Missouri Life April/May 2007 by Missouri Life Magazine

the spirit of discovery

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IMAGES THAT ECHO A TOWN’S NAME

MissouriLife WILDFLOWERS 29 places to enjoy them

FIVE FAMOUS GENERALS and the sites that pay them tribute

OLD MAN RIVER meet two adventurers from st. louis

APRIL 2007

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dead sea scrolls boonville races gasoline alley disney’s hometown devil’s icebox trout recipes

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TICKETS ONLINE: TITANICBRANSON.COM OR CALL (417) 334-9500 • (800) 381-7670

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contents

F E AT U R E S 28 Main Street USA

Tiptoe through the Trillium 22 Here are 29 special places to enjoy the beauty of spring wildflowers, recommended by botanists and naturalists.

75 The big picture

Main Street USA at Marceline 28 Walt Disney honored Marceline by modeling his theme parks after it. His hometown honors him with a museum and more. 5 Famous Missouri Generals 32 Read about William Doniphan, Sterling Price, Ulysses S. Grant, John Pershing, and Omar Bradley and the sites that pay tribute. 22 Spring wildflowers

22 32 16

Kansas City

44 St. Louis 18 5978 84 22 19 44 21 16 22 Springfield 80 60 48

Old Man River 38 Meet two adventurers from St. Louis who have traveled the entire length of the Mighty Mississippi and share their joy and agony. 38 44 75

Page numbers show story locations

World Famous Towns of Missouri 44 Our photographer captures moments that echo images usually associated with their more famous namesakes. Civil War Series: The Boonville Races 48 38 Mississippi adventure

ON THE COVER: Pink phlox at West Tyson County Park near Eureka. Photo by Glenn Curcio.

DEPARTMENTS Missouri Memo 6 From Uzbekistan to Missouri Letters to the Editor 8 About that calendar Symbols 15 Dogwood Missouri Medley 16 Gasoline Alley near Cuba, bike camps at Springfield and St. Louis, Dead Sea scrolls at Kansas City, and treasures from privies in St. Louis

MissouriLife Vol. 34, No. 2, April 2007

Missouri Life (USPS #020181; ISSN #1525-0814) is published bimonthly in February, April, June, August, October, and December by Missouri Life, Inc., for $19.99 at the address below. Periodicals Postage paid at Boonville, MO, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Missouri Life, 515 E. Morgan St., Boonville, MO 652331252. © 2007 Missouri Life. All rights reserved. Printed in Missouri.

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The Cave State 18 Devil’s Icebox and Connor’s Cave near Columbia Made in Missouri 21 A Carthage company turns waste into fuel Dream Homes 55 Charming college towns Bed & Breakfast 59 Swan Haven at Augusta

Creative Cuisine 60 5 recipes for tasty trout

All Around Missouri 77 A herb festival at Webster Groves, clowns at Houston, a Civil War reenactment at Clinton, and ragtime at Sedalia. More events at MissouriLife.com

Missouri Wine 66 Pairing food and wine Missouri Books 69 3 guides to adventure Health Innovations 71 Chiggers and ticks and new possibilities for stem cells

Missouri Trivia 81 Famous Missourians Musings 86 What global warming

Missouri Artist 75 Murals and more PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER Greg Wood greg@missourilife.com ■ EDITOR IN CHIEF Danita Allen Wood danita@missourilife.com MANAGING EDITOR & WEB EDITOR Rebecca French Smith rebecca@missourilife.com ART DIRECTORS Barb King barb@missourilife.com, Shea Bryant shea@missourilife.com CREATIVE CONSULTANT Drew Barton CALENDAR EDITOR & ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Amy Stapleton amy@missourilife.com CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Karen Ebbesmeyer karen@missourilife.com Contributing Editors/Writers John Fisher, Doug Frost, Timothy Hill, Ron W. Marr, John Robinson, Karen Mitcham-Stoeckley, Ann Vernon, Jim Winnerman Editorial Assistants Amanda Dahling, Glenna Parks HOW TO REACH US: E-mail: info@missourilife.com Phone: 660-882-9898 Fax: 660-882-9899 Web site: www.missourilife.com Address: Missouri Life, 515 East Morgan Street, Boonville, MO 65233-1252 TO SUBSCRIBE: 800-492-2593, ext. 102 TO ADVERTISE: 800-492-2593, ext. 106

International Regional Magazine Association

3/7/07 9:16:19 AM

missourimemo

Uzbekistan to Missouri S ince last August, we’ve hosted an exchange student from Uzbekistan. My son, Evan, had become acquainted with several exchange students at our high school and really desired to host one himself. We explored several exchange programs and settled on the 4-H International Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) High School Program. After poring over applications from students all over the world hoping to come to the United States, Evan selected Botir Okhunjanov from Uzbekistan. Although there are other good exchange programs, this one is exceptional. The coordinator of this program for our area, Joyce Taylor, checked us out on his behalf, gave us orientations, and helped us prepare for his arrival. She has taken him on special trips, too. Botir is from Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Tashkent is a city of about two million and the largest city of Uzbekistan, which is bordered by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan was part of the former Soviet Union but received independence in 1991. Botir is the son of two doctors, a Sunni Muslim, speaks English and Russian in addition to Uzbek, and wants to work for the economic development of his country. He came here to learn about our culture, and one of the first things he told me was that he wanted to work to help his country become a great world leader like the United States. Coming to our farm from a large city, living with Christians, and going to school in small-town America has been an adjustment. Botir has learned to ride horses and been amazed by the number of deer he sees. He’s learned about electrical crockpots (don’t put them in a sink full of water), security tags on blue jeans (make sure the clerk removes them in the store so you don’t have to suffer discomfort from wearing them), and about the differences between British English and American English (don’t ask a girl here for a rubber, the word Botir learned for a pencil eraser). We’ve tried to show him as much of Missouri as possible. He has been to St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia, and Cape Girardeau, in addition to spending time in Fayette, where he goes to school with Evan, and Boonville, where our Missouri Life office is now located. In fact, when he first arrived, we were just moving. I was concerned he would think we brought him here as a laborer. We were instructed to treat him as family, and since our family was lifting desks, boxes, TO SUBSCRIBE OR GIVE A GIFT • Visit www.missourilife.com • Call 800-492-2593 • Or mail a check for $19.99 (for 6 issues) to: Missouri Life • 515 East Morgan Street • Boonville, MO 65233-1252 Subscriptions start with the next issue. We send a card announcing gifts. Special discounts for multiple orders are available, for example for group gift subscriptions. Call or e-mail for more information.

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and shelves, so did he! We have plans to visit Jefferson City and Branson before he leaves. We especially want to take him to see the Titanic Museum at Branson. I was in the final stages of editing a book we created for the museum (see our web site for inforBotir, left, and Evan mation) when Botir arrived. He was fascinated with the process of making the book as he had seen the James Cameron movie fourteen times before he came. Watching movies is one way he learned English pronunciations. Being a part of an exchange program has been a growth experience for our entire family, but especially for Greg, Evan, and me. We’ve learned much about his culture, but possibly even more about our own by trying to see through his eyes. For example, Botir’s grandparents live in his home, and sons are expected to provide homes for their elderly parents. Our country lost the tightknit family structure as we developed, and families scatter across several states. Yet the freedoms we have are extraordinary compared to his culture, from freedoms of religion, of speech, to own guns, to read and hear contrasting points of views on the news, and right on down the bill of rights. So we’ve gained a new appreciation for our culture, too. Finally, I’ve learned that Botir is an extraordinary young man. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to leave your home at age seventeen, go to a country with a completely different language and customs, and live for nine months. He has adjusted to us with Danita Allen Wood grace. We will miss him when he leaves in May. Editor in Chief

ADVERTISING Call 800-492-2593. Information for display and web advertising and for other marketing opportunities are posted at www.missourilife.com. CUSTOM PUBLISHING Get Missouri Life quality writing, design, and photography for your special publications or magazines. Call 800-492-2593, ext. 106 or e-mail Publisher Greg Wood at greg@missourilife.com. MISSOURI LIFE MARKETPLACE Find Missouri-made gifts, products, services and other Missouri products at www.missourilife. com. Click on Marketplace.

REPRINTS Missouri Life provides reprints on high-quality paper. Visit our web site, e-mail info@missourilife. com or call 800-492-2593 for rates. BACK ISSUES Cost is $7, which includes tax and shipping. Order from web site, call, or send a check. EXPIRATION DATE Find it at the top left corner of your mail label. CHANGE ADDRESS Send both old and new addresses to karen@missourilife.com or to Missouri Life magazine mail address above.

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April 2007

letterstotheeditor

Where is My CALENDAR?

Thank you for your letter. We’ve recieved a few letters and calls about this change. For some time, we’ve had almost double the number of events online as in the magazine. We thought readers who wanted to use the calendar to its fullest extent would go online as well. Plus, we wanted to use the space in the All Around Missouri department for more stories about events. However, we do listen to our readers. So we have two suggestions: •If you don’t own a computer, most public libraries now have high-speed internet access. You could visit our calendar there, and most librarians are happy to help you get onto the web. You can also print our entire calendar there and take it home, if your library has a provision for printing. •Or, we will print the calendar and send it to you for free, if you simply send us a selfaddressed, postage-paid envelope large enough to hold 8.5-by-11-inch copies. Two stamps will

Lebanon, MO • 417.533.5280 8

www.whirlwindranch.com

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be enough. You can even send enough envelopes for the rest of the year, and we’ll do this temporarily as a test of how many readers prefer this service. Write Calendar Offer and send your envelopes to Missouri Life, 515 E. Morgan St., Boonville, MO 65233. We’ll also keep track of requests to reinstate the calendar. We do want this to be your favorite magazine, and we will try to keep pleasing you. —Editor GOING SOUTH I am interested in planning a trip to southern Missouri to visit the mills, springs, one or two caves, and perhaps stay overnight in one or more of our state park facilities. I am interested in John Robinson’s (Missouri Life’s King of the Road) descriptions of some of the “hole-in-the-wall” restaurants too. I am interested in the back roads and off the beaten paths of this great state. Perhaps you can tell me where I can get information to start planning. Elsie Baker Columbia A good place to start your search is MissouriLife. com. We have John’s King of the Road columns archived there as well as other articles about points of interest around the state. Many articles have contact information at the end for your convenience. Use our site search function, and let the web site do the rest. Another good source is the Missouri Division of Tourism web site at VisitMO.com. —Editor

King of the Road John Robinson

MORE PIZZA PLEASE I must say your people didn’t spend enough time researching the best pizza in the state. Yeager Union Church had a men’s group from Kansas City to give a concert in Cole Camp as a fundraiser. There were eight of them. When they arrived they said they were hungry. We told them about a couple of places, one of them being Calgaro’s Pizza. They went there and when they came back to get ready for the concert, they said “boy, that was the best pizza we have ever eaten, and we are going back before we go home!” We have invited them again this year and when we booked the date, they said, “We are coming early and take in that pizza again!” Bill Siebert Lincoln

COURTESY OF ANDREW JOHNMEYER

Contratulations on your move to Boonville and welcome to the area! I have been a subscriber of Missouri Life from the beginning of publication and have enjoyed it very much. I am now unhappy that you have discontinued the publication of the Calendar of Events. You have advised it will be in detail on your web site. I do not have a computer, nor do I want one at this time. Please reconsider and publish the Calendar of Events in the journal. Ruth Privett Boonville

jp’s Simple Pleasures • Inspirational Gifts • Tea and Gourmet Food • Home Decor

Call 660-263-3401 to schedule a full tea or private party

411 W. Reed Moberly, MO 65270

Jane Drew & Peggy Swon Owners/Operators

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letterstotheeditor

Where is My CALENDAR?

Lebanon, MO • 417.533.5280 8

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be enough. You can even send enough envelopes for the rest of the year, and we’ll do this temporarily as a test of how many readers need this service. Send your envelopes to Calendar Offer, Missouri Life, 515 E. Morgan St., Boonville, MO 65233. We do care about what you want, so we’ll keep track of requests to reinstate the calendar. Plus, we’d like to hear what online users think about our new calendar format. E-mail info@missourilife.com. —Editor GOING SOUTH I am interested in planning a trip to southern Missouri to visit the mills, springs, one or two caves, and perhaps stay overnight in one or more of our state park facilities. I am interested in John Robinson’s (Missouri Life’s King of the Road) descriptions of some of the “hole-in-the-wall” restaurants too. I am interested in the back roads and off the beaten paths of this great state. Perhaps you can tell me where I can get information to start planning. Elsie Baker Columbia A good place to start your search is MissouriLife. com. We have John’s King of the Road columns archived there as well as other articles about points of interest around the state. Many articles have contact information at the end for your convenience. Use our site search function, and let the web site do the rest. Another good source is the Missouri Division of Tourism web site at VisitMO.com. —Editor

ANDREW JOHNMEYER

Congratulations on your move to Boonville and welcome to the area! I have been a subscriber of Missouri Life from the beginning of publication and have enjoyed it very much. I am now unhappy that you have discontinued the publication of the Calendar of Events. You have advised it will be in detail on your web site. I do not have a computer, nor do I want one at this time. Please reconsider and publish the Calendar of Events in the journal. Ruth Privett Boonville

King of the Road John Robinson

MORE PIZZA PLEASE I must say your people didn’t spend enough time researching the best pizza in the state. Yeager Union Church invited a men’s group from Kansas City to give a concert in Cole Camp as a fundraiser. There were eight of them. When they arrived they said they were hungry. We told them about a couple of places, one of them being Calgaro’s Pizza. They went there and when they came back to get ready for the concert, they said “boy, that was the best pizza we have ever eaten, and we are going back before we go home!” We have invited them again this year and when we booked the date, they said, “We are coming early and take in that pizza again!” Bill Siebert Lincoln

jp’s Simple Pleasures • Inspirational Gifts • Tea and Gourmet Food • Home Decor

Call 660-263-3401 to schedule a full tea or private party

411 W. Reed Moberly, MO 65270

Jane Drew & Peggy Swon Owners/Operators

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3/7/07 2:48:00 PM

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ROOTS ’N BLUES ’N BBQ FESTIVAL

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April 2007

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Artrageous Columbia

ARTRAGEOUS

– as in Artrageous Fridays, the new quarterly evening art event that Columbia, Missouri, is targeting to art lovers of all kinds from across the state and beyond, starting April 27.

ARTRAGEOUS

– as in the new Orr Street Studios, an amazing set of art studios carved out of old roofing warehouses in downtown Columbia, where 26 local artists create their art in rented studios graced by unique sculpted doors.

ARTRAGEOUS

– as in Columbia’s recognition in February 2007 as the first city or town in Missouri designated as a “Creative Community” by the Missouri Arts Council. What’s going on here? “We’re trying to elevate art and realize what we have right under our noses,” says Jennifer Perlow, coowner of the PS:Gallery and a co-planner of the new Artrageous Friday events. “You can just feel the momentum.” continued Visitors to Columbia can see and buy art of all kinds in the galleries, shops and studios clustered in this creative community. The city’s cultural plan and community support are fostering a lively art scene that’s bursting with new life this year.

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Special Advertising Section

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ORIGINAL MAP DESIGN BY DIGGIT GRAPHICS

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Chris Teeter is the creative force and sculptor behind the new Orr Street Studios, a converted warehouse space now home to 26 Columbia artists in an exciting new center for the arts.

ARTRAGEOUS FRIDAYS

In recent years, Columbia art galleries and downtown businesses held one gallery crawl a year, which attracted more than 500 people last year. This year, a series of quarterly Artrageous Fridays will make special visual art, literary art, art discussions, demonstrations, installations, receptions, poetry readings, and performances available to visitors from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The launch event is April 27, followed by July 27 and October 26 in 2007 – the fourth Friday of each quarter, in The District (downtown Columbia), on the surrounding campuses and other locations. When you visit, you’ll get a map to all of the special locations. Look for brightly colored flags denoting each participating venue. For more details, visit www.artrageousfridays.com.

ORR STREET STUDIOS

A work of art in itself – the new Orr Street Studios location is the brainchild of owner Mark Timberlake and local sculptor Chris Teeter, director of the studios and creator of 16 works of art that also are the doors to the work spaces. Teeter worked with found items, scraps from the roofing warehouses that stood on the lot, and his imagination to craft the 6 ft. by 9 ft. doors that slide across the entrance of each studio. It’s a testament to Teeter’s skills that the doors manage to have great depth and character while still fitting within a narrow 3-inch slot as they slide into the wall. 12

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Opposite the doors are great glass walls opening the studios to the outdoors and to passersby in the central alley of the structure. Soon, Teeter hopes to have a local restaurateur open a café in the studios and have Orr Street open to the public on more than special occasions or by appointment (made by contacting Teeter at www.orrstreetstudios.com). “I think Orr Street Studios may be the shift in critical mass that the art scene in Columbia has been waiting for,” he says in his Web column. “We want to make Columbia a place for artists. “Sometimes, we forget about the artists. Here, they can come and work and be together and have some public exposure.” With the 16 spaces rented out to 26 artists (some share a studio), Teeter and Timberlake are at work transforming the 10,000-square-foot warehouse next door. Teeter likens the studios to the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, “but we have more artists.”

ABUNDANT, ACCESSIBLE ART

Art is on and around nearly every corner in the center of Columbia. The galleries and shops are as varied as their owners and customers. At The Arsenic Leopard at 32 N. Ninth Street, owner Lisa Suits offers “rarified,” unusual items from local and global artisans that customers can wear, use, or display to express their individuality. The artist-owners of Bluestem Missouri Crafts feature the work of 325 artists and craftspeople from Missouri and its eight

Special Advertising Section

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neighboring states in the three-room gallery at 13 S. Ninth Street. At Poppy, Barbara McCormick has been carrying whimsical, lighthearted art and handcrafted items that are “fun for the whole family” for 25 years. “When a woman wants something unusual, fun or fine in jewelry, she comes in to see us,” McCormick says. The colorful walls are lined with contemporary craft items as well as folk and fine art at the corner of 10th and Broadway. At one of the newest galleries in town, Jennifer Perlow and co-owner husband Chris Stevens are the PS of PS:Gallery on Broadway. Rotating exhibits open with evening receptions and feature the paintings, sculpture, glass, ceramics, jewelry, and fiber arts of local, regional, and national artists. “I’m very proud just to be a part of this,” Perlow says of the booming art scene. “It’s been a long road, but we’re in the right place at the right time. It’s very exciting."

COLUMBIA ART HAPPENINGS Come enjoy these exhibits and events in April, May and early June: Annual Student Show April 2-20, 2007 The Larson Gallery Columbia College, Brown Hall

AN APPETITE FOR ART Surround yourself with art while enjoying a great meal at the several Columbia restaurants and cafes that feature original paintings and photography in their dining areas. Artists’ exhibits are often changed regularly, and usually the artwork is for sale. Addison’s An American Grill 709 Cherry Street 573-256-1995

Lakota Coffee Company 24 S. Ninth Street 573-874-2852

Cherry Street Artisan Ninth and Cherry streets 573-817-3274

Main Squeeze 28 S. Ninth Street 573-817-5616

Classy’s Restaurant 1013 E. Broadway 573-256-1604

Rendezvous Coffeehouse 3304 Broadway Business Park Ct. 573-446-4034

Cucina Sorella 22 N. Ninth Street 573-443-5280

Sophia’s 3915 S. Providence 573-441-8355

Grand Cru 2600 S. Providence Road 573-443-2600

Teller’s Gallery & Bar 820 E. Broadway 573-441-8355

Kayotea 912 E. Broadway 573-874-2852

B.F.A. Student Show April 13-May 6, 2007 Davis Art Gallery Stephens College, corner of Walnut & Ripley Artrageous Friday Gallery Crawl Various Columbia galleries and venues 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., April 27, 2007 www.artrageousfridays.com Final Farewell: The Culture of Death and the Afterlife through May 20, 2007 Museum of Art and Archeology University of Missouri, 1 Pickard Hall Art in the Park 2007 June 2-3, 2007 Sponsored by Columbia Art League Stephens Lake Park on E. Broadway 573-443-8838; http://artinthepark.missouri.org The Forgotten Art of Engraving through June 2007 Museum of Art and Archeology University of Missouri, 1 Pickard Hall The Stories They Tell: Understanding Missouri History through Maps through June 30, 2007 State Historical Society of Missouri East side of Ellis Library, University of Missouri For more art and event information, go to www.visitcolumbiamo.com. MissouriLife.com

APRIL 07 Columbia CVB AD.indd 13

COLUMBIA NAMED FIRST “CREATIVE COMMUNITY” BY MISSOURI ARTS COUNCIL When you come to Columbia, look for the new signs designating the city a “Creative Community – 2007.” This is no local brag – the Missouri Arts Council chose Columbia to receive the first-ever state Creative Community award this year as part of the annual Missouri Arts Awards. Columbia’s nomination, submitted by the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs and the Convention and Visitors Bureau, highlighted the active and diverse offerings of Columbia’s many arts organizations, as well as the support the arts receive from city leadership. The Percent for Art program here is one of only two in the state – setting aside one percent of the cost of eligible city construction projects for site-specific art. In addition, the city has awarded more than $1 million to local arts groups since the Office of Cultural Affairs was founded. The Missouri Arts Council based the choice on “long-lasting and profoundly positive contributions … to promote economic growth by using the arts industry of Missouri.” Special Advertising Section

April 2007

3/6/07 8:39:27 AM

Columbia Cuisine ONLY THE BEST FOR CLASSY ’S LOYAL CUSTOMERS

When Leta Harvey and Paul Blackwell struck out on their own in 2003 to start a gourmet hamburger stand in downtown Columbia, fate intervened. And their loyal clientele has been grateful ever since. Three days before the former bartender and experienced chef were to open Classy’s Hamburgers, they found out the kitchen they inherited at 1013 E. Broadway could not be used for deep-fat frying or cooking with grease. So they quickly switched gears, menu, and name to become Classy’s Restaurant – serving lighter, often healthier and interesting food that could be baked, simmered, poached, etc. Blackwell says he tries to keep everything as authentic as possible – not copying others and seeking out only the best and most authentic ingredients. Aromatic curry that plays well off of fish is flown in fresh from Indonesia. He and Harvey, who cook, serve, and even wash the dishes by themselves, tried 35 different rye breads before deeming one from St. Louis worthy of their Reuben with Blackwell’s homemade Thousand Island dressing, secret-recipe sauerkraut, and fresh-cooked corned beef. Guests can enjoy exotic tastes from black truffles to a Chicago dog done right. Nothing sees the inside of the microwave they use as a table in back. Blackwell, who studied at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago and has been a chef at Ritz-Carlton hotels, other establishments in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and locally at Jack’s and the University Club, says the many fish dishes are a main attraction for diners. The lunch menu alone offers poached tilapia, lemon pepper trout, salmon, mussels, Maryland crab cakes, and his signature dish: Coconut Cod with Mango Chutney and Curry Sauce with Basmati Rice and Vegetables. “I try to offer six or seven kinds of vegetables” in attractive arrays, he says. “It makes it more pleasing, both for me and the customer.” They put humor into special events, with a sevencourse French meal on Bastille Day, for instance, complete with a cabaret act. Harvey set the tone for the sunny and intimate décor with her original paintings that grace the walls. She says word of mouth has made Classy’s a favorite of the many local artists, professors, doctors, lawyers – even the prima ballerina with whom Harvey performed as a young dancer is a regular. 14

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Chef Paul Blackwell creates Classy’s signature dish: Coconut Cod with Mango Chutney and Curry Sauce with Basmati Rice and Vegetables. See his recipe at www.MissouriLife.com; click on “Current Issue’s Links.” For more ways to enjoy Columbia's great cuisine, visit www.visitcolumbiamo.com.

Classy’s Restaurant 1013 East Broadway Columbia, MO 65201 Call 573-256-1604 for lunch and dinner reservations Open 11 AM to 2 PM; 5 PM to 9 PM; closed for Sat. lunch and all day Sunday. Three-course early bird dinners Mon.-Wed. 5 PM to 7 PM.

Special Advertising Section

MissouriLife.com

3/6/07 8:40:40 AM

missourisymbols

Our TREE

■ By John Fisher

HILE SELDOM noticed most of the year, the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) illuminates the woods in the southern two-thirds of the state from mid-April through early May with its brilliant white blossoms. These small trees are shade-tolerant and grow well under a forest canopy. However, they are shallow-rooted, which makes them susceptible to drought. The dogwood, which became our state tree in 1955, really has something to commend it in all seasons of the year even though it is best known for blossoms heralding the arrival of spring. In summer, it has attractive leaves that are glossy green on their upper surface and a dull grayish green on the lower surface. The leaves then turn an attractive purple to scarlet color in autumn. Dogwoods also have a distinctive bark. The brownish bark, most visible in winter, is rough and broken into square plates. The flowers produce an egg-shaped fruit that turns from bright green in summer to red in the fall and is nourishment to many kinds of wildlife. The dogwood attains a maximum size of forty feet but seldom reaches that height, which limits its commercial value for lumber. There have been some specialized uses for its wood, such as golf club and mallet heads, knitting needles, and wedges because of its closegrained nature and resistance to impacts. The dogwood has found widespread ornamental use in landscape planting. The native dogwood has almost exclusively white flowers with only an occasional tree bearing pink blossoms. Breeders have now developed several varieties with red or pink flowers. The dogwood has been associated with several legends. One of the better-known legends names the dogwood as the tree that provided the wood for the cross of Jesus’s crucifixion. Because the tree was sorrowful, Christ promised it would never again grow large enough to be used to make a cross. Each flower would be in the form of a cross with a rust-colored notch on the end of each petal representing the nails that held Christ on the cross. No one knows for sure how the dogwood got its moniker. One idea comes from dagwood skewers made by butchers. In time the name changed to dogwood. Another possibility is that the name came from the European practice of boiling the bark of the species of dogwood found there to treat mange on dogs. Whatever the origin of its name, the dogwood’s brilliant blooms signal spring’s beginning and enhance our enjoyment of John Fisher is the author Missouri’s springtime woodlands and lawns. of Catfish, Fiddles, Mules, Visit www.missourilife.com for more dog- and More: Missouri’s State wood legends. Symbols. MissouriLife.com

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April 2007

2/27/07 4:48:28 PM

missourimedley

BOB MULLEN is not sure what prompted him to start collecting the antique outdoor advertising he displays along his property just outside Cuba, Missouri, alongside Interstate 44. He thinks the catalyst might be his fond recollection of the old Campbell 66 Express trucks with their “Humpin’ to Please” camels and Route 66 logos when he was a boy. Bob is also uncertain what accounts for his other collections of antique advertising thermometers, neon clocks, gasoline pumps, antique ice chests, die cast metal vehicles, cookie jars, and exotic animals. While the signs sprout on his property like a bumper crop of old logos, Bob’s two barns and an addition to his home are filled wall to rafter with his other hobbies. Several trailers on the farm hold what he has no room to display. In fact, his penchant for collecting has grown so large he refers to the total accumulation as “Bob’s Gasoline Alley.” Bob’s favorite acquisitions are a 1904 “Mobil Gas Special” pump, an advertising thermometer for Al West Motors in Cuba that lists the phone number as 11, and a large tin outdoor sign with the slogan: “Get tingleated with Sun Crest Beverages.”

Bob has built his collections in only ten years, but every item is neatly displayed and dusted as if it had just been purchased. Any item he buys that is meant to be lit ★ or has moving parts is repaired before it goes on display. Even the pole signs, visible from Interstate 44, are all illuminated at night, as they would have been on Route 66 when they were in use. Bob has no plans to turn his hobby into a museum. “My business is in town,” he says referring to ABC Investments in Cuba. However, he graciously shows off his collections to anyone who calls. He has even added tables and chairs in the two barns for clubs that want to use his farm for meetings. Meanwhile, Bob continues expanding his collections. “I thought of buying some old gas stations and moving them here,” he says as he gazes over the farm. To arrange a visit to Gasoline Alley, call 573-885-3637. —Jim Winnerman

BARBARA WINNERMAN

GASOLINE ALLEY

MOST PEOPLE learn how to ride a bike when they are young. But for children who are disabled or just never learned how to ride a bike, the Lose the Training Wheels program is here to help. Two camps, in St. Louis and Springfield, are coming to Missouri this summer. The Lose the Training Wheels camps use a bike developed by Dr. Richard Klein, of Brentwood. He developed a unique training method that allows people to learn how to ride a bike without the traditional training wheels. A national parent organization, Lose the Training Wheels, Inc., has recently been formed in Virginia to take over the program. The bikes themselves have rollers that make them different from the traditional training bikes. There is a series of progressions in the five-day camp that starts with 16

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the double-roller trainer bike, then gradually moves up to a conventional bike. Different levels in the bike program are signified by the colors in the rainbow. The camps began in 2001 with two, and last year thirty-three camps took place. Lose the Training Wheels, Inc., works through local charities and organizations who fund and run the camps. Although the camps were originally designed to help children with disabilities, others who didn’t learn now have the chance to participate. Camps enroll, typically, anyone from age seven to twenty-two. When a child with a disability or limited opportunity learns how to ride a bike, the family is liberated, Richard says. They can do things together as a group. “It’s a life sport, a life activity,” he says.

COURTESY OF GRETCHEN MONTGOMERY

LOSE THE TRAINING WHEELS

The Lose the Training Wheels camps are scheduled for June 5-9 in Springfield and June 11-15 in St. Louis. For more information on the camps, call Gretchen Montgomery at 314-6080025 or visit www.losethetrainingwheels.org. —Stephanie Ruby MissouriLife.com

3/5/07 10:42:16 AM

SCROLLS: COURTESY OF UNION STATION; PRIVY: COURTESY OF MICHAEL DEFILIPPO

DEAD SEA SCROLLS STOP AT KANSAS CITY ONE OF THE most significant archeological discoveries of the twentieth century is on display at Kansas City’s Union Station. Ten of the Dead Sea Scrolls and artifacts from the ancient city of Qumran, where the scrolls were discovered, make up the new exhibition. “It will be a once in a lifetime experience for visitors,” says Andi Udris, Union Station Kansas City president and CEO. “From the science, to the history, to the biblical studies, this exhibit will enthrall all who come see it.” In 1946 a Bedouin shepherd discovered the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and throughout the next decade, more than eight hundred texts of papyrus and parchment were found in caves around Qumran. The significance of the scrolls was immediate because they contained the oldest-known biblical documents on record, including the canon of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Christian Old Testament. Most of the texts are written with feathers and ink produced by carbon black and white pigment. The scrolls are predominately written in Hebrew, though some are Aramaic and Greek. The identity of the authors is unknown, but many theories abound. The most common is that the texts were written and hidden by the Essenes, a Jewish sect who headed a failed revolt against the Romans in 66 AD. Before the Roman army completed the massacre, the Essenes hid their scriptures in surrounding caves. The scrolls presented in the Union Station exhibit include texts from books of the Bible such as Genesis, Exodus, and Psalms among others. There is also a text outlining community rule, which deals with day-to-day statutes of the Qumran community. Visitors get a rare glimpse into the lives of these ancient people through artifacts such as writing implements, scroll jars, household items, and clothing. The Union Station display marks the first time the show visits the Midwest and is only one of seven stops it will make in the United States. The exhibit provides a rare opportunity to see a piece of history that has influenced millions of people around the world. The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit runs through May 13 at Union Station Kansas City located at 30 West Pershing Rd. in Kansas City. Tickets are $19.95, but group discounts are provided. Hours are 9:30 AM to 9 PM Tuesday through Thursday and 9:30 AM to 6 PM Friday through Monday. For tickets and more information, call 800-460-2020 or visit www.unionstation.org. —Amanda Dahling MissouriLife.com

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PRIVY TREASURES FEW PEOPLE would want to work alongside Jim Meiners, an avid hobbyist from St. Louis County, as he slowly uncovers artifacts hundreds of years old and carefully removes the surrounding dirt with his hands. It is not the work that makes people pause, but the location. Jim is standing inside an old outhouse, and he is below ground level. The wooden building disappeared long ago, but the treasure he is seeking lies buried five to ten feet deep in the earth, directly below where a wooden bench once served its purpose. Although nature has had a long time to work, the ground Jim is searching is still softer than the surrounding soil. What hasn’t decayed becomes a time capsule of the people who used the privy. Half of what Jim finds is glass or ceramic. Whiskey flasks and soda, medicine, and food bottles are the most common. “But I also have found a gun, a sword, knives, silver spoons, belt buckles, pipes, ceramic toys, and shoes,” he says. Based on his knowledge, Jim estimates that there might be as few as ten others in Missouri who enjoy this hobby. He has been digging about twenty privies a year for the past twenty years. “I keep all Missouri-related items, some of which date to the late 1700s,” Jim says. “Although a few bottles I have found are valued at more than one thousand dollars each, I only do it because it is a fun and fascinating hobby.” It takes careful research to find out exactly where to dig. Sometimes old maps point the way, and other times it’s a matter of common sense — in the corner of the lot, away from the house, downwind. But once Jim starts finding objects, adrenaline takes over, and he finds new energy. At the end of a dig, Jim knows a lot about the family that used the privy. “I can tell you their social status and if someone was sick,” Jim says. Some bottles will indicate what foods they enjoyed or what cosmetics the ladies used. Much of Jim’s privy treasure is on display in a large room at the City Museum in St. Louis. “My wife is glad my collection is in the City Museum,” he says. —Jim Winnerman

Long-forgotten toys in the form of porcelain doll heads are one of the treasures to be found in the earth beneath old outhouse sites. April 2007

3/5/07 10:45:46 AM

thecavestate

Cool Your Heels at the DEVIL’S ICEBOX B

ELOW THE SURFACE of Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, Devil’s Icebox and Connor’s Cave, two wild caves in their natural state, transport visitors back to the original spelunking trips that led to the caves’ discovery. A nature trail and a boardwalk lead sightseers to the natural rock bridge that gives the park its name. It was created when a portion of the cave’s ceiling collapsed after years of water drainage. While hiking in the area, visitors can view foundations of buildings and the stone dam on Devil’s Icebox Spring Branch. The stream flowing through the cave system emerged at Connor’s Spring and provided energy to area settlers throughout the 1800s. The town of Rockbridge Mills initially occupied the space, and a grist mill, paper mill, whiskey distillery, and several shops and homes plastered the land around the caves. Eventually, the trail leads to the cave entrance. As visitors descend the stairs, the temperature slowly changes to match that of the caves’ consistent fifty-six degrees year-round. Once visitors enter the cave entrance through the shallow stream, they discover Connor’s Cave to their left, downstream, and Devil’s Icebox to their right, upstream.

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Conner’s Cave

Flashlights, helmets, and good footwear are the only thing needed to investigate Connor’s Cave. Explorers travel through the cave by following and wading through its stream. Centuries-old formations and glistening, work-in-progress formations adorn the walls, ceiling, and floor. Connor’s Cave comes to an end about fifty-five yards later with a deep pool of water in an open room. From there visitors can begin the retreat back the way they came or explore further by climbing a nearvertical crevice, which opens to a smaller room roughly twenty-two yards above the main cave. For more experienced and adventurous cave explorers, Devil’s Icebox cave provides quite a challenge. At 6.25 miles, it is the seventh largest cave in the state and can only be entered through a supervised Wild Cave Tour. For a majority of the year, Devil’s Icebox remains closed to protect two types of endangered bats on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services threatened and endangered species list. The Wild Cave Tours are conducted from April 15 to May 16 and August 1 to October 8. The park offers four levels of Devil’s Icebox Wild Cave Tours, which vary in difficulty and requirement levels. The first level, difficulty level A, is a two- to four-hour trip, which does not include much strenuous activity or time in the water. The levels continue to increase in duration in the cave and difficulty of mobility. Difficulty levels A and B do not require previous experience, but C and D do, as well as previous completion of level B. Regardless of difficulty, all trips into Devil’s Icebox cave require physical strength and stamina. A general tour begins with a thirty- to forty- minute orientation detailing procedures and safety issues as well as distribution of necessary equipment. The park provides helmets, canoes, paddles, and life jackets; but participants must bring appropriate clothing, footwear, lights, and food. The first half mile of all of the tours travel through a water passage, which requires the participants to paddle through chest-deep waters in some places; lie flat in the canoe to maneuver through a fifteen-foot-long

COURTESY OF MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

DEVIL’S ICEBOX AND CONNOR’S CAVE NEAR COLUMBIA ■ By Amanda Dahling

MissouriLife.com

3/5/07 10:34:53 AM

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Devil’s Icebox

low spot, where water levels leave only a few feet of clearance; and carry canoes through several portages. The rest of advanced tours are spent wading through varying depths of cold water; traveling in open passages with slippery, muddy, and rocky surfaces; and crawling or climbing through narrow passageways. Once the tour makes its way back out of the cave, guests are required to clean their park equipment. C and D level tours last roughly eight to ten hours. The experience of journeying through a wild cave is like no other, but participants must be prepared and honest about their abilities. If they fail to have appropriate gear they will not be allowed to join the tour because of possible harm to themselves and other guests. The attractions of Devil’s Icebox cave and Connor’s Cave are many, but the wildlife ranks among the best. The cave system is second in the state behind Tumbling Creek Cave in Taney County when it comes to wildlife diversity. Among the common cave inhabitants, such as bats, insects, and seasonal dwellers, the Devil’s Icebox cave system has a unique inhabitant known as the pink planarian, a flatworm that lives in the caves’ stream. The cave system is the only known home in the world to the organism. Although countless explorers have traveled the caves’ nooks and crannies for centuries, the undomesticated nature of Devil’s Icebox and Connor’s Cave make visitors feel like they are discovering something for the first time. There are no lighted underground pathways, no rail cars, no bells and whistles — nothing comes between guests and the rugged beauty of nature. “People have to experience caves to appreciate them,” says Kathryn DiFoxfire, a Rock Bridge Memorial State Park cave tour guide. “Once people experience something like this, they are more inclined to protect it.” For more information, call 573-449-7402 or visit www.mostateparks.com/rockbridge.htm. MissouriLife.com

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Missouriʼs Picturesque Rivertown Turn-of-the-Century Homes Historic Business District Mississippi Riverfront Restaurants & Lodging Route 79 Mural City Antiques & Artists

www.louisiana-mo.com • 888.642.3800 April 2007

3/5/07 10:36:57 AM

The City of Boonville is one of the best kept secrets in the state of Missouri! With more than 350 homes on the National Register of Historic Places and seven historic districts, Boonville is a great place for families to experience the past. Thespian Hall is the oldest theater still operating west of the Allegheny Mountains. The MKT Railroad Bridge is an engineering marvel and well worth the drive to see it at sunset. Ride the Katy Trail as one of our many activities. The Isle of Capri Casino provides an escape from the ordinary with its ﬁne dining and tropical atmosphere. Experience Boonville’s past, present, and future with a great weekend getaway to one of our many overnight accommodations. Come Watch Us Grow! ��

www.boonvillemo.org

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MissouriLife.com

3/5/07 4:31:17 PM

madeinmissouri

Offal into OIL

CARTHAGE PLANT TURNS SLAUGHTERHOUSE WASTE INTO HEATING FUEL ■ By Dawn Klingensmith

COURTESY OF CHANGING WORLD TECHNOLOGIES

ITH ALL THE FRETTING over America’s dependence on foreign oil, it might astonish you to learn that oil can be made from turkey guts. And it’s being done right here in Missouri. Using technology called the Thermal Conversion Process (TCP), a plant operated by Renewable Environmental Solutions (RES) in Carthage is expediting the earth’s poky method of converting organic materials into fossil fuels. RES receives daily deliveries of bones, guts, feathers, grease, and sludge from a nearby Butterball processing plant and a few other slaughterhouses. These gruesome ingredients are poured into a giant hopper, where a pressurized pipe feeds them into a grinder. The soupy mix then proceeds through a pair of reactors, where extreme pressure and heat break down the molecular chains and recombine them to form a type of fuel called renewable diesel. Brian Appel, chief executive officer of Changing World Technologies, Inc., the company that co-founded RES as a joint venture with ConAgra Foods, which owns Butterball, says the plant produces twenty thousand gallons of oil each day. “It’s an enormous win-win situation for us and the community,” Appel adds. “We’re taking locally generated waste and converting it into energy needed by local companies.” Thermal conversion technology is also capable of converting junked car parts, municipal solid waste, and even raw sewage into oil, so it’s no surprise that scientists and the media are trumpeting it as a potential solution to America’s energy crisis. Alas, the company’s success hasn’t smelled sweet to folks in Carthage. When it went into full production in 2005, residents couldn’t help but notice a nasty smell emanating from the facility. “It’s a very distinctive odor. It’s really something you can’t describe,” says City Administrator Tom Short. “Some people were getting sick and vomiting.” The stench was so severe that the city attorney and the state attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit. RES upgraded its equipment to stifle the smell and, as part of last year’s settlement, paid one hundred thousand dollars in penalties. TCP is in its infancy, Appel says, “so we’ve had a steep learning curve and some unanticipated teething pains associated with developing this brand-new technology.” Short says RES has made a good-faith effort to clean up its act. The situation has improved significantly in the last two years, Short says, and if RES can do its thing without forcing residents to pinch their noses, he hopes it will succeed on a larger scale. “Clearly there’s a need for another source of fuel,” he says, “so we’re not so dependent on foreign oil.” The plant has brought sixty to seventy new jobs to Carthage and a substantial hike in the city’s property-tax revenues. The plant also sells high-grade fertilizers, useful to Missouri farmers, made from minerals that are TCP byproducts. MissouriLife.com

APRIL 07 Made.indd 21

★

From top: Renewable Environmental Services installed more than two million dollars in equipment, including this ozone scrubber consisting of a tall stack and a blower, to alleviate odors. The scrubber forces air emissions through packing material treated with an odor-killing chemical.

April 2007

3/5/07 12:11:18 PM

bestofmissouri

Tiptoe Through the T NATURALISTS GIVE THEIR PICKS ON TOP PLACES TO VIEW MISSOURI’S SPRING WILDFLOWERS By Sylvia Forbes

Butterweed at Shaw Nature Reserve

LAST OLD GROWTH WOODLAND

Trice-Dedman Memorial Woods East of Plattsburg, along Route 116 Doug Ladd has been traipsing the state for more than twenty years, scouting for some of the best examples of native habitats still existing in Missouri. It’s hard to find a trail he hasn’t hiked or a woodland he hasn’t explored. He works as director of conservation science for the Missouri chapter of The Nature Conservancy, an organization which has protected more than 138,000 acres in the state, including some of the best examples of Missouri’s natural communities. Doug suggests visiting Trice-Dedman Memorial Woods, located 22

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north of Kansas City. “This site is only sixty acres, but it’s the last highquality old-growth woodland close to Kansas City. There’s a nature trail with easy access, and it provides a pleasant walk. This beautiful white oak forest has impressive carpets of wildflowers — impressive both for their diversity and overall abundance. It’s the classical cohort of a woodland in spring. Visitors will find all kinds of violets, toothwort, trillium, spring beauties, Dutchman’s-breeches, May apples, and many other woodland wildflowers. If you’re a diligent searcher, you might also find the showy orchid.” Other plants to look for include dwarf larkspur, early horse gentian, wild ginger, yellow honeysuckle, and green dragon, among the two hundred species found here.

COURTESY OF MARYANN KRESSIG

OTHER NATURE IS KIND TO MISSOURI. Each spring, she decorates the state’s hillsides, woodlands, prairies, and glades with gleeful abandon and sprinkles color here and there, brightening up the landscape after the dull grays of winter. She might carpet the woods with delicate, pale pink spring beauties, line a creek bank with purple-flowered wild sweet william, or embellish a glade with the bold yellow puccoon. She uses her talents in a seemingly random fashion by splashing a painter’s palette of colors on rocky slopes, along creeks, and in the deepest valleys. The state’s most knowledgeable botanists and naturalists share twenty-nine favorite spots for viewing Missouri’s glorious springtime.

MissouriLife.com

3/6/07 2:24:40 PM

e TRILLIUM TRAIL TO A LOOKOUT

Glade Top Trail, Mark Twain National Forest Southwest Missouri, outside Chadwick There’s no better expert on Missouri’s plant habitats than Paul Nelson, previous chief of the natural history program at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, author of the book Terrestrial Natural Communities of Missouri, and most recently, forest ecologist for the Mark Twain National Forest. Paul recommends the Glade Top Trail in southwest Missouri. “This is a very pretty site,” Paul says. “The trail winds several miles to Caney Mountain Lookout and gives an outstanding view of the surrounding dolomite glades.” Some of the wildflowers on display in spring are the Missouri evening primrose, cream wild indigo, false garlic, pale purple coneflower, bird’s-foot violet, blue false indigo, and orange puccoon. “Also look for calamint, an aromatic minty-smelling plant, and penstemon. The species here is deep purple, with snapdragon-like flowers,” Paul adds.

White trillium

Leather flower has fuzzy leaves, leathery petals, and dangling, cupshaped flowers, which range in color from blue to violet to cream. Valley View Glade is also one of the top picks of Doug Ladd, who also suggests nearby Victoria Glade Preserve. “There’s a beautiful display of mid- to late-spring wildflowers. You can see massive color across the whole area. There’s lots of Indian paintbrush, about equally divided between the pure yellow and the orange forms.”

SPECTACULAR SPRING PRAIRIE

Spring beauty

Schwartz Prairie St. Clair County, Northeast of El Dorado Springs Stan Parrish knows a lot about prairies. As chair of the prairie management committee for the Missouri Prairie Foundation, he is in charge of restoring and managing the dozen prairies that the foundation owns. “The previous management of the prairie often determines how good the wildflower display will be. If you go to prairies that have been burned in the previous dormant season, they are much more spectacular,” he says. Stan recommends Schwartz Prairie in southwest Missouri as a great place to visit this spring. “Our plan is to burn the south third of the prairie, which will green up by mid-April and should be spectacular by mid-May. The prairies in this area are at their best from mid-May through midJuly,” Stan says. Some of the plants he suggests looking for are the

WWW.HENRYDOMKE.COM

UNUSUAL SHOWY SPRING DISPLAY

Valley View Glade Jefferson County, south of St. Louis, near Hillsboro When George Yatskievych speaks about plants, people listen. He’s the author of the revised Flora of Missouri and a curator at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. “A place I really like is Valley View Glade,” George says. “This large dolomite glade complex has a progression of bloom. People can see some of Missouri’s more unusual spring plants here — you don’t get much woodland stuff at all. In spring, you can see showy displays of Missouri evening primrose, dogtooth violets, and puccoon. Later in spring, there’s a nice display of glade coneflower. There’s also a big population of Fremont’s leather flower, a very unusual plant.” MissouriLife.com

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Blue false indigo

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bestofmissouri wild petunia, and selenia, a showy type of mustard growing low to the ground.” George Yatskievych agrees, “There are lots of neat plants if you’re willing to walk around and look. Some years, there’s an incredible spring display of lanceleaf coreopsis.”

ORCHIDS IN THE WILD

pale purple coneflower, coreopsis, blue false indigo, lousewort, longbracted wild indigo, New Jersey tea, and sensitive briar. Stan also recommends La Petite Gemme Prairie, a small, but highquality prairie that runs along the old Frisco railroad line, now called the Frisco Highline Trail, which was converted into a hiking and biking trail. Ozark Greenways has taken on the maintenance of this trail, which runs thirty-five miles from Springfield to Bolivar. Plants that can be found on this prairie include wild potato, prairie mimosa, and shooting stars, among others. The area has nine species of mosses.

A RARE CHERT GLADE

Wildcat Glade Joplin Construction is currently underway on Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, which will be the first Audubon center established in Missouri. Chris Pistole, the center’s education director, explains that in addition to the visitor center, the project will include three miles of trails and five outdoor learning stations, along with wildlife viewing platforms. Visitors will be able to explore the rare chert glade, as well as learn about Ozark stream habitats. “Spring comes in bursts of color,” Chris says. “Some of the more unusual plants that visitors will find include widow’s cross, yellow stonecrop, and large-flowered coreopsis. The glades are also a great place to inspect a prickly pear cactus.” Paul Nelson recommends Wildcat Glade, too, for wildflower displays. “There are carpets of yellow in late April,” Paul says. “Some plants to look for are fame Indian paintbrush flower, Venus’ looking-glass, 24

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RARE FLOWERING TREE

Roaring River State Park Southwest of Springfield in Barry County Tim Smith, botanist with the MDC, has an impressive amount of floristic knowledge gained from many years of surveying plants on MDC lands throughout the state. He recommends Roaring River State Park in the extreme southwest corner of the state for finding good displays of woodland and glade wildflowers. Tim recommends taking a trail along the river where in early spring hikers will find dogtooth violets covering the slopes. Other spring wildflowers to see include Jacob’s ladder, sand phlox, wild onions, wood sorrel, rose verbena, and shooting stars. One uncommon tree that flowers this time of year is yellowwood. Found only in this part of the state along streams, yellowwood has showy clusters of white flowers. Strangely enough, the naturalist on duty at the park is also named Tim Smith. This Smith also recommends Roaring River as a great place to spend time in spring. “Other spring plants to view include spring beauties, Dutchman’s-breeches, trout lilies, trillium, the harbinger of spring, Jacob’s ladder, blue-eyed Marys, Johnny jump-ups, bellwort, dwarf larkspur, columbines, and wood betony. In late spring, look for Indian paintbrush, Missouri evening primrose, and tickseed coreopsis.” Smith explains that many come to the park to fish and to see the deep blue Roaring River Spring, which originates at the base of a ninety-foot bluff and puts out more than twenty million gallons of water per day.

WWW.HENRYDOMKE.COM

Prickly pear

Pickle Springs Natural Area Ste. Genevieve County, near Hawn State Park Bill Summers, author of Missouri Orchids, has hiked through some of the most pristine wilderness in the state in search of the thirty-four species of orchids found in Missouri. Summers recommends heading to Pickle Springs, which is owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). The area has a two-mile hiking trail, which winds past canyons, over creeks, and along sandstone bluffs, forests, and glades. “In addition to some of the typical spring flowers, such as toothwort, Dutchman’s-breeches, trout lilies, spiderwort, larkspur, and buttercups, you can find some uncommon ferns, such as the hayscented fern and cinnamon fern, and several orchids,” Summers says. “The area is known for wild azaleas. In steep areas, you can find the early saxifrage. On upland ridges, you’ll see shadbush, wild gooseberry, and the low-bush blueberry.”

MissouriLife.com

3/6/07 2:12:19 PM

BEAUTY IN THE BOTTOMS

BOTTOM: GLENN CURCIO; TOP: WWW.HENRYDOMKE.COM

Rock Bridge Memorial State Park Columbia Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, located at the southern edge of Columbia, has more than fifteen miles of hiking trails winding through 2,273 acres of woodland, grassland, bottomland, and stream-side habitat. The park is especially known for its karst topography, in which limestone rock has been partially dissolved by water over thousands of years to create many sinkholes, caves, and rock bridges. A boardwalk leads to the park’s main attraction, the rock bridge, beneath which is the Devil’s Icebox cave (see story page 18), a double sinkhole with an underground stream flowing out of the cave. Roxie Campbell, park naturalist at Rock Bridge, suggests the Spring Brook Trail, which follows Rock Bridge Creek. “In the bottoms are blueeyed Mary, wild sweet william, pale corydalis, and Jacob’s ladder,

May apple

among others. If you follow the trail, after a fourth of a mile you cross a footbridge, then head up a hillside. In this area are usually lots of jack-in-the-pulpit, trillium, bellwort, bloodroot, and wild geraniums. About a fourth-mile further, near a rocky outcrop, is a prime place to see the harbinger of spring,” she says. Roxie also recommends hiking in the Gans Creek Wild Area, which is located across the highway from the main section of the park. This area of the park includes high bluffs overlooking Gans

Creek, with small glade openings along the bluff and moist shaded hillsides. “This is a more remote part of the park, so there are not as many hikers,” Roxie says. “Following the Shooting Star Trail, hikers will eventually come to a bluff overlooking the creek. This is an excellent place to find lots of shooting stars, as well as yellow star grass, bird’s-foot violets, and wild hyacinth. If they continue on the trail down to the creek, they’ll find trillium, bloodroot, jack-inthe-pulpit, and marsh buttercups. If hikers choose the Coyote Bluff Trail instead, they’ll find such things as golden Alexanders, leadplant, purple prairie clover, yellow foxglove, and scurfy pea.”

OTHER TOP CHOICES Our wildflower experts had many additional picks for great wildflower displays. For woodlands, they recommended Three Creeks State Forest, the Ridge Runner Trail at Noblett Lake Recreation Area, and any of the woodlands along the Current River. For springs, some favorites were Greer Spring and the fens at St. Francis State Park. Alternate choices for viewing glades included the dolomite glades at Meramec State Park, Graham Cave State Park, and Lodge Glade at Ha Ha Tonka State Park, Additional picks for colorful prairies included Coyne Prairie, Penn-Sylvania Prairie, Golden Prairie, Paintbrush Prairie, and Pawhuska Prairie. Both Doug and George suggest Prairie State Park, not only for the diversity of plants found on this large prairie, but also because their visitor center offers many naturalist programs to help people get acquainted with prairies. All mentioned that the state parks are some of the most accessible places to view wildflowers, and many have wonderful displays. A few favorites were Cuivre River, Babbler, Hahn, and Washington State Parks. Just like fishermen have their favorite fishing holes and mushroom hunters have a bountiful morel collecting spot, naturalists have their choice location for viewing spring flora. With dozens of places in all parts of the state, head outdoors this spring and find a spectacular wild spot to smell the Missouri evening primrose.

Visit MissouriLife.com for a listing of wildflower hikes scheduled for April and May and a listing of spring flower festivals.

Wild sweet william in Emmenegger Park in Kirkwood

MissouriLife.com

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3/1/07 9:37:20 AM

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Main Street USA

HEY CORNERED ME. We were churning up the Tennessee River toward Chattanooga on an old paddle wheel steamboat, four hundred travel agents and me. A couple from North Carolina couldn’t resist and asked, “Why would anybody go to Missouri?” My answer was a question. “Do you book anybody to Orlando?” “Hundreds of families,” they said. “And Disneyland, too?” I replied. “Sure!” They answered. “Well, after they’ve seen Main Street at the Disney parks, send ’em to Marceline to see the real thing,” I said. They looked puzzled. After all, on the world stage, Marceline’s main street remains a bestkept secret. That’s understandable. A tiny Midwest town, founded with little fanfare by the Santa Fe Town and Land Company, can’t compete with the big budgets and bright lights of Broadway, Bourbon Street, and Hollywood Boulevard. Nevertheless, perhaps the most replicated street in the world runs through the middle of this small northern Missouri town. My car expressed a willingness to lay tread down that famous thoroughfare. So we jumped on a storybook highway that bisects Missouri from Lake Thunderbird to Bull Shoals, and headed north. Starting in the tiny Lake of the Ozarks town of Hurricane Deck, we motored up Route 5 toward Marceline. Delightful diversions beckoned at every turn. We caromed through the Lake of the Ozarks and banked left at Tipton’s eight ball, rolled past Ravenswood plantation and Boonville’s stately Thespian Hall. New Franklin’s Trail Days offered the chance to rub elbows with the ghost of Kit Carson. Resuming speed, we rolled past the historic homes atop the Glasgow hills, overlooking the beautiful Missouri River valley, and promised the statue of General Sterling Price that we would return to explore 28

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his Keytesville heritage when we had more time. But my motor wouldn’t rest until we arrived in Marceline. Flash back to 1955. Walt Disney had long since moved away from Marceline and made his mouse print in the world. But a half-century hadn’t dulled Disney’s memo- Nobody knows Missouri like John ries of the happiest time of his Robinson, Missouri’s former Director of Tourism. John is dedicated to driving life. That’s why Marceline’s every mile of state-maintained highways. main street inspired Walt’s This makes him King of the Road. To blueprint for Main Street at date, he has covered 3,005 state roads, Disneyland when the park with 896 to go. As he drives each road, he came to life. For sure, the marks it off on his map, which truly has become his treasure. Magic Kingdom’s Main Street was a communal effort among Walt and his art directors with several imagineers providing input. But in the end, Walt described the essence of his Main Street vision: “Main Street is everyone’s hometown — the heart line of America. To tell the truth, more things of importance happened to me in Marceline than have happened since, or are likely to in the future.” Even with Hollywood success, Disney remained loyal to his roots. “I’m glad I’m a small-town boy,” he said, “and I’m glad Marceline was my town.” So Main Street in Disneyland maintains that Marceline feel. Ditto for Disney World and the other magic kingdoms from Paris to Tokyo. Walt Disney wanted it that way. Marceline’s main drag wasn’t always known as Main Street. For most of its history, street signs carried its given name, Kansas Avenue.

COURTESY OF KAYE MALINS

MARCELINE INSPIRED WALT DISNEY'S IMAGINATION ■ By John Robinson

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kingoftheroad

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And the Missouri state highway map calls it Route JJ. But to anybody who sees it now, it’s Main Street USA, right down to the black wrought-iron street signs sprouting mouse ears. It’s nearly impossible to travel more than one block in Marceline without opening a page in the storybook of young Walt’s life. The icons pop up everywhere, testament to Walt Disney’s influence on the town and the town’s influence on Walt. Even the U.S. Post Office changed its name in 2004 to the Walt Disney Post Office. On the first day of issue back in 1968, the Walt Disney commemorative stamp carried the Marceline postmark. Local residents liven when they tell stories about the young imagineer. When he wasn’t hanging out downtown under the Coca-Cola sign, he might be found in his backyard engaged in what he later called belly botany, an up-close study of ants and aphids, crickets and critters. When Walt came back home in 1956 for the dedication of the Walt Disney Pool and Park Complex, he arrived by rail on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe line. He always returned to Marceline by train. The legendary Santa Fe Chief brought him all the way from Southern California to Marceline, and the trip took the better part of two days. He returned by train again in 1960 for the dedication of the Walt Disney Elementary School. Imagine the inspiration of learning in an environment where the namesake has provided one-of-a-kind cartoon murals in the foyer and in the gym. Ever focused on fun, Walt donated the school’s playground equipment and a flagpole that stood at the 1960 Olympic Winter Games in Squaw Valley. On that pole, the Disney flag flies in the only spot outside a Disney-owned property. Trains played more than a major role in young Walt’s wonder years. It doesn’t get any better for an eight-year-old kid than growing up around trains, and Marceline was a locomotive gold mine with

GREG WOOD

From top: Marceline’s main street and the Zurcher building’s distinctive style served as the model for Main Street at Disneyland and at other properties. The Santa Fe depot now serves as the Walt Disney Hometown Museum.

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its roundhouse and round-the-clock train traffic. Even today, they say a train goes through Marceline about every twenty minutes. That’s why years later a steam locomotive and coal tender at Marceline bear the name the Santa Fe and Disneyland Express. The engine sits as a centerpiece in E.P. Ripley Park. Likewise, one of Disneyland’s first locomotives carried the name E.P. Ripley. Ripley Park features another icon you’d recognize at Disneyland: the gazebo. On every trip back home, Walt would depart the train and walk through Marceline’s Santa Fe depot, built back in 1913. In the decades after Disney’s death in 1966, the building fell into disrepair. 30

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But the townspeople brought it back to life as the Walt Disney Hometown Museum. The building has been lovingly refurbished and furnished with hundreds of artifacts. You come face-to-face with hundreds of letters penned by Disney, with his unmistakable signature. That same signature crowns every episode of the Wonderful World of Color. There’s much more, from a great collection of railroad lanterns and photos to the original cars from the Midget Autopia kiddie car ride. It’s the only ride Walt allowed to leave a Disney property and operate elsewhere. The Main Street USA Charitable Foundation has procured more Disney-related artifacts than the current museum space can possibly display, according to Kaye Malins, one of the major driving forces in Marceline’s Disney resurgence. She talks about her recent trip to Portland, Oregon, where she packed a Ryder truck with more than three thousand Disney-related items. She insured the contents for the drive back to Missouri and took out a Ryder policy for good measure. The items not currently on display are safely stored in Kansas City. Kaye is a walking encyclopedia on Walt’s Marceline years. She

COURTESY OF KAYE MALINS

kingoftheroad

MissouriLife.com

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COURTESY OF KAYE MALINS

From left: Visitors to the replica of the barn where Walt got his start in show business leave notes of inspiration and gratitude on the wooden beams. Opposite from top: Walt Disney (with walking stick) and his brother Roy revisit the Dreaming Tree, where as a boy, Walt’s imagination ran free.

literally dreams Disney, living in his boyhood home on the outskirts of town. That’s a Disney tale in itself. Her father, Rush Johnson, became a business associate of Walt Disney. She tells the story about Disney’s 1956 trip back to Marceline. Walt asked her father about the current owner of the old Disney farmhouse and if that owner would be willing to sell. They agreed that her father should initiate efforts to buy the property back, so the two could eventually establish a living history farm. Although both partners are gone, Kaye looks forward to the day that their dream is realized and the property becomes a living history farm. Begin at the epicenter of Walt’s inspiration. The Dreaming Tree still stands unbowed in the fields behind the Disney home. One of the oldest cottonwood trees standing in Missouri, it was mature even when Walt was a boy. The tree has withstood two lightning strikes. Rather than killing the tree, the lightning seems to have added power to the inspiration that flows from its branches. Not fifty paces from the Dreaming Tree is the barn. In typical Disney style, the townspeople raised a new barn in 2001 to replicate the structure where eight-year-old Walt got his showbiz start. It’s a faithful replica, with a swayback roof — like the one that dedicated Mouseketeers remember on TV — a shrine on the spot where his imagination began. From all over the world, pilgrims visit the barn, scribbling thousands of notes, verses, and signatures in every language on the rough-hewn wood walls and beams. The original barn was the venue for Walt’s first showbiz production, a circus. He charged neighborhood kids a dime apiece to see barnyard animals dressed in toddlers’ clothes. Most of his fellow MissouriLife.com

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eight-year-olds left the show less than satisfied. Locals testify that Walt’s mother made him return the proceeds to his disgruntled patrons. Therein he learned his first valuable showbiz lesson: When promoting a show, under-promise and over-deliver. In retrospect, the attendees probably consider the admission price a bargain for the memories those thin dimes bought the lucky crowd. When the show was over, Walt would hike up the hill to the family’s farmhouse. You can see it at the edge of Route 5, painted deep red. And if you come during the occasional open house, you just might get to see his bedroom, preserved the way it was when Walt and brother Roy slept there. It was an easy quarter-mile bike ride from young Walt’s home to his downtown hangout under the Coca-Cola sign off Kansas Street. From there, he observed the bustle of Main Street commerce and kept watch over the trains. His fertile mind absorbed these smalltown images and translated them into his later works. Now on Main Street, the Disney mystique has come full circle. Disney-esque art hangs everywhere in Marceline, from City Hall to the town’s only motel. Movie buffs can’t miss the legendary Uptown Theatre. It’s home to two Disney world premieres: The Great Locomotive Chase in 1956 and The Spirit of Mickey in 1998. The theater’s interior is a walk back in time to its origin in 1930. The stage still features the famous clock to which Walt would point and say, “Time for the show!” In today’s era of megaplex theaters, Walt would applaud the old Uptown Theatre’s original antique film projector that still shows first-run feature films. If the comfortable theater seats make you identify with Sleepy from the Seven Dwarfs, the Uptown Theatre Bed and Breakfast awaits, right upstairs from the theater. And the suites are immaculately dolled up in Disney themes ranging from trains to Mickey. Try the Santa Fe Suite or the Cartoon Suite. Cartoons are central to Disney, and to Marceline. Famous cartoon artists and their fans flock to Marceline every September for Toonfest, a weekend celebration of the medium Walt loved best. These world-class artists leave their marks throughout the town and prove that in Marceline, the show still goes on. April 2007

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MISSOURI GENERALS

TRACES OF THEIR LEGACY D O T T H E S TAT E ’ S L A N D S C A P E BY JAMES F. MUENCH

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MISSOURI OFFERS A WEALTH OF MILITARY history if you know where to look. According to the Dictionary of Missouri Biography, there are roughly thirty generals with a strong connection to the state, a majority of them with connections to the Civil War era. William T. Sherman, John Pope, Enoch Crowder, and Maxwell Taylor are four prominent names worthy of mention, but the most famous five generals related to Missouri are Alexander “Will” Doniphan, Sterling Price, Ulysses S. Grant, John J. Pershing, and Omar N. Bradley.

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JAMES F. MUENCH; STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

WILL DONIPHAN ONE OF MISSOURI’S LEAST-REMEMBERED GENERALS IN the public mind today is Will Doniphan, but in his era, he was a superstar. Once a state representative, he might have been a Missouri senator or governor if border warfare and the Civil War hadn’t torn apart his Whig Party. Doniphan is best known for leading the First Missouri Volunteers to victory in the Mexican War. He marched his ragtag band on a 5,500mile trek. On the way, he read about how to be a general from books on infantry tactics he borrowed from his commander. A quick study, he defeated larger Mexican forces in two major battles at El Brazito and Sacramento and occupied the cities of Santa Fe, El Paso del Norte, and Chihuahua. While parked in Santa Fe for a month, this lawyer from Liberty led a committee that created a new government for the New Mexico Territory by melding legal concepts from Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. law to create a new code. When the Civil War came to Missouri, Doniphan was a firm supporter of the Union, though he tried to remain neutral and find a middle ground between the strong positions on both sides of the conflict. He refused to choose sides, and in an era of such strong feelings, those who remained neutral became politically irrelevant. A good place to begin exploring Doniphan’s life is Liberty, northwest of Kansas City, where he made his reputation as a lawyer. There is a downtown park dedicated to Doniphan one block north of the town square. His 1830s home was located on the south side of the park. Doniphan’s name lives today in the annals of the Mormon Church because he first gained notoriety as the attorney for the Mormon leadership. When armed conflict broke out between the Mormons and their neighbors in 1838 in western Missouri, Doniphan was a brigadier general in the state militia. After a kangaroo court-martial of Mormon leader Joseph Smith and six others, Doniphan’s commanding general, Samuel D. Lucas, ordered Doniphan to execute them. Publicly refusing the order, Doniphan stalked out of camp at the head of his troops and MissouriLife.com

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From top: Joseph Smith and five Mormon leaders were imprisoned in the Liberty Jail, now a shrine operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, during the winter of 1838-39; Will Doniphan refused the order to execute them. The Liberty Jail has exhibits like this one of Joseph Smith writing a letter.

dared Lucas to charge him with insubordination. Lucas blinked, the captives were saved, and Doniphan became a hero to the Mormons. Another trace of this general can be found in the name of the southern Missouri town of Doniphan, the seat of Ripley County, named for him in 1847. But perhaps the most fitting tribute to Missouri’s lawyer general is a bronze statue of him on the west side of the Ray County courthouse in Richmond, where he spent his final years until his death in 1887. A GENTLEMAN FARMER FROM THE KEYTESVILLE AREA, Sterling Price also found himself in the middle of the Mormon War of 1838. Although this favorite son of Missouri thought many of the accusations against the Mormons were unfounded, he nevertheless supported Governor Lilburn Boggs when he called up the state militia. Price commanded a militia unit from Chariton County that answered to General John B. Clark, who had received the governor’s execution order. After Doniphan’s public refusal to carry out their execution, Price took the Mormon prisoners to trial in Independence . After the Mormon War, Price served in the Missouri legislature as a Democrat until 1844, when he was elected to the U.S. Congress. He resigned his seat in 1846 to accept a commission to lead the Second Missouri Volunteers in the Mexican War. Price’s unit occupied Santa Fe when Doniphan’s First Missouri Volunteers headed south into Mexico. After quelling a bloody rebellion in Taos, he later followed Doniphan’s footprints to Chihuahua after Doniphan had sailed home. April 2007

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Price defeated the Mexican army in battle at Santa Cruz de Rosales, and his exploits helped gain him election to governor of Missouri in 1852. After his constitutionally limited single term ended in 1857, Price served the state as its bank commissioner until 1861, when he was elected presiding officer of the Missouri State Convention, tasked with deciding whether the state would secede from the Union. The convention voted against secession but also stated its opposition to the Federal government keeping Missouri in the Union by force, a stance with which Price agreed. Then Captain Nathaniel Lyon used just the sort of military force that Price opposed. Lyon and Price’s political rival, Congressman Frank Blair, led the mostly German Home Guards to surround and disarm the state militia troops meeting at Camp Jackson in St. Louis and marched them out of town. Shortly afterward, Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson named Price commander of the state militia, and he and Price parlayed with Lyon and Blair on June 11, 1861, in St. Louis to see if peace would be possible. Although versions differ regarding what happened at the meeting, it is commonly agreed that Lyon stood up, claimed something to the effect that it would be better if all Missourians were to die than to defy the Federal government, and stomped out of the room. His statement amounted to a declaration of war. Price and Jackson headed back to Jefferson City by railroad, and they burned the bridges and cut the telegraph wires behind them. Lyon followed quickly by boat and occupied the capital, barely missing the governor, state officials, and secessionist legislators who fled shortly before the Union troops arrived. Lyon routed some of Price’s raw state militia troops in an engagement at Boonville (see story, page 48), so Price established his base in southwest Missouri, trained the men, obtained supplies, and waited for Governor Jackson to arrive with more men. Colonel Franz Sigel intercepted Jackson’s 6,000-man force with 1,100 Federals northwest of 34

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STERLING PRICE

Carthage on July 5. After Jackson defeated Sigel’s force, Jackson linked up with Price. Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch, commander of the Confederate Western Army in Arkansas, joined them with four thousand men. Price planned to attack Springfield with their combined force of twelve thousand. Joining Sigel at Springfield, Lyon decided to attack Price at Wilson’s Creek southwest of the city on August 10. Lyon split his six-thousandman force, hoping to sandwich Price’s encampment on the creek bank between his Federals attacking from the northwest, over a knoll that would come to be known as Bloody Hill, and Sigel pushing from the southeast. Although surprised by Lyon’s bold maneuver, Price’s men rallied and defeated the Federals, killing Lyon and routing Sigel’s brigade. The Union troops retreated all the way back to Rolla. Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Park offers a self-guided driving tour around the battlefield with some walking involved. With McCulloch unwilling to follow Price in pursuit of the remnants of Lyon’s army, Price decided to take his militia north instead, hoping to pick up recruits in the Little Dixie area along the Missouri River. On September 20, 1861, at Lexington, he defeated Federal troops under Colonel James A. Mulligan using wet hemp bales as cover. Price’s Missouri State Guard troops surrounded Mulligan’s position at the town’s Masonic College and forced him to surrender after a three-day siege. Visitors can take a walking tour of the battlefield at the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site and can tour the Anderson House, which was used as a hospital during the hostilities. Threatened by a larger Union army under General John C. Fremont, Price was forced to return to southwest Missouri and retreat into Arkansas, where he and McCulloch were placed under the command of General Earl Van Dorn. They lost a major battle March 7 and 8, 1862, at Pea Ridge in northern Arkansas, a defeat that kept Missouri in the Union. Promoted to major general in the Confederate army, Price was transferred east of the Mississippi, where he fought in several engagements. Eventually Price transferred back to Arkansas, and when his commander fell ill, he decided to mount an invasion of his home state in September 1864. Entering southeast Missouri on September 26, Price chose to attack a Union force under Thomas Ewing holding Fort Davidson at Pilot Knob.

JAMES F. MUENCH; STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

Oliver Anderson’s mansion at the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site served as a hospital and changed hands several times during the battle. Soldiers are said to have died in hand-to-hand combat in its front foyer.

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Visitors can walk the earthen fort’s battlements and tour the visitors’ center at the Fort Davidson State Historic Site. Although the Union troops were forced to evacuate the fort in the middle of the night, allowing Price’s troops to capture it and technically win the battle, Price’s army was so weakened by the casualties received in taking the fort that he abandoned plans to attack St. Louis and Jefferson City. Instead, Price headed west, fighting engagements at Independence and at the Battle of Westport, in what is now part of Kansas City, where he was soundly defeated. History fans can drive and walk an extensive walking tour, designed by the Westport Historical Society, of the area. After the defeat at Westport, the remnants of Price’s army retreated to Texas. A few months later, Robert E. Lee surrendered in the East and marked the Confederacy’s doom. Price then fled to Mexico rather than surrender and lived there until, gravely ill, he returned to St. Louis in 1866 and died there a year later. At the General Sterling Price Museum in Keytesville, open from 2 pm to 5 pm Mondays through Fridays during the summer, you can see furnishings reputedly owned by Price at Val Verde, his nearby home, which no longer exists. Also, make sure to visit Price’s statue, erected in 1915 in the city park and rededicated in 1990. Keytesville celebrates its annual General Sterling Price Days the second weekend in September. Price is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

ALTHOUGH ULYSSES S. GRANT GREW UP IN OHIO, HE spent many of his happiest years in the 1840s and 1850s in his adopted state of Missouri. Before the start of the Civil War, he worked for his father for about a year in Galena, Illinois, and in 1861 returned to Missouri in command of a Union regiment. After graduating from West Point in 1843, Grant began his military career stationed at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, along with his West Point roommate, Fred Dent, who took him to the Dent family farm outside St. Louis whenever they had free time. The grounds of this historic military post now house Missouri National Guard facilities, the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, and Jefferson Barracks County Park, home to several notable historic buildings. At Dent’s home, Grant met Dent’s sister, Julia, and sparks flew between them. He and Julia married in 1848 and moved into a log cabin built by Grant on land given to the couple by his father-in-law upon his return from the Mexican War, where he served with distinction.

ULYSSES S. GRANT The Grants christened the cabin “Hardscrabble,” and it can be seen on the tour of Grant’s Farm, which is now a tourist attraction owned by Anheuser-Busch. Grant’s Farm is located on Gravois Road in southwest St. Louis County. Across the street lies White Haven, the historic home that anchored the Dent and Grant estate. Now a national historic site, the home was purchased by the National Park Service in the early 1990s. A new visitor center opened at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site two years ago, and a new museum dedicated to the general and president is set to open in the Grants’ former stable building in June. Ulysses S. Grant was an ordinary man who failed at almost every career he tried except military leadership, and success in that endeavor led to the White House. Although known for its scandals, one of which, the Whiskey Ring, involved his St. Louis friends and family, Grant’s presidency laid the foundations for modern America. After getting less than satisfactory results from his other Union generals, President Abraham Lincoln turned to Grant because he seemed capable of using the tools given him to win the war. He was willing to listen to others brighter than himself to help develop the grand strategy needed to win the war. Grant’s first Civil War command as a colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Volunteers brought him to Mexico, Missouri, to guard the Northern Missouri Railroad. While posted there, he fought a small engagement at the Monroe Seminary in Monroe City, before receiving his promotion to general and transferring to Ironton in August 1861 near what would later become Fort Davidson. General John C. Fremont ordered him first to Jefferson City to build defenses and then to Cape Girardeau, the post from which he attacked a rebel camp at Belmont with mixed results.

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Grant’s home, White Haven, was named for previous Dent family homes in England and Maryland. The Paris-green color of the home was popular in the 1870s. The stone building to the left is the summer kitchen. This is the back of the house. MissouriLife.com

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Yet, Grant’s later triumphs gained him many accolades. For instance, the northern Missouri town of Grant City was named in his honor. He turned near disaster into a bloody victory at Shiloh in April 1862; captured the vital town of Corinth, Tennessee, a month later; and then worked to secure Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, in a campaign and siege that lasted nearly six months. In March 1864, after Grant defeated the Confederates at Chattanooga, President Lincoln appointed him general-in-chief of the Union armies, and Grant slowly squeezed Robert E. Lee’s army until it surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. After two terms as president, he toured the world with his wife. Upon his return, he tried his luck as a financier on Wall Street with his son, but the Grants lost their fortune to a swindler. In the end, Grant would fight one last battle against throat cancer while struggling valiantly to complete his memoirs to aid the family finances. He completed writing it only a few days before his death in 1885.

JOHN PERSHING WAS TOUGH, BRAVE, AND PRACTICAL. As a teacher, he once fist-fought a parent who threatened him with a revolver and beat the man so badly he needed medical attention. Likewise, as a young officer, he cold-cocked a rebellious trooper into submission and rounded up a trio of desperate bandits by kicking in the door of their hideout, pistols blazing. He defeated rampaging Moro tribesmen in the Philippines, attacked the Spanish in Cuba under deadly fire on the San Juan heights, and chased the elusive Pancho Villa around northern Mexico. While tormented by the loss of most of his family in a house fire, Pershing stoically molded the first modern American army, creating the organizational model and training the next generation of generals that would win World War II. Two of Pershing’s prominent protégés were General George C. Marshall, who became known as “the wizard” in World War I and who brought what he learned from Pershing to bear as the chief architect of victory in World War II, and General George S. Patton, the legendary tank commander who cracked the siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. In 1917, however, Pershing arrived in France with the fledgling American Expeditionary Force and his iron jaw to lead it, the proper tool at the right time to win the Great War for the Allies. Pershing’s refusal to allow the majority of his men to be integrated

JOHN PERSHING into the British and French armies, his insistence on the formation of an American army with its own training facilities, and his adamant stand for the employment of continuous troop maneuvering rather than a continuation of the static, trench warfare used by the French and British were all key reasons for the Allied victory a year later. The best place to learn more about Pershing is his boyhood home in Laclede, which is a state historic site. As Highway 36 is transformed into a four-lane thoroughfare across the state and perhaps becomes part of the future Interstate 72, this hidden gem might become even more of an attraction. To reach the historic site, which lies one block north of the Laclede town square, follow the signs from Highway 36, turning north on Route 5 and then east on Dart Road.

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At the top of the Liberty Memorial, visitors get a bird’s-eye view of downtown Kansas City. John Pershing would have crossed the Locust Creek covered bridge on his way to Trenton to take the West Point exam. MissouriLife.com

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JAMES F. MUENCH; STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

Acquired by the state in 1952, the monument includes a statue of “Black Jack” Pershing, a small museum dedicated to the general in the Prairie Mound School, and his childhood home, which is open for tours from 10 am to 4 pm Monday through Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 pm. Now designated as an official state welcome center, the site stays open an hour later on Sundays in the summer. The town celebrates Pershing Days annually on the weekend closest to the general’s birthday, September 13. As an added bonus to your trip, consider a visit to the nearby Locust Creek Covered Bridge State Historic Site. Originally built in 1868, and acquired by the state in 1967, the bridge was situated on Route 8, the main east-west highway across northern Missouri. The bridge now sits abandoned in a farm field. Pershing would have crossed the bridge on his way to Trenton to take the West Point exam. In Kansas City, Pershing attended the dedication of the Liberty Memorial in 1921, and a new World War I museum opened underneath the structure in December 2006. Now the National World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial, the site is open from 10 am to 5 pm daily except Mondays and major holidays. One of its most prominent pieces is the flag that flew over Pershing’s headquarters in Chaumont, France.

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BUT OFTEN OVERshadowed generals of World War II and the early cold war was Omar N. Bradley, who was born in Clark, lived in Higbee, and graduated from high school in Moberly. The son of a rural schoolteacher who died young, Bradley’s career displays the growing professionalism of the military that emphasized better training and management. Raised in a poor family, Bradley took the West Point exam as a way to get a free education, took advantage of all possible training available to him in the U.S. Army, sometimes worrying that he was not gaining enough field experience, and spent much of his early military career as a teacher and superintendent in Army schools. Although he wanted to take part in World War I, his unit was in Iowa training when the guns fell silent on the Western Front. His lack of battlefield experience in the earlier war turned to his advantage during World War II because the tactics of the previous war became outmoded. Maneuver with tanks and airplanes became much more important. Known as the “G.I. General” because he dressed like an ordinary soldier and showed concern for the needs of his men, he became an expert in human resources, managing the people under his command to get the most out of them. Although his most storied role was as the commander of American ground forces in Europe during World War II, his greatest contribution to the American military might have come as an organizer and manager in Washington after the war, as director of the Veterans’ Administration, Chief of Staff of the Army, and the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of MissouriLife.com

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OMAR BRADLEY Staff. His work paved the way for the modern, professional military that would eventually win the cold war. Unfortunately, Bradley has been given less attention than other Missouri generals. The Clark City Hall offers some photo displays dedicated to Bradley that locals say were once housed in a log cabin that is no longer standing in Sayre Memorial Park. The early Bradley home in Clark is no longer standing. The Randolph County Historical Society has some items about Bradley on display at its headquarters at Coates and Clark streets in downtown Moberly. According to Ralph Gerhard of the society, at one point during the 1950s, Bradley loaned a collection of weapons to the Moberly library, but teenage vandals broke in and stole some of them. Although the weapons were recovered, the general moved them to safer keeping at Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where they are now part of the U.S. Army Military History Research Collection. James F. Muench is the author of Five Stars: Missouri's Most Famous Generals, published by the University of Missouri Press.

The main Missouri tribute to Omar Bradley stands in Moberly’s Rothwell Park, a statue of the general dedicated on November 11, 1996. April 2007

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

Growing Up with

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 efah e f ah c e A FATHER-SON PROJECT PROVIDES LIFELONG LESSONS FOR TWO ST. LOUISANS

■ By Erin Richards Photos by Joe Angert

“The Mississippi River has been chained, dammed, and diked throughout its length, but it has its own ideas, and if it wants to make a cut off, flood, or build up sand somewhere, no one can stop it ...”

When it’s time for Isaac Angert

to go home next month after his first year at Truman State University, he won’t be driving to his parents’ home in downtown St. Louis. Instead, one morning in May, someone will take Isaac, his canoe, and several dozen pounds of gear to the bank of the Chariton River that runs close to the college town of Kirksville. There, the tall and stocky college freshman will begin a nearly three-hundred-mile river journey back home — down the Chariton, into the Missouri River, and finally into the waterway that, along with his father, has nurtured his boyhood addiction to rivers, fishing, and meteorology: the Mighty Mississippi. At least, that’s the plan. Waiting on the banks when Isaac is ready to be picked up near the Chain of Rocks in Granite City, Illinois, will be Joe Angert. In 38

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the last decade, the father and son have explored every inch of the Mississippi River, from source to mouth, in summer trips and weekend outings. If prompted, both of them can rattle off the river’s vital statistics without pause: The Mississippi drains 41 percent of North America. It’s the fourth longest river in the world and tracks 2,325 miles from its source in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Its elevation changes 1,475 feet from the headwaters to where it meets the ocean, the shortest fall of any major river on earth. They know of its deceptive power. The current passing under a barge’s slanted bow can submerge a pontoon boat. Then there are its quirks. Although most rivers assume a feminine orientation, the mighty Mississippi has always been referred to as “Old Man River.”

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—Isaac Angert, age 10, www.oldmanriver.org

MissouriLife.com

3/5/07 12:19:09 PM

Old Man River

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Joe Angert photographed the Mississippi during their trips. Sunrise at Hannibal is peaceful in the early morning. Opposite page: The treacherous Chain of Rocks Reach is a series of rock ledges that begins north of St. Louis and spans seventeen miles. Inset: Joe and Isaac in Aitken, Minnesota, in 2001. MissouriLife.com

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“The Mississippi’s story is one contrary happening after another,” Joe once wrote on www.oldmanriver.org, the web site he started in 1998 to document his and Isaac’s river adventures. The father-son project started about nine years ago when Isaacs’s grandfather suggested they explore the locks and dams around their hometown in St. Louis. Then the project grew. Exploring one lock prompted Joe and Isaac to drive to another. The drive turned into weekend trips along the Great River Road. Road trips led to river trips, and the Angerts navigated the Mississippi by boat in three segments during the summers of 2001, 2002, and 2003. “We wanted to explore every place on the river,” says Joe, a photographer and professor at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. The web site is an outlet for his photography and a way to document and connect each town that touches the Mississippi through narrative history, pictures, and interviews with residents. For Isaac, who’s spent half his life and thousands of miles on this river, it’s not so much about the web site. It’s about everything else the river represents: movement, mystery, science, fishing, escape. And now, independence. The trip back to St. Louis will be Isaac’s first major river journey without his father. The last time he canoed the Mississippi waters, it was with Joe in the summer of 2005, the last summer before college took priority. They both remember the intense seven weeks, when the river affirmed its presence as a force 40

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that even the most knowledgeable researchers can’t control or understand. And they both understand that physically and emotionally, it was one of the most defining moments of their relationship. Where the Mississippi River begins in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, Joe and Isaac dropped their canoe and about 164 pounds of gear into the water. It was the beginning of the summer in 2005. Isaac and Joe had canoed the river’s headwaters once already. They’d also driven a pontoon boat down the more dangerous second and third sections of the Mississippi: the upper river (from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Cairo, Illinois) and the lower river (from Cairo to the Gulf of Mexico). The plan was to take the canoe back to the headwaters, Joe recalls. He is a natural talker with eyes twinkling behind his glasses. “It always bugged Isaac that we skipped a couple of spots along the river during that first trip.” For inexperienced canoeists, the Mississippi headwaters are unpredictable. Too much spring runoff capsizes canoes as they careen over sweepers, which are trees lying across the river. Too little rain and runoff means the sweepers are just annoyances; but getting stuck in the mud becomes the hazard. Back at the launch, the river was high, but Joe’s concerns ebbed as they paddled easily to the first campsite at Wanagan Landing. The following morning, however, the current was swift, and the Angerts

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In the summer of 2005, Isaac uses a makeshift sail to catch a breeze and propel the canoe downriver. This trip proves to be one of their most difficult.

MissouriLife.com

2/27/07 8:25:57 PM

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A barge pushes up the Mississippi River near the Trail of Tears State Park. Joe and Isaac Angert boated this portion of the river in 2002.

began to bounce into the rocks. Joe and Isaac, like others who have tackled this difficult section of the river, had to start making “portages,” a process that involves walking the canoe and gear around obstructions in the river. Joe had forgotten the physical demands of this kind of canoeing. Controlling his body in the boat, hiking through reeds and marshes, and feeling the strain of extra pounds he’d gained since the last canoe trip, Joe, in his mid-fifties, was in pain. His leg was cut and bleeding from a brush with a sweeper. His confidence in his ability was dissipating. Then came more sweepers. Four years ago, one of these trees had knocked Joe clean out of the boat. The canoe capsized, and the Angerts lost all their belongings in the river. It took days to recover. Isaac was prepared this time. When the canoe lodged against the tree, Isaac, then a strapping seventeen-year-old who could bench press 240 pounds, hauled out a saw, plunged his arm into the cold water, and began hacking at the unwieldy log. While Isaac sawed, he thought about his dad. His father knew better than to fight the natural rocking of the canoe, yet Isaac could feel Joe battling to steady himself, which only sapped his strength and made paddling more difficult. When Isaac’s saw cut through the log and the canoe rejoined the current, a bend in the river presented the next obstruction. Joe heard the whooshing water before he saw its cause. The impending sweeper had formed a four-foot waterfall across the river. No way could the canoe make it over the top. Not in one piece. “I want out,” Joe said. In the best of times, it’s common for Joe and Isaac to spend hours on the river without speaking. Traditionally, fishermen don’t talk much, and Joe finds peace gazing at the shoreline or snapping photographs. But as Joe clambered up the steep muddy bank in Minnesota to MissouriLife.com

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get cell phone service, after the discouragement of a second sweeper injury, the silence was anything but comfortable. I failed my son, Joe thought as he walked away from the river and flagged down two men on ATVs. “You’re not far from the highway,” one of them said. Isaac, who had completed the portage while Joe sought help, realized it was the first time he had seen his father panic. He would later liken it to one of those moments when a child finds out his parent is not God, but is, in fact, human — and fallible. As Joe returned with the news about the highway, Isaac stepped back into the canoe. But not Joe. Without a word, Isaac paddled as Joe walked along the riverbank. Soon they came to a bridge where the highway crossed the river. Joe gave directions to his wife, Clare, who had stayed a few days after dropping them off. It was going to be an awkward night at the hotel in Bemidji, Minnesota. Isaac was disappointed. He understood his father’s physical limitations, but failing to accomplish their first goal bothered him. It wasn’t just a compulsive tendency; Isaac was accustomed to succeeding. The land-locked side of his life revolved around computers, and at Bishop DuBourg, his high school in St. Louis, he had been revered for his technological aptitude. He had free range of the teacher’s lounge, had come late to class, and had made house calls to teachers with crashed hard drives. In his free time, he had built computers and entire networks from spare parts the school had thrown away. Originally, the Angerts hadn’t planned how long to stay on the river in 2005. Joe figured three weeks would cover previously missed ground. “Well, we’ve got the whole summer,” Isaac joked. “Why don’t we just quit when we’re tired?” “We could paddle all the way back to St. Louis,” Joe joked back. Their longest canoe trip to date was their first when they paddled April 2007

3/5/07 10:18:15 AM

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from Bemidji to Lake Pepin, Minnesota, a distance of about 600 miles. This trip, it was 1,100 miles back to St. Louis. Now, the proposition was beginning to look less like a joke to Isaac. He had to have another goal. Joe suggested they put the canoe back in the water below Bemidji, in calmer waters, and Isaac agreed. He looked forward to the next task: canoeing Lake Winnibigoshish. The Mississippi River enters and exits several northern lakes, but Lake Winnie is no pond. Canoeists have died in its turbulent waters, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources warns all to stay away. Joe and Isaac planned to paddle the long way around the perimeter, rather than the short route through the middle, but they could only do so if the weather cooperated. As the wind howled, Isaac was prepared to wait as long as necessary at the West Winnie campground. The next morning, Joe crawled out of the tent and looked grimly at the tempestuous waters. The weather forecast predicted more gray skies and rain. Isaac would have camped patiently for another week, but he could tell Joe wouldn’t. That bleak afternoon, Joe and Isaac bounced along twenty miles of Minnesota back roads as the West Winnie campground manager drove them around the lake in his pickup truck. Lake Winnie had won again. By the time the Angerts were paddling toward Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Isaac had traded in his rain gear for his broad-brimmed straw hat. There was no definitive conversation about the new goal of the trip. Joe knew, however, that Isaac wasn’t going to leave the river until they reached St. Louis. They had failed to accomplish their two main goals for this journey, and Isaac responded tenaciously. The pair usually covered between eighteen and twenty-five miles per day when paddling through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. This pace allowed Joe freedom to stop and take pictures, explore local greasy spoon cafes, and converse with residents. This time, the straw hat ahead of him was relentless. Over the next few weeks, Isaac pushed to cover forty miles on some days, through Minnesota towns like Aitkin, Brainerd, and Little Falls — all places where Isaac, on earlier visits, had eagerly left the boat for his favorite northern delicacies: hash browns, sauerkraut, bratwurst. “We were at odds with goals,” Joe says. “I wanted an easier trip. I had the money; I wanted to get a hotel, take a shower, go in, and say hi to the people. But Isaac was a driven man. He only wanted to eat canned chili and sleep on the islands.” Joe preferred not to argue, though his muscles screamed and joints ached. He still held parental authority and insisted they portage around the Sartel dam in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Isaac, strong and self-confident, was ready to go through the dam. Joe didn’t relent; the water beyond the dam was too turbulent. Isaac can tell the region he’s in by looking at the geography along the shores. The northern states — Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin — are lush and green. The river is smaller and uninterrupted by the barge traffic that dominates the channel in Illinois and Missouri. But by the time they reached the dam pools in the north, the vast recreational areas had removed the friendly current. Temperatures

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John’s Boat Harbor in St. Peter’s

MissouriLife.com

2/27/07 8:35:08 PM

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cal stamina in the home stretch of a long journey, and Isaac wasn’t about to lose. They compromised and rested on a sandbar while Joe weighed the options. The heat was unbearable, and he knew canoeing at night would get them home most efficiently. The difference was, in this heavily forested area, no ambient light would guide them, and it would be easy to turn down one of the offshoot channels. Then there were the fish. Three species of carp overrun the area of the river dividing Missouri and Illinois, and they feed on the surface at night. In strange and dangerous fish theatrics, the carp are startled by boat engines and can rocket up to twelve feet out of water. Joe had seen it happen — a thirty-pound fish had once knocked his colleague, Kurt Kellner, in the back of the head as Isaac was driving all of them in the johnboat to their favorite fishing spot. But Isaac and Joe weren’t in a motorized vessel this time, and when the moon rose over Old Man River and illuminated the dark expanse of nothingness, the pair dipped their paddles carefully through the bustling schools of carp. By 2:30 am, they reached Lock and Dam 25 at Winfield, Illinois, and rested for a few minutes. We’re almost to where we fish every weekend, thought Isaac. Nine miles to go. At 4:30 am, on a darkened Missouri shoreline, Joe and Isaac paddled into the opening of John’s Boat Harbor. They drifted past docked vessels and found their army green johnboat. Exhausted, they secured the canoe and tumbled onto the johnboat’s nubbly, gray carpet. In those few blissful moments before sleep, both had the same thought: Thank God. It’s over. This year, when Isaac and Joe meet on the banks of the Mississippi, it will be a different experience. Joe, who has moved the family’s johnboat to a small marina along an empty stretch of the

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river in Elsberry, is attuned to the transition that’s taking place. But reserved and thoughtful, Isaac has never been forthcoming about his double life as a river fanatic. Before he left for Truman last year, he was characteristically detached about what his new life would be like away from the Mississippi. “It’s not sad, it’s just a fact,” Isaac says. “It’s something you have to think about now and then. I mean, if I have free time in college, then it will definitely be a priority.” It’s not the same for Joe. “I miss him terribly,” Joe says, adding that he knew their last summer trip was a sign that Isaac was ready to be out on his own. “Even if I wanted to canoe with him from Kirksville this year, I don’t think he’d let me. The 2005 summer was a good trip and all, but I’m old and broken, and he’s at the peak of his adult strength. I think I’d be a burden to him now.” But Joe also knows that their years on the river have helped shape Isaac into who he is: a physics major with interests in meteorology and environmental engineering who now has the river “in his blood.” Out here, on the water, Joe taught Isaac to catch only the catfish that he could eat. On its banks, father and son listened to members of the Army Corps of Engineers talk about their most pressing conservation issues. “Isaac would be a very different person if he hadn’t had the river,” Joe says. “He’s not real social. He’s not real popular. He’s definitely a nerd. But he has something you don’t always see in an individual like that; he’s satisfied with who he is, and he’s extremely confident in his abilities.” Joe pauses, lifts his eyebrows, then continues. “I mean, he has piloted a boat on his own for nearly twenty-five hundred miles on the Mississippi River, and he’s canoed sixteen hundred miles of it. He’s pretty much ready to take on the world.”

April 2007

3/5/07 10:20:07 AM

photos BY CHRIS GUBBELS

World Famous

Towns of Missouri The map of Missouri is dotted with the names of the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest cities, states, and countries, from Athens, Belgrade, and Cuba to Paris, Rome, and Warsaw. These namesakes might not share a lot with the originals, but look again: Our photographer found hints of the better-known twin in every town he visited. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve selected just a few of his comparisons to share with you.

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Just as the rich and famous in Beverly Hills, California, hit the greens on a warm spring day, Kevin Story takes advantage of a record-setting warm April Friday in 2006 and drives a bucket of golf balls at the Glen Echo Country Club in Beverly Hills, Missouri, population 603, in the St. Louis metropolitan area, just south of Interstate 70.

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3/7/07 2:53:56 PM

Japanese zen gardens feature sand and stone, but this mimic in front of the Strain-Japan school in Japan, Missouri, north of Interstate 44 near Sullivan, features a rustic log bench in a small grove. Perhaps seniors meditate upon their futures here.

MissouriLife.com

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Aubrey Johnson, left, and Oscar Torres Rodriguez are both native Mexicans. Oscar was born in the country of Mexico and works at El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant in Mexico, Missouri, with Aubrey, who has lived all of his life in that town.

April 2007

3/5/07 6:23:28 PM

Like the looming monuments of ancient pharaohs in Egypt, these pyramids tower ominously over the rolling landscape of Cairo, Missouri. But these benign grain bins on Mutter Farm are in the town pronounced “kay-row.” With a population of 293, Cairo is on Highway 63 north of Moberly.

Far from the bright lights of the strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, Myrtle Smith holds up nine dollars of gambling money she brought to Monday night bingo at Nevada (pronounced “ne-vay-da”), Missouri. Myrtle and her friend Bonnie Prewitt, left, are regular bingo sharks in Nevada. Bonnie explains that she’s a newcomer to the game; she has played for only eleven years to Myrtle’s forty.

April 2007

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3/5/07 6:24:18 PM

In parts of Scotland, castles of stone atop cliffs overlook the Atlantic Ocean’s crashing waves. These towers in Scotland, Missouri, south of Carthage, stand around five feet high, sit on the edge of a highway, and advertise a local steel company.

MissouriLife.com

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Stone cherubs and fountains can be found throughout gardens in Versailles, France, but in the Missouri town west of Jefferson City, these angelic sculptures are sold in bulk at a garden center. The locals pronounce their town name “ver-sales.”

April 2007

3/5/07 6:25:06 PM

MissouriLife

Civil War Series

The Boonville

RACES

SO MUCH FOR DIPLOMACY. On June 11, 1861, Missouri’s secessionist Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, his secretary Thomas Snead, and General Sterling Price met with Congressman Francis Blair and hotheaded Captain Nathaniel Lyon at the Planter’s House hotel in St. Louis. They were trying to avert the spread of the Civil War into Missouri. A truce between rebels led by Jackson and Price and loyalists following Blair and Lyon had held for a month, but it needed a formal agreement. For five hours the meeting dragged on, neither side conceding anything. Lyon, a man full of energy and nearly empty of patience, showed increasing signs of irritation. The red-haired army captain was a veteran of the bitter fighting of Bleeding Kansas, where proand anti-slavery factions had plunged the territory into chaos, and just the month before Lyon had broken up a rebellious State Guard 48

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encampment near St. Louis, so he was in no mood to negotiate. When Jackson suggested peace could be preserved by pulling Federal troops out of the state, Lyon rose to his feet. Pointing to each man in turn, he thundered, “Rather than concede to the State of Missouri for one single instant the right to dictate to my government in any manner, however unimportant, I will see you, and you, and you, and you, and every man, woman, and child in this state, dead and buried. This means war. In an hour, one of my officers will call for you and conduct you through my lines,” according to Thomas Snead’s The Fight for Missouri: from the election of Lincoln to the death of Lyon. The truce was over. The governor and his men took a train from St. Louis to Jefferson City and burned railroad bridges and cut telegraph wires as they went. The next day, Jackson issued a proclama-

CAMPFIRE AND COTTONFIELD, 1865

THE EARLY TURNING POINT FOR THE CIVIL WAR IN MISSOURI ■ By Sean McLachlan

MissouriLife.com

3/6/07 4:26:34 PM

JACKSON: THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI: BLAIR AND LYON: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Clockwise from top: Union Captain Nathaniel Lyon pursued Missouri governor and Southern sympathizer Claiborne Fox Jackson and his political cabinet by rail from St. Louis to Jefferson City then by river to Boonville where he and two thousand troops caught up with them. Congressman Francis Blair had met with Jackson and Lyon in St. Louis.Blair and Lyon would prove to be a successful duo. Opposite: This drawing of the Battle of Boonville appeared in Campfire and Cottonfield, published in 1865.

tion for fifty thousand men to gather at Boonville and Lexington to join the State Guard and protect the state from Federal invasion. They needed to act quickly. Lyon had seven thousand trained troops in St. Louis, and volunteers were rallying to the Union cause as well. Each side needed to strike a serious blow from the onset. Missouri was the most populous state west of the Mississippi and had rich resources in farm produce, lead, zinc, and iron, as well as the industrial center of St. Louis. Taking Missouri could tip the balance in favor of the Confederacy, and losing it could mean fighting the Union at an impossible disadvantage. Lyon and Blair understood this. They sent three thousand men to southwest Missouri to hold off a rebel army gathering in Arkansas and to block any attempt by Price and Jackson of joining with them. Lyon led two thousand more men to the state capital; he arrived on MissouriLife.com

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the fifteenth to find that the rebellious state government had fled to Boonville. General Price, who had fallen ill, was not with them. Instead, Price had returned home to Chariton County to recover. Field command fell to Colonel John Sappington Marmaduke, Jackson’s nephew, who had recently resigned his commission in the U.S. Army to join the Confederacy. The decision had been a tough one. His father supported the Union, but his brothers chose the Confederacy. So did he. But while he chose the Confederacy, he couldn’t say much in support of the militia that had gathered at Camp Bacon just east of Boonville. Instead of fifty thousand, they numbered about fifteen hundred. Few had training, and only about a third of them were even armed. Only one company, under Captain John Kelly, had the bearing and equipment of real soldiers. Marmaduke didn’t like the idea of fighting at Boonville, but April 2007

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MissouriLife

Civil War Series

to retreat would have meant the disintegration of the nebulous army. They needed to make a stand. They wouldn’t have long to wait. Lyon and about fifteen hundred men came steaming up the river in three boats early on the morning of June 17. Lyon sought out any sign of the rebels in the dim light. Suddenly he spied two cannons hidden in a clump of trees and ordered the boats to reverse. At 7 am they landed about seven miles downriver from Boonville. Marmaduke, alerted to the danger, marched about five hundred of his men to the top of a ridge four miles east of Boonville. The terrain was good, with a wheat field to hide his numbers and a thick grove of trees nearby, as well as a house to hide sharpshooters. He only brought those men who were armed and looked ready to fight, but Jackson had made him leave Kelly’s company in reserve at the camp. In a later interview with The Kansas City Times, Colonel C.J. Walden remembered marching out with Marmaduke, “Our equipment was poor; most of us had poor rifles, if any, but all went for50

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ward with the idea the enemy soon would be vanquished.” Lyon’s well-trained troops, accompanied by a battery of cannons commanded by the efficient Captain James Totten, marched in an orderly fashion along the river road toward town. Soon rebel pickets fired at them but quickly withdrew in the face of such a large force. The Union troops continued and found themselves facing a long, low hill, atop which Marmaduke and his men waited. Lyon ordered the cannon to send shot after shot onto the ridge as the Union infantry slowly advanced. Gritting their teeth and trying to ignore the cannonballs whirring through the air around them, the rebels fired at the troops. An unnamed witness accompanying Lyon’s force described the scene for the Missouri Statesman, “Capt. Totten opened the engagement by throwing a few nine-pounder explosives into their ranks, while the infantry filed oblique right and left and commenced a terrific volley of musketry, which was for a short time well replied to, the balls flying thick and fast about our ears, and occasionally wounded a man on our side.” The rebel’s untrained fire proved mostly inaccurate, however, and the Union ranks moved resolutely forward. Soon Totten found his range and knocked two holes into the wall of the house, which forced the men inside to run. Under orders from Governor Jackson, Marmaduke ordered a general retreat. Many fled in disorder, but some made a second line on the top of another hill closer to camp. Again the two sides poured fire at each other, and once again Union discipline and marksmanship took their toll. The rebels retreated once more, this time in complete disarray. The first Union victory in Missouri had taken twenty minutes.

MARMADUKE: COURTESY OF JOHN BRADBURY COLLECTION; MAP: COURTESY OF JIM HARLAN

This map of early-1800 Cooper County (for sale at MissouriLife.com) shows a stretch of the Missouri River on which Captain Nathaniel Lyon pursued Governor Claiborne Jackson. The early settlement named Lexington on the map is not the site of the Battle of Lexington. Colonel John Sappington Marmaduke, left, commanded Confederates at Boonville.

MissouriLife.com

3/7/07 4:17:00 PM

HARPER’S WEEKLY

Many of the rebels ran to Camp Bacon to retrieve their possessions, only to find a gun left on the shore to protect steamboats bombarding the nearby rebel battery. Panicked, most fled without gathering their equipment. Union troops entered the camp with barely a shot being fired and found it pretty much intact, with abandoned equipment lying everywhere and breakfast still sizzling in frying pans. Lyon continued his inexorable march toward Boonville. Just east of town he came upon the fairgrounds, where the rebels had established a small armory. A few State Guardsmen stood ready to meet him, but accurate fire from the steamboat sent them running again. Then Lyon saw something he hadn’t seen all day — people moving toward him. It was a group of Boonville citizens carrying a white flag. They asked that the town be spared, to which the captain replied that no one who acted peacefully need have any fear for their lives or property. Just as Lyon and his troops entered the town, Governor Jackson rode out the other side. Lyon sent a detachment after him, but Jackson was able to escape. Rebel troops had scattered all MissouriLife.com

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across the countryside. After hiding out for awhile, Walden decided to fetch his things. “I started for the camp at the old fairgrounds where we had left our knapsacks. I found our things taken by the enemy, and I ran and hid under the river bank. Finally two other Howard County men and I found our way into Boonville and went to Mrs. Beck’s shop on Main Street to get some ginger cakes and cider. While we were there, I heard the clanking of the Federal cavalry up the street, and we hiked out without food, for the river.” Now in full possession of Boonville and having captured several rebels who had tarried too long in town, Lyon issued a proclamation offering pardon to any rebel who put down their arms and went home. Dispirited by their easy defeat, many did. But more did not. Various groups of the disorganized State Guard headed west to Lexington, the other rallying point for new recruits. They escaped an attempted encirclement by Kansas, Iowa, and St. Louis troops and headed to southwest Missouri, which would remain a rebel enclave for some time. Marmaduke, disgusted at the State Guard’s performance, went to Virginia and became a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army. He would later return to Missouri to fight. Dodging bullets from Federal troops, Walden boarded a boat and made his escape. He fought on until the final surrender of Missouri rebels in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1865. Even with the surrender of Missouri rebels, the war was far from over. But had it already been decided? Lyon’s thrust up the Missouri River cut the state in half. The northern counties were unable to organize to support the Confederacy, and while that region would be a hotbed of guerrilla activity, it never contributed the number of men the southern counties did. The river also kept open a vital Federal supply line to Kansas. If the Confederates had held onto it, they would have cut off Kansas and the loyal territories to the west. But the most telling effect of the battle was its value as propaganda. The fight had been quick and relatively bloodless. About a dozen were killed or wounded on each side. Nevertheless it was one of the first land battles of the Civil War and was hailed in the Northern press as a great victory. Reporters dubbed it the “Boonville Races” because it had ended so quickly, and this nickname stuck among people with either loyalty, although it was uttered with widely different feelings. While the Unionist press praised Lyon, many proSouthern papers criticized Jackson’s handling of the affair and said he should have used Kelly’s experienced men and led the fight. Lyon became a hero, hailed as a great leader and defender of the Union. He would not enjoy his fame for long. On August 10, less than a month after his victory at Boonville, he fell at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. This illustration of the Battle of Boonville ran in Harper’s Weekly on July 13, 1861.

April 2007

3/7/07 4:18:35 PM

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dreamhomes

CHARMING College Towns ■ By Timothy Hill

ERHAPS IT’S THE landscaped campus and historic buildings that make a college town distinctive and appealing, or maybe it’s the excitement of cheering for the home team or the cosmopolitan culture supported by well-read professors and their youthful students. Economic stability also contributes to the appeal of college towns. Because universities are often among the largest employers

in a community, they support an educated workforce and help keep unemployment rates low. Columbia, the state’s quintessential college town, often is included among the nation’s most livable cities. But from Maryville and Kirksville in the north to Springﬁeld and Cape Girardeau in the south, we have delightful college towns throughout the state.

CONTEMPORARY STYLE IN CAPE GIRARDEAU $298,500

THIS STRIKING, ranch-style home in Cape Girardeau sits at the end of a private drive and includes more than an acre of property. Cape, as locals often call their town, is home to Southeast Missouri State University and its ten thousand students. Known as Rivermont, the home was built in 1949 with an addition in 1990. It provides three bedrooms and three and one-half baths all on one level. The home also has a partial basement. Two woodburning ﬁreplaces will be appreciated on chilly winter nights. An abundance of windows throughout the recently remodeled home provides plenty of natural light and picturesque views overlooking the Mississippi River and the beautifully landscaped yard.

HISTORIC ELEGANCE IN FULTON

COLONIAL CLASS IN KIRKSVILLE

DESIGNED by prominent mid-Missouri architect M. Fred Bell, this two-and-one-half story, early 1900s home is in Fulton. Renovated, the home retains its historic charm while providing updated amenities. The home’s 2,300 square feet include four bedrooms, one and one-half baths, and an airy sunroom. Historic ﬂourishes include hardwood ﬂoors, stained glass windows, elegant chandeliers, and pocket doors. Fulton is the home of William Woods University and Westminster College, which has hosted visits by world leaders such as Winston Churchill, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Margaret Thatcher.

THIS CLASSIC 1920s Colonial home is centrally located near downtown Kirksville and the campuses of Truman State University and the A.T. Still University. A large foyer and dramatic staircase welcome guests entering the 2,700-square-foot home. The home, which has three bedrooms and one and one-half baths, boasts hardwood ﬂoors, French doors, a ﬁreplace, and crown molding. Convenient built-in elements include an armoire, a linen cabinet, and a butler’s pantry. The home’s enclosed porch is surrounded by mature landscaping, which accentuates the home’s timeless elegance.

Carol Gilman Coldwell Banker Niedergerke 573-642-8870

Kenneth Read or Sara Smith Heritage House Realty 660-665-5638

$199,000

FULTON: TIM HILL; KIRKSVILLE AND CAPE GIRARDEAU: COURTESY OF REALTORS

Wendy Marberry Prudential Bridgeport 573-450-0142

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$154,900

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�� Sleep just 50 yards away from where Lewis and Clark slept! Our new Colonial Inn is now open for receptions/meetings. Book your event today!

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is within walking distance of Wildwood Springs Lodge, nestled in the woods with unbelievable views of the Meramec River and surrounding hills. The Clubhouse is equipped with a full kitchen, 2 full bathrooms, three bedrooms, sleeps 6 comfortably. Ideal for a quiet, secluded getaway.

“Waking up at the Wildwood Clubhouse is like waking up an arm stretch from Heaven. All your troubles diminish in the mist of the river valley below. This place will capture your heart and release your creativity. It has so much to offer that you will take home a generous portion of inspiration.” Rusty & Mary Young – Poco

Wildwood Springs Lodge

(573)775-2400 • P.O. Box 919 Grand Drive • Steelville, MO 65565

For Reservations visit

www.wildwoodspringslodge.com Click on Guest Houses

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bed&breakfast

Serenity of SWANS ENGLAND MEETS MISSOURI IN AN AUGUSTA BED-AND-BREAKFAST ■ Story and Photos by Brandy L. Pecor

★ From left: Swan Haven Inn, initially an 1860 farmhouse, was renovated by owners Gene and Jacqui Schaper in 1998. Soft shades of blue and white radiate European ambience in the French Suite. Guests enjoy a full, home-cooked breakfast of varying menus during their stay at the inn.

UST FORTY-FIVE MILES from St. Louis, nestled between the bluffs and vineyards of Augusta is one of the state’s best-kept secrets — Swan Haven Inn, owned and operated by Gene and Jacqui Schaper. Gene is from St. Louis, and Jacqui hails from England. Married for nine years, they knew when Gene retired from his job at Ralston Purina that they wanted their own home-based business. The Schapers drove through many towns in the St. Louis area, and then they saw the house that is now Swan Haven Inn. It was a private residence at the time and a far cry from the charming inn that it is today. The home had been updated some, but many of the original fixtures from 1860 remained. The Schapers had a vision, and in 1998, they purchased the house and restored it. During the renovation, the couple tried to think of a suitable name for their inn. They settled on Swan Haven Inn in honor of their love of swans. There are seventy-two decorative swans scattered throughout the inn. In 1999, the Swan Haven Inn opened for business. Guests to the inn can retire to one of the three rooms available. The Taylor Suite is the inn’s premier suite. Decorated with Jacqui’s English influence and subtle Victorian touches, it features the handhewn beams from the original frame of the farmhouse and a modern gas fireplace. Another popular feature of the suite is the large bathroom with a Jacuzzi bathtub for two. The second floor of the house features a small sitting area and the other two suites, the Scenic and French suites. The Scenic Suite has a large window overlooking the beautifully landscaped backyard. The room is decorated in soft mauve hues and has a large bathroom with a canopied antique claw-foot bathtub. MissouriLife.com

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Off of the bathroom is a cozy reading nook. All of the rooms have amenities such as robes, bubble bath, hair dryers, and lotions. Outside the inn, there is a thirty-six-square-foot deck adorned with potted plants, flowers, and bird feeders. In the yard, rest and recuperation can be found in lawn chairs, a hammock, a six-person Jacuzzi, and around an outdoor fireplace. Mornings are a time of culinary delight at Swan Haven Inn. Some mornings, guests are treated to blueberry or orange cranberry homemade muffins and a two-cheese frittata as well as bacon and sausage. On other mornings, Jacqui makes her vanilla-custard French toast. Guests might also be treated to a full English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, sautéed mushrooms, and a grilled or fried tomato. “Gene and I both love people, and I would have to say that meeting and getting to chat with our guests is the best thing about owning an inn,” Jacqui says. “If guests seem inclined to talk after breakfast, we will sit down with a cup of coffee and chat with them.” Tourists tend to flock to the inn during the fall months when the foliage is breathtaking and the weather is accommodating. The Schapers recommend that guests who wish to stay at the inn during the fall months give them as much notice as possible. During the slower months, guests typically need to book rooms two to three weeks in advance. The Swan Haven Inn is located at 164 Jackson Street in Augusta. Rates range from $110 to $175. For information, call 636-482-8017 or visit www.swanhaveninn.com April 2007

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FISHY, FISHY IN THE BROOK TASTEFUL TROUT FROM MISSOURI STREAMS ■ By Karen Mitcham-Stoeckley

Karen Mitcham-Stoeckley studied culinary arts in Italy, France, Japan, and America. She owns The Eagle’s Nest Winery, Inn, and Bistro in Louisiana, Missouri.

PARK TROUT FISHING IN MISSOURI Bennett Spring Fish Hatchery 26142 Highway 64A Lebanon, MO 65536 417-532-4418

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Roaring River Hatchery Route 4, Box 4152 Cassville, MO 65625 417-847-2430

Montauk Maramec Spring Fish Hatchery Hatchery Above: ???Fish Right: ??? Rural Route 5, Box 280 PO Box 128, Highway 8 East Salem, MO 65560 St. James, MO 65559 573-548-2585 573-265-7801

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tors includes rooms with two double beds and a bath, as well as five houses, which are great for groups and families. The fishing accommodations couldn’t be better, with conditions for both fly-fishing and light-tackle fishing on beautiful rapids or slow-moving currents, sunny shallows or shaded deep pools. Not too far away to the east in West Plains sits the Twin Bridges Canoe & Campgrounds, which offers one of the five best rainbow trout streams in the United States as rated by Outdoor Guide. This facility resides on the upper sections of the North Fork River and is surrounded by the Mark Twain National Forest. RV hookups as well as campsites, cabins, and log homes are available to rent. Canoes for float trips are also available and can be reserved for groups. Delicious meals are served in the Chuck Wagon. For information or to make a reservation at Rockbridge, call 417679-3619 or visit www.rockbridgemo.com. For more information about Twin Bridges, call Jim or Ann Duncan at 417-256-7507 or visit www. twinbridgescanoe.com.

CURT DENNISON; OPPOSITE: COURTESY OF RAINBOW TROUT & GAME RANCH

ROUT FISHING IN MISSOURI is rated as some of the best in the nation, and April is the perfect time to go fishing. We found two private fishing locales in the southern part of the state that offer many amenities for the seasoned angler or the novice, as well as accommodations for a family vacation. Rainbow Trout & Game Ranch in Rockbridge is truly a step back in time. The mill and dam were built in 1868 on Spring Creek. As people had their grain milled, it became a social event for many families, who pitched a camp and stayed a week or more. The community grew, and a church, general store, bank, and other enterprises sprouted up. As with many of these mill communities, the turn of the twentieth century saw the demise of the milling process, and the villages quietly died off. But in 1954, Lile, Edith, and Ray Amyx purchased the mill and surrounding land and began the Rainbow Trout & Game Ranch and the Rockbridge Gun Club. Today there is a wonderful restaurant; its specialty is Trout Almondine. Lodging for visi-

Clockwise from top left: These trout dishes — Trout Almondine, Salt-Broiled Trout, Trout in Parchment, Trout with Pepper Relish, and Trout with Bacon and Pine Nuts — were created using trout from the Rainbow Trout & Game Ranch at Rockbridge in southwest Missouri. Opposite: The Rockbridge mill has stood for 138 years, and many youngsters have caught their first fish in the water that flows beneath it.

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creativecuisine

Fishy, fishy in the brook, daddy catch him by the hook, mommy fry him in a pan, and baby eats him like a man.

RECIPES TROUT ALMONDINE

4 tablespoons butter 4 double trout fillets 2 eggs, beaten 1/ 3 cup flour 2 tablespoons amaretto ½ cup almonds, honey roasted and sliced Preheat a large skillet and add butter to sizzle. Dip fillets in egg and then in the flour. Shake off excess flour and place in the hot skillet. Cook for 3 minutes on each side and add the amaretto at the last moment. Toss in the almonds and garnish with additional almonds on the top of each fillet. Serves 4.

SALT-BROILED TROUT

2 to 3 cups kosher salt 4 whole trout, cleaned and dried 8 tablespoons butter 8 tablespoons lemon juice 2 lemons, sliced in rounds Fresh parsley, chopped On a large, shallow baking pan, place all but 8 tablespoons of the salt to make a bed of the salt. Place the trout on the salt bed. Put 1 tablespoon of the butter in the cavity of each fish. Drizzle the lemon juice in the cavity and 1 tablespoon of the salt. Arrange the lemon slices in each cavity so that half of the slice is showing, allowing about 4 slices per fish. Melt the remaining butter and drizzle 1 tablespoon over each fish and sprinkle with remaining salt, about 1 tablespoon per fish. Place pan under preheated broiler and broil for about 4 to 6 minutes. Do not turn fish. Remove from oven and strip off the top skin. Return to broiler and broil for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle with 62

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fresh chopped parsley and serve on the salt bed. Serves 4.

TROUT IN PARCHMENT

4 sheets of baking parchment paper, 12 inches by 12 inches 4 tablespoons olive oil 4 trout fillets 8 mussels or small clams 4 slices of onion, white or yellow 4 slices tomato 4 pepper rings, green or red Sprigs of fresh sage and oregano 4 tablespoons Riesling white wine Salt and pepper to taste Butter-flavored cooking spray On each sheet of parchment, place one of each of the ingredients in the order given. Bring the paper up together and fold it tightly down to meet the ingredients. Fold the ends under into a package. Spray packets with a butter-flavored cooking spray. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 20 minutes. Serve in the packet. Serves 4.

TROUT WITH BACON AND PINE NUTS

10 strips thick bacon, diced ½ cup flour ½ cup cornmeal Salt and pepper to taste 4 whole trout, cleaned and dried ½ cup butter, melted 3 limes: 2 juiced, 1 sliced thinly 5 to 6 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted In a large skillet, fry the bacon until crisp. Reserve the bacon drippings in the skillet. Mix the flour and the cornmeal together with salt and pepper. Roll the trout in the flour mixture and shake off

any excess. In the skillet, melt the butter with the drippings until bubbly. Add the fish and fry about five minutes or until golden brown. Turn over and continue to fry about four more minutes. Add the juice of the lime and cook a few moments longer. Place on a heated serving platter and spoon the bacon, lime-juice drippings, and pine nuts over the fish. Garnish with the sliced lime. Serves 4.

TROUT WITH PEPPER RELISH

2 lemons: 1 juiced, 1 sliced 4 tablespoons butter, melted 4 double trout fillets Pepper relish Parsley or cilantro for garnish Squeeze the juice of the lemon and mix with the butter. Place the fillets on a broiler pan and spoon half the lemon butter over each fillet. Place in a preheated broiler and broil for about 5 minutes, but do not burn or overcook. Remove and spoon the remainder of the lemon butter over the fillets. Spoon the spicy relish over the center of each fillet and serve with parsley or cilantro garnish and lemon slices. Serves 4. PEPPER RELISH 1/ 3 cup cider vinegar ¾ cup white sugar ¼ cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper ½ cup each red and green sweet pepper, diced finely ½ cup red onion, diced finely Place all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and simmer for 1 hour until reduced and slightly thickened.

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MissouriLife.com

Missouri Beef Industry Council

2306 Bluff Creek Drive #200 Columbia, MO 65201

APRIL 07 Ad.indd 63

800-441-6242

April 2007

beefinfo@mobeef.com

2/27/07 8:45:15 AM

�� By Cory Kleinschmidt and Chris Ruess

If you’ve ever wanted to live near a vineyard, now’s your chance. Chaumette Winery in Ste. Genevieve is offering the experience of “wine country living” at the Villages at Chaumette, a new community where you can buy or rent new French colonial cottages. The list of amenities make it clear this isn’t simple country living – you’ll have every modern convenience, including a new destination day spa, where you can pamper yourself while enjoying Missouri wine. Not far away, in Farmington, Crown Valley Winery has opened its Champagne House, the only facility of its kind in the Midwest. As we can attest, all three styles of sparkling wine are top-notch, thanks to the winery’s world-class equipment and the deft hand of winemaker Daniel Alcorso. Crown Valley’s equally remarkable Port House opened last fall in charming Clarksville, an hour northwest of St. Louis. Crown is building a wine empire in Missouri, and this investment is sure to beneﬁt the entire wine community. If you decide to venture out to Crown Valley’s Champagne House, consider visiting Cave Vineyard in Ste. Genevieve. The vineyard, famed for the open-air cave on the property, hosts many events in the cave and now has a tasting room, a production facility, and the “Winery Loft,” which overlooks the winery and production area. You can even rent the cave for your own special event. Now that’s cool, in more ways than one! Not to be outdone, the historic town of Hermann is on the move, with a ﬂurry of new development by Jim Dierberg, owner of Hermannhof Winery. He’s built a community of “wine houses” where guests can stay and enjoy wine in historic stone cottages. Also, Dierberg is converting an old grain elevator into the Tin Mill Brewery, a pub and restaurant. Finally, Branson will soon have a new winery. Mount Pleasant Winery owner Chuck Dressel is spending $2 million to build a second winery that will open this fall. So, the next time you visit the entertainment capital of Missouri, be sure to stop in for a visit.

For All the Latest We hope you’ve enjoyed this little taste of what’s new in wine country. For even more wine country news and events, visit us at missouriwinecountry.com, an online travel guide for Missouri wine country. Spring has ﬁnally arrived, so we encourage you to get out and visit Missouri wineries. The wine is great, there’s more to do than ever before, and the scenery is breathtakingly romantic. See you in wine country!

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subscribe at

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Summit Lake Winery

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No RULES! WHICH WINE GOES WITH WHAT FOOD? ■ By Doug Frost

Springtime at The peach and apple trees are blooming, and the grapevines are coming to life. It’s a great time to plan a trip to Waverly to visit Baltimore Bend Vineyard. Upcoming events you won’t want to miss: April 28-29 May 25

Spring Release and Barrel Tasting Harvest Moon - oldies rock band, 6:30-9:30 p.m., $5 cover

HIS MUCH SHOULD be obvious; food and wine go together. Although some people don’t drink wine at all, for those who do enjoy it, having wine with a meal just feels right. But then comes the worry about which food to have with which wine. That, too, Doug Frost is one of seems pretty obvious to me, but the subject three people in the world has inspired enough debate to employ a who is both a Master legion of therapists. The answer is: Drink Sommelier and a Master of Wine. He lives in what you like to drink, and eat what you like Kansas City. to eat. Then have them together when you feel like doing that. But people continue to assume there must be rules to follow, like which spoon is for dessert and what’s with this little knife they handed me with my fish. Most wine drinkers have gotten the news that red wine doesn’t have to go with red meat, but rather than see that as permission to get funky, they assume there still must be more hidden and arcane rules in play. There aren’t any rules. In general, most people want the food not to overwhelm the wine and the wine not to overwhelm the food. Some might enjoy a glass of Pinot Grigio with their roast beef, but most won’t be able to distinguish their Pinot Grigio from their glass of water when toasted next to something as powerful and rich as roast beef. So the easy guide is to simply ask yourself how powerful or light is the wine you’re consuming, and then try that with correspondingly powerful or light food flavors With Missouri white wines, most are light-bodied but fairly tart. Some vintners respond to that tartness by leaving a touch of sweetness to them. Missouri’s reds can be light and easy in some blends, fruity and tangy such as in Chambourcin, and hugely powerful as with the Nortons and Cynthianas. I tend toward foods that are light, and I love pairing spicy foods with slightly sweet wines. That’s not to say that you have to have correspondingly powerful or light foods with your wine choice, but it’s an easy place to start.

27150 Hwy. 24, Waverly MO 64096 (Located 5 miles west of Waverly) Join our mailing list at www.baltimorebend.com. (660) 493-0258

Hours beginning April 1: Monday-Saturday 11 am to 6 pm; Sunday 1 pm to 6 pm.

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April 2007

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THE CIVIL WAR IN MISSOURI OTHER NOTED GUERRILLAS OF THE CIVIL WAR IN MISSOURI By Larry Wood, Hickory Press, 302 pages, $19.95 softcover William Quantrill might have been the most famous guerrilla chief of the Civil War in Missouri, but he wasn’t the only one. Larry Wood takes readers through the history of fifteen other guerrillas and the farstrung guerrilla warfare that haunted the state. Although these men often lead vicious and brutal attacks, Wood tells not only the story of the battles but the men behind the struggle. The humanization of these men paints a picture of their motivations and their methods, which provides an understanding of the fierce guerrilla battles across the state.

M. JEFF THOMPSON: MISSOURI’S SWAMP FOX OF THE CONFEDERACY By Doris Land Mueller, University of Missouri Press, 136 pages, $14.95 softcover In the early stages of the Civil War, Union General Ullysses S. Grant dubbed Missouri military leader Meriwether Jeff Thompson the “Swamp Fox,” because of his ability to quietly maneuver his men through the swamps and sneak up on unsuspecting enemies. Doris Land Mueller tells the story of Thompson from his early days in Virginia through his Civil War escapades as a Confederacy guerrilla fighter to his post-war unification efforts. Also known as the “Poet Laureate of the Marshes,” Thompson kept a written record of many of his experiences, and excerpts from these writings enhance the tale of his life weaved by the author.

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Guides for WANDERLUST

THE OZARKS: AN EXPLORER’S GUIDE

By Ron Marr, 384 pages, The Countryman Press, $19.95, softcover In this book by Missouri Life’s self-proclaimed hillbilly philosopher and back-page columnist, Ron Marr mixes anecdotes and history together to introduce five regions of the Ozarks in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. The Ozarks: An Explorer’s Guide takes the reader on a round-trip tour of sights, sounds, and smells. A little history lesson begins each regional section and gives the reader a general feel for the area. Brief descriptions paint pictures of little-known cafes, cozy bed-and-breakfasts, and shows or festivals that can be found in the area. He also gives directions on where to wander if you don’t have a particular destination in mind. From Branson to Route 66 to spectacular scenery and everything imaginable in between, the book pulls out some fascinating and enticing locales for tourists and old hillbillies alike to enjoy. But the most interesting points Marr makes are from personal knowledge of how Ozarkers think and how they treat visitors. In perhaps one of the best descriptions yet, he details what can be expected from the folk in the hills. From their stubbornness to their warm and open nature, he describes just why they are the way they are. Marr guides his audience through the Ozarks as only a native can.

HERE’S WHERE: A GUIDE TO ILLUSTRIOUS ST. LOUIS

By Charles Brennan, 128 pages, University of Missouri Press, $14.95, softcover Walking the streets of St. Louis just got a lot more fun with a new map to where the stars lived. St. Louis has seen many a celebrity MissouriLife.com

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■ By Rebecca French Smith

make news, make a living, or simply grow up, and in Here’s Where: A Guide to Illustrious St. Louis, readers get a map to find the places where history was and is made in the city. In some cases, a home or building mentioned is no longer there, but many will still appreciate learning the location. Charles Brennan splits St. Louis and St. Louis County into eleven regions and provides maps that cross-reference with the 160 sites of note in the area. He also includes bits of history, such as where the Boston Red Sox stayed when they “reversed the curse” by winning the World Series against the Cardinals, and trivia, such as what songs made Chuck Berry famous and Time magazine’s rating of the movie Meet Me in St. Louis, to make the search even more interesting.

CINEMENTAL JOURNEYS

By Mike and Vicki Walker, 160 pages, How High the Moon Publishing, $14.95, softcover For anyone who has ever had a love affair with the silver screen, Cinemental Journeys seeks out theaters in the Midwest where the smell of popcorn and a vintage movie experience still coexist. While many of the theaters in the book have been renovated, they still retain their nostalgic charm and a few extras. Of the nineteen Missouri theaters featured in the book, one has urinals that were voted best in St. Louis, one has been host of two Disney premiers, and one is haunted by a ghost named Julio, who turns on the projector in the night and leaves it running. Some of the theaters were even graced by the likes of Shirley Temple, Ginger Rogers, and Fred Astaire. The Walkers also give facts and figures of present-day shows at each venue. Sadly, ticket prices have gone up from the fourteen-cent child’s admission at the Trail Theatre in St. Joseph in 1951. April 2007

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missourihealth

THE CREEPY CRAWLIES RETURN ■ By Meredith Ludwig

onboard until they’ve had their fill. Rumors abound as the best way to remove a tick, but tweezers continue to remain the simplest and most effective. Pull gently so the head remains attached. It can take up to a day or more for germs to be transferred from the tick to a human, so checking daily can greatly reduce the chance of tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. In the unfortunate event seed ticks by the hundreds have covered your clothing, packing tape remains one of the best tools for removal. There are many over-the-counter remedies for soothing the savage bite. Lotions and local anesthetics such as benzocaine and camphor-phenol can bring some temporary relief to the itching, but time seems to be the ultimate cure. Contrary to popular belief, it turns out the severity of the winter weather has little to do with the tick and chigger population. According to Mike Brown, a state entomologist at the Missouri Department of Agriculture, “They’re designed to over-winter in a condition that isn’t vulnerable to weather woes.” However, a warmer than usual spring would allow the populations to build up more quickly, he adds. “They seem to be here every year regardless of the weather conditions,” Mike says. “They’ve been around long enough and have adapted well enough that they can do just fine despite the worst weather we could throw at them.”

SYLVIA FORBES

URING THE COLDER MONTHS, ticks and chiggers lay low, but much like the rest of the outside world, when the temperatures warm up, so do they. If you’ve done any hiking in Missouri, you’ve no doubt had to deal with bites from both of these detestable vermin. Neither are actually true insects. The tick is more closely related to the spider, and a chigger is the larva of a mite. Whatever they are, it’s best to avoid their bite for health reasons as well as the uncomfortable aftermath. There are plenty of repellents on the market. Those containing DEET (N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide) work well to deter both chiggers and ticks. Another repellent that’s been passed down through the decades is the use of sulfur. Inexpensive and carried by most pharmacies in powdered form, it can be dusted on pants, boots, socks, and shirt cuffs to discourage both ticks and chiggers. Sulfur does have a strong odor, and some people find both DEET and sulfur irritating to the skin. Whatever you use, always shower and scrub vigorously as soon as possible after a hike and make sure you check all over for ticks. If it’s already too late and the itching has begun, it is not because the chiggers have burrowed under your skin. Unlike ticks, chiggers are long gone. These tiny little fellows have an enzyme in their saliva that turns skin cells into liquid. As they drink their meal, a straw-like structure forms, and it is this feeding process that causes the irritation. Ticks are more obvious. They bite and stay

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POSSIBLE NEW SOURCE FOR STEM CELLS ■ By Meredith Ludwig

N NOVEMBER 7, 2006, Missouri voters narrowly approved the Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. So divisive was the issue that both sides spent enormous amounts of money and time to get out the vote. The main controversy focuses on the use of human embryos as a source for the stem cells needed for research. With the help of a new study, this hot-button issue just might cool off. Researchers from the Institute of Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University and Children’s Hospital of Boston have found that stem cells taken from amniotic fluid, which cushions the baby in the womb, have many of the same traits that embryonic stem cells offer. The study published earlier this year in the journal Nature Biotechnology reports that amniotic cells in laboratory have the ability to grow into all of the major types of cells such as brain, bone, muscle, fat, blood vessel, nerve, and liver cells. Similar to adult and embryonic cells, they can self-renew, doubling every thirty-six hours. The study also found after two years of storage that the cells had not deteriorated nor produced any tumors as embryonic stem cells do. Dr. Anthony Atala, the study’s senior author, states that the cells are easier to collect from medical procedures such as amniocentesis, a routine method used to determine the health of the fetus, which

should be acceptable to both sides of the stem cell issue. Other sources for the cells include amniotic membrane, the placenta, and even the umbilical cord — all of which are discarded after birth. However, the researchers agree it’s too early to tell what the human benefits will eventually be, if any. Patty Skain, Executive Director of Missouri Right to Life, whose group fought against the Missouri initiative, says, “We strongly support any ethical sources for stem cells, that is, one that will not harm or destroy the donor, including the recent discovery of stem cells found in amniotic fluid. We must use these types of sources for stem cells and continue searching for other ethical sources.” William Neaves, the CEO of Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, which conducts stem cell research as well as other projects, issued a statement that concludes, “We can’t predict what type of stem cell research will ultimately lead to a treatment or cure of any particular disease or injury, so the scientific community is united in its commitment to pursue all types of stem cell research and to reject calls to abandon one area of research in favor of another.” The amniotic cells have yet to be studied in humans, and the potential benefits are several years away.

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Artist at LARGE ■ By Jim Winnerman

JIM WINNERMAN; CATHARINE: COURTESY OF CATHARINE MAGEL

ATHARINE MAGEL IS A St. Louis artist who uses an unconventional canvas. Although she works in a wide variety of mediums, her largest canvases are outdoor structures covered with brilliant mosaics instead of paint. A recent project, the 240-foot long Reflecting on a River, brings life to a concrete St. Louis flood wall. The undulating five- to seven-foot-high mosaic depicts the diverse wildlife found along the Mississippi River. Catharine also designed mosaic murals for each of the nine Exploration Stations in the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area north of St. Louis. Positioned throughout the park, the stations and their accompanying murals highlight the flood plain habitat of the area where each is placed. “Both the flood wall and the conservation area murals had to be made to withstand the weather in all seasons, as well as be underwater during a flood,” Catharine says. Each mural consists of thousands of stone, glass, and handmade ceramic pieces. The projects are what Catharine refers to as community-based, permanent public art. She designed each mural after researching each topic and used the flood wall project to educate children about endangered species. Community involvement is important to Catharine. “It is a way to give something back to society,” she says. “Art can empower people if they participate or create a sense of community pride if they just appreciate the result.” Catharine has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Kansas City Art Institute and a Master of Fine Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred. Her ability to work on a large scale is a natural progression from her early experience as a scenic painter for several theaters. One of Catharine’s first outdoor projects was an adaptation of a traditional love bench on which two people sit facing each other. In her version, two humans sit on the laps of two deer. “A Native American friend dreamt deer were teaching him how to run through the forest, and that was the catalyst for my bench,” she says. The bench is still in use on the sidewalk outside Starbucks in Clayton. Her talent is not limited to large-scale art. She also creates collectible ceramic sculptures and paper-based art pieces she paints with gouache, a water- and gumbased pigment. Catharine also does mosaic pieces for private collectors. Her smaller works are featured in galleries and periodically displayed in one-person exhibits. Soon she plans to start a 140-foot long depiction of local history on a wall of the historical society building in Cloud County, Kansas. The mural will be constructed entirely out of one color of brick, a dark terra cotta red. For Catharine, bigger is not necessarily better. It is just another approach to demonstrate her extraordinary talent. To see more of Catharine Magel’s art, visit www.riverreflections.org. MissouriLife.com

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From Top: The Reflecting on a River mural along the Mississippi River incorporates more than seventeen thousand pounds of clay, and the Exploration Stations adorn the park station stops at the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area in St. Louis. Catharine Magel also creates smaller sculptures and mosaics.

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VISIT MISSOURILIFE.COM FOR ABOUT 300 MORE EVENTS!

All

Around Missouri Book Fair. April 19-22, Des Peres. Largest book fair in the Midwest. Westﬁeld County Macy’s. Free ($10 Thurs.) 314-993-1995

EDITORS’ PICKS APPLE BLOSSOM FEST MAY 5, ST. JOSEPH

Huge parade, concerts, and activities. Felix Street Square. Free. 816-261-0422

Bagnell Dam Strip. 10 AM-5 PM Fri.; 8 AM-5 PM Sat.; 8 AM-1 PM. Sun. Free. 800-451-4117 SALUTE TO VETERANS MAY 26-28, COLUMBIA

EARTH DAY FESTIVAL APRIL 21, KIRKSVILLE

Environmental activities and information. Courthouse lawn and downtown. 11 AM-4 PM. Free. 660-888-1202 WONDERS OF OUR WOODS APRIL 29, MEXICO

Wildflower walks, pizza garden, and plant sale. Scattering Fork Outdoor Center. 1-5 PM. $3. 573-581-3003

Airshow. Regional Airport. Gates open 9:30 AM. Free. 800-652-0987 FINE ART AND WINEFEST MAY 18-20, WASHINGTON

Fourteen area wineries showcase their wines, live music, and shopping. Historic downtown. 5-10 PM Fri.; noon-10 PM Sat.; noon-5 PM Sun. Free ($15 tasting). 636-239-1743 FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK APRIL 6-MAY 25, SPRINGFIELD

LAWN AND GARDEN SHOW APRIL 28, INDEPENDENCE DENNIS O’MALLEY

Variety of gardening items. Historic Jackson County Courthouse Square. 7 AM-3 PM. Free. 816-254-8612 LADIES WEEKEND/EXPO OUR CALENDAR HAS MOVED Our calendar of events has moved to our web site, but we’re still featuring a selection here in the Editors’ Picks column. Articles found in this department will still reflect events taking place around the state. See page 8 if you do not have access to the Internet.

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FREE LISTING ON WEB SITE: Submit events well in advance. Visit MissouriLife.com and fill out the form, or e-mail Amy@MissouriLife. com, or send announcement to Missouri Life, 515 E. Morgan St., Boonville, MO 65233. PLEASE NOTE: Event plans sometimes change. Call before traveling.

MAY 4-5, SEDALIA

Products, crafts demonstrations, and wine tasting. Downtown. 4-8 PM Fri.; 9 AM-3 PM Sat. $7. 660-827-7388

Tour galleries. Downtown. 6-10 Free. 417-862-2787

PM.

CHAIR-ITABLE AUCTION MAY 12, CUBA

Hand-painted chairs auctioned to raise money for the Route 66 Murals Project. Wal-Mart parking lot. 10 AM-2 PM. 573-885-2511 DOGWOOD AZALEA FEST APRIL 19-22, CHARLESTON

STREET MEET MAY 4-6, LAKE OZARK

Rally, cruises, and swap meet. Historic

Concerts, parade, walking tours of peak blooms, and craft show. Throughout town. Free. 573-683-6509

April 2007

3/7/07 4:30:33 PM

allaroundmissouri

TA N TA L I Z I N G AROMAS DRIFT over the crowd as people touch foliage and lift pots to get a better look at the thousands of herbs on display. Some people “ooh and aah” in delight while they watch topiaries being made out of herbs, while others are at the salsa table, sampling a tangy fruit salsa flavored with cilantro, cayenne, and garlic. Each year people flock to the annual herb sale of the Webster Groves Herb Society; this year the sale is April 28, from 8:30 am to 2 pm, at the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves. Visitors find a wide variety of culinary, medicinal, craft, and ornamental herbs for sale. An added plus is the knowledgeable society members, who are able to talk about characteristics and growing requirements of the plants to help people make good selections. With fifteen thousand plants available, including more than two hundred varieties of herbs, the sale, one of the largest in the Midwest, draws buyers from hundreds of miles. “We don’t just have rosemary, we have twenty varieties of rosemary,” says Jenny Fagan, chair of the herb sale. Each year Jenny tries to find new herbs to sell, so even an avid herb enthusiast will find something they’ve never seen before. Some of herbs this year include a red-flowered variety of valerian, Jim Westerfield mints, and costmary. The purpose of the herb sale is not only for people to find herbs to grow, but the society uses the proceeds for a scholarship for a horticultural student, to support school gardens, and to take care of three gardens in the St. Louis area. Leftover plants are donated to Gateway Greening, an organization that plants gardens throughout the city and promotes community gardening. The society places free recipes next to many of the plants to help buyers learn how to use and enjoy their plants. It also sells its own herbal cookbook. The members also offer varying demonstrations that show how to make foods, moth repellent, herbal paper, potpourri, and more. “Many people are getting into growing herbs,” Jenny says, “but they don’t know what to do with them. They can get lots of great ideas here.” The First Congregational Church of Webster Groves is located at 10 West Lockwood Avenue at Webster Groves. For more information about the herb sale and a list of plants that will be available, visit www.wgherbs.org/index.html. —Sylvia Forbes

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COURTESY OF JENNY FAGAN

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FEEL LIKE CLOWNING AROUND? Visit Houston, Missouri, and its annual Emmett Kelly Clown Festival. For two days in May, residents and visitors of Houston celebrate the legacy of its favorite son, Emmett Kelly, Sr. More widely known as “Weary Willie,” Emmett rose to fame as the first world-famous American clown. Although Emmett was born in Sedan, Kansas, he grew up on a farm just east of Houston. It was there, at age twenty, he made his first professional appearance at the Old Settlers Reunion. Emmett soon settled into a cartoonist job for a silent film company in Kansas City. During this time, he created the tramp clown character that would become his trademark. The cartoonist job inspired Emmett to chase his childhood dream of joining the circus, which he made a reality when he signed on as a fulltime trapeze artist and part-time clown for Howe’s Great London Circus. His hobo-clown creation with its sad, scruffy face and tattered clothes was not a quick-sell for circus promoters, but the Great Depression changed everything. With the country suffering, appearances of tramps and hobos became more appealing to audiences, and Emmett finally had his own image. For the next forty years, Weary Willie worked with many circus troupes including the legendary Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Shrine Circus. He also became a fixture on Broadway in Please Keep Off the Grass and in feature films such as The Greatest Show on Earth and The Clowns. Emmett died of a heart attack in 1979, but his memory lives on, especially during the Emmett Kelly Clown Festival. The celebration of his life and work includes a parade, clown competition, carnival, and a coaster-car derby as well as live music and entertainment. Visitors can also learn about make-up, juggling, magic, and more. Emmet’s grandson Joey Kelly, who took over the role of Weary Willie from his grandfather and father, will make special appearances during the festival. But the highlight of the two-day festivities is always the clown competition and the clowns themselves. “The clowns don’t just do the competition and go home,” says Claudia Marshall of the Houston Chamber of Commerce. “They are here all weekend, roaming the streets of downtown, performing. You can’t help but have fun when you see clowns.” The Emmett Kelly Clown Festival is May 4 and 5. The festi★ val runs from noon to 10 PM on Friday and from 9 AM to 5 PM on Saturday. For more information, call 417-967-2220 or visit www.houstonmochamber.com. —Amanda Dahling

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COURTESY OF HOUSTON AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

CLOWNING AROUND

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3/6/07 3:59:03 PM

missouritrivia

1. Which king of conservative talk radio got his start at Cape Girardeau’s KGMO while in high school? 2. What actor, an Affton native who studied drama at Missouri State University, stars as blue-collar husband, Dan Conner in the sitcom Roseanne? 3. After growing up in Independence and Washington, D.C., what author wrote mystery novels such as Murder in the White House and Murder on Capitol Hill? 4. Before hosting The Price is Right, which silver-haired emcee graduated from Springfield’s Central High School and Drury University? 5. What rock-and-roll pioneer, who became famous for hit songs such as “Maybellene” and “Johnny B. Goode,” spent his early years in St. Louis?

6. Which actress grew up in St. Joseph, before she became the first Mrs. Ronald Reagan in 1940 and starred in Falcon Crest in the 1980s? 7. Before headlining such hit films as Fight Club and Ocean’s Eleven, what Springfield native left the University of Missouri School of Journalism two credits shy of his degree? 8. Once a pro basketball player for the New York Knicks, what three-term U.S. senator from New Jersey was a Crystal City native and a high school basketball star? 9. What actor, who starred in Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and a classic 1960s eponymous sitcom, was born in West Plains? 10. What former Kennett native and music

From question three, this young author grew up in Indpeendence and Washington D.C.

teacher’s debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club, went multi-platinum? —Timothy Hill (Answers on page 83)

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of music and was discovered by a German music teacher, who instructed him in the ways of European musical arts. In the 1880s, he lived in Sedalia and attended Lincoln High School. In 1893, he played cornet and directed a band at the World’s Fair. Joplin attended music classes in 1896 at George R. Smith College in Sedalia and published his first piano rag in 1898. He collaborated with Sedalia lawyer Robert Higden and contracted with a local salesman for his most famous rag, “Maple Leaf Rag.” His royalties included one cent per copy sold, which guaranteed him a small but steady income throughout his life. For more informa★ tion or to purchase tickets, which range from $17 to $30, call 866-218-6258 or visit www.scottjoplin.org. Funding for the festival and a foundation comes from donations, tickets, and merchandise sales. — Glenna Parks

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COURTESY OF ABBIE TURNER

JOPLIN LEGACY LIVES IN SEDALIA

“ELITE SYNCOPATIONS” reign in Sedalia on May 30 through June 3, and there’s “Something Doing” as fans celebrate “The Entertainer” of all entertainers during the 27th Annual Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival. Ragtime aficionados can listen to the lively music, learn a dance from Joplin’s time, and show off their own piano skills at the festival. A variety of free entertainment is featured, including performances at State Fair Community College, tea dances at Cakewalk Hall, and mini concerts at the Katy Depot. A parade, a Turn of the Century Fashion Contest, and an award ceremony will be held on Saturday. The highlights of the entertainment are the paid venues, featuring dinner shows, a dance on Friday, and a brunch on Sunday. Paid venues also include prestigious performers Mimi Blais, classically trained pianist; TurpinTyme Ragsters, a seven-piece ensemble from Kansas City; Nora Hulse, Doctor of Music Education who specializes in rags by female composers; and Dave Majcherzak, St. Louis veterinarian by day, ragtime whiz by night. Although neither Scott Joplin’s birth date nor birthplace is known, Sedalia is nicknamed the “Cradle of Ragtime,” and is credited as being his hometown. Legend has it that Joplin first laid his hands on a piano in a home on the Texas-Arkansas border where his mother worked. There, he taught himself the basics

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3/6/07 6:56:43 PM

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MISSOURI TRIVIA ANSWERS

(Questions on page 81) 1. Rush Limbaugh’s popularity has been credited with helping to revive AM radio. 2. Roseanne brought John Goodman widespread fame. 3. Margaret Truman, daughter of Harry and Bess Truman, is the author of numerous books. 4. Drury University will award its famous alumnus Bob Barker an honorary degree in May. 5. Chuck Berry was among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 6. Jane Wyman won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Johnny Belinda. 7. Brad Pitt left the University of Missouri to pursue acting in Hollywood. 8. In 2000, Bill Bradley ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination. 9. Although he grew up in Illinois, Dick Van Dyke was born in West Plains. 10. Bootheel native Sheryl Crow has won nine Grammy awards.

Visit New Madrid, MO

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April 2007

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SHOTS FIRE ON THE COURTHOUSE lawn; soldiers dressed in blue struggle with soldiers dressed in gray. City papers located inside the courthouse are at risk, and giving up isn’t an option. A reenactment of this historical skirmish in Clinton, sponsored by the Henry County Museum, Clinton Main Street, Inc., and the Clinton Tourism Department, will bring this story to a new generation. Hundreds of visitors will join Clinton residents to witness the conflict, “although since it is so close to the square, very few shots will be fired,” says Alta Dulaban, director of the Henry County Museum. The historic Dorman Home property will serve as the site of the unrest, and fittingly so, since the home is a restored antebellum property open to the public for tours. In addition to the reenactment, there will be a Civil War-era fashion show on the square, a Heartland

Theatre presentation of Neil Simon’s God’s Favorite, a display of three hundred types of barbed wire, and the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Between Fences, which explains the historical signiﬁcance and hidden psychological meaning of fences, hosted by ★ the Henry County Museum. The Henry County Museum is located in the historic Anheuser-Busch Building, which once served as a distribution point for the brewery. The museum is just off the square, noted as the largest square in Missouri. It is home to more than 150 local shops, restaurants, and retail services. The reenactment begins April 28 at 10 AM and concludes at 2 PM on April 29. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 660-885-8414 or visit www.clintonmomainstreet. com or www.mohumanities.org. —Glenna Parks

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April 2007

3/5/07 1:15:05 PM

musings

My PREDICTIONS I

F THERE’S ONE phrase that’s associated with Missouri, it is this: If you don’t like our weather today, just wait until tomorrow. Those who recall last January’s ice storm, which for me is a tad unforgettable since a couple of trees still lie horizontal in the yard, might also recall it was sixty degrees the day before the iceman cometh. Barely a month later, when the entire Midwest was experiencing sub-zero temperatures, I was on my roof, repairing the last of the power lines that the earlier ice storm had destroyed. Why not? Again it was over sixty degrees. Then the next day, we were in the twenties again — par for the course. So, I have to wonder, just what sort of panic psychosis has descended upon the mainstream media and a frighteningly large percentage of the American populace? I cannot turn on a radio, read a paper, or flip on the tube without experiencing the ongoing harangue regarding Global Warming. Al Gore makes a really boring movie and is hailed as a hero, though folks seem to forget that while Al has numerous credentials as a politician, he holds just as many meteorological diplomas as Britney Spears. An international consortium of scientists come out with a study that attests man is primarily responsible for odd weather patterns, but fails to mention that the data used in their study was based heavily upon hypothetical computer models. I simply don’t understand why so many fear that they are going to fry, melt, or drown. From what source stems this “end of the world” mentality? I was recently discussing the Global Warming cacophony with my father, and I suggested that maybe the brain-trusts who have declared our planet doomed forgot to include a witty Missouri historian on their panels. Thus, being a native Show-Me resident, at least a half-wit, and having a history degree stowed somewhere in the shed, I’ve decided to step up to the plate. Folks, I hate to tell you this, but we’re just not powerful enough to alter the planet’s climate, at least not on any grand scale. We might like to think different, but we’re just specks. Last winter during all the blizzards, when it was as cold as a gravedigger’s smile, I noted with some amusement that the phrase “Global Warming” fell out of popularity. The new panic term is “Climate Change.” If it’s a hot day, blame it on Climate Change. If it’s chilly, it’s the fault of Climate Change. If Ron Marr 86

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it’s sixty-eight and gorgeous, ya’ll best beware; the dreaded Climate Change is fast on your heels. But you know what, climate change is real. It changes every second of every day. Like Shredded Wheat or the Rocky Mountain spring water purported to be in every Coors beer, it’s all-natural. The facts of the matter are, that between 800 and 1300 AD, during the “Medieval Climate Optimum,” the Fahrenheit rose enough that southern Great Britain was renowned for its vineyards. The North Atlantic was ice free, and the Vikings took time to discover Greenland. Geologic strata tests show that much of the western United States experienced terrible drought. Of course, the Medieval Climate Optimum was followed by the “Little Ice Age,” which lasted from about 1350 to the mid-1800s. This era is well documented, thanks to writing and the artwork of the time. Glaciers in the Swiss Alps expanded and traveled, sometimes over-taking entire towns. The river Thames froze on a semi-regular basis, and in 1780 New York Harbor was a sheet of ice. The Viking colonies in Greenland disappeared, as it was now too cold to grow crops. There was famine, death and flooding, and no doubt a run on wool mittens and long johns. The April 28 cover story of Newsweek magazine in 1975 was entitled “The Cooling World.” The danger, we were told, was that the tinkering of man was turning our Earth into a refrigerator and, by golly, we were soon to be the old box of Popsicles hiding in the back of the freezer. All the scientists agreed that global cooling was a threat to the future of mankind. According to this article, some climatologists were even suggesting that we melt the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot. When it comes to Global Warming or Global Cooling or Climate Change, all I can tell you is to sit back, pour yourself a refreshing beverage, and quit fretting. Let a beat-up old hillbilly give you a prediction of climate change. It’s springtime, and you can be expecting a bunch of twisters and hail any minute now. Some days, it will be hot; in a few months, it will be stifling. It will rain cats and dogs, and then it won’t. There will be at least one cold snap, followed by true scorchers, and a whole bunch of just about perfect. And if you don’t like today’s weather, please try and refrain from making like Chicken Little. The sky isn’t falling. It’s just doing what it always does — being utterly unpredictable. Keep in mind timetested Missouri wisdom. Wait around for tomorrow. Things are bound to change.

ILLUSTRATION BY BARBARA KING

■ By Ron Marr

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April 2007

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