fresh from relighting the Donut Drive-In and Sunset Motel signs. It was partially working, but the large, unmovable sign could not be taken down and re-erected, as the previous projects had been. David Hutson, the neon sign restoration specialist for the NHPC, worked on site. He says, “This is a huge complex sign. There are 15 transformers in there to support all the electronic functions.” The third relighting party brought people from five states, Arizona and Florida included, together to enjoy food and music. Someone in the crowd speculated, “This should be visible from outer-space.” John Murphey, representing NPS Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, closed the ceremony by saying, “Signs such as these are not just calling cards for Route 66; they are local landmarks and symbols of pride.”
………
Herman Grimes, owner of the Sunset Motel, called his sign “a part of the family.” Herman meant his own family when he said that, but these neon signs light up the first highway that truly connected the main streets of America. Herman didn’t know how right he was. www.missouri66.org
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The Heart of Rolla
Take a trip down the road to fantastic summer fun.
Reminders of Route 66 dot Rolla roads. Like brightly painted bookends, two historic signs stand as sentinels on Route 66, guarding either edge of Rolla. On the west end stands a giant totem pole marking one of the oldest businesses on Route 66, Totem Pole Trading Post. On the east end folks are welcomed by the iconic Route 66 Mule and the two-story Hillbilly. Totem Pole Trading Post and Mule Trading Post are both great places to get your Route 66 and Ozark memorabilia. In the heart of Downtown Rolla and on original Route 66, sits Phelps County Bank, which was once known as Edwin Long Hotel. Contractor M.E. Gillioz rushed the hotel to completion in March 1931 so that it could serve as the headquarters for the Route 66 celebration. Zeno’s Motel and Steakhouse at 1621 Martin Springs Drive was formerly Zeno’s Studio Motel. This famous Route 66 icon has been family owned and operated since 1957. Zeno’s is still a popular retreat for weary Route 66 travelers. Just about seven more miles west are the 1835 John’s Modern Cabins. Cut off in 1957 by I-44, the cabins have been falling into decay ever since. They are an interesting remnant of the Mother Road when it was in its prime. The cabins are on the Sugartree Outer road in Newburg, Missouri. Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce 1311 in s i way olla, MO 6 4 1 • www. isit olla.com • 888-8 9-3817 [62] MissouriLife
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ADVERTISEMENT
Rolla Summer Events Check out these events and more in the Rolla area. Go to www.VisitRolla.com for more information. Route 66 Summerfest June 3&4 at Downtown Rolla www.route66summerfest.com Are you ready to get your kicks on Route 66? Join in the fun and festivities at the Route 66 Summerfest. The streets of Downtown Rolla come alive with the rumble of classic cars and the sounds of classic oldies. The event also includes a burn out contest, street dances, derby races and food and craft and vendors. Rolla Sesquicentennial Celebration June 3&4 at Downtown Rolla www.rollacity.org Join us in celebrating Rolla’s 150th anniversary! Sesquicentennial festivities for the day include the ‘Rolla Then and Now’ Parade-150 years of history, historical reenactments, a living history demonstration, historic exhibits, crafters, artisans, displays and tours of the pre-Civil War old Phelps County Courthouse. Bluegrass and BBQ Show June 11 at Lions Club Park www.rollalions.org Kick off the summer with some downhome barbeque and good ol’ bluegrass music! The Bluegrass and BBQ show sponsored by the Rolla Lions Club includes a cruise in and poker run. Music featuring Kenny and Amanda Smith Band, Jimmy Allison with the Beverly Hill Billys, and the Mississippi Sawyers. No admission charge, donations appreciated, and food will be available for purchase. Lions Club Carnival July 1-4 at Lions Club Park www.rollalions.org The sounds of fireworks and the smell of hamburgers and funnel cakes will fill the air as the Rolla Lions Kick off their 76th annual Carnival. Games, rides, fireworks, food and fun! The Lions Club Carnival has something for everyone. Phelps County Fair July 20-23 at Phelps County Fair www.phelpscountyfair.com The annual Phelps County Fair is four fun-filled days for one low price. Admission includes unlimited carnival rides, bull riding, demo derby, mud run, truck and tractor pull, quality music entertainment, talent contest, exhibits, food and much more! [63] June 2011
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Get your kicks ! s t f i G r o o D d e at R
Located at the corner of 7th and Pine, Red Door Gifts is in a historical
building on Route 66. The building is about 100 years old. It has the original tin ceiling, pine floors, and most of the original walls. Stop in for a unique shopping experience! gifts • home decor • candles • jewelry • baby seasonal decor • floral • Vera Bradley
and other whimsical necessities! Red Door Gifts • 700 N. Pine Street, Rolla, • www.reddoorgiftsrolla.com • 573-364-0016 [64]Mo MissouriLife 064 ML0611.indd 64
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Route 66
Runs through 3 states, 6 cities and 3 counties
on Historic Route 66 • Finisher Medals for Full and Half • Technical Shirt for Full and Half • Runner Expo/Pasta Dinner
Register online at www.RunMRM.com [65] June 2011
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Route 66 Low Membership Rates. Tournaments. Restaurant.
Premier Golf Destination!
241 Highway O Cuba, MO 65453 573-885-2234
Your Country Club at the Gateway to the Ozarks.
• Guinness World Records’ Largest Rocking Chair • 12 Outdoor Murals • Historic District • Wagon Wheel Motel • History Museum
Visit us In Cuba, MO!
Fanning 66
Outpost and General Store Home of the World’s Largest Rocking Chair Merchandise, Wines, Spirits, Rte. 66 Souvenirs, and collectibles. Open Mon.-Sat. 9 am-7 pm and Sun. 11 am-6 pm 573-885-1474 • www.fanning66outpost.com • 5957 Hwy. ZZ
www.ThreeMileCreek.com 573-885-9663 60 Christina Lane Cuba, MO 65453
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Order a free copy of our Route 66 Self-Guided Auto Tour
Did somebody say “Road Trip”? Enjoy 33 original miles of Historic Route 66 with a turn by turn self- guidedauto tour featuring scenic overlooks and historical landmarks. Located in central MO , Pulaski County, Missouri is home to the legendary “Sugar Bowls” of Hooker Cut, once rumored to be the deepest road cut in America.. This stretch of the road was one of the most feared and dangerous sections of old Route 66 and it shows the layer of limestone that had to be overcome to build the road. Today, it is a captivating journey lush with brilliant scenery and breathtaking landscapes. This route holds particular appeal for modern day travelers with its blend of historic landmarks and natural preservation.
Self-Guided Historic Auto Tours Download Now!
Order yours today!
http://www.visitpulaskicounty.org/pdf/route_66_auto_tour.pdf
Get Your Kicks In Pulaski County Waynesville tap 66 Beers on uri so is M Most in
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Devi l‛s Elbo w Rt.66 Bridg e
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Part of the pleasure is making your own discoveries along the way
W ay ne sv ill e Richland O ld S ta ge co ac h S to p Gasconade Hills Resort
St. Rob ert Waynesville Devil‛s Elbow Swe etwa ter BBQ Old Courthouse Museum Piney Beach Cabins Built in 1903
De vil ‛s Elb ow Elb ow In n & BB Q Pit
For more info and to order your FREE Pulaski County Visitors Guide, go to VisitPulaskiCounty.org or call 877-858-8687 [67] June 2011
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Route 66 (573)433-9370 13015 Hwy. 28 Dixon, Mo 65459 www.thebakerband.com
Music in the Barn The best in family entertainment Nashville stars, dinner shows and more
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He wants to find his kicks inside
Order today!
19.99 for 1-year subscription Call 877-570-9898 now!
[68] MissouriLife
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Experience America’s only ride-thru cave!
Just minutes North of Springfield, MO FantasticCaverns.com - 417.833.2010
B I S SITUATED ON BLUES LAKE, which has a half-mile walking trail, the Baymont Inn & Suites features a sparkling indoor pool, hot tub, fitness room, complimentary breakfast and Wi-Fi, plus they are a pet-friendly hotel! With a sly smile on her face, Baymont Inn & Suites General Manager Kim Franken says you have to pass the rest to get to the best! One literally has to pass most of the other hotels in Rolla to get to the front door of this award winning hotel! The Baymont Inn & Suites in Rolla recently won the Best of Baymont Award, which places this beautiful little gem of a hotel in the top ten percent of over 250 Baymont Inns in the U.S. Rightly so, the manager is very proud of her dedicated and hardworking staff. “Without them, we would be any other hotel, nothing special. It’s the personal service we deliver that makes our hotel stand out!” This hotel exudes charm and warm hospitality.
-- M S D., R, MO ..//
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SHOW-ME
Flavor HOME ON THE
Free Range
Missouri chicken farmers share secrets to tasty meat and eggs. NINA FURSTENAU
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COURTESY OF PEACE VALLEY POULTRY, JEFF FARABEE
FOR CENTURIES, chickens were at home on the range, free to peck, preen, and make their own feast even in hardscrabble times. Flocks roosted with the moon and laid eggs with the light of the sun. People and poultry happily coexisted. Hens recycled leftovers, garden weeds, grass clippings, and slugs, and with the addition of a little poultry mash or sometimes a bit of corn, turned them into tasty eggs. Chickens are alchemists. They churn all that glimmers and much that does not into gold on the plate. And farm-fresh eggs do indeed redefine the color yellow with the brilliance of their yolks. Those yolks sit tall in the pan and the whites cling to them. Store-bought eggs, often already several days or weeks old by the time they are on the plate, spread limply, pale in a frying pan. Chickens are raised not only as egg-layers, of course, but also as meat birds, especially since World War II. Before the 1940s, broilers were a by-product of the egg industry; chicken, therefore, was more expensive than beef or pork. Then, technology and efficiency transformed chicken into a manufactured unit, and it became cheap. A native of Southeast Asia, the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) is the ancestor of today’s domesticated chicken. It was first raised in captivity 5,000 years ago in India and arrived in Europe around 700 BC. There are more than 200 breeds today, but few people have heard the names Wyandotte, Welsummer, Cochin, or Derbyshire Redcap, among many others. Those breeds and others can have combs, wattles, and ear lobes. Their
Above: At Peace Valley Poultry, chickens and turkeys are field-grazed on pesticide-free and herbicide-free pastures. Left: Breeds such as Rhode Island Reds are easier to raise because they take less time to reach maturity for butchering.
feathers can be barred, frizzled, laced, mottled, spangled, and penciled. They are, in fact, beautiful. In past years, you could go to the market and buy a Rhode Island Red, first bred in the late 1800s to be a prolific layer, or a Jersey Giant, bred in the early 1900s in the United States exclusively for the table. When chicken got cheap in the 1940s, chefs started using the meat as a canvas. The meat was almost incidental to the barbeque sauce, to the à la King, to the cacciatore, and to the coq au vin. Chicken, once a luxury, became one of the cheapest entrees and was robbed of much of its taste. Perhaps because of this, heritage chickens and small flocks are becoming more popular in the United States. In Missouri, pastured-chicken farms dot the countryside. Many consumers have a taste for birds that still strut in natural daylight, that have been allowed nesting instincts, or that were fostered under protective wings. They support farmers who give chickens back something of their natural cycle.
In fact, pastured-chicken fans look for farmers who have a burning ambition to see that chickens get to eat bugs each day. Two such farmers, Rebecca and Kristina Rogers, who own 2 Sisters Farm Fresh Eggs and Vegetables in Louisburg, let their hens roam rotating open pastures by day and roost in large chicken houses at night. Rebecca and Kristina began their business out of the trunk of their mom’s car in 2005 when they were only nine and eight, respectively. With encouragement from their parents, Tammy and Loren, the sisters became the youngest farmers in the state to get the naturally grown certification. They chose two breeds: the Hubbard HSA Brown for its feed-to-egg production ratio and the Araucana, including its tailed variety, the Ameraucana. The result? Pink, cream, blue, green, and brown eggs. And a lot of pleased customers. “It’s nice to buy eggs of the quality we used to raise ourselves,” says Paulette Wohnoutka. Paulette liked the girls’ professional approach and product so much, in fact, she
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opened the parking lot of her shop, Mill Street Market in Humansville, to 2 Sisters on the afternoons the sisters did not sell at the Bolivar farmer’s market. Paulette wants others to experience the superior eggs of pastured chickens. “Buy a dozen at your neighborhood grocery, and you’ll immediately see a difference,” she says. “The yellow is much stronger. The whites hold together. If you use them in baking, your products rise better; the whites whip up.” Customers don’t mind paying a premium for 2 Sisters eggs, which wholesale for $2.58 a dozen. Once the hens reach 2 ½ years old and begin to drop from their peak of laying 240 eggs a year, they are sold at auction as broilers or for the way they look on grass. “Many people around here want yard birds,” Loren says. “The birds keep the ticks and bugs down, and they still produce 100 to 150 eggs a year.” At Roberts Brothers Auction in Bolivar, the 2 ½-year-old chickens bring $6 to $8 each. Other chickens, Loren says, bring 50 cents to $2. The premium on 2 Sisters birds, he says, is because they are naturally grown with no antibiotics. Plus, locals have seen the two girls grow up while working hard, and they support that. Another chicken farm, Peace Valley Poul-
try near West Plains, is owned by Jim and Judy Protiva. The Protivas have produced confinement-free chickens and turkeys since 1996. “We started with 100 chicks under the trees,” Judy says. Today, the farm raises 3,000 to 5,000 chickens a year and 500 turkeys. Two-thirds are sold directly
"Buy a dozen at your neighborhood grocery, and you'll immediately see a difference.” off the farm, and one-third are delivered to customers in Rolla and Springfield. The Protivas’ interest in the chicken business began with a need for nitrogen. “I wanted nitrogen for my soil and didn’t want store-bought,” Jim says. After hearing that chickens would fertilize his pastures
Above: Rebecca, left and Kristina Rogers, now 17 and 16, began their fresh-egg business when they were nine and eight years old. They also sell organic vegetables.
naturally and reading Pastured Poultry Profits by Joel Salatin, Jim found his future. “Ours is a truly family venture, and we found it was not hard to raise a very quality chicken,” he says. The Protivas’ four children began helping on the farm when they got into the business—the youngest was only three. Though meat sales are the farm’s primary business, they also sell eggs. The Protivas also agree with ideas in Salatin’s book that promote access to bugs and grass for the birds. “Opportunity to eat grasses, clover, and bugs all help to improve the flavor of chicken,” Jim says. He does this with movable hoop houses that he and one of his sons move by tractor every day. The hoop houses are 26-by-30 feet, and chickens range out from the vinyl-covered buildings to scratch and peck at crickets and other bugs. The house offers shade and protects the chickens from predators, though they are not fail-safe. Jim says you have to remember one key factor: “Location, location, location.” Heritage breeds are more expensive because they take longer to breed, so they must be grown in a location close to chefs and consumers willing to pay the cost. Jim chooses
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PECKING ORDER from Keeping Chickens by Jeremy Hobson and Celia Lewis
• Chickens are sociable and maintain harmony by hierarchy, typically with an older hen at the top of the pecking order.
• They are probably the most widespread of all domestic animals with 400 million in the United States, 29 million in the United Kingdom, and 271 million in Europe.
• In 1979, a White Leghorn set the world record by laying 371 eggs in 365 days.
• Chickens are omnivorous birds and, if allowed, will feed on seeds, herbs, grubs, insects, and even mice.
• The color of an eggshell is related to the ear or cheek color of the hen. Eggs range from snow white to dark brown. Some may be speckled and even blue or green, as with eggs produced by the South American Araucana breed.
• The color of an egg yolk is directly associated with the hen’s diet. A very pale yolk can indicate that the hen lives in overcrowded quarters, is underfed, or lacks greens. A bird fed a diet rich in xanthophylls (the yellow pigment from the carotenoid group found in green leaves) will produce a darker yellow yolk.
• A fresh egg will keep quite safely for five to six weeks in a cool, dark, dry place.
MISSOURI • Missouri ranks ninth in value of poultry and egg production among all the states.
• The Missouri State Poultry Association has more than 100 members who show 20 meat or fancy breeds at spring and fall shows in Sedalia.
• Only three commercial producers own about six million Leghorn laying hens—about a hen per person in the state—at facilities all over the state. Each hen lays about 250 eggs, which is about the number of eggs used per person per year, considering all uses for eggs.
• There were almost 47 million broilers and other JEFF FARABEE
meat-type chickens in the state at the most recent (2007) census of agriculture.
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Since 1996, Jim and Judy Protiva also produce freerange turkeys. Their four children have grown up helping on the farm.
A GROWING URBAN TREND Chickens in the bu-bawk-yard
Cities restrict the number of hens a household can have:
COURTESY OF PEACE VALLEY POULTRY
not to raise heritage breeds and instead raises Cornish Rock Cross, bred because they take less time to raise (8 weeks versus 16 for heritage breeds) and produce larger portions of white breast meat, which most consumers prefer. Cornish Rock Cross is the breed used by most confinement operations, but the Protivas let theirs roam free. Jim says his free-range chickens are still more flavorful than their confinement-raised counterparts. And business is good. Doing things the old-fashioned way is becoming the latest thing. Customers say pastured chicken is tastier and that they like the idea of the birds having dignity during their lives. Standing in the mud with some chickens, I was amused. Each hen was busy. They pecked, they placed their feet daintily, they disdained my ungainly boots. I trudged away and, slipping, almost lost my dignity. They took no notice whatsoever. It was a beautiful thing. For more information on Peace Valley Poultry, visit www.freshchickenandturkey.com. For more information on 2 Sisters Farm Fresh Eggs, visit www.localharvest.org and search by that name in Missouri.
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TH
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—MissouriLife —
Red Grape Chicken Salad From the collection of Nina Furstenau
Ingredients >
2 chicken breasts ½ cup red seedless grapes, halved 1⁄3 cup celery, thinly sliced ½ cup tart apple, cut into chunks, skin on
½ cup light mayonnaise ¼ cup pecans, chopped, toasted Salt to taste Celery seeds to taste
For sandwiches: Use sliced bread or rolls, 4-5 leaves of lettuce, sliced cucumber.
For a richer variation: Instead of light mayonnaise, use ¼ cup sour cream and ¼ cup mayonnaise.
Directions >
1. Cook chicken breasts and cut into ½-inch pieces. 2. Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl. 3. Stack sandwiches. Summer heaven! Serves 4-5
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—MissouriLife — Directions >
Country Fried Chicken
1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Rinse chicken inside and out. Remove pockets of fat just inside the chest cavity. Pat dry. 2. Blend the garlic, rosemary, thyme, oregano, pepper, salt, and oil to make an herb paste. Rub paste over the chicken and under the skin. 3. Roast, breast side up, 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove chicken from oven. 4. Let rest 15 minutes before carving. Serves 4
From "Sassafras!: The Ozarks Cookbook"
Ingredients >
1 chicken, cut up Milk, buttermilk, beer or salted water for marinade 3 tablespoons brown sugar 3 tablespoons parsley flakes 2 tablespoons garlic salt 2 tablespoons onion salt
1 tablespoon rosemary 1 tablespoon sage 1 tablespoon oregano 1 tablespoon ginger 1 tablespoon paprika 1½ teaspoons thyme 1 teaspoon marjoram 1 teaspoon black pepper Flour as needed Shortening as needed
—MissouriLife —
Champagne Chicken From "Stop and Smell the Rosemary"
Chicken-Pecan Salad
Directions >
1. Marinate chicken overnight in refrigerator. 2. Pulverize seasonings in a blender. Add 2 tablespoons seasoning mix to 1 cup flour (or substitute pancake mix, cake flour, or biscuit mix). Dredge marinated chicken pieces in seasoned flour. Place on a wire rack to dry 20 minutes. For extra crispy chicken, dip again in buttermilk and seasoned flour and let dry another 20 minutes. Any remaining seasoning mix can be stored in an airtight container. 3. Melt ½ inch shortening in a heavy skillet. Fry chicken about 10 minutes. Turn and fry an additional 20 minutes or until done. Large pieces may need to be turned again. 4. Drain on paper towels. Serves 4
—MissouriLife —
—MissouriLife —
Chicken-Pecan Salad with Cranberries From "Stop and Smell the Rosemary"
Ingredients >
DRESSING: 2 large egg yolks* 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard ¼ teaspoon salt ¾ cup vegetable oil
Southwest Chicken Salad
From "Stop and Smell the Rosemary" Ingredients >
DRESSING: ½ cup fresh lime juice ¼ teaspoon ground cumin 1 tablespoon Durkee dressing ½ cup olive oil Salt to taste White pepper to taste SALAD: 3 whole chicken breasts, poached and shredded ½ cup fresh cilantro, minced
ANDREW BARTON
Directions >
2 cloves garlic, minced 1 small red onion, julienned 5 poblano chile peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded, and julienned 4 Roma tomatoes, chopped Red-leaf lettuce Goat cheese Pickled nopales (prepared pads of the prickly pear cactus)
1. Whisk lime juice, cumin, Durkee, and oil. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside. 2. Combine chicken, cilantro, garlic, onion, and chiles in a large bowl. Toss with dressing. 3. Just before serving, toss in tomatoes. 4. Serve on a bed of lettuce garnished with goat cheese and nopales medallions. Serves 6
Ingredients >
SALAD: 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, poached and diced ¾ cup fresh or dried cranberries 3 ribs celery, diced 1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped 1 head red-leaf lettuce, torn
Directions >
1. Blend yolks, vinegar, sugar, mustard, and salt in a food processor. With machine running, add oil slowly in a thin stream. Refrigerate. 2. Place chicken, cranberries, and celery in a serving bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat. 3. Cover and refrigerate 8 to 10 hours. Just before serving, add pecans and toss gently. Serve over lettuce. Serves 4
1 cup champagne 12 sprigs fresh thyme, minced 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice 4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 large sprigs fresh rosemary, minced 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Directions >
1. Combine champagne, thyme, lime juice, garlic, and rosemary in a large bowl. 2. Add chicken breasts. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate overnight. 3. Preheat oven to 350° F. Remove chicken from marinade and place in a small roasting pan. Reserve marinade. 4. Roast chicken 20 to 30 minutes, basting occasionally with marinade. 5. Place chicken on a platter and cover to keep warm. 6. Pour pan juices into saucepan. Add remaining marinade. Cook mixture over medium-high heat until reduced slightly, about 5 minutes. 7. Spoon sauce over chicken and garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs. Serves 2 Herb-Roasted Chicken
*The consumption of raw or undercooked eggs may increase your risk of food-bourne illness.
—MissouriLife —
Herb-Roasted Chicken From the collection of Nina Furstenau
Ingredients >
1 large whole chicken 1 clove garlic, minced 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper ¼ teaspoon pepper, freshly ground ½ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Visit www.MissouriLife.com for more chicken recipes.
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100Bottles
OF BEER …
And they’re all different at Missouri microbreweries and brew pubs. IT’S BEEN A LONG DAY. You’ve worked hard, and you’re looking forward to relaxing with a beer. Before you settle for a standard six-pack, though, take a look at Missouri artisan beer. Beer variety within the country was vast and resembled Europe’s beer diversity before Prohibition. During Prohibition, however, many small breweries didn’t survive. A handful of brew companies consolidated and began producing most of the nation’s beer, and the standard became a tame and mild-tasting lager. Beer lovers soon turned to home-brewing as a way to get their hands on the beer styles of other countries. As this newly adopted appreciation for craft beers developed, microbreweries, which are breweries that produce 15,000 barrels or less per year, began popping up during the 1980s and 1990s. While the term “microbrewery” originally denoted brewery size, it soon came to represent a new approach and attitude to beer making. Microbreweries took inspiration
from European styles of brewing, which still had a tradition for artisan beers. Around this time, brew pubs also became popular. Today, Missouri’s microbreweries and brew pubs offer quality and diversity to enthusiasts.
JUST BEER PLEASE: MICROBREWERIES Growing up near the Anheuser-Busch headquarters in St. Louis instilled a love for the beer business early in Tony Caradonna. Along with his wife, Fran, Tony opened the O’Fallon Brewery in 2000. Known for its offthe-wall beer styles, like pumpkin and cherry chocolate, O’Fallon Brewery has five flagship beers offered year-round. Its four seasonal beers give the owners a chance to play with ingredients and recipes. One of its most popular is the summer Wheach beer, a smooth blend of wheat beer and peaches. Coming up with beer flavors is usually Tony’s job, but Brian Owens, O’Fallon’s brew master, develops the recipes and executes the
BY LAUREN HUGHES
beer brewing. Brian says he gets to do the fun part of actually designing the beer. After putting together pilot batches, Brian tests the new flavors to see if they work. Then, it’s just a matter of brewing larger batches and getting it out for the public. Production for 2010 was 7,000 barrels, Brian says. Most of what is brewed in O’Fallon is draft beers, which accounts for close to 30 percent of the brewery’s sales. O’Fallon’s beers can be found on tap in the St. Louis area, but there are some restaurants and bars that serve it in Columbia and Kansas City, too. Expanding the brewery’s reach while holding on to the passion behind making quality beer is O’Fallon’s top priority. “I don’t ever want this to be a beer factory, where it’s just a job, and we press a button and then walk away,” Brian says. “Staying close to the product and the beer is important to all of us here.” This philosophy is the cornerstone behind most microbreweries, including another
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Missouri-based brewery. Tucked away on the Hermann Wine Trail, Tin Mill Brewery is a relatively new player to the Missouri microbrewery game. Natasha Phillips, manager of Tin Mill, says that the draw in Germaninfluenced Hermann is first to its wineries. “The German heritage runs deep with beer, though,” Natasha says. “So we opened up, thinking it was a good place for a brewery since Germany cultivated the art of making beer. Now we’ve been here long enough that we get people coming just for the brewery.” Tin Mill Brewery is quickly becoming known for its German-style beers. The recipes, grain, and hops used are all from Germany. They brew mostly German lagers and a hefeweizen, which is an unfiltered wheat beer. While Tin Mill beer is found mostly in the St. Louis area, rapidly expanding distribution is bringing it to bars, restaurants, and grocery stores throughout Missouri. “We want to get our beer out there,” Natasha says. “We stand behind our product, and we’d love for people to come in and give us a try.”
COURTESY OF TIN MILL BREWERY; MORGAN STREET BREWERY
I’LL HAVE A BURGER, TOO: BREW PUBS There isn’t anything better than a glass of fresh beer—unless, of course, you throw in a great meal and a relaxing, laid-back environment. That’s exactly what you’ll find in any of Missouri’s brew pubs. The incredibly fresh beer can’t be beat, and the settings are teeming with character. Brew pubs, like microbreweries, brew their own styles of craft beer, but instead of distributing the beer, they sell it on-site in a restaurant. Microbreweries, on the other hand, produce beer and then distribute it without the presence of a restaurant. Having a restaurant attached to a brewery creates an interesting collaborative environment. Mike Mills, the brewer for Buckner Brewing in Cape Girardeau, works with the restaurant’s chef to tie the beer and food served together. Their honey wheat beer is a key ingredient in their beer-battered onion rings and pickles, and their raspberry wheat beer is used to add flavor in their raspberry vinaigrette. If a beer doesn’t work as an ingredient, they suggest food pairings so the flavors of the food and beer are brought out.
At Morgan Street Brewery and Restaurant in St. Louis, menu specials change to go along with the beers being served, says Marc Gottfried, brew master for the restaurant. He recommends ordering the honey wheat beer with the honey-glazed salmon for a special meal full of flavor. “When you come into a place like Morgan Street, you’re going to taste the difference,” Marc says. “You’re going to taste someone’s passion in our food and beer.” Larry Goodwin, the brewer for Flat Branch Pub and Brewing in Columbia, seconds that sentiment. He warns against brew pubs placing priority on only one aspect of the experience though, saying there is a “steep learning curve” to the business. When brew pubs don’t make sure their beer, food, and service are stellar, it’s likely they won’t succeed, Larry says. He’s seen too many brew pubs fall flat
Above right: Morgan Street Brewery brew master Marc Gottfried uses hops to add flavor and aroma to the beer he makes. Hops also act as a preservative in beer making.
because they don’t take the time to perfect all areas of the brew pub business, especially in regards to service. Great service is something Mike feels is part of a brewer’s job. Getting to talk to the customers of the brew pub and being a part of their down time away from work and school is something he looks forward to. “It’s about sitting down at the end of the day and enjoying a pint with a customer as you talk, whether it’s about beer, politics, or sports,” he says. “It’s that fellowship that comes with a pint glass in hand.” And that’s really what beer is all about— kicking back with friends and enjoying yourself. Try it at one of Missouri’s microbreweries or brew pubs.
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HOME-BREWED
Heaven!
Watermelon wheat or sour cherry: brew clubs test the taste limits. BY LAUREN HUGHES STANDING OVER
a boiling pot for an hour during a Missouri summer day wasn’t something Jeff Britton was excited about doing, but he was running out of beer. With seven different beers on tap in his own garage, Jeff has to keep the reserves full and his friends happy, and that meant he had to brave the heat to home brew.
Jeff is the president of Garage Brewers Society in O’Fallon, which is aptly named because when he brews, his garage is transformed into a makeshift brewery for the day. Coolers line the table, large soup kettles are rigged with thermometers and spouts, and turkey fryers are turned into large burners—all in an effort to enjoy home-brewed
TRY ONE OF THESE BREW PUBS OR MICROBREWERIES! AURORA
STE. GENEVIEVE
Bootleggers Restaurant and Brewery
Crown Valley Brewing and Distilling Co.
BOWLING GREEN
O'FALLON
Bat Creek Brewery
O'Fallon Brewery
CAPE GIRARDEAU
ST. LOUIS
Buckner Brewing Company
Morgan Street Brewery & Restaurant
COLUMBIA
ROLLA
Flat Branch Pub & Brewing
The Public House Brewing Company
JEFFERSON CITY
WESTON
Prison Brews
Weston Brewing Company
SEDALIA 5th Street Brew Pub
beer. To say that home brewers are innovative and dedicated is an understatement. Legal in the United States since 1978, home brewing offers beer lovers a chance to flex their creative muscles and craft beer to their own tastes. In 1919, Prohibition saw a spike in home brewing of all sorts, from liquor to wine and beer. When Prohibition ended in 1933, brewing alcohol at home became legal—except for beer. Due to an oversight by a court stenographer, brewing beer at home was illegal until 1978, when the oversight was corrected. Since then, the world of home brewing has morphed into its own subculture, with groups of brewers getting together to revel in their love of beer. Made from four essential ingredients— water, fermentable sugars, hops, and yeast—beer has been a key part of many cultures throughout history. The Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures are thought to be the first to imbibe in this popular beverage, which was consumed at higher rates when drinking water wasn’t always safe. Today, there are hundreds of beer styles from which to choose, with even more choices to pick from when brewing at home. In just one day, Jeff and his friends brewed four kinds of beer: India Pale Ale, Oktoberfest, sour cherry wheat beer, and watermelon wheat beer. Ask any brewers why they brew, and they’ll talk about the creativity and individualism behind the hobby. Being able to rebel against commercial breweries and explore new tastes, styles, and ingredients is what draws Jeff to home brewing. His
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LAUREN HUGHES; ANDREW BARTON
Above: Jeff Britton cools the wort, which is the liquid grains are steeped in. Right: David Nitzsche, president of St. Louis Brews, has been home brewing for 30 years.
penchant for brewing started as a way to rid himself of the beer he was used to drinking. “I used to go to bars, and I was stuck in a rut drinking plain old Bud Light. It just didn’t do much for me,” Jeff says. “I wanted more out of my beer—more flavor, more everything.” Like most new brewers, Jeff started with a Mr. Beer kit, a simple kit many start with, but after four batches of the same dissatisfying beer, he stopped. Knowing that he’d tasted better home brew drove him to try again, this time with better ingredients and equipment. It made the difference, and he’s been brewing ever since. David Nitzsche, the president of St. Louis Brews, has been brewing for 30 years. After going on a tour of Anheuser-Busch in 1981, David fell in love with the smells of brewing and knew it was something he had to do. “I left there a changed person,” David says. The craftsmanship behind brewing comes from the variation, he explains. Every beer requires different ingredients and different techniques, making it a truly do-it-yourself passion. That uniqueness is why Allen Ziebarth, a member of the Ozark-based brew club, The ZOO, got his start in home brewing. His grandfather brewed his own beer, and Allen remembers his parents brewing root beer when he was a child. After being inspired by their brewing, Allen stopped by a homebrew store and started talking. Underlying the art and creativity that
comes with home brewing is the science behind it. The whole process of home brewing begins with the grain. Usually this grain is malted barley, but another popular grain is wheat. At its most basic, the first step in brewing starts with the mash, which is the grain steeped in water. When the sugars are fully extracted from the grain, the leftover sugar water, or wort, is boiled down until it reaches the ideal sugar levels. Hops are then added for preservation and flavor balance. It is then cooled and transferred to
“Sometimes you can produce a really wonderful beer totally by accident.” a fermentation vessel, where the brewer pitches the yeast, which simply means adding yeast. The yeast consumes the sugars, which creates alcohol and carbon dioxide. Brewers can then bottle or keg the beer. Many different microorganisms and
wild yeasts can come into contact at any point of the process, Jeff says, making sanitation an incredibly important component of home brewing. Pancho Luna, a member of the Kansas City-based brew club Jayhops, remembers his first time brewing in his kitchen. “I was wearing a surgical mask and rubber gloves because I was so nervous about contamination,” he says. “At the time, my kids were two and four. They weren’t allowed in the kitchen while I was brewing, either. That is, until my youngest told me he had to go to the bathroom right after I put the gloves on.” Even when the beer goes sour, which it can quite easily with the introduction of any outside microorganism, David tries to exploit the accident as much as possible.
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MISSOURI BREW CLUBS Garage Brewers Society, O’Fallon O’Fallon Brewery, 3RD TUESDAY, 7 PM www.garagebrewers.com St. Louis Brews Missouri Beverage Co., 1ST THURSDAY, 7 PM www.stlbrews.org The ZOO, Ozark The Home Brewery Store, 3RD TUESDAY, 7:30 PM www.homebrewery.com Jayhops, Kansas City www.jayhops.org ZZ Hops, Kansas City
Chef, members are given an ingredient not usually found in beer and then paired off to battle against each other. Past ingredients included anything from peppermint and tarragon to Fruity Pebbles cereal and coconut. Festival-goers can’t get enough of the oddball beers, Jeff says. “It feels great to get a good reaction from people who try it,” he says. “It gives you a sense of pride.” Brew clubs provide feedback for brewers and the opportunity to try other brewers’ beers. Everything David knows about good brewing he learned from his club, St. Louis Brews. Clubs are a haven for those who have a passion for brewing at home, and a great place for brewers to meet others with the same ardor for beer. The camaraderie was a great help, Pancho says. “Find a brew club,” he suggests. “Start talking to the people there. That was a huge part of why I continued brewing. If I would have gone to a club from the beginning, it would’ve been less intimidating and a lot easier.” Most importantly, he says, relax. Just have a home brew.
Lake Lotawana Sportsmen’s Club 3RD TUESDAY, 7:30 PM www.zzhops.com
FIND YOUR OWN INGREDIENTS The Home Brewery, Ozark Equipment kits: $70-180 Ingredient kits: $25-35 www.homebrewery.com • 800-321-BREW St. Louis Wine and Beer Making Equipment kits: $100 Ingredient kits: $35-60 www.wineandbeermaking.com 636-230-8277 E.C. Kraus, Independence Equipment kits: Starting at $100 Ingredient kits: Starting at $100 www.eckraus.com • 800-353-1906
ANDREW BARTON
“Sometimes you can produce a really wonderful beer totally by accident,” David says. Some accidents are beyond repair, however. Once, David was experimenting with adding a new ingredient to his beer: cherries. After adding the cherries and bottling the beer, David put the beer in his basement to carbonate it. A week later, David awoke to loud popping sounds. When he finally realized what they were, it was too late. The added sugar from the cherries had upset the sugar-to-yeast ratio, and carbon dioxide had slowly built within the bottles for a week. “The tops were being blown off and the bottles were shattering,” says David. “It was a nightmare.” Tackling challenges is what home brewing is all about in its purest form. Some batches are great; some aren’t. Messing up just comes with the territory of home brewing, Allen says. When the batches turn out well, brewers like to let others try it. Competitions and festivals are a way brewers around Missouri share their beer with others. Jeff’s club holds the Iron Brewer, a competition they started last year. Modeled after the Food Network show, Iron
Above: Brew clubs are the perfect place for home brewers to sample the latest creations and get feedback. Clubs can also give brewers a place to compete against each other.
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MAGPIE’S
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elebrating 27 years, this quaint eatery offers delectable home cooked food indoors and outside on the lovely patio. Lunch is daily, dinner and Tapas Nights — call for hours. Located at 903 S. Main St. Visit magpiesonmain.com or call 636-947-3883 for more information.
CANINE COOKIES N CREAM DOG BAKERY
MAIN STREET BOOKS
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aws-itively Doggie-licious treats and sweets just for that furry best friend in your life. They make ALL NATURAL HUMAN GRADE BAKERY QUALITY treats and sweets, from cookies, candy, cakes, to their very own Cool Pup Cups (doggie ice cream). They receive a 2 paws up approval from local K9s. So grab the leash and your K9 and head on down to sniff around, we’re sure your pup will find lots to “BARK” about. Located at 822 S. Main St. Call 636443-2266 for more information.
his bookstore is locally owned and independent and has been part of the St. Charles community for 18 years. Main Street Books is a general bookstore with a wide selection of books about the local area. Located at 307 S. Main St. Call 636-949-0105 or visit www. mainstreetbooks.net.
Saint Charles
Saint Charles
Saint Charles
550KTRS The Talk of Saint Louis
6am - 10am The McGraw Show 10am - 1pm JC Corcoran
John Brown’s Mindset at 1pm-3 pm and
HARDWARE OF THE PAST
F
or the Present and the Future. Missing a brass drawer pull on your grandmother’s dresser? Or do you need a flour bin for that Hoosier cabinet you found at a thrift store? Hardware of the Past offers reproduction hardware and supplies to restore antique furniture, so your treasured heirlooms and thrift-store finds can look as great today as they did back then. Located at 405 North Main St. Call toll-free at 800-562-5855 or 636-724-3771, or visit www.hardwareofthepast.com for more information.
HARDWARE
3pm - 6pm Frank O. Pinion & the Large Morning Show in the Afternoon
OF THE PAST For the Present and the Future
6pm - 9pm The Steve Cochran Show
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TOM BRADLEY
A FRIEND, A PINT, A SESSION Rolla’s only microbrewery puts passion in ale and community.
BY TOM BRADLEY
edge and principles of creating craft beer. Eventually, they became garage brewers themselves 10 years ago, a path that led to “Hey, you know what we ought to do?” Described as “session beers,” Public House ales are brewed with a lower alcohol percentage (4-5%) than some of their high-octane cousins (7-10%). This allows a person to enjoy a session of sharing pints with friends. Apparently, there was a need for the comfortable atmosphere they have built too. There’s really nothing like it in Rolla. Nooks and lounging areas, even a loft, beckon you to relax with friends. Musicians, artists, and clubs immediately approached Public House Brewing and asked for space. Art shows now share time on the walls, and music fills the air. Many people have adopted Public House as their favorite spot for club meetings or a quiet cup of Giddy Goat Coffee.
While JS and JG pontificated on the virtues of session beers, I munched on snacks from Swiss Meat and Sausage Company in Hermann. Artisan plates can be created off the menu, featuring a variety of meats, such as regular summer sausage, or buffalo, elk, and German summer sausages, or andouille, Krakow or Thuringer sausages, paired with select cheeses, from Asiago, Boursin, or Brie, on down the alphabet through Gouda and Gorgonzola to Parmesan and Swiss. You can also sample soupe du jour on Saturdays. Roll on down to Rolla, stop in, and say hello to the Joshes. You can take the time to savor what passion tastes like and enjoy what Public House Brewery describes as “A friend, a pint, a session.” www.publichousebrewery.com Joshua Stacy (left) and Joshua Goodrich brew all the beer in copper brewing kettles seen behind them through the window. The beer goes straight from the tanks to the tap.
GREG WOOD
PASSION. That key element separates the mundane from the special and changes an idea into a reality. A few blocks from Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, two men who are passionate about the science and technology of brewing beer own the Public House Brewing Company. I spent a Saturday afternoon with Joshua Stacy (JS) and Joshua Goodridge (JG) talking about and tasting their work. The Joshes have been friends and band mates since high school, rocking around Missouri with their band, Sneath. While Sneath’s genre, a power punk rock, wasn’t my cup of tea, Public House’s brews were. A sample paddle was set before me with four of their perfected ales. While I sipped, they shared their philosophies and stories that led them to open Rolla’s only microbrewery. They both grew up watching JS’s father, Steve Stacy, make home brew. That gave them the chance to soak up the knowl-
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COBBLESTONE
GARDEN CAFÉ ALA FLEUR
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T
obblestone features 5,500 square feet of furniture and accessories for the Colonial and American Country Home including Lt. Moses Willard period lighting, Johnston Benchworks, pewter, Redware, gameboards, and woven coverlets. Cobblestone is located at 803 South Main St. in St. Charles. Call 636-949-0721 or visitcobblestonesaintcharles.com for more information.
he large garden, patio, and gazebo make outdoor events, like small weddings, birthdays, and showers, special occasions. Outdoor seating is available in addition to a cozy indoor dining area. The lunch menu is varied, with daily specials and homemade desserts. Located at 524 S. Main St. Call 636-946-2020 or e-mail cafealafleur@yahoo.com for more information.
LEWIS & CLARK BOAT HOUSE & NATURE CENTER
L
ocated on the banks of the scenic Missouri River near south Main Street, the museum highlights Lewis and Clark’s expedition. See full sized replicas of the keel boat and pirogues, and walk the outdoor nature trail. Tour groups are welcome and programs are available. Located at 1050 S. Riverside Dr. Call 636-947-3199 or visit www.lewisandclarkcenter.org.
GARDEN CAFÉ ALA FLEUR ON MAIN ST. IS A GREAT PLACE FOR A SUMMER EVENT.
Saint Charles
Saint Charles
Saint Charles
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Springfield
SOLID FUN, VALUE INCREDIBLE PIZZA might not make your list unless you have children, but you’d be missing a treat. Although the owners don’t offer fine dining, they do offer solid value and fun. Started in Springfield, Incredible Pizza has two locations around St. Louis, and is in seven states and Mexico—a Missouri treat shared with the world. The Springfield location boasts an indoor racetrack, bumper cars, laser tag, and all kinds of games from skeeball to bowling and motion rides. The buffet is both good and diverse: deep dish pizzas, baked potatoes, hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta dishes, tacos, and salad. You can also request your favorite pizza, and they have a gluten-free option by request. This trip, we enjoyed Elvis movies in the subdued lighting of a drive-in theater motif. If you are looking for a celebration, Incredible Pizza is a great experience and value. The restaurant is open 11 AM until 9 PM Sundays through Thursdays and 11 AM until 10 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. —Sandy Clark www.incrediblepizza.com • 2825 S. Campbell Avenue 417-887-3030
Saint Louis
JILLY’S CUPCAKE BAR and
vard. Savor delectable cupcakes such as
cream-cheese icing and toasted coconut.
Café is a St. Louis sweet spot at the
the “Cookies ’N’ Cream Mousse,” a moist
These cupcakes are worth the calories!
crossroads of I-170 and Delmar Boule-
and fluffy devil’s food cake filled with
Lunch items such as sandwiches and
light, chocolate mousse. The icing—choc-
soups are also served from 10:30 AM to
olate and vanilla buttercream, the way
2:30 PM. Cupcakes are available Mon-
Mom used to make—is garnished with
days through Saturdays 9 AM to 5 PM and
Oreo cookie pieces. The equally satisfy-
Sundays 9 AM to 4 PM.
ing “Carrot Cake” is stuffed with vanilla
—Sheree K. Nielsen www.jillyscupcakebar.com
whipped cream and topped with vanilla
8509 Delmar Boulevard • 314-993-5455
SANDY CLARK; SHEREE NIELSEN
Peace, Love, and Cupcakes
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Rabbit inspired by Route 66 JUSTUS DRUGSTORE
is a long
way from Route 66, but like the rabbit shacks that sprang up along the original Mother Road in Missouri, you can find rabbit at this swanky restaurant, as well as other culinary wonders. Amid orange and gray walls and chrome metal accents, Chef Jonathan Justus founded his restaurant on the belief that food raised by small farms and cooked by passionate artisans is the way to go. Nationally recognized by publications such as the New York Times and Food and Wine magazine, Justus Drugstore offers a lofty wine list and handcrafted cocktails served in vintage-inspired FORESTER MICHAEL; MELISSA WILLIAMS; BARBARA GIBBS OSTMANN
glasses. Patrons will delight in the playful and classically prepared dishes, from Sunchoked Chicken, half of an all-natural, free-range chicken, dressed in sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke) gravy, to rabbit thigh (from an Ozark breed) with mousseline sauce. Imagination continues through dessert, with chocolate ganache and chocolate rosehip ice cream, accompanied by mint-infused milk. The chef makes a point to visit with each of the restaurant’s diners. To dine at Justus Drugstore is to experience a meal you’ll never forget. —Lauren Hughes www.drugstorerestaurant.com 106 W. Main • 816-532-2300
MISSOURI LIFE TASTES THE MENUS TO FIND RESTAURANTS WORTH THE TRIP.
Smithville
Warrensburg
Taste of Siam UNIQUE ETHNIC
flavors are what you’ll find at Siam,
which serves classic Thai and Chinese dishes from Kaw Phad to Phad Goung Galee and Phad Pet. But don’t let the spicy reputation of Thai food scare you away; dishes can be ordered using a heat scale. Siam also has more traditional Chinese selections. Try a Thai coffee or tea with your meal. Hours are from 11 AM to 8:30 PM Mondays through Saturdays. —Melissa Williams www.siamrestaurantmo.com • 409 N. Maguire • 660-747-2668
Cuba
WILD-CHERRY SMOKED BAR-B-Q GET YOUR KICKS and your barbecue fix on Route 66 at Missouri Hick, right on the east side of Cuba, Missouri. The rustic red-cedar log building, handcrafted furniture, and hillbilly decorations set the stage for a memorable meal. Meats are rubbed with a special seasoning and then smoked with wild-cherry wood for 12 hours. You can choose from pork, beef, chicken, turkey, sausage, or a sampler platter. On the table is your choice of six sauces: original, smoky, sweet and smoky, honey, spicy, or spicy sweet. You can pick from 17 side dishes. Dessert is hillbilly heaven: apple dumplings or apple, cherry, peach, or blackberry cobbler. Open from 11 AM to 9 PM Mondays through Thursdays and 11 AM to 10 PM Saturdays and Sundays. —Barbara Gibbs Ostmann www.missourihick.com • 913 E. Washington • 573-885-6791
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HIDE AND SEEK Missouri wines remain elusive in restaurants.
DID YOU KNOW ... ? St. James Winery has won two Governor’s Cups for the best wine in Missouri? NOW YOU DO! S T . J AMES , M ISSOURI 1.800.280.9463 www.stjameswinery.com
NEARLY NINE percent of wines They want what other people are talking about: the new grape (Albarino, anyone?). Missourians sip are produced at Missouri Missouri wines? Most consumers don’t wineries. Few other states can boast such think they’re special, at least not enough a great number, outside of the usual susto linger over in a candlelit bistro. pects on the West Coast. But they’re wrong, those narrow-mindBut as Missouri wholesaler Robert Noed, unimaginative consumers! Missouri ecker notes, “Most Missouri wines are wines are quite tasty at dinner. But consold at retail.” Or, to see the glass as half sumers aren’t really to blame; restauraempty, Missouri wines aren’t sold in resteurs don’t offer many opportunities to taurants. So are Missouri wines somehow explore the breadth of local wines. It’s not good with food? No, indeed, the innothing malicious; it’s a matter of ignocipient tartness of most hybrid grapes is rance and forgetfulness. ideal for cleansing the palate and allowing I called a handful of restaurant managfood flavors to shine. ers around the state, and they admit they Are Missouri wines too expensive? No. either don’t have Missouri wines Although Missouri’s official state for sale or hadn’t focused on grape, Norton, routinely sells them sufficiently. Most had no on wine lists for $40 or more, response to my real complaint— the rest of Missouri’s wines are that these wines aren’t available among the least expensive. by the glass, especially the reThe problem is perception. markable dessert wines, which People might drink Missouri DOUG FROST customers almost never order by wines, but they’re mostly takthe bottle. ing them home or to a party at But there are some who get it: a friend’s house. At restaurants, Ask your waiter about Missouri they want to drink sexy Napa wines, and see my list of restauCabernets, tasty Italian Pinot rants on www.MissouriLife.com. Grigios, or jammy Aussie Shiraz.
© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
BY DOUG FROST
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©
SINCE SINCE 1969
2056 HWY. 19 SOUTH, HERMANN, MO
52 FLAV ORF VARIETI UL ES
FREE ES SAMPL
NATIONAL & STATE CHAMPION SMOKED MEATS & SAUSAGES
1-800-793-SWISS
www.swissmeats.com
LOCATED 12 MILES SOUTH OF HERMANN ON HWY. 19 SOUTH [89] June 2011
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Musings ON MISSOURI
WHY I’M NOT A BUDDHIST A FEW MINOR philosophical conflicts, most of which revolve around my hillbilly DNA, prevent me from following fundamental precepts of Buddhism. A good Buddhist refrains from whacking critters, stealing, and sleeping around. He avoids lies, gossip, idle chitchat, and harsh language. He places a self-imposed embargo on the consumption of intoxicants. I know a couple of people who could qualify as Buddhists, but I’m not one of them. I’ve sentenced thousands of innocent worms, crawdads, and night crawlers to death by treble hook, all to lure a wily catfish into my canoe. I fully support the prohibition on stealing and lying. I don’t have to worry about the sleeping around part, because I’m old, grizzled, lazy, and largely uninterested in foolish indiscretions. Intoxicants are not a problem, as they generally lead to pain. I dislike pain; it hurts. As for gossip, harsh language, and idle chitchat … let’s just say I frequently pull off a hattrick of utter failure in those categories. Moreover, I’m fairly certain the Ozarks would cease to exist without gossip, harsh language, and idle chitchat; it’s a hobby, art form, and contact sport in these parts. And then there’s the whole reincarnation thing. Maybe it’s just me, but for some reason that word always makes me think of condensed milk. Lots of Ozarkers claim to have been born again, but they pull off that trick while still living. It’s an entirely different profundity than the Buddhist definition. I suppose, if one of us hill folk did come back for a second, third, or ten-thousandth existence, we’d have to call it “re-in-tarnation.” The epiphany I’m not up to Buddhist snuff has arisen because I’m cleaning out
my storage shed. Buddhism generally involves a lack of attachment to material things. I kind of, sort of, share this sentiment, as I dislike clutter. I might be a minimalist, or perhaps just a smidgen claustrophobic, but too much stuff in too small a space makes me nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. The flat-screen TV and massage chair in my living room pretty much shoot down any chance of membership in a top-flight Nepalese temple. Truth be known, I’m just not into a bunch of knickknacks and doodads blocking the view between said chair and the ultra-skinny “vidiot” machine. But the mass of boxes crammed in my storage shed is just embarrassing. Most of these boxes have not been opened in three or four cross-country moves. As I slit the tape on box after box and peer inside, I’m both dumbfounded and confused. I don’t know where or when I acquired this stuff. Even stranger, I don’t know why I bought it, kept it, packed it, or toted it 10,000 miles over a 20-year span. Apparently, at some point in my distant past, I found it critically important to hold
onto the owner’s manual for a Ron Popeil food dehydrator. The dehydrator is nowhere to be found. I guess, when young and addled, I rashly assumed that a 1992 article I penned on a Florida ’gator farm would someday be worth more than gold. The treasure trove is not confined to records and reptiles. We’re talking cracked plates, half-burned candles, photos of folks whose names I’ve long forgotten, and a painting purchased for 50 cents on the last day of a low-rent garage sale. I don’t even want to talk about the geegaws, gimcracks, and 157 AC adaptors that don’t appear to fit anything. Don’t get me started on the indoor, outdoor, and indoor/outdoor TV antennas, all of which are broken. The caribou hide is full of fleas. Why do I have more than 20 foot and leg traps? I never ran a trap line, not even during the wildest periods of my Montana mountainboy phase. That the traps were in the same box as a vintage “Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots” game is moderately disturbing. Out of 100 or more boxes, maybe 10 contain meaningful items. These are things made or given to me by friends and family, a couple boxes of fancy glassware and pitchers, and a small pile of items that are sentimental only to me. That I kept the rest of this stuff makes me question my sanity. If I was smart, which I’m not, I’d hasten the sorting effort with the help of a gas can and well-tossed match. I wonder if Buddhists take a position RON MARR on arson.
ANDREW BARTON
BY RON MARR
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Historic Hannibal
Celebrate the 4th in
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[92] MissouriLife
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[93] June 2011
SHOW-ME
Showcase
Under
A WALK THE RIVER
“ONE REQUIREMENT for this project is you got to talk southern,” snickered Wynn Morgan, senior project manager for the Jefferson City Tunnel Project. Delivered in his lolling, southern Alabama drawl, Wynn’s joke elicits plenty of laughs around the standing-room-only conference room, as we chosen ones milled about while eating pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw. On behalf of Missouri American Water, we had all been invited to take a strange journey where few Missourians have ever ventured: under the Missouri River. The tunnel is the main vein of the Jefferson City Tunnel Project, an $11 million upgrade to replace an obsolete water-intake system that is more than 100 years old and likely dug by hand. Pipelines in the tunnel will be coursing
with water once the project is completed, and now that the end is in sight, project officials were giving last-chance tours for the unclaustrophobic. But first, there was a sobering tunnelsafety orientation to sit through and dotted lines to sign, waiving away all responsibilities should there be any cave-ins, explo-
sions, equipment failures, or any number of other potential catastrophes that could arise when you blast a 220-foot tunnel under the nation’s longest river. Fortunately, we were all in good hands. Layne Christensen, the company tapped to do the digging, is the same company responsible for rescue operations that saved the Chilean miners. Despite the project being classified a “non-gassy tunnel” and a 46-page safety manual reassuring us in bold, capital letters, “THERE IS LITTLE TO NO LIKELIHOOD OF ENCOUNTERING METHANE OR FLAMMABLE GAS,” bad thoughts linger, evoking a few last-minute fatalistic gulps. My decision to don my steel-toed Wolverines proved to be a wise wardrobe choice, for no one is allowed into the tun-
NIC HALVERSON, COURTESY OF MISSOURI AMERICAN WATER
Come along on a subterranean journey under the Missouri. BY NIC HALVERSON
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nel without them. Those without proper footwear were lent steel-toed boots courtesy of Missouri American Water’s stash of personal protective equipment, which we were all issued. Once outfitted in hard hats and Day-Glo reflective vests, we were ready to go down the hole. The entrance of the tunnel is at the bottom of an 80-foot shaft with a gaping mouth 22 feet in diameter. To reach bottom, one must take a ride in the “man cage,” a steel carriage painted hard-hat yellow and used to ferry workers in and out of the tunnel, four or five at a time. Bearing a passing resemblance to Walt Whitman, Missouri American Water operations supervisor Kevin Eveler beckoned us into the man cage. At his signal, a brontosaurus-sized crane lifted the man cage into the air. An air-horn blast alerted workers below. Dangling there like bait while being lowered into an 80-foot throat in the earth, my kneecaps turned to pudding. As we descended, shadows swallowed us. The cool musty air, familiar to anyone who’s been in a cave, enveloped the man cage as we hit the shaft floor. Underfoot was a muck of silty, pulverized limestone, saturated by the nonstop trickle of water seeping through the walls.
Top Left: The first water pipe is laid. The big pipe at right near the arch top draws oxygen for workers. Bottom Left: Operations supervisor Kevin Eveler led the tour. Above: Visitors entered the tunnel via the cage above the shaft.
Workers had just finished welding parts to an intake valve. The whiff of blowtorched metal hung in the air as we entered the tunnel, rimmed with ropes, hoses, ventilation pipe, and other mining equipment. Ducking along the string-lit walls of the arched tunnel, sound is compressed yet strangely intimate, almost absorbed into itself, making conversation a disorienting task. Behind the oak planks and iron ribs that support the shaft’s seven-foot ceiling, the limestone walls wept river and groundwater tears. Because the tunnel is built on a 2.7-degree slope, those tears collect in streams along the tunnel floor, burbling to the end only to be pumped out. Following our Whitman-esque leader, we plunged farther into the rusty murk. From the end of the shaft, workers’ commands tremoloed down the tunnel as they heaved pipe. All right guys, on three. Lift. The clanking of iron and steady drip of water was everywhere—a reminder the underground is saturated with life. The deeper we went, the more a loud drone blossomed and could be felt in vibrations
of the jaw and breastbone. Exactly how is it possible to dig a tunnel under a river? It’s best to let the mind’s theater answer that question. Let your mental projector distract you with flashes of miners in their cap lights. Look at their smudged faces, grimacing as they auger a limestone wall with their jackleg drill. Hear the diesel growl of their bobcat skid steers hauling rock back to the open pit. Breathe in the dank vapors and watch them work. Broken out of my proletariat daydream, 80 feet in, I heard a muffled voice ask, “Where are we now?” “This is the end,” said Kevin. “We’re under the river.” We flinched as we eyeballed the tunnel’s ceiling for leaky flaws. Marveling at the notion, our mouths were agape as we tried to visualize the catfish, carp, and barges that were possibly floating above us. The bone-rattling drone I felt, apparently, was the hum of the ventilation ducts, but I’d like to think it was the powerful sound the Missouri River makes when surging 20 feet above your head.
WHAT THE NEW TUNNEL WILL DO
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Ozark Guide
Concert Series 2011 Jerry Jeff Walker Sep. 17 Taj Mahal Sep. 23-24 Little River Band Sep. 30-Oct.1 Michael Martin Murphey Oct. 7-8 Los Lobos Oct. 14-15 America Oct. 21-22 Marshall Tucker Band Oct. 28-29 Ozark Mountain Daredevils Nov. 4-5 www.wildwoodspringslodge.com
[96] MissouriLife
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BethWatson
Canoe Capital of the Ozarks!
Experience abundant natural resources and warm hospitality when you visit us for trout fishing, camping, historic sites and floating on the rivers. There’s There’s more to do here.to Naturally. more do here. Naturally.
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NEW MUSEUM &
SHOW-ME
Showcase
Tours
Hannibal offers more than Mark Twain. BY SARAH ALBAN
COURTESY LISA AND KEN MARKS
“THERE WAS NOWHERE
you could go and learn about Hannibal’s history,” Hannibal History Museum Curator Lisa Marks says. That was except for one room in the basement of the Hannibal Library, where pounds of handwritten documents detailing the city’s history lay. She and her husband, Ken, changed that when they moved to Hannibal from St. Louis two years ago. They just opened a Hannibal History Museum in March, they run Historic Hannibal Tours, and they have a newly released book, Hannibal, Missouri: A Brief History. Lisa and Ken wanted to show that there is more to Hannibal than just Mark Twain’s legacy and use narrative structure to tell other stories that shaped the town. “You have to make something easy to digest,” Lisa says. “More palatable.” They do that by featuring the architecture, artifacts, and people around them to bring the past alive. That’s why tourists who bus into Hannibal for the Mark Twain attraction stick around for the Haunted Hannibal and Historic Hannibal tours.
In A Brief History, Lisa and Ken condense nearly two centuries of Spanish and French explorers, railroad construction, shoe manufacturers, lumber barons, zigzagging politics, and famous Hannibalians into what seems like only a few pages. The sub-chapters read like good movie titles: “The Legend of Lover’s Leap.” “Times of Strife and Murder.” “Tragedy in the Caves.” Sometimes they announce double-take topics: “Prohibition and the Red Light District.” “The New Madrid Earthquake.” “Depression and Dillinger.” “The book was the road map to know what we want to explore and exhibit at the museum,” Lisa says. The museum is evolving; Lisa and Ken expect new exhibits throughout the year, with new ones opening every few months, Lisa says. Admission is free. Lisa and Ken’s first book, Haunted Hannibal: History and Mystery in America’s Hometown, also has a corresponding Haunted Hannibal tour, which shuttles visitors to cemeteries and sprawling mansions. • •
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Showcase
Bus doles ra sequam, omniendelis volorep erepudae illaborum, odia adis dolupta quam quam, nam quis et dolBus doles ra sequam, omniendelis volorep erepudae
Left: Lavender tea lunches are held in the barn. Right: The 100-year-old original farmhouse is now a gift shop offering bath, beauty, garden, and dĂŠcor items.
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AH, LAVENDER!
Lovely, lovely lavender Relax and refresh at Missouri’s only lavender farm. BY BARBARA CARROW
COURTESY SUSAN JACKSON, JULIE ZIESEMANN
WINDING BROOK ESTATE makes it easy to fall in love with lavender. Located 20 minutes west of St. Louis in Eureka, Missouri’s only commercial lavender farm features 5,000 organically grown lavender plants and a bucolic setting that is an oasis for the soul. In high season, midJune through July, the lavender puts on its biggest show, soothing visitors’ senses with the stirring sight of endless purple blossoms, the drone of bees, and a fresh, woodsy fragrance. The blooming period slows for a while, and then, weather permitting, the plants give a repeat performance, stopping only after a hard freeze. “U-pick lavender” is generally available until October 31. Owners Deborah and Steve Nathe say many visitors consider Winding Brook Estate an antidote for the stresses of modern life. “It’s a place to come and relax,” says Deborah. “As soon as you start breathing in the lavender, it starts to calm you.” Visitors wander among the rows of lavender and watch bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds flit from blossom to blossom as they clip a bouquet. Most visitors stop at the gift shop, a quaint 100-year-old farmhouse. Merchandise includes lavender bath and body products, lavender tea, pastries, desserts, and more.
Six times each spring and fall, Winding Brook Estate offers tea luncheons in the barn. The luncheons feature lavender in a variety of forms, with dishes such as lavender cream puffs and strawberries dipped in lavender-flavored chocolate. Lavender and Libations, a summertime evening event, features cocktails and appetizers, many with lavender as an ingredient. There is also entertainment. Among its many uses, natural remedy proponents say lavender can ease stress, anxiety, and depression and can aid a variety of skin conditions, including sunburn, poison ivy, and psoriasis. The farm’s bestselling product, its home and body mist, is often employed as a sleep aid—users spritz their pillows so they can breathe in the lavender aroma—and as a mosquito repellent. Forty years ago, when Deborah was in high school, her family purchased the acreage as a place to keep horses. Her family lived on the property for a short period but eventually settled in San Jose, California. Years later, she and Steve decided life was too short to spend traveling all the time for their demanding sales careers. The 17-acre parcel of land, still owned by the family but becoming engulfed by suburban development, also weighed heavily on their minds.
Suddenly, Deborah recalled a friend who had considered becoming a lavender farmer. “I said to Steve, ‘How about growing lavender?’ It just popped into my head.” Steve was skeptical at first. “I really didn’t know what lavender was,” he says. The Nathes started researching lavender. Deborah read every book about the plant that she could, and they visited lavender farms throughout the United States. Finally, they tried planting it. Lo and behold, it flourished. They brought in 110 tons of sand to improve drainage and added lime to change the soil balance to alkaline. They dug a pond and refurbished the barn. They put in thousands of lavender plants and waited until the plants matured. Then they opened the farm to visitors in July 2005. Steve describes their work on the property as “polishing a diamond in the rough while retaining its charm. “I don’t have a boss, and I’m not stuck in an airport or fighting traffic every day,” Steve says. “I also stop, take a look around, breathe deep, and just take in the simple beauty of the lavender and the farm itself—and then I keep going.” www.windingbrookestate.com 636-575-5572
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! y a d t o Call
660-837-3311
June 2-11
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ALL AROUND
Missouri J U N E /J U LY 2 0 1 1
featured event >
SOUTHEAST
OLD TIME MUSICE, FESTIVAL lture of OZARK HERITAG of old time music and cu
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ART AROUND TOWN June 3 and July 1, Cape Girardeau > Ride the shuttle to each gallery featuring a new artist. Refreshments are served. Throughout town. 5-9 PM. Free. 573-334-9233, www.capearts.org
RACKING HORSE SHOW June 4, Dexter > State competition for horses and riders in Western, English, and Costume classes. Stoddard County Fairgrounds. 6 PM. $2$5. 573-624-7458, www.dexterchamber.com
ROCK SWAP June 10-11, Park Hills > Rocks, fossils, and rock jewelry for swap and sale. Missouri Mines State Historic Site. 9 AM-6 PM Fri.-Sat.; 9 AM-4 PM Sun. Free. 573-431-6226, www.mostateparks.com/ park/missouri-mines-state-historic-site
GRAPE JAM June 10-11, St. James > Bluegrass and crafts festival featuring a fiddle contest. Downtown. 6 PM-midnight Fri.; noon-midnight Sat. Free. 573-265-6649, www.stjameschamber.net
WHEELS AND DEALS June 11, West Plains > Car show with four classes and prizes awarded. Civic Center. 8 AM-3 PM. Free (entry fee for vehicles in show). 417-256-1579, www.westplainscarclub.net COURTESY OF WEST PLAINS DAILY QUILL
FRENCH HERITAGE FESTIVAL June 11-12, Ste. Genevieve > Living history, French cuisine, wine tasting, gumbo cook-off, and street dance. Historic Downtown. 9 AM5 PM. Free. 573-883-7097, www.visitstegen.com
SUSTAINABLE LIVING FAIR
Visit MissouriLife.com for more events!
June 18, Leasburg > Learn about energy efficiency and renewable energy ideas, products, and businesses. Onondaga Cave State Park. 10 AM-5 PM. Free. 573-245-6576, www.mostate parks.com/park/onondaga-cave-state-park These listings are chosen by our editors and are not paid for by sponsors.
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Missouri
ALL AROUND
GAZEBO CONCERTS
COUNTY FAIR
June 26 and July 24, Perryville > Outdoor concert. Downtown Square. 5-7 PM. Free. 573-5476062, www.perryvillemo.com
July 8-10, Ste. Genevieve > Parade, livestock and agriculture shows, demolition derby, horse show, tractor pulls, exhibits, and music. County Fairgrounds. 9 AM-9 PM. Free. 573883-3548, www.visitstegen.com
FOURTH AT THE FORT! July 2-4, Cape Girardeau > Encampments show how the national holiday was celebrated during the Civil War. Fort D Historic Site. 9 AM4 PM. Free. 800-777-0068, www.visitcape.com
PICTURES BY THE PEOPLE July 2-31, Poplar Bluff > Regional photography competition. Margaret Harwell Art Museum. Noon-4 PM Tues.-Fri.; 1-4 PM Sat.-Sun. Free. 573-686-8002, www.mham.org
FIREWORKS AND CAR SHOW July 4, Pilot Knob > Car show, children’s games, arts, crafts, and fireworks display. Fort Davidson State Historic Site. 10 AM-10:30 PM. Free. 573-546-3454, www.mostateparks.com/ park/fort-davidson-state-historic-site
HERITAGE FESTIVAL July 4, Salem > Celebrate the Civil War heritage of the area with crafts, educational displays, and food vendors. Courthouse Square. 10 AM-5 PM. Free. 573-729-0029, www.salemmo.com
HAND-ME-DOWN MUSIC July 9, Newburg > Performance by folk-music artists Dave Para and Cathy Barton, including original songs. Lyric Live Theater. 7 PM. $8. 573-5789663, www.lyriclivetheater.com
CRAWFORD COUNTY FAIR July 12-16, Cuba > Mud run, BBQ challenge, George Jones concert, live musical entertainment, bull riding, demolition derby, truck and tractor pull, and livestock shows. Hood Park. 6-10 PM Tues.; 3 PM-midnight Wed.-Thurs.; noon-1 AM Fri.; 9 AM-1 AM Sat. $10-$25. 573-2597772, www.crawfordcountyfair.info
PICNIC AND STEAM ENGINES July 31, Weingarten > Picnic meal, hayrides, bingo, steam engines, threshing and harvest demonstrations, antique equipment, and live music and dancing. Catholic Church grounds. 8 AM-8 PM. Free (except meal). 573-883-0470, www.ironmemories.com
NORTHWEST KANSAS CITY AREA STREETS ALIVE! June 3-5, Lee’s Summit > Arts, crafts, carnival, sanctioned BBQ contest, and street performers. Downtown. Noon-10 PM Fri.; 10 AM-10 PM Sat.; noon-5 PM Sun. Free. 816-246-6598
HOSPITAL HILL RUN June 4, Kansas City > Race includes a 13.1mile half-marathon, 10K race, and 5K run/ walk through downtown and the Plaza. Crown Center Square. 7 AM. Free for spectators. 816274-8444, www.hospitalhillrun.com
VOICES OF THE PAST June 4, St. Joseph > Cemetery tour features Civil War living-history characters and horse and buggy tour. Mount Mora Cemetery. 1-4 PM. $2-$10. 816-232-8471, www.mountmora.org
LITTLE BLUE RIVER ART FEST June 10-11, Blue Springs > Artists display their multimedia works with children’s activities. White Oak Plaza. 1-8 PM Fri.; 10 AM-6 PM Sat. Free. 816-260-4235, www.whiteoakplaza.com
The Choice is Yours
Retirement living means something different for everyone. That’s why the Villagers at John Knox Village East focus less on defining retirement and more on affordable living. All of our lifestyle plans are designed to support your desires and decisions.
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“… I was surprised at all that John Knox Village East offered me for the money. It is the best value around. Now, I am free from the hassles of taking care of a home, so I pursue my favorite hobby, traveling. When I’m here at home, I enjoy the company of a welcoming network of friends and robust activity…”
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e’re still playing in the dirt.
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Missouri
ALL AROUND
SUMMERTIME BLUESFEST June 10-11, Gladstone > Blues and barbecue. Oak Grove Park. 5-11 PM. Free ($5 parking). 816436-4523, www.gladstonechamber.com
SLAVIC FESTIVAL June 10-11, Sugar Creek > Living display of Slavic customs featuring traditional foods, music, and dancing. Mike Onka Memorial Building. 5-11 PM Fri.; 3-11:30 PM Sat. $3. 816461-4877, www.slavicfest.com
SCOTTISH HIGHLAND GAMES
METRO RETRO
off to the dragon races! >
June 11-12, Kansas City > Heartland Men’s Chorus performs songs from the 1980s. Folly Theater. 8 PM Sat.; 4 PM Sun. $15-$30. 816-8425500, www.follytheater.org
DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL June 25, Kansas City > Hands-on children’s crafts, live music, Wake the Dragon Ceremony, and traditional Chinese dance. Teams compete in dragon boat races. Along Brush Creek at Country Club Plaza. 10 AM-2 PM. Free. 816-513-7500, www.kcmo.org/parks
BUGS!!! June 18, Kansas City > Learn all about bugs. Lakeside Nature Center. 10 AM-4 PM. Free. 816513-8960, www.lakesidenaturecenter.org
COURTESY OF KCMO PARKS AND RECREATION
June 10-12, Riverside > World-class bagpiping, sanctioned highland dancing, and Scottish heavy athletics. E.H. Young Riverfront Park. 6-11 PM Fri.; 9 AM-11 PM Sat.; 9 AM-4 PM Sun. $30. 816-361-2451, www.kcscottishgames.org
Family Fun, By Nature. It’s not just a place; it’s an experience. Take a boat out on 56,000-acre Truman Lake, or bring your bicycles for a relaxing ride on the Katy Trail. Join us this summer for classic cars, music shows, fireworks and more!
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[106] MissouriLife
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Missouri
ALL AROUND
PAINTING AT THE BEND
DUCK DAYS
June 24, Waverly > Take a class on acrylic painting on a 16-by-20-inch canvas. Baltimore Bend Vineyard. 6:30-9:30 PM. $40. 660-4930258, www.baltimorebend.com
July 10, Parnell > Church service, parade, homemade ice cream, pet show, and a rubber duck race down the Platte River. City Park. 10 AM-3 PM. Free (except ticket for a duck). 660-986-3330, www.maryvillechamber.com
CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE July 4, Maryville > Spectacular view of the fireworks, games, and activities for all ages. Mozingo Lake. 7-10 PM. Free. 660-582-2151, www.maryvillechamber.org
GROOVALICIOUS FRUIT! July 2, Kansas City > Play tomato putt-putt, learn about local fruits, and purchase some to take home. The City Market. 8 AM-2 PM. Free. 816-842-1271, www.thecitymarket.com
NODAWAY COUNTY FAIR July 14-16, Maryville > Carnival, parade, entertainment, dances, talent shows, livestock shows, 4-H exhibits, and crafts. Downtown. 5 PM-midnight. Free (except carnival rides). 660-582-4491, www.nodcofair.org
OLD FASHIONED PICNIC
July 3, Kearney > Live music, fireworks, and watermelon. Jesse James Fairgrounds. Dusk. Free. 816-628-4229, www.accesskearney.com
July 29-31, Agency > One of the oldest festivals in the area, traced back to a political rally in 1867. Festival features a tractor pull, picnic, entertainment, contests, and antique tractor and car show. Community Center. 5-midnight Fri.; 9 AM-midnight Sat.; 11 AM-5 PM Sun. Free. 816-253-9301, www.stjomo.com
STEAM ENGINE SHOW
MISSOURI PEACH DAYS
July 9, Craig > Garden tractor pull, wagon backing contest, antique tractors, and demonstrations of old-fashioned farming practices including threshing. City Park. 7 AM-11 PM. Free. 660-5720015, www.ironmemories.com
July 30-Aug. 7, Sibley to Waverly > Orchards along the Santa Fe Trail feature the pick of their peach harvest. Highway 24 from Sibley to Lexington to Waverly. 10 AM-5 PM. Free. 866-837-4711, www.visitlexingtonmo.com
FIREWORKS CELEBRATION
SOUTHWEST BUSHWHACKER DAYS June 8-11, Nevada > Parade, carnival, arts, crafts, vendors, bands, historic reenactments, and car and motorcycle show. Downtown Square. 5-10 PM. Free (except carnival and special events). 417-684-0308, www.bwdays.com
MUSTANG MANIA June 11, Aurora > Car show and cruise featuring all years and styles of the Ford Mustang. Oak Park. 9 AM-3 PM. Free. 417-6784150, www.auroramochamber.com
CRUISE NIGHT June 11 and July 9, Webb City > Car show, 50/50 pot, and a disc jockey playing music. Downtown. 5-8 PM. Free. 417-673-1154, www. webbcitychamber.com
SUMMER SNOWFEST June 18, Springfield > Play on the mountain of snow, cool off in a stream, enjoy live entertainment, and games. Jordon Valley Park. 4-9 PM. Free. 417-866-7444, www.parkboard.org
COURTESY OF SPRINGFIELD CVB
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CARDS AND CREAM July 2, Kimberling City > Poker run. Draw a card at each ice cream stop. Harter House parking lot. 12:30-6 PM. Free ($35 to participate). 417-739-4386, www.uoftrl.com
FIREBURST July 2, Kimberling City > Fireworks set to music. Table Rock Lake. 10 AM-9:30 PM. Free. 417-739-2564, www.visittablerocklake.com
38 SPECIAL July 2, Lampe > With The Kentucky Headhunters. Black Oak Mountain Amphitheater. 7 PM. $20-$45. 417-779-1222, www.blackoakamp.com
ARCHAEOLOGY DAY July 16, Ash Grove > Site history and recent archaeological investigations. Nathan Boone Homestead State Historic Site. 10 AM-4 PM. Free. 417-751-3266, www.mostateparks.com/park/ nathan-boone-homestead-state-historic-site
FALCONRY ON THE PRAIRIE July 23, Mindenmines > Program about falconry and the local raptors. Prairie State Park. 7-8 PM. Free. 417-843-6711, www.mostateparks.com/park/prairie-state-park
get your milk on! > DAIRY DAYS June 11-12, Springfield > Explore the life-cycle of a dairy cow: Learn what they eat, try your hand at milking, see the milking process, discover how much milk cows produce, and explore the many products made from milk. Rutledge-Wilson Farm Park. 10 AM-4 PM Sat.; noon4 PM Sun. Free (except special events). 417-837-5949, www.parkboard.org
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ALL AROUND
CENTRAL THE CEMETERY CLUB June 3-4, Linn Creek > Dinner theatre. Camden County Museum. 5:30 PM doors; 6 PM dinner; 7 PM show. $15. Reservations. 573-346-7191, www.camdencountymuseum.com
INNOCENCE GALA June 4, Columbia > Black-tie catered book signing with author Antwone Fisher, born in a prison and now an award-winning film and literary writer. Elm Street Ballroom. 6-10 PM. $250-$475. 573-303-2872, www.innocencegala.com
June 4-5, Columbia > Featuring 110 artists and childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s activities. Stephens Lake Park. 10 AM-7 PM Sat.; 10 AM-4 PM Sun. Free. 573443-8838, www.artinthepark.missouri.org
up, up, and away! >
BALLOON INVITATIONAL July 16, California > Hot-air balloon race featuring a game of hare and hounds, entertainment, launch, vendors, and a chance to see the balloons up close. Windmill Ridge Estates. Noon-7 PM. Free. 573-230-0884, www.californiaballoons.weebly.com
INSIDE THE WALLS June 10-12, Jefferson City > 175th anniversary of the State Penitentiary. Throughout town. Times vary. Free (except some special events). 866-998-6998, www.missouripentours.com
COURTESY OF TONY GOODNOW
ART IN THE PARK
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OUTDOOR FESTIVAL
TRI-COUNTY FAIR
RACE TO THE DOME
June 12, Lincoln > Outdoor church service, BBQ lunch, tractor tours, boat rides, children’s train rides and activities, and auction of a variety of items. Heit’s Point Ministries. 10 AM-4 PM. Free-will offering for lunch. 660668-2363, www.heitspoint.com
June 21-25, Richland > Bull riding, truck and tractor pull, pie-eating contest, greased-pig chase, Redneck Olympics, carnival, frozen T-shirt contest, livestock exhibits, art, and photography. Shady Dell Park. Noon-7 PM Tues.; 7:30 AM-7 PM Wed.; 7:30 AM-7:30 PM Thurs.; 10 AM-8 PM Fri.-Sat. Free (except special events). 573-765-2711, www.richlandtricountyfair.com
July 3, Hartsburg to Jefferson City > 16-mile canoe/kayak race on the Missouri River benefits river relief. Starts at Hartsburg river access and ends at Noren Access. 8 AM (lasts 2-4 hours). Free to spectators ($35-$70 to participate). 573-301-8119, www.racetothedome.org
QUILT SHOW June 16-18, Stover > More than 100 quilts on display, vendors, and raffles for a quilt and sewing machine. Community Center. 10 AM-7 PM Thurs.-Fri.; 9 AM-7 PM Sun. Free. 573-377-4443, www.quiltguilds.com
STREET FAIR June 17-18, Fulton > 5K run, kiddie corral, icecream social, mule auction, and entertainment, games, contests, and music. Downtown. 3:3010 PM Fri.; 8 AM-10 PM Sat. Free. 573-642-3055, www.fultonstreetfair.com
FIRST BATTLE OF BOONVILLE June 17-19, Boonville > Battle reenactments, sutlers, cavalry and cannon demonstrations, reenactor meet-and-greet, and traditional music and dance. Dr. Avery Farm. 9 AM-9 PM Fri.; 7 AM-midnight Sat.; 7 AM-3 PM Sun. Free. 660-537-3776, www.goboonville.com
BEAR CREEK BLUES June 25, Slater > Blues bands perform, guitar raffle, camping, and food and drink available. City Park. 3 PM-midnight. $6-$20. 660-529-2212, www.bearcreekblues.com
OLDE GLORY DAYS June 30-July 3, Clinton > Music shows, games, crafts, vendors, fireworks, contests, children’s activities, and carnival. Downtown. 10 AM-10 PM Thurs.-Sat.; 5-9 PM Sun. Free. 660-885-8166, www.clintonmo.com
THE DAM EXPERIENCE July 2, Warsaw > Professional fireworks display over the dam where it can be viewed from both sides by boat and land. Harry S. Truman Dam. Dusk. Donations accepted. 800-927-7294, www.warsawmochamber.com
HOWARD COUNTY FAIR July 5-10, Fayette > Carnival, livestock shows, Texas Country Showdown, horse show, talent show, and exhibits. Fairgrounds. 5-10 PM Tues., 4:30-10 PM Wed., 10 AM10 PM Thurs., 9 AM-10 PM Fri.; 8 AM-10 PM Sat.; 8 AM-5 PM Sun. Free (parking $3). 573-9993716, www.howardcountyfair.missouri.org
FIBER “U” July 9-10, Lebanon > More than 30 classes promoting fiber arts education. Cowan Civic Center. 9 AM-5 PM Sat.; 8 AM-3 PM Sun (preregistration for classes). Free (except materials fees). 417-533-5280, www.mopaca.org
OLD SETTLERS DAY July 30, Waynesville > Kickapoo Trace Muzzleloaders rendezvous, duck race, pony rides, and quilt show. Downtown. 10 AM-5 PM. Free. 573774-5315, www.oldstagecoachstop.org
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ALL AROUND
RED, WHITE, AND BLUE July 1-4, Kirksville > Live music, theatre performances, contests, parade, prayer service, and fireworks display. Downtown. 8 AM-6 PM (fireworks at dusk on Mon.). Free. 660-6653766, www.kirksvillechamber.com
BATTLE OF WENTZVILLE July 16-17, Wentzville > Ladies tea, medical and mounted cavalry demonstrations, battle reenactments, sutlers, Victorian period ball, and reenactors rummage sale. Old Town Area. 9 AM-7:30 PM Sat.; 9 AM-3 PM Sun. Free. 636332-5782, www.thecavalry.org
NEMO FAIR July 18-23, Kirksville > Agriculture shows, exhibits, demonstrations, 4-H displays, truck and tractor pull, Bull Buck Out, Demolition Derby, carnival, and concerts including Three Dog Night and Tracy Lawrence. NEMO Fairgrounds. 8 AM-11 PM. $20-$35 (price includes carnival and concerts). 660-665-8800. www.nemofair.net
you have to see this! >
FLYWHEEL REUNION
SANDCASTLE CREATIONS June 4-5, St. Louis > World-champion sand sculptor builds a 75-ton sandcastle. Learn how to make your own sand sculpture. Magic House. 10 AM-5 PM Sat.; 11:30 AM-5 PM Sun. $8.75. 314-822-8900, www.magichouse.org
July 28-30, Macon > Three-hundred tractors, 50 cars and trucks, entertainment, food vendors, craft show, and flea market. Fairground's Park. 7 AM-9:30 PM. $7 for all three days. 660385-3639, www.maconcountyflywheel.com
DREAM SOUNDS
MARK TWAIN & THE CIVIL WAR June 2-Oct. 30, (Thurs.-Sun.), Hannibal > Join Jim Waddell as Mark Twain as he discusses the Civil War. Mark Twain Museum Gallery. 10 AM. $5$9. 573-221-9010, www.marktwainmuseum.org
OUR GREAT WATERWAYS June 4-5, St. Louis > Exhibit of plein air paintings of the Missouri, Mississippi, and Illinois rivers Kodner Gallery. 10 AM-5 PM Sat.; 10 AM-4 PM Sun. Free. 314-993-4477, www.kodnergallery.com
ROUTE 66 FESTIVAL
PARTY ON ART HILL June 5, St. Louis > Cocktails and dinner alfresco with a spectacular view of the Grand Basin and reserved seating to the performance of Taming of the Shrew. St. Louis Plaza at Forest Park. 5:30 PM. $200. 314-531-9800 ext. 106, www.shakespearefestivalstlouis.org
BREWERS FESTIVAL June 10-11, St. Louis > Taste 75 different beer styles from more than 15 small and large brewers in the St. Louis area, gourmet food for sale, live music, and educational information all under a Bavarian beerfest tent. Central Field at Forest Park. 7-11 PM Fri.; 1-5 PM and 7-11 PM Sat. $30-$35. 314-577-1884, www.stlbrewfest.com
June 4-5, St. Louis > Music, classic cars, Route 66-themed products, and activities. Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. Noon-6 PM Sat.; 8:30 AM-3 PM Sun. Free ($5 parking on Sat.). 314-416-9930, ext. 109, www.confluencegreenway.org
SUMMER CONCERTS
TASTE FOR THE ARTS
QUILT SHOW
June 4-5, Hermann > Art exhibit using clay, wood, fiber, and glass. Live music and fiddlers’ contest. Downtown at the Hofgarten. 10 AM5 PM Sat.; 10 AM-4 PM Sun. Free. 573-486-3276, www.tasteforthearts.com
June 13-18, Mexico > More than 100 quilts on display and high tea at 2 PM on Tues. St. John’s Lutheran Church. 10 AM-4 PM Mon.-Fri.; 10 AM-2 PM Sat. Free ($15 for tea, reservations). 573-581-2047, www.prairiepinequiltguild.com
June 7-Aug. 16 (Tues.), Chesterfield > Bring a blanket or lawn chair for a different familyfriendly concert each week. 10 AM-3 PM. Faust County Park. 5-9 PM. Free. 636-532-3399
SUNFLOWER DAYS July 30-31, Clarksville > Plein air painting competition with cash prizes. Throughout town. All day. Free ($25 for painters). 573-2423353, www.clarksvillemo.us
FREE LISTING & MORE EVENTS At www.MissouriLife.com PLEASE NOTE:
COURTESY OF MAGIC HOUSE
NORTHEAST ST. LOUIS AREA
July 30, St. Louis > Songs and live performances set to create a soundtrack for Dreamscapes, an art exhibit based on the act of dreaming. Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. 6-9 PM. Free, 314754-1850, www.pulitzerarts.org
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Con n ec tin
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Connecting mid-Missouri travelers to the world.
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Free parking near the terminal.
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ART FOR LIVING... FUN TO FINE
Summer Reading Special Any book only $15!
Deaths on Pleasant Street
A 1909 Missouri true-crime story.
Big Spring Autumn
An engaging narrative about one of Missouriâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spectacular natural wonders, Big Spring.
Rebel on the Road
The pioneer in environmental conservation, journalist Michael Frome, tells his remarkable life story.
Allies of the Earth
The unabashed support of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s train heritage.
Watkins Mill
A look at the 1850 factory on a farm in rural western Missouri.
100 E. Normal Ave. Kirksville, MO 63501
tsup.truman.edu 800.916.6802
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Missouriana Trivia JUST FOR FUN
The end of the road for our Route 66 issue, and other little bits! BY MELISSA WILLIAMS
Did you know this? SPRINGFIELD IS
The first official moment of SUMMER in Missouri begins on JUNE 21 AT 12:16 PM, an hour earlier than East Coast residents can celebrate the solstice.
KNOWN AS THE BIRTHPLACE OF ROUTE 66,
INDEPENDENCE was a departure point for the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe trails. An estimated 400,000 PEOPLE migrated west on wagon trains. The National Frontier Trails Museum is the place to discover their stories.
WHERE OFFICIALS FIRST PROPOSED THE NAME OF THE CHICAGO-TO-
BOULEVARD BREWING COMPANY
LOS ANGELES HIGHWAY
of Kansas City is Missouri's largest “craft brewery,” defined as one that produces less than 2 million barrels per year. It is the 9TH LARGEST craft brewery in the country, with just over 149,000 barrels sold in 2010.
ON APRIL 30, 1926. (www.missouri66.org)
“Baseball, to me, is still the national pastime because it is a summer game … almost all Americans are summer people … summer is what they think of when they think of their childhood.”
~Steve Busby, quoted in the Washington Post, July 8, 1974. Steve Busby played his entire major league baseball career for the Kansas City Royals between 1972 and 1980.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANDREW BARTON
We couldnthave said it better!
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