Missouri Life August/September 2009

Daniel Boone’s Pioneer Days

2008 IRMA MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

★

168 Events & Festivals

50 place$ .

Zero dolla r$.

FREE FUN in L JoPunT: jA

I-70 eats

Satisfy your highway hunger

Spook lights, Undercliff, & George Washington Carver

native crafts

Artisans teach the old ways

an ozark castle

20 years on Bugle Mountain

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Silver Dollar City [2] MissouriLife

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PLAY

WIN A VACATION “SHOW Your Family a Great Time”– A 3-day, 2-night stay at Thousand Hills Resort with a round of golf. The next day, board Titanic – World’s Largest Museum Attraction, and that night marvel at the Acrobats of China.

On day three enjoy thrilling rides, great food, live shows and family fun at the award-winning Silver Dollar City theme park.

To enter a drawing to win this vacation for a family of four, please visit MissouriLife.com or send your name, address, and phone number or email to:

play (pla) vi. {ME plein < OE plegan, to play, be active} 1 to amuse oneself, as by taking part in a game or sport; engage in recreation 2 to give off sounds, esp. musical sounds 3 to be performed or presented in a theater

Missouri Life/Win Branson Vacation 515 E Morgan Boonville MO 65233

Winner will be drawn and notified on January 30, 2010, and winner’s name will be announced in the magazine and also at MissouriLife.com. Entry gives permission to announce your name as winner.

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Southern Gospel Picnic

Splash into Summer in Branson!

Silver Dollar City

Aug. 27 - Sept. 7, 2009

Broadway productions, comedy characters, talking dogs, Longhorn stampedes, high-flying trapeze artists, and a variety of musical styles and eras await you.

The live shows in Branson offer families with children high-tech magical illusions, Chinese acrobats, and daredevil skateboard exhibitions.

Cathy Rigby as Peter Pan

Titanic – World’s Largest Museum Attraction

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Jim Stafford

Come aboard Titanic – World’s Largest Museum Attraction and relive the last hours of that fateful voyage in 14 interactive galleries with more than 400 personal and private MissouriLife artifacts[4]on display.

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Historic Downtown Branson

Branson is home to more than 200 outlet stores, Branson Landing with its array of galleries, boutiques, and specialty stores, and the Historic Downtown Shopping District with quaint shops and flea markets.

Branson Landing

Branson is one of the top family vacation destinations in the country and for good reason. With three area lakes that offer an abundance of recreational opportunities from wakeboarding to scuba diving to fly fishing, and a vast array of lodging accommodations from which to choose, families of all ages and sizes choose Branson as their destination of choice for summertime fun.

36th Annual Autumn Daze Arts and Crafts Festival Downtown Branson

Sept. 17 - Sept. 20, 2009 Up to 150 vendors show their wares at this popular downtown event.

Broadway! The Star-Spangled Celebration

Because the lakes are located just minutes from the center of town, it's easy to plan a vacation filled with outdoor recreation, shows, attractions, theme parks, shopping, amusement centers, plenty of dining options and more.

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1-800-226-6316 or visit www.ExploreBranson.com Call

[5] August 2009

for special offers

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[10] MissouriLife

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Don’t Miss These Legendary Performers in Branson, MO Righteous Brothers’ Bill Medley and Paul Revere & The Raiders

Cathy Rigby is Peter Pan

Collin Raye with Country Tonite

Debby Boone with Country Tonite

The story of Peter Pan holds a special fascination for children of all ages. Don’t miss this world class production.

This powerful combo brings their mix of “blue-eyed soul”, old-time rock-n-roll, and rhythm and blues to Branson. Check out their “Reunion Shows”!

&ROOLQ 5D\H KDV ÀYH Platinum Albums, 15 #1 hits and 24 top ten VRQJV (QMR\ WKLV ÀYH time nominated Country Music Male Vocalist of the Year in Branson.

She’ll “Light Up Your Life” as she takes the stage with Country Tonite. Don’t miss this legendary entertainer.

For Tickets Call 1-800-865-6777 or visit www.BransonTourismCenter.com [8] MissouriLife

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CONTENTS Features

August 2009

56 ❖ Defining Daniel Boone

Boonesfield Village in Defiance plays an important part in Missouri history and how stories of the past are shared. Plus, meet two reenactors who bring Daniel Boone and his biographer, John Filson, to life.

62 ❖ George Washington Carver’s Legacy

The King of the Road finds his hero’s boyhood home in southwest Missouri, along with a toaster museum, a restaurant under a cliff, and the Devil’s Jack-O-Lantern.

66 ❖ Free Fun: 50 Places. Zero Dollars.

You don’t need an expensive vacation to have fun.

From art museums to unique experiences and everything in between, we’ve found 50 places close to home that won’t break the bank.

82 ❖ I-70 Eats

Escape the drive-throughs on your road trip across Missouri on one of our busiest thoroughfares and treat yourself to one of these pit stops for a delicious, better-than-fast-food meal.

98 ❖ 20 Years on Bugle Mountain

A castle in the Ozarks that is home to a man with a rags-to-riches story is a comfortable family retreat as well as a popular community gathering place.

In Every Issue 23 ❖ All Around Missouri

Our listing of 168 events, including a Route 66 tour, Oktoberfest, a green house festival, a grape stomp, a Japanese Festival, hummingbird banding, an antique bicycle show, a quilt festival, and the Missouri State Fair. Visit MissouriLife.com for even more great events and the most complete listing in the state.

6

7 PAGivEe Crafts

Native nson s the ia t is r h The C kshop keep lk Wor rk fo Craft f Oza ions o age, blacktradit rd like co sket crafts ing, and ba h . it sm g alive weavin Nat

86 ❖ Restaurant Recommendations

Our best recommendations for California-style tri-tip in Iconium, pub fare in St. Louis, a tropical menu in Joplin, Chateaubriand in Kelso, and Italian in Kansas City.

88 ❖ Missouri Wine

Doug Frost divulges some secrets about wine judging and defends sweet wine during the dog days of summer.

104 ❖ Musings

MICHAEL A. PACE

Ron Marr recounts the perils and pluses of life in the Ozarks, and the wrath of some unfortunate weather.

106 ❖ Missouriana

Back to school, National Catfish Month, a tomato festival, the Missouri State Fair, and wise words from George Washington Carver.

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CONTENTS

August 2009

In Every Issue

14 ❖ Missouri Memo

52 ❖ Missouri Books

Fox Trotters and float trips—the publisher and editor discuss some favorite end-of-summer events.

20 ❖ Letters

Thoughts about BBQ, quilts, and our new add-your-own event feature for our calendar at MissouriLife.com.

A colt who defied the odds, an anthology of work by Missourians with disabilities, a fun children’s tale of a family vacation. Plus 6 other books by Missouri authors or about Missouri places or topics.

54 ❖ Made in Missouri

Missouri Medley 41 ❖ People, Places, & Points

Polish wood perfectly, fight diaper rash, and help the earth by using biodegradable disposable dinnerware.

Zest of Life 47 ❖ Show-Me Essentials

Pineapple slaw from Coconuts Tropical Grill in Joplin, crab cakes from Ray’s Restaurant in Kelso, and French Vanilla Fantasy from WJ’s in Boonville.

Creative uses for recycled wine corks, wind power, and Brad Pitt backs a new cancer center at Springfield.

A number-crunching artist, Missouri's state dessert, the White Rabbits, 100 years of the Lutheran Historical Society, and a baseball player who had a thing for burgers.

Cover photo: Courtesy of St. Louis Zoo, a Free Fun destination

Show-Me Flavor 90 ❖ Missouri Recipes

Missouri Lifestyle 95 ❖ Inspired Ideas & Savvy Solutions

The country’s most challenging marathon, the ultimate green building, and Bamzi Bags, a unique purse.

.

This Issue on MissouriLife com

The Vote is In Mark Twain Lake took first with 48% in our poll of the best “Lure of the Lakes” body of water featured in the June 2009 issue.

Stockton Lake took second, and Table Rock Lake came in third.

Follow the White Rabbits Watch the video “Percussion Gun” from the album It’s Frightening by the White Rabbits.

See the full story on page 48.

Bonus recipes Try a recipe for ToAdSuck Coleslaw submitted by one of our restaurant recommendations, the ToAdSuck Grill in Iconium, on page 86.

©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; COURTESY OF THE WHITE RABBITS; TINA WHEELER

Missouri eLife Don’t miss out on Missouri eLife, our digital editions. They’re free to subscribers and includes additional features like videos, photo galleries, live web links, a search function, and more. You can find all of the 2009 issues in our Marketplace for $3 each.

Armadillo Awareness Get in on the conversation about Missouri’s armadillo population, the Lyceum theatre, and more on our staff blog, ML Buzz.

[12] MissouriLife

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Experience

Boonville!

34th Annual

Missouri River Festival of the Arts August 26-28

Presented by the Friends of Historic Boonville Historic Thespian Hall, Boonville, MO

Festival of Lights Thursday Nights in September

Artistic Director

David Halen

All performances begin at 8:00 p.m.

Steam Engine Association Back to the Farm Reunion September 10-13

August 27--American Songbook: Opera to Broadway August 28--Postcard From Italy August 29--Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony And more

Festival of the Leaves Arts and Crafts Fair September 26

August 26--29 Visual Art Exhibit at the Hain House Featured visual artist, Christopher Bolin

Girlfriends Shopping Weekend November 13-14

Tickets online: www.friendsofhistoricboonville.org

Christmas in Historic Boonville December 4-5

Or call 660-882-7977

The Experience...

Brings You Back Visit the events calendar on goboonville.com for details 6 6 0 • 8 8 2 • 2 7 2 1 [13] August 2009

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O I MEM MISSOe TaUleR s Behind the Stories Telling th

are Missouri Fox Trotters. The unique breed

was developed in the Missouri Ozarks about a hundred years ago. They have a distinct “four-beat” gait, which basically means that when they are trotting one foot is always on the ground, and this delivers a lot less stress to the rider’s rear-end because they don’t have the “up and down” motion that a non-gaited horse has.

Our family has been raising Fox Trotters for nearly twenty years now. My stud horse, Cody, is the grandson of Zane Grey, one of the foundation studs for the breed. We raised Cody from birth, and he’s now seventeen years old. He’s the best riding horse I’ve ever owned.

We have a special bond, and I think that may be the reason why I was able to save his life one night many years ago.

Danita and I and the kids had been gone all day and got home around 11

PM.

For some reason, I felt compelled to check on the

horses, which I never do at that time of night. The first thing I noticed was that Cody was not with the mares. I went on a search and came upon Cody near the creek hanging upside down by one leg! He had gotten his leg into a grapevine that hung down from a tall tree and had tried to get out by turning in circles. But instead of getting out, he

Horsing Around

twisted himself higher until he had his back legs hung up about five feet off the ground.

I got a saw and cut him down, and he lay there trying to breathe. I ran back and called the vet, and after a struggle, we got him up. With some TLC, he was saved with no ill effects except for a scar on his back leg.

If you want to see what Fox Trotters are all about, check out the Celebration held in Ava from September 6 through September 12 by the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association.

Fox Trotters from all over America converge for this annual event that celebrates this breed. You may even

Greg Wood, Publisher

see me there riding Cody.

Award-Winning

Misisfoeu.r..i L

2009 2009 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2007

WHY IS MISSOURI LIFE floating the Missouri River? There is a back story, of course.

A girlfriend and I had decided to float the Missouri River from where it enters the state to the confluence. My friend Nina Furstenau is a writer (in fact, she wrote “I-70 Eats” on page 82), and we were both enticed by the idea of floating the river for a story. The idea to float had been fermenting for awhile with me, prompted by my first Danita Allen Wood, Editor in Chief float on the river, from Rocheport to Huntsdale, barely a nine-mile float. Then, we created a special section in our June 2007 issue on the Missouri River, with a big portion devoted to its recreational value. I’ve also followed the development of the Missouri River 340 Race with interest and talked to some of the racers.

Once I mentioned it to Nina, it was a done deal. We convinced each other we could do this thing. I floated most of the Ozark rivers and streams years ago, and Nina has a lot of floating experience, too.

Enter Greg. I think he was worried about our safety, or maybe how long it would take, or that he would be dragooned to rescue us, or maybe accompany us. The next thing I know, he’s introducing us to a group of adventure travel organizers named Wapiti.

So our multi-week adventure morphed into a leisurely and accessible four-day float. We’ve gone from bare bones to luxury. We have an artistin-residence, the nationally known Billyo O’Donnell, or as we’re already calling him, artist-in-boat, who will be painting along the way. We have Bodyworks masseuses meeting us on sandbars. Our guides are all experts, so we can rest assured we’re taken care of.

But best of all, I just got the menu. Forget the float; I’m going for the food. Crawfish boil, crab and shrimp gumbo, sweet corn Parmesan risotto, snapper and tomatilla tapenade (I don’t even know what that is, but I want some), and basil squash soup, and this is just part of the menu the first two days! Fine Missouri wines will accompany dinner.

There is still room. See page 46 for more details.

Come float with us.

Best Issue, August/September 2008, Missouri Association of Publications Best Single Article Presentation, Missouri Association of Publications Magazine of the Year, International Regional Magazine Association Gold Award, Overall Art Direction, International Regional Magazine Association Silver Award, Single Photograph, International Regional Magazine Association Bronze Award, Profile Writing, International Regional Magazine Association Bronze Award, Cover, International Regional Magazine Association Merit Award, Culture Feature Writing, International Regional Magazine Association Best Magazine Design, Missouri Association of Publications Gold Award, Travel Feature Writing, International Regional Magazine Association

EVAN WOOD, TINA WHEELER

My favorite horses

FLOAT AND FEAST!

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[15] August 2009

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The Spirit of Discovery 515 East Morgan Street, Boonville, MO 65233 660-882-9898 info@missourilife.com

Publisher Greg Wood

Editorial Editor in Chief Danita Allen Wood Managing Editor & Web Editor Rebecca French Smith Assistant Editor Callina Wood Editorial Assistants Katlin Chadwick, Whitney Spivey Contributing Writers Peter Bronski, Abby Callard, Kate Clabough, John Fisher, Doug Frost, Nina Furstenau, Matthew Langenhorst, Ann Leach, Ron W. Marr, W. Arthur Mehrhoff, Karen Mitcham-Stoeckley, Barbara Gibbs Ostmann, John Robinson, Jim Winnerman Contributing Photographers and Illustrators Gayle Harper, Notley Hawkins, Rachel Nelson, Michael Pace

Art & Production Creative Director Andrew Barton Art Director Tina Wheeler Marketing Art Director Eric Larson

Advertising Senior Account Managers Linda Alexander, 816-582-7720, Kansas City area Sherry Broyles, 800-492-2593, ext. 107 Beckie Maislin, 636-273-9934, St. Louis area Advertising Coordinator & Calendar Editor Amy Stapleton, 800-492-2593, ext. 101

Circulation & Administration Administrative & Accounting Assistant Karen Ebbesmeyer, 800-492-2593, ext. 102 Subscription Services 877-570-9898

MISSOURI LIFE, Vol. 36, No. 4, August 2009 (USPS#020181; ISSN#1525-0814) Published bimonthly in February, April, June, August, October, and December by Missouri Life, Inc., for $21.99. Periodicals Postage paid at Boonville, Missouri, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Missouri Life, P. O. Box 15336, N. Hollywood, California 91615. Š 2009 Missouri Life. All rights reserved. Printed by The Ovid Bell Press, Inc., at Fulton, Missouri.

[16] MissouriLife

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Back to the Farm Reunion 46th

Annual

sept.

10-13,

opens 8 am

2009

Schlotzhauer Auto, affordable quality since 1974, cars, trucks, SUVs, and vans from

More than 60 units in stock!

every day

Brady Showgrounds in Boonville, MO

$5 per day

n

$7 for 4-day show pass

n

$1,995 to $12,000

Kids under 12 Free

Activities Schedule n

Threshing with Steam & Gas

n

n

Field Demos (Horses & Tractors)

n

Flea Markets

n

Antique Engines

n

Parade of Power (each day) 3 pm

n

1920’s Era Farmhouse Tours

n

Food Concession

n

Quilting Demos

n

Lumber Sawing

n

Historical Life Skills Demos

n

Rock Crushing

Low rat financing e for most everyone

Classic Cars & Trucks Displayed

Low rates on auto, van, and now truck rentals. We trade for most anything.

For after hours rentals, call 816-916-3078.

320 West Ashley Rd. • Boonville, MO 65233 • 660-882-2550 • 800-568-4982 • www.boonvillecars.com

2009 FeatUreS MiSceLLaNeOUS aND ODD BaLLS

“LeSSer KNOWN cLaSSicS”

hOStiNG the NatiONaL MeetiNG OF eMpire tractOr cOLLectOrS

FriDay, Sept. 11

• TRACTOR CRUISE 8:30 am • Working Dog Demo • Professional Horse Pull 6 pm • Live Music by BLUeGraSS rOUNDUp 8 pm

SatUrDay, Sept. 12

• Blacksmithing • Working Dog Demo • Kids Games • MATPA Tractor Pull 4 pm

• Fiddle Contest 6 pm • Live Music by eaSy tUNeS 2 pm irON WeeD 8 pm

SUNDay, Sept. 13

• Draft Horse & Mule Activities 10 am • Log Skidding • Obstacle Course • Pedal Pull 1:30 pm • Gospel Music by the MeSSeNGerS

A Big Muddy Musical

Written By Meredith Ludwig and Cathy Barton • Directed by Lesley Oswald

Coming to Washington, Missouri for two performances

Sat., 7 PM, Nov. 21 & Sun., 2 PM Nov. 22

dean thiemann (660) 537-2826 • mrvsea.com

SponSored by the WaShington area Chamber of CommerCe and the WaShington hiStoriCal SoCiety. look for more information at WWW.WaShmo.org or Call 636 239-2715, ext 102 a turner hall river ratS produCtion WWW.gumbobottomSmuSiCal.Com

[17] August 2009

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Extended Hours On Tuesday & Thursday Open ’Til 7 pm

THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY 515 East Morgan Street, Boonville, MO 65233 660-882-9898 info@missourilife.com

To Subscribe or Give a Gift • Visit MissouriLife.com • Call 877-570-9898 • Or mail a check for $19.99 (special offer for 6 issues) to: Missouri Life P.O. Box 15336, North Hollywood, CA 91615-9975

Advertising Call 800-492-2593. Information for display and web advertising and for other marketing opportunities are posted at MissouriLife.com.

Custom Publishing

Simply Amish.

Furniture That Lasts Forever.

Business 54 East • Mexico, MO 65265 (573) 581-0076 • Mon-Fri 10 am - 5 pm • Sat 10 am - 3 pm

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International Regional Magazine Association

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[18] MissouriLife

MASTHEAD-AUG 09.indd 18

7/1/09 10:06:03 AM

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     

AD-AUG 09.indd 19

 [19]    

August 2009

7/1/09 10:09:28 AM

R onLsE&TYoTurEStoRrieSs YOU g Opini

Sharin

Perry Foster

MORE BBQ, QUILTS, AND MONEY Mark Pearce, Warrensburg

I am the co-owner of Johnny’s Smoke Stak, DBA Johnny’s Hickory Pit BBQ. Johnny and I opened in 1978. We sold the business in 2006 and thought that we were retired. Instead, the people that bought Johnny’s ran it into the ground, so to speak. So in January of 2007, we changed the locks, cleaned, and actually started over, with no customers and a bad name.

We had sold the name, so instead of getting into a lawsuit concerning name rights, we changed the name. So, there is no longer a Johnny’s Smoke Stak. It is now Johnny’s Hickory Pit BBQ and Catering Co. We have a wonderful weekend buffet, great salad patch, great service, and great BBQ. We have been in business going on thirty-one years, not including the bad, bad year of 2006.

I hope that sometime in the future, you can revisit us. We are not a large franchise; we are just two married people that had the guts to open a business and try to make a success out of it, not once but twice!!!

Wendi Hoch, Rolla

Online Ease

Clarifications

Our Missouri Art Classic group used your new online process for getting on your event calendar. It was great! Easy to use, efficient, and looks great online.

Ralph and Caron Quick (“The Seat of Patriots,” June 2009) have not demonstrated at the Daniel Boone Home since 2000. Additionally, the Windsor Institute is the only school in the United States to teach Windsor chair-making with the hand-tool method, and the movie in which the Quicks and their chairs are featured is in post-production but will show at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., when it comes out.

Mo Art Classic Group, Rocheport

New Quilt Barn I read with interest your article with pictures of barn quilts in Missouri (June 2009). I have seen two of those listed and have completed one of our own. It is on our barn now. We are very pleased and proud of it. We live at Creighton, one mile north of Route 7 at the Creighton exit. We welcome people who would like to see it to visit.

Joyce Salmon, Creighton

Mailbox Money Congratulations on a fine June issue. As a feast-or-famine freelance writer myself, I identify whole-heartedly with Ron Marr’s discourse on survival of hard times. He’s a rare treasure and a most-read feature of your magazine. Money is the necessary lubricant of the wheels of progress, and as my father often quoted, “It’s no disgrace to be poor, but it’s mighty inconvenient at times.” May our mailbox money keep arriving just in time, Ron. LeRoy Cook, Butler (neighbor to Ron Marr’s folks)

The Mark Twain Lake image on page 76 June 2009 is courtesy of Timber Ridge Resort/ Sandy Anderson.

Corrections In “32 Skidoo” (page 73, June 2009), Pa was Briscoe Darling, not Chester Darling, on The Andy Griffith Show. On page 68, settlers that hailed from eastern Canada were Acadian.

Send Us a Letter E-mail: info@missourilife.com Via web site: MissouriLife.com Fax: 660-882-9899 Address: Missouri Life 515 East Morgan Street Boonville, MO 65233-1252

RACHEL NELSON

I saw the bit you did on Perry Foster in the June (2009) issue. Perry is truly one of the nicest guys in the world. You pegged him right. You never walk away hungry when you eat there. Thanks for writing from the heart.

[20] MissouriLife

LETTERS-AUG 09.indd 20

7/2/09 10:41:15 AM

PROMOTION

It’s all about at Columbia’s interactive science center!

W

hen you step inside the YouZeum and hear the chiming and clanging of the 16-foot tall Phun Physiology kinetic sculpture, you’ll know instantly that this is like no other museum you’ve been to. You won’t find any quiet observers here, instead, visitors get active and energized and have a great time while learning about health, fitness, and how the human body—your body—works.

The YouZeum features more than 20 hands-on exhibits (with more to come) that are truly fun for all ages. Adults can embrace their competitive side on the main level as they test their brain power on computer games, cycle through a virtual replica of a local trail, dodge a virtual obstacle course, and test other physical features at various stations. Kids will love the colorful and lively interactive displays as they learn about the human body and important aspects of health, like nutrition and fitness.

On the lower level, visitors get to explore the world of healthcare by stepping into a replica of an ER, complete with a real ambulance. An on-screen physician will lead you through the steps to care for Ed, a permanent patient (a mannequin, actually) at the YouZeum. You’ll also get to play the role of a healthcare pro with fun virtual games that let you diagnose patients by finding out their symptoms and learning about lab samples.

While the exhibits are the main attraction for most visitors, there are also classrooms for educational programs, including summer camps. Kids can also celebrate a birthday at the YouZeum, and an exploration room for children seven and under is being developed on the upper level.

u o Y e d r Tou (573) 886-2006

t www.youzeum.org

Located at 608 East Cherry Street in downtown Columbia.

Open Wed. through Fri. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun. 1 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission for visitors 14 and older is $8, children 4-13 are $5, and children 3 and under are free.

Annual memberships are available and include free admission and a 10 percent discount at the gift shop.

AD-AUG 09.indd 1

7/1/09 8:19:11 PM

32nd Annual

Heritage Festival & Craft Show

Listen, learn and see history as it comes alive!

Sept. 19-20, 2009 10 am-5 pm Free Admission Nifong Park, Columbia, Missouri Highway 63 South, AC exit west to Ponderosa Entertainment on three stages featuring traditional and roots music, and dance American Indian dancing Fun for young’uns area Handmade crafts

Cowboys and their chuckwagon Lewis and Clark Outpost 1859 Town with reenactors Museum and historic home tours

Traditional tradesmen & artisans

Saturday evening ghost stories (8-9:30 pm)

“Lost arts” demonstrations

Hayrides and great food!

For more information, call 573-874-7460 or go to www.GoColumbiaMo.com Coordinated by Columbia Parks & Recreation

Stay overnight! For visitor and lodging information, call 1-800-652-0987 or log onto www.visitcolumbiamo.com

AD-AUG 09.indd 22

7/1/09 6:53:24 PM

ALL AROUND

MISSOURI

Events in Your Area

August & September

COURTESY OF KIP WELBORN

Featured Event

ROUTE 66 TOUR, JOPLIN TO PACIFIC On September 11-13 join the Route 66 Association of Missouri on a tour of this historic highway. Registration begins at the Holiday Inn in Joplin from 4-10 PM on Friday. The tour leaves at 8 AM on Saturday. Scheduled stops include the Jasper County Courthouse in Carthage and an overnight stay in Lebanon before arriving in Pacific. For more information call 314-7767385 or visit www.missouri66.org.

>>>

Look for our staff ’s picks.

These listings are chosen by our editors and are not paid by sponsors.

Visit MissouriLife.com for even more events!

Quilts and Picnics Aug. 9, Rich Fountain. Fried chicken, German pot roast dinners, and quilt auction (6 PM). Sacred Heart Parish grounds. 11 AM-10 PM (7 PM dinner ends). Free (food $4-$9). 573-897-4367, www.sacredheartrf.com

Central 143rd Moniteau County Fair Amy’s pick Aug. 3-8, California. Horse show, youth art show, tractor pulls, rodeo, draft horse demonstration, demolition derby, country music concert, carnival, and sanctioned BBQ contest. Moniteau County Fairgrounds.

5-10 PM Mon.-Fri.; 2-10 PM Sat. $5-$6 (free on Tues.).

573-796-4622, www.moniteaucountyfair.com Callaway County Fair Aug. 4-8, Fulton. Tractor pull, demolition derby, lawn mower and go-cart races, mixed martial arts, family entertainment areas, carnival, mud drag racing, 4-H exhibits, and livestock shows. Callaway County Fairgrounds. 8 AM-midnight. $10 (children 12 and under are free). 573-220-2613, callawaycountyfair.com

Cruise Hot Summer Nights Aug. 14 and Sept. 11, Lake Ozark. All makes and models of cars, trucks, and motorcycles; children’s events; and cruise shop hop. Bagnell Dam and the Strip. 6-11 PM. Free. 800-451-4117, www.cruisehotsummernights.com Missouri River Festival of the Arts Aug. 26-29, Boonville. Visual art exhibit open 6-8 PM and three nights of musical performances. Hain House and Thespian Hall. 8 PM. $22-$55. 660-882-7977, www.friendsofhistoricboonville.org Fall Fiesta Aug. 27-29, Holden. Exhibits, bands, parade, and quilts.

Downtown. 5 PM-midnight Thurs.-Fri.; 9 AM-midnight Sat. Free. 816-732-6844, holdenchamber.org

[23] August 2009

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6/26/09 10:23:15 AM

All Around Missouri

Antique Bike Display Sept. 1-30, Sedalia. Antique bikes and nostalgic photos.

Katy Depot. 9 am-5 pm Mon.-Fri.; 10 am-3 pm Sat. Free.

660-826-2932, ext. 18, www.katydepotsedalia.com Bluegrass Pickin’ Time Sherry’s pick Sept. 3-6, Dixon. Workshops, 18 bands, and antique tractors. Carol’s Memorial Bluegrass Park. 6-10:55 pm Thurs.; noon-10:50 pm Fri.-Sat.; 10 am-8:30 pm Sun. $8-$35. 573-759-3544, www.bluegrasspickintime.com World’s Fair Sept. 4-6, Mokane. Demolition derby, tractor pull, parade, and carnival. Lion’s Club Park. 5 pm-midnight Fri.; 10 ammidnight Sat.; 11 am-midnight Sun. Free (except carnival and food). 573-220-2752, mokanelions.com Folk Jam and Ice Cream Freeze-Off Sept. 5, Arrow Rock. Folk musicians, jam sessions, and homemade ice cream contest. Throughout town. Noon7 pm (ice cream contest 3 pm). $3 ice cream; music free.

660-837-3231, www.arrowrock.org Johnson County Rodeo Sept. 10-12, Warrensburg. Mutton bustin’, sanctioned bucking broncos, bull riding, and rodeo clowns. Johnson County Fairgrounds. 6 pm. $8-$10. 660-747-1811, www.johnsoncountyfairassociation.com

Tina’s pick

Jim Maxwell Antique Bicycle Show Sept. 26, Cole Camp Celebrating its ninth anniversary, this unique annual event was founded by Jim Maxwell, at right with microphone, who passed away this spring. This year’s show is dedicated in his memory. Bicycle enthusiasts gather to ride the historic Butterfield Trail and remember the nostalgia of antique and classic bicycles. Each stop will take you back in time as you learn the history of Cole Camp. Cyclists are encouraged to attend the event in costumes of yesteryear and tour through old Clabbertown.

The event will feature antique, classic, and special interest bicycles. Awards will be presented for best costume, best of show bicycle, and more. An antique bicycle will also be raffled off.

Registration starts at 9 am, and the festivities begin at 10 am.

For information, call 660-668-2295 or visit www.colecampmo.com.

Tina Wheeler

ML

Rocheport Wine Stroll

Sept. 19, 2009 4-8 p.m.

sold 4-7 p.m. at Community Hall •Tickets for a glass, wine guide, •$15 per person and punch card •Rain or shine Stroll the streets of Rocheport, visit the shops, and taste wines from ten Missouri wineries

s www.RocheportWineStroll.com

[24] MissouriLife

AAM-AUG 09.indd 24

7/1/09 6:41:30 PM

ML

All Around Missouri

City-Wide Garage Sale Sept. 12, Clinton. Dozens of sales. Throughout town.

7 am. Free. 660-885-8166, www.clintonmomainstreet.com Progressive Dinner Sept. 15, Blackwater. Four-course meal. Downtown. 6 pm.

Reservations. 660-846-2411, www.blackwater--mo.com Capitol Jazz Fest and Street Art Fair Sept. 18-19, Jefferson City. Performances by jazz and blues artists, beer garden, food for sale, and chalk art competition. Memorial Park. 5-7:30 pm Fri.; noon7 pm. Sat. Free. 573-635-2525, capjazz.org

Courtesy of Missouri State Fair

Ozark Ham and Turkey Festival Sept. 19, California. Parade, 5K run, car show, crafts, Kid’s Korner, diaper derby, carriage rides, washer board tournament, BBQ contest, and four stages of entertainment. Downtown and Fairgrounds. 9 am-5 pm (6:45 am run starts). Free. 573-796-3040. www.calmo.com Heritage Festival and Craft Show Sept. 19-20, Columbia. Demonstrations of lost arts, 1859 town with reenactors, Lewis and Clark outpost, Fun for Young’uns area, handmade crafts, and three stages of entertainment, including traditional and roots music.

Nifong Park. 10 am-5 pm (ghost stories Sat. 8-9:30 pm).

Free. 573-874-7460, GoColumbiaMo.com

Roots ’n Blues ’n BBQ Whitney’s pick Sept. 25-26, Columbia. BBQ contest, food vendors, and nationally known musicians performing bluegrass, blues, Appalachian folk, gospel and American-based music Downtown at the District. Free. 573-442-5863, www. rootsnbluesnbbq.com Fun with Fungi—Mushrooms in Missouri Sept. 26, Columbia. Learn how to identify mushrooms with the help of an expert, and take a hike to find mushrooms to bring back for identification, plus enjoy a photo presentation. Rock Bridge Memorial State Park.

10 am-4 pm for hike. Free. Reservations. 573-449-7402, www.mostateparks.com/rockbridge.htm Oktoberfest Sept. 26, Jefferson City. Celebration of the area’s German heritage featuring homemade German food, music, dancing, parade, Dachshund Derby, children’s train, car show, crafts, and artisan demonstrations.

Historic Old Munichburg. 10 am-6 pm. Free (except food).

573-636-6603, www.oldmunichburg.com Quilt Show Rebecca’s pick Sept. 26-27, Marshall. Exhibit of quilts by the Gee’s Bend Alabama quilters, silent auction, and vendors. Salt Fork YMCA. 9 am-5 pm Sat.; 10 am-5 pm Sun. $3 donation.

660-886-9622, www.countrypatchworkquilters.com

Missouri State Fair Aug. 13-23, Sedalia Ten days and 396 acres contain something for everyone at the Missouri State Fair; Wild West shows, circus acts, a farmers market, and musical headliners Brooks and Dunn are only some of the highlights.

Stop by and say hello to the Missouri Life staff in the Fine Arts Building—you might win some artwork.

Adult admission is $8 (see web regarding discounted days); free parking.

For information, call 800-422-3247 or visit www.mostatefair.com.

Hi st ory Th at Ca ll s Yo ur Na m e.

“The Missouri State Capitol, overlooking the Missouri River, is a beautiful sight to behold.

I’m proud to lend my name to this historic community.”

Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States and Jefferson City’s namesake.

You’ll Feel The History.

For more information call 800-769-4183 or go to www.visitjeffersoncity.com

[25] August 2009

AAM-AUG 09.indd 25

7/1/09 8:15:29 PM

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[26] MissouriLife

AD-AUG 09.indd 26

6/24/09 3:17:43 PM

ML

All Around Missouri

Northwest & Kansas City Area Tuesdays With Morrie July 31-Aug. 2, and Aug. 7-9, St. Joseph. Dinner theater featuring the play based on the heartwarming book.

Robidoux Landing Playhouse. 6 pm Fri.-Sat.; Noon Sun. Reservations. $7-$28. 816-232-1778, www.rrtstjoe.org Clown Day Aug. 1, Kansas City. Performances by area clown groups, balloon animals, face painting, stage show, and lots of clowning around. Crown Center. 11 am-1 pm. Free.

816-274-8444, www.crowncenter.com Solo Aug. 1-2, Kansas City. Forty quilts that celebrate African-American works. American Jazz Museum.

9 am-6 pm Sat.; noon-6 pm Sun. Free. 816-474-8463, www.americanjazzmuseum.com

10-Mile Antique and Garden Show Aug. 7-8, Weston. Antique, collectible, and garden vendors. Four locations throughout area. 10 am-5 pm. Free.

816-640-2300, www.weston10miletrail.com Corvette Show Aug. 8, Independence. Hundreds of restored classic to modern Corvettes. Independence Square. 8 am-3 pm.

Free. 816-461-0065, www.theindependencesquare.com Second Saturday Aug. 8 and Sept. 12, Lexington. Arts, crafts, antiques, trolley tours, live music, classic cars, and special events at the battlefield. Main Street area. 10 am-4 pm. Free ($5 for tours). 660-259-4711, www.visitlexingtonmo.com

Chicago Callina’s pick Aug. 11-16, Kansas City. Classic musical with knock-out dancing and an edge-of-your-seat story. Starlight Theatre.

8 pm. $9-$79. 816-363-7827, www.kcstarlight.com

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition Aug. 1-23, Kansas City. Exhibition includes more than 150 original costumes, set dresses, and props from this C.S. Lewis classic book, as well as hands-on educational activities. Union Station Grand Gallery. 9:30 am-5:30 pm Tues.-Sat.; noon-5:30 pm Sun. $9-$14. 816-460-2020, www.unionstation.org

Big River Aug. 13-30, Kansas City. Musical Theater Heritage presents this heartwarming slice of musical Americana. Off Center Theatre. 8 pm Thurs.-Sat.; 2 and 7 pm Sun. $10$25. 816-842-9999, www.musicaltheaterheritage.com

Laborer, Craftsman, Artist Aug. 1-30, Kansas City. Explore 300 years of precision tools including presentation pieces, handmade specialty implements, and early power tools. Toy and Miniature Museum. 10 am-4 pm Wed.-Sat.; 1-4 pm Sun. $4-$6.

816-333-9328, www.toyandminiaturemuseum.org

BBQ and Fly-In on the River Sherry’s pick Aug. 14-15, Excelsior Springs. BBQ meals, bands, fireworks, beer garden, performance by Marching Cobras, Apache helicopter, and children’s activities. Municipal Airport. 3-10 pm Fri.; 9 am-5 pm Sat. Free (except BBQ). www.wabashbbq.com

Serving Treasures From the Past Aug. 1-31, Independence. Exhibit of sugar jars, pitchers, and ice cream molds. Bingham-Waggoner Estate.

10 am-4 pm Mon.-Sat.; 1-4 pm Sun. $2-$5. 816-461-3491, www.bwestate.org Cruise Night Aug. 1-Sept. 5, Parkville. Classic and muscle cars, hot and rat rods, exotics and imports. Historic Downtown.

4-9 pm. Free. 816-505-2227, www.parkvillemo.org You Are So Beautiful in the Face Aug. 1-Oct. 3, Kansas City. Photography exhibit featuring images of quirky personalities, places, and oddball moments. Kemper at the Crossroads. Noon-8 pm Fri.; noon-6 pm Sat. Free. 816-753-5784, www.kemperart.org

courtesy of Jeff Kirchhoff

Hot Summer Nights Aug. 7-28 (Fri.), Smithville. Concerts and family activities. Downtown Courtyard. 6:30 pm. Free. 816-532-8525, www.smithvillechamber.org

Puddle Jumper Days Aug. 6-8, Odessa. Booths, fiddling contest, frog and turtle races, and an ice cream social. Downtown. 6-10 pm Thurs.; 7 am-midnight Fri.; 6 am-midnight Sat. Free.

816-682-3129, www.odessapuddlejumperdays.org Jazz on Town Square Aug. 6-Sept. 24 (Thursdays), Kansas City. Local, regional, and national jazz musicians perform. Zona Rosa. 7-9 pm. Free. 816-587-8180, www.zonarosa.com

Oktoberfest Sept. 25-26, Lee’s Summit

Steam Engine Show Aug. 14-16, Tracy. Flea market, arts, crafts, truck show, tractor drive, children’s pedal pull, stock tractor pull, mule show, antique and classic tractor pull, and parade of equipment. Platte County Fairgrounds. 8:30 am6:30 pm Fri.; 10 am-6 pm Sat.; 9 am-1 pm Sun. $8-$10 (children 12 and under and Sun. are free). 816-858-5826, www.plattecountysteamandgasshow.com

Nothing says German tradition like an Oompah band, wiener dog parade, brat eating contest, and biergarten. Add continuous live entertainment, arts, crafts, Kids Street, carnival, Root-Biergarten, traditional dancing, and music, and you have a German celebration. Admission is free to this downtown event from 10 am-5 pm Fri. and 9 am-10 pm Sat. For information, call 888-647-5470 or visit lsoktoberfest.com.

Second Friday Art Crawl Aug. 14 and Sept. 11, Excelsior Springs. Tour a variety of local galleries and shops for unique art, shopping, and dining. Start at Gallery 15. 5-9 pm. Free. 816-630-6161, www.exsmo.com

Ed Phillips Memorial Rodeo Aug. 21-22, Maryville. Bull riding, mutton busting, and rodeo events. Ed Phillips Memorial Arena. 8 pm. $5-$10.

660-582-8209, www.maryvillechamber.com

International G.I. Joe Convention Aug. 15-16, Kansas City. Diorama contest, displays of thousands of vintage action figures, seminars and panels. Hyatt Regency Crown Center. $8-$12. 816-421-1234, www.crowncenter.hyatt.com

Fall Wildlife Walks Amy’s pick Aug. 22, Sibley. A professional naturalist conducts a guided tour of native wildflowers and other flora and fauna. Fort Osage National Historic Landmark. 10 am and 2 pm. $3-$7. 816-503-4860, www.jacksongov.org

Family Fun Day: Imagination Station Aug. 15 and Sept. 19, Kansas City. Mr. Stinky Feet explores the imagination (Aug.); meet exotic mammals, reptiles, and birds (Sept.). Kansas City Power and Light District. Noon-4 pm. Free. 816-842-1045, www.powerandlightdistrict.com

Ethnic Enrichment Festival Aug. 21-23, Kansas City. Celebrate the heritage and traditions of more than 50 countries with food, crafts, vendors, and dancing. Swope Park. 6-10 pm Fri.; noon10 pm Sat.; noon-6 pm Sun. $3 (children 12 and under are free). 816-842-7530, eeckc.org

[27] August 2009

AAM-AUG 09.indd 27

6/30/09 6:56:37 PM

ALL AROUND MISSOURI

Elvis Tribute Aug. 29, Kearney. Performance by Bobby Simkins.

Kearney Amphitheatre at Jesse James Park. 7 PM. $5-$10. 816-903-4730, www.kearneyamphitheater.com Stargazing Rebecca’s pick Aug. 29, Lexington. Slide show and program and telescopes set up for viewing the night sky. Battle of Lexington State Historic Site. 7:30-10 PM. Free.660-259-4654, www.mostateparks.com/lexington

Escanaba In Da Moonlight Sept. 10-12 and 18-20, Independence. This play spins a hilarious tale of horror, humor, and heart. Sermon Center. 8 PM Thurs.-Sat.; 2 PM Sun. $8. 816-325-7370 www.visitindependence.com I'll Be Back Before Midnight Sept. 11-Oct. 25, Kansas City. An exciting yet hilarious thriller. American Heartland Theatre. Times vary. $15.50-$33.50. 816-842-9999, www.ahtkc.org

Downtown Sounds Summer Concert Sept. 4, Maryville. Outdoor blues concert and BBQ. Downtown Square. 7-9 PM. Free (except food). 660-5828643, www.maryvillechamber.com

Jazz Blast Sept. 12, Grandview. Music festival showcasing jazz and blues musicians. Downtown Main Street. 4-10 PM. Free.

816-761-6505, www.grandview.org

Irish Fest Callina’s pick Sept. 4-6, Kansas City. Celebrate the area’s Celtic heritage with traditional music featuring more than two dozen bands, dancing, and exhibits. Crown Center. 5-11 PM Fri.; 11 AM-11 PM Sat.-Sun. $10 (children under 12 are free). 816-997-0837, www.kcirishfest.com

Spies and Subversives Sept. 12, Independence. Join Archivist Sam Rushay as he shares formerly top-secret documents and discusses diplomacy and politics during the dawn of the Atomic Age. Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. 11 AM. $3-$8. 800-833-1225, www.trumanlibrary.org

Santa-Cali-Gon Days Festival Sept. 4-7, Independence. Crafts, local and nationally known country western music performances, carnival, and historic reenactors. Independence Square. 10 AM11 PM Fri.-Sun.; 10 AM-5 PM Mon. Free (except carnival).

816-252-4745, www.santacaligon.com

1964 ... The Tribute Sept. 12, St. Joseph. Recreation of an early 1960s live Beatles concert with period instruments, clothes, hair styles, and on-stage banter that takes the audience on a musical journey. Missouri Theatre. 8 PM. $10-$40.

816-279-1225, www.saintjosephperformingarts.org

Trails West! Festival AUG. 21-23, ST. JOSEPH The festival’s headliner acts are as unique as the cultural heritage of the St. Joseph area: blues star Joe Bonamassa, country musicians Luke Bryan and Heidi Newfield, and ’80s rock band Loverboy. Visitors will also enjoy fine arts, folk art, crafts, reenactments, and food booths. The $7 admission fee is good for all three days at Civic Center Park. The festival runs from 5 PM-midnight Friday; 10 AM-midnight Saturday; and noon-8:30 PM Sunday.

For information call 800-216-7080 or visit www.trailswest.org.

COURTESY OF BETH CONWAY OF ST. JOSEPH CVB

ML

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800-492-2593, ext. 102 missourilife.com [28] MissouriLife

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ALL AROUND MISSOURI

Tour of Missouri Finish Sept. 13, Kansas City. Watch cyclists cross the finish line after they race across the state. Visit the Health and Wellness Expo. Held at the start/finish line in the afternoon. Free. 816-691-3829, tourofmissouri.com

COURTESY OF DIMARTINO PHOTOGRAPHY

Jesse James Festival Sept. 18-20, Kearney. Parade, arts, crafts, rodeo, BBQ cook-off, dance, and mud-volleyball tournament. Jesse James Festival Grounds. Noon-midnight Fri.; 6:30 AM1 AM Sat.; 10 AM-2:30 PM. $5 parking and fees for special events. 816-628-4229, www.jessejamesfestival.com

Music Fest and Back Porch Jam Tina’s pick Sept. 19, Lawson. Songwriters and musicians perform original songs and folk music, bring your instrument and join in the jam session. Watkins Woolen Mill State Park and State Historic Site. Noon-5 PM. Free. 816-580-3387, www.mostateparks.com/wwmill Artifact Road Show Sept. 19, Lexington. Bring your artifacts and military ordnance and receive information from a professional archaeologist. Battle of Lexington State Historic Site.

10 AM-4 PM. Free. 660-259-4654, www.mostateparks. com/lexington

Arts Festival Sept. 18-20, Kansas City. Visual and performing artists.

Zona Rosa. 5-10 PM Fri.; 10 AM-10 PM Sat.; noon-6 PM Sun. Free. 816-587-8180, www.zonarosa.com

Chris Botti Sept. 25, Kansas. Jazz artist. Midland Theatre. 8 $35-$49.50. 816-931-3330, www.midlandkc.com

South Side Fall Festival Sept. 18-20, St. Joseph. Crafts, entertainment, grand parade, and professional rodeo. Hyde Park and Civic Center Arena. Noon-10 PM Fri.; 10 AM-10 PM Sat.; 9:30 AM5 PM Sun. Free. 816-238-3515, www.stjomo.com

Old Time Harvest Days Sherry’s pick Sept. 25-27, Chillicothe. Steam and gas engines, country music, old-time farm wagon contest, and tractor rodeo.

Livingston County Fairgrounds. $5 for all three days.

660-646-3794

Pig Pickin’ Chicken Lickin’ Feast Sept. 19, Independence. Dine on roast pork or fried chicken, and enjoy live entertainment and a silent auction.

Bingham-Waggoner Estate. 4-7 PM. $12 (tours additional $2-$5). Reservations. 816-461-3491, www.bwestate.org

Plaza Art Fair Sept. 25-27, Kansas City. Outdoor festival with exhibits by visual artists, music, and interactive art. Country Club Plaza area. 5-10 PM Fri.; 10 AM-10 PM Sat.; 11 AM-5 PM Sun. Free. 816-753-0100, www.countryclubplaza.com

PM.

Heart of America Quilt Festival SEPT. 26-OCT. 11, KANSAS CITY The Greater Kansas City Quilters Guild will showcase 150 beautifully handcrafted quilts, wall hangings, and decorative items. Proceeds from the sale of the quilts go to the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund. Enter a drawing for a Give Away Quilt made by the guild members. Held at Crown Center, the free show is open from 10 AM-6 PM Mondays-Wednesdays and Saturdays; 10 AM-9 PM Thursdays and Fridays and noon-5 PM Sundays.

For more information call 816-274-8444 or visit www.crowncenter.com.

FINAL SPECIAL EVENT OF THE YEAR!

All CMS Rules Apply www.centralmissourispeedway.net Track Report Line (660) 747-2166

(660) 747-5125

Staying the Weekend? We Recommend these Warrensburg Business Affiliates.

Be sure to ask for the special race discounts!

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HERMANN victorious!

September 23-27 A week-long celebration of the 2000th anniversary

Upcoming events

of the Battle of the Teutoburg

• Kirksville Air Festival, Sept. 11-12, 2009 • Red Barn Arts Festival, Sept. 19, 2009 • Round Barn Blues, Sept. 26, 2009

Forest, in which our city’s namesake defeated three Roman legions and changed the course of history. www.visithermann.com 800-932-8687 • ON THE MISSOURI RIVER JUST AN HOUR WEST OF ST. LOUIS

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All Around Missouri

Northeast & St. Louis Area Full Moon Ice Sledding Aug. 1, St. Louis. Ride down the hill on a block of ice.

Must be 18 years or older. Sioux Passage Park. 7-10 pm. $10. Registration. 314-615-8840 Jammin’ Outdoor Concerts Aug. 4-25 (Tuesdays), O’Fallon. Bring a lawn chair or blanket for a different concert each week. Civic Park.

5:30-8:30 pm. Free. 636-379-5614, www.ofallon.mo.us Town and Country Fair Greg’s pick Aug. 5-9, Washington. Livestock shows, exhibits, concerts including Jo Dee Messina, Steve Miller Band, and Sara Evans, truck and garden tractor pull, bull riding, tournaments, demonstrations, motor cross, and fireworks. Fairgrounds. 8 am-midnight. $10-$45. 636-2392715, ext. 101, www.washmo.org Life in 1860s Athens Aug. 8, Athens. Living history reenactment of an 1860 antebellum town and refreshments. Battle of Athens State Historic Site. 10 am-4 pm. Free. 660-877-3871, www.mostateparks.com/athens.htm Bug Day Aug. 8, Wildwood. Explore the world of insects with hands-on activities and hikes. Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park. 10 am-2 pm. Free. 636-458-3813, www.mostateparks.com/babler.htm

Mary Poppins Aug. 13-30, St. Louis. Musical. Fox Theatre. Show times vary. $28-$75. 314-534-1678, www.fabulousfox.com Hot Art Cool Jazz Festival Aug. 14-16, Ballwin. Exhibit and sale of fine arts and crafts and live jazz music. Greensfelder Recreation Complex at Queeny Park. 6-9 pm Fri.; 10 am-5 pm Sat.; 10 am-4 pm Sun. Free. 314-889-0433, www.gslaa.org Down By the River Aug. 14 and Sept. 11, Hannibal. Age-21-and-over event featuring live music and refreshments. Y-Men’s Pavilion.

5-9 pm. $3. 573-795-4013, www.visithannibal.com

courtesy of Heather Marie Osborne

Blues Festival Aug. 15, Clarksville. Six local and national blues bands perform. Eagles Bluff Golf Course. Noon-7:30 pm. $20-$25. 618-402-5406 Big Splash!

Aug. 15-Sept. 14, St. Peters. Exhibit of works by the St. Louis Watercolor Society. Community and Arts Center.

9 am-9 pm Mon-Thurs.; 9 am-6 pm Fri.; 9 am-4 pm Sat. Free.

636-397-6309, www.stpetersmo.net Festival of the Little Hills Danita’s pick Aug. 21-23, St. Charles. More than 300 arts and crafts booths, artisan demonstrations, live music, and a variety of food vendors. Frontier Park and Main Street.

Green Homes Festival Sept. 26, St. Louis It’s good to be green. This festival features a green crafts show and sale, exhibitors, food court, vendors, children’s activities, solar car races, live entertainment, and a metro bus that will be painted on site by festival goers and then driven through the streets

4-10 pm Fri.; 9:30 am-10 pm Sat.; 9:30 am-5 pm Sun. Free.

636-940-0095, www.festivalofthelittlehills.com Operation Clean Stream Aug. 22, Eureka. Help clean the Meramec River and its tributaries. Clean from the bank or bring your own canoe. Breakfast and BBQ lunch. Route 66 State Park.

7 am-3 pm. Free. 636-938-7198, www.mostateparks.com/ route66.htm Big Band Dance Rebecca’s pick Aug. 22, Hermann. Dance to the big band sounds of the 12-piece swing band The Blue Knights. Stone Hill Winery. 8-11 pm. $25. Advanced tickets. 800-909-9463, www.stonehillwinery.com

of St. Louis. Workshops and demonstrations covering topics including solar and wind energy, urban farming, and composting. This free event is held at Grandel Square from 10 am-6 pm.

For information, call 314-577-0220 or visit www.greenhomesstl.org.

Moonlight Ramble Aug. 29, St. Louis. World’s largest nighttime bicycle ride, Vendor Village, and after party. Soldier Memorial Plaza.

9 pm (ride starts at 12:01 am on Sunday). $10-$25.

314-644-4660, www.moonlightramble.com Race for Clean River Challenge Aug. 29-30, St. Charles. Experienced canoeists and kayakers race down the Missouri River from Weldon Springs to St. Charles completing a number of tasks along the way, including a water quality test, with educational booths, music, and food at the finish at Frontier Park. 8 am-7 pm Sat. 9 am-2 pm Sun (finish at Columbia Bottoms boat ramp). Donations and pledges accepted.

636-498-0772, www.racefortherivers.org

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All Around Missouri

Festival of Nations Aug. 29-30, St. Louis. Multi-ethnic celebration features dance, music, food, cultural and educational exhibits, folk art demonstrations, and a craft market. Tower Grove Park. 10 am-7 pm Sat.; 10 am-6 pm Sun. Free.

314-773-9090, www.iistl.org

St. Louis Art Fair Sept. 11-13, Clayton. Fine arts, crafts, live performing arts, artist demonstrations, and a Creative Castle for children. Central Business District. 5-10 pm Fri.; 10 am-10 pm Sat.; and 11 am-4 pm. 314-863-0278, www.saintlouisartfair.com

St. Nicholas Greek Festival Sept. 5-7, St. Louis. Authentic Greek food, dancing demonstrations, and live music. St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. 11 am-9 pm Sat.-Sun.; 11 am-8 pm Mon. 314-361-6924, www.stnicholas.missouri.goarch.org

Fall RV Show Rebecca’s pick Sept. 11-13, St. Louis. 300 RVs including folding camping trailer, mini motor homes, and conversion vans.

South County Shopping Center. 10 am-8 pm Fri.-Sat.; 11 am-5 pm Sun. Free. 314-355-1236, www.stlrv.com

Big Muddy Blues Festival Sept. 5-6, St. Louis. Outdoor event features more than 30 bands on three stages, showcasing blues, soul, R&B, and gospel music. Historic Laclede’s Landing. Noon-11:30 pm.

Free. 314-241-5875, www.lacledeslanding.com

Fun Car Cruise and Hayrides Sept. 12, St. Louis. Classic, vintage, or antique vehicles, cruise music, and hayrides around the park. Spanish Lake Park. 1-9 pm. Free. 314-615-8840, www.stlouisco. com/parks/spanish.html

Japanese Festival Callina’s pick Sept. 5-7, St. Louis. Taiko drumming, traditional tea ceremonies, martial arts, and candlelight walks. Missouri Botanical Gardens. 10 am-8 pm Sat.-Sun.; 10 am-5 pm Mon. $5-$15. 800-642-8842, www.mobot.org

Air Show Festival Sept. 12, Kirksville. Pancake breakfast, car show, airplane rides, and aerial shows. Airport. All Day. Free.

660-665-5020, www.visitkirksville.com Living History Hayrides Sept. 12-13, St. Louis. Hayrides that stop at stations with historical reenactors. Jefferson Barracks Historic Park. 10 am, 1 and 3 pm Sat.; 12:30 and 3 pm Sun. $7.

314-544-6224, www.stlouis.com/parks Trails for Tails Sept. 13, St. Charles. Pet and family activities, dog costume and best trick contests, vendors, and educational booths. Frontier Park. 9 am-1 pm. Donations accepted.

636-949-9918, www.stcharleshumanesociety.org

Historic Home Tour Aug. 9-Sept. 27, O’Fallon The historic Heald Home was built in 1886, and the second story was demolished by a tornado in 1915 and rebuilt one foot shorter. The home was restored by the city of O’Fallon in 2001. Tours are conducted on Sundays from 1-4 pm and cost $2. Group tours are available by appointment. In addition, visitors can attend these free events held at the home: Aug. 9

Community Concert band performs at 2 pm.

Aug. 30

Bluegrass concert, 1:30-3:30 pm Sept. 27

Celebration of the Creative with fine art, culture, and cuisine and a quilt show from 10 am-4 pm.

For more information call 636-379-5614 or visit www.ofallon.mo.us.

Strassenfest Sept. 18-20 Chesterfield. Celebrate the tradition of German Gemutlichkeit with German music, carnival, games, authentic German food, arts, crafts, and children’s village. Central Park. 5-11 pm Fri.; noon-11 pm Sat.; noon6 pm Sun. Free. 636-225-1730, www.strassenfest.org Fall Festival Sept. 18-19, DeSoto. Live music, vendors, 5K run, and moonlight bike ride Fri. night. 9 am-4 pm Sat. Free.

636-586-5591, chamber.desotomo.com

2000th Victory Celebration Sept. 23-27, Hermann A dedication of a statue of the warrior Hermann commemorates the twothousand-year anniversary of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, when Hermann helped to fend off the Roman Empire.

This celebration recognizes the area’s German heritage with historical presentations, music, parade of citizens, banquets, and the statue dedication. Victory Celebration events are on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday. BBQ and Brats Festival on Saturday and Sunday.

For information call 800-932-8687 or visit www.hermannmo.info.

Railroad Days Sept. 26, Pacific. Railroad-theme exhibits, arts, crafts, and food vendors. Pacific Station Plaza. Noon-7 pm. Free.

636-271-6639, www.pacificchamber.com

Country Picnic Sept. 20, Village of Blue Rose. Silent and live auction, book sale, Country Store, children’s games and activities, horse and pony rides, and buffet meal available for purchase. Throughout town. Noon-5 pm. Free. 636-795-4629, www.villagebluerose.org

Dancing in the Streets Festival Sept. 26, St. Louis. Festival features more than 50 dance organizations and nearly 700 dancers performing a wide variety of dance styles. Grand Center District. 1-9 pm.

Free. 314-289-1517, www.grandcenter.org

Honky Tonk Angels Sept. 26-27, Mexico. Patsy Cline tribute musical. Presser Hall. 7 pm Thurs.-Sat.; 2 pm Sun. $5. 573-581-2100, www.presserpac.com

Fall Festival of the Arts Tina’s pick Sept. 26, Washington. Unique arts and crafts. Historic Main and Elm streets. 10 am-6 pm. Free. 636-239-1743, www.washmo.org

Carson and Barnes Circus Sept. 25-27, Hazelwood. St. Louis Mills parking lot. 4:30 and 7:30 pm Fri.; 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 pm Sat.; 1:30 and 4:30 pm Sun. $20 for two adults; children 12 and under are free. 314-227-5910, www.stlouismills.com

Walk Back In Time Sept. 26-27, Mexico. Historical event featuring eight time periods from Colonial Times to the Korean War. Audrain County Historical Society Museum grounds. 10 am-dark.

Free. 573-581-3910, www.audrain.org

Courtesy of City of O'Fallon; courtesy of Hans Droog

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All Around Missouri

Southeast Art of Michael Landeros Aug. 1-30, Poplar Bluff. This artist’s paintings portray his passion for wildlife. Margaret Harwell Art Museum.

Noon-4 pm Fri.; 1-4 pm Sat.-Sun. Free. 573-686-8002, www.mham.org Cowboy Up! Arts Festiva Tina’s pick Aug. 7-8, Sikeston. Arts, crafts, cowboy poets, live music, pony rides, petting zoo, depot robbery and cowboy shoot-out, and lunch with the rodeo clowns. American Legion Park. 10 am-4 pm. Free (except special events).

573-380-3801, sikestondepot.org Kid’s Trout Fishing Tournament Aug. 8, Salem. Tournament for children 15 years old and younger with prizes awarded in two age categories.

Montauk State Park. 7 am-2 pm. Free. 573-548-2201, www.mostateparks.com/meramec.htm

Jour de Fête Aug. 8-9, Ste. Genevieve. One of the area’s largest arts and crafts shows. Felix Vallé State Historic House and the courtyard of the historic Shaw House. 9 am-6 pm. Free.

573-883-7102, www.mostateparks.com/felixvalle.htm

American Wind Symphony Orchestra Aug. 18, Cape Girardeau The Point Counterpoint II, a floating art center, hosts the American Wind Symphony Orchestra’s finale concert, the last of its fifty-two year existence.

The Symphony has performed in three hundred U.S. communities and twenty foreign countries. The concert will take place at Riverfront Park at 7 pm. The cost is $5 for adults; 18 and under are free.

For information call 800-777-0068 or visit www.visitcape.com.

Hummingbird Banding Aug. 8 and Sept. 5, leasburg Aug. 22, Salem Researcher and master bird bander Lanny Chambers will capture and band Missouri’s smallest flying machine, the ruby-throated hummingbird. The birds will be weighed and identified by gender. Chambers’ research is expected to track movement patterns and collect general life history of the birds.

Cruise Nights Aug. 8 and Sept. 12, Rolla. Lighted area to cruise, DJ spinning cruise music, and concessions with food and drink. JC Penny parking lot. 6-9 pm. Free. 573-364-0865, www.rollacruisin.com Saddle Club Show Amy’s pick Aug. 8 and Sept. 26, St. James. Family-fun horse show and rodeo. Safe Saddle Club Arena. 6 pm. $2-$10.

573-699-4166, www.safesaddleclub.com

Held at the visitor center at Onondaga Cave State Park, this event is open from 11 am-3 pm on August 8 and September 5 and at Montauk State Park from noon-4 pm at campground host campsite #401 on August 22. These events are free, and no reservations are required.

For more information, call 573-245-6576 or visit www.mostateparks.com/onondaga/ cave.htm.

Fiddle Fest and Harmonica Howl Aug. 21-22, West Plains. Bluegrass bands, strummers, fiddlers, pickers, and harmonica players perform, plus a large crafters area (Sat. only). 7 pm. Free. 888-256-8835, www.heartoftheozarksbluegrass.com Variety Show Aug. 22-23 and 28-29, Newburg. Music and comedy featuring local, regional, and out-of-state talent. Lyric Live Theater. 8 pm Sat.; 2:30 pm Sun. $6. 573-341-9071, www.lyriclivetheater.com

Arcadia Valley Lions Club Rodeo Aug. 14-15, Ironton. Bull riding, barrel racing, team roping, saddle and bareback bronc riding, and calf roping. Iron County Lions Club Fairgrounds. 8 pm. $4-$8.

573-546-2756, www.iprarodeo.com/augustlistings.html

City-Wide Yard Sale Sept. 4-5, New Madrid. Follow the map and find great bargains. Throughout town. 7 am-dusk. Free. 573-748-5300, www.new-madrid.mo.us

Fly Casting and Fishing Clinic Aug. 15-16, Salem. Experienced anglers conduct a clinic for all ages. Practice in an open field will be available, and successful trout fishing tactics will be taught. Dorman L. Steelman Lodge at Montauk State Park. 1 pm Sat.; 10 am Sun. Free. 573-548-2201, www. mostateparks.com/montauk.htm

Grape and Fall Festival Sept. 10-12, St. James. Tour of Missouri bicycle race Stage 4 start, inflatable games, children’s entertainment, grape stomp, carnival, wine garden, livestock show and sale, exhibits, street market, and parade. Downtown and the fairgrounds. 573-265-6649, www.stjameschamber.net

courtesy of Margy Terpstra; courtesy of Michael Martin

Fisher Cave: Hugh Dill Trip Aug. 8, Sullivan. Spelunking trip beyond the normal tour of this cave. Must be at least 18 years old and have a wet suit and lights. Meramec State Park. 9 am-1 pm. $5-$6. Reservations. 573-468-6072, www.mostateparks.com/meramec.htm

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ALL AROUND MISSOURI

Traditional Music and Dance Sept. 12, Cape Girardeau. Live music for every dance, and instruction for the dance steps will be available.

Christ Episcopal Church. 7-9 PM. $5 donation. 573-3344706, www.visitcape.com Art of a Ceramist and a Painter Sept. 12-Oct. 25, Poplar Bluff. Ali Halane and Byron Smith. Margaret Harwell Art Museum. Noon-4 PM Fri.; 1-4 PM Sat.-Sun. Free. 573-686-8002, www.mham.org

COURTESY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW STANDARD NEWS

Fall Folk Music Concert Sept. 19, Jackson. Folk musicians perform old-time music.

Trail of Tears State Park. 7-9 PM. Free. 573-290-5268, www.mostateparks.com/trailoftears.htm

Rivers of Timber Sept. 19-20, Newburg. Performance with Alex Primm reenacting an old-time tie-hacker and rafter with slides, music, tools, and oral history. Lyric Live Theater. 8 PM Sat.; 2:30 PM Sun. $8. 573-341-9071, www.lyriclivetheater.com Fall Folk Concert Sept. 20, Burfordville. Bring your lawn chair or blanket for a performance by Whitewater Bluegrass Band, featuring bluegrass and gospel tunes. Bollinger Mill State Historic Site. 4:30-6 PM. Free. 573-243-4591, www.mostateparks.com/bollinger.htm

Stoddard County Parade and Fair Sept. 22-26, Dexter. Midway carnival, parade, games, contests, exhibits, and a variety of entertainment nightly.

Historic Downtown and Fairgrounds Drive. 6-10 PM Tues.Fri.; 1-10 PM Sat. $2 (parade is free). 573-624-6429, www.dexterchamber.com Bluegrass Grape Jam Sept. 25-26, St. James. Bluegrass performances and family activities. Downtown. Free. 573-265-6649, www.stjameschamber.net Fall Bluegrass Festival Rebecca’s pick Sept. 25-26, West Plains. Six bluegrass bands perform.

Heart of the Ozarks Bluegrass Park. 888-256-8835, www.heartoftheozarksbluegrass.com

Little Shop of Horrors Callina’s pick Sept. 30, Cape Girardeau. Rock musical featuring a man-eating plant and the memorable songs “Suddenly Seymour,” “Somewhere That’s Green,” and “Skid Row.” Bedell Performance Hall. 7:30 PM Wed.-Sat.; 2 PM Sat. $16-$19. 573-651-2265, semo.edu/rivercampus/events Of Mice and Men Sept. 30, Rolla. John Steinbeck’s powerful, captivating tale. Leach Theatre. 7:30 PM. $25-$35. 573-341-4219, leachtheatre.mst.edu

Step Back in Time SEPT. 24-26, MOUNTAIN VIEW Step back in time at Pioneer Days and enjoy old-fashioned games, clogging, line and square dancing, country and bluegrass music, antique wagons, cars, a parade, crafts, food booths, Mountain View teepee and demonstration village, quilt show, flapjack breakfast, ham and bean supper, Lil’ Darlin’ and Lil’ Dumplin’ contest, harvest queen, and archery contest. Held downtown, this free event runs from 6:30-10 PM on Thursday, 4:30-10 PM on Friday, and 6:30 AM-5 PM Saturday.

For more information, call 877-266-8706 or visit www.mountainviewmo.com.

Back issues $7.50 New! Digital Back issues $3.00 (since February 2009 issue)

Visit MissouriLife.com to order today!

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ALL AROUND MISSOURI

Southwest Firefall in Concert Aug. 1, Branson. From 1976 to the early 1980s this rock band sold millions of records and has three gold albums. Branson Landing Town Square. 8 PM. Free.

800-785-1550, www.branson.com Super Summer Cruise Aug. 6-8, Branson. See more than 500 cars and trucks on display and Midnight Cruise (Sat.) down Highway 76.

The Shepherd of the Hills Historic Homestead. 9 AM-5 PM Thurs.-Fri.; 9 AM-midnight Sat. $5-$15. 800-653-6288, www.supersummercruise.com

Wildwood Springs Lodge The Midwest’s Premier Acoustic Venue

UPCOMING EVENTS

CustOm stringed instruments FOr tHe unCustOmary musiCian • Cigar Box guitars • • strum sticks • • Wind Harps • • door Harps • • dulcimers • . . . and much more

m

Ountai n

Ron W. Marr Falcon, MO • 417-453-6340 www.troutwrapper.com

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

s

Handmade in tHe e Ozark

Bluegrass is Back Family Bluegrass Festival Sept. 4-6 Little River Band Sept. 11-12 Brewer and Shipley Sept. 18-19 Guy Clark Sept. 25-26 Poco Oct. 2-3 Christopher Cross Oct. 9-10 Dave Mason Oct. 16-17 America Oct. 23-24 Al Stewart Erin Bode Oct. 30-31 Ozark Mountain Daredevils Nov. 5-6-7 For lodging reservations, more information, and updates, visit wildwoodspringslodge.com

CANCELLATION POLICY: All sales final...NO REFUNDS, NO EXCHANGES. For all concert series events, payment in full at time of reservation.

First Friday Art Walk Aug. 7 and Sept. 4, Springfield. Visit galleries with a variety of art from photography to sculpture. Downtown.

6-10 PM. Free. 417-862-2787, www.springfieldarts.org The Funniest Man in America Aug. 8, Neosho. James Gregory delivers this hilarious show called “Front Porch Comedy.” The Civic. 8 PM. 417-451-8096, www.theneoshocivic.com Insect-O-Rama Aug. 21, Springfield. Join insect specialists for an evening of discovering insects. Conservation Nature Center. 6:30-9 PM. Free. 417-888-4237, mdc.mo.gov/ areas/cnc/springfd/ Cattle Baron’s Ball Sherry’s pick Aug. 22, Springfield. American Cancer Society benefit featuring Marshal Rein, a country western entertainment group from Las Vegas, cowboy cuisine, Vegas-style casino, dancing, silent auctions, and Midway games. Darr Agricultural Center. 6:30 PM-1 AM. $300-$2000 a couple.

417-447-1483, www.cattlebaronsballswmo.org Moonlight Bike Ride Aug. 22, Springfield. Ride the streets in the dark and enjoy music and food. Discovery Center. 9:30 PM. $10-$20 to ride. 417-862-9910, www.discoverycenter.org Fiddle Festival Rebecca’s pick Aug. 28-30, Branson. Big Smith in concert, fiddle contest, and grand prize competition. Branson Landing Town Square. 8 PM Fri.; 10 AM-7 PM Sat.; noon-5 PM Sun. Free. 417-334-1548. www.downtownbranson.org Summer Social Aug. 29, Neosho. Sand sculpture build-off contest, children's games and coloring book station, music, dance performance, display, karate demonstration, and Cinema in the Park. Downtown and Big Spring Park. 4-8 PM (Cinema 8:30 PM). Free. 417-451-5200, neoshocc.com Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Show Sept. 5-12, Ava. 181 classes in performance, trail, and versatility. MFTHBA show grounds. 10 AM-midnight. $5-$30. 417-683-2468, www.mfthba.com

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Grape and Fall Festival Sept. 26, Hollister In the early 1900s, this event celebrated the harvest when local growers would bring their grapes to town to ship out by rail. Today the festival features live music, great food, a wine tasting garden, crafts, and children’s activities.

Fall Festival Sept. 11-12, Schell City. Family entertainment including races, music, food, street dance, and parade. Main Street. 6 pm-midnight Fri.; 9 am-midnight Sat. Free.

417-432-3111, www.nevada-mo.com Greater Ozarks Blues Festival Sept. 11-12, Springfield. More than 10 blues bands perform on two stages. Bass Pro Shops parking lot. 5:309:30 pm Fri.; noon-9:30 pm Sat. $20-$40. 417-864-6683, www.greaterozarksbluesfest.com

courtesy of Hollister Chamber

Muzzle Loaders Rendezvous Sept. 11-13, Nevada. Traders, Black Powder Sanctioned Missouri Offhand Match, primitive and modern camping, and crafters. Marmaduke Park. 9 am-2 pm. Free. 417-3213551, www.nevada-mo.com Ozark Mountain Mule and Donkey Days Sept. 11-13, Springfield. More than 500 mules and donkeys test their skills in classes and contests, plus a tack and equipment auction, mule and draft horse auction, wagon train, Wild West Show, and a whodeo (rodeo for children using stick horses). Ozark Empire Fairgrounds.

10 am-6 pm Fri.; 9 am-9 pm Sat.; 9 am-2 pm Sun. $3-$8.

417-833-2660, www.ozarkmountainmuledays.com

The highlight of the day is the Grape Stomp. Participants pick a theme and many groups wear costumes and stomp to their favorite music. Admission is free ($25 per team to stomp), and the event is open from 10 am-6 pm.

For information, call 417-334-3050 or visit Hollisterchamber.net.

Polk County Picnic and Reunion Sept. 12, Bolivar. Entertainment, auction, arts, and crafts. Bolivar Square. 9:30 am-dusk. Free. 417-326-4118, www.bolivarchamber.com Prairie Days Amy’s pick Sept. 12, Diamond. Bluegrass and dulcimer music, nature exhibits, and living history activities. George Washington Carver National Monument. 10 am-3 pm. Free.

417-325-4151, www.nps.gov/gwca National Harvest Festival Karen’s pick Sept. 12-Oct. 31, Branson. More than 100 artisans and craftsmen and more than 400 musicians. Silver Dollar City. 10 am-6 pm Wed.-Sun.; 9 am-7 pm Sat. 800-831-4386. www.silverdollarcity.com Autumn Daze Festival Sept. 17-20, Branson. 150 arts and crafts booths and live music. Downtown. 9 am-6 pm Thurs.-Sat.; 9 am-4 pm Sun. Free. 417-334-1548, www.downtownbranson.org Fiddler’s Convention Sept. 17-20, West Branson. Jam sessions, concerts, and camping available. Compton Ridge Campground. All day.

Free. 800-233-8648, www.comptonridge.com

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All Around Missouri

Hoedown at the Homestead Sept. 19, Ash Grove. Bring a lawn chair or blanket, picnic, and join local and regional musicians at the jam sessions. Nathan Boone Homestead State Historic Site.

10 am-4 pm. Free. 417-751-3266, www.mostateparks. com/boonehome.htm

Cider Days Greg’s pick Sept. 19-20, Springfield. Outdoor street festival features more than 100 juried artists and crafters, a wide variety of food vendors, three stages for concerts and performances, hands-on children’s activities, historic homes tour, and scarecrow village. Historic Walnut Street. 10 am-5 pm. $4 (tour extra). 417-831-6200, www.itsalldowntown.com Fall Street Machine Nationals Sept. 19-20, Springfield. More than 1,700 hot rods, street machines, and street trucks, plus a Performance Marketplace. Missouri Entertainment and Event Center.

10 am-7 pm Fri.; 9 am-6 pm Sat.; 9 am-3 pm Sun. $8-$27.

417-833-2660, www.streetmachinenationals.net

Japanese Fall Festival Sept. 11-13, Springfield Learn about traditional Japanese activities such as flower arranging, calligraphy, bonsai, and more. This event includes performers from Japan, artists, traditional food, tea ceremonies, and hands-on children’s activities. Each day ends with a

candlelight walk with hundreds of torches and candles lining the walks, lakes, and bridges. Held at Mizumoto Stroll Garden at Nathanael Greene Park, the festival is open from 5-10 pm Friday and 11 am-10 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $3-$5.

For information call 417-864-1049, or visit www.parkboard.org.

Courtesy of Springfield-Greene county park board

Laura Ingalls Wilder Day Festival Sept. 19-20, Mansfield. Tours of Laura’s farmhouse, oldtime activities, programs, Pa’s fiddle, and music. Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home. 9 am-5 pm. $2-$4. 877-9247126, www.lauraingallswilderhome.com

Make Harrison your starting point for Ozark adventures.

Easy access to the Ozark Mountains and Buffalo National River makes for endless outdoor adventures in Harrison.

With biker-friendly roads, breathtaking views and interesting stopovers, Harrison is also a motorcycling hot spot.

Find first-class lodging, dining and shopping in downtown Harrison.

Order your free vacation or motorcycle riding guide online at www.HarrisonArkansas.org or by calling 1-888-283-2163.

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ALL AROUND MISSOURI

Loftwalk Callina’s pick Sept. 20, Springfield. Self-guided tour of six restored and eclectic loft apartments. Commercial Street Historic District. Noon-6 PM. $12 ($10 in advance).

417-864-7015, www.itsalldowntown.com Shakin’ in the Shell Sept. 26, Shell Knob. Live music, car and boat show, and family activities. Throughout town. 10 AM-10 PM. Free.

417-858-3300, shellknob.com

COURTESY OF LARRY VORIS

Car Show for Kids Sept. 26, Springfield. Hundreds of cars, children’s games, vendors, activities, and entertainment. Benefits United Way of the Ozarks. American National Corporate Centre. 9 AM-3 PM. $5 (under 12 are free). 800-227-2833, www.anpaccarshowforkids.com Heritage Reunion Sept. 26-27, Fair Grove. More than 250 arts and crafts booths, parade, country music, dancing, period entertainment, horse and mule obstacle courses, and antique tractor show. Throughout town. 8 AM-6 PM Sat.; 8 AM-5 PM Sun. Free. 417-833-3467, www.fghps.org Harvest Fest Sept. 26-27, Springfield. Experience life on the farm with horse-drawn wagon rides and bluegrass music by

the campfire. Pick your own pumpkin. Rutledge-Wilson Farm Park. 10 AM-9 PM Sat.; 10 AM-6 PM. Free (except some special events). 417-837-5949, www.parkboard.org Youth Center BBQ Sept. 27, Metz. Children’s games and activities, BBQ meal, and benefit auction. McGennis Youth Center.

12:30 PM until auction ends. $4-$8 for BBQ. 417-4843216, www.mcgennisyouthcenter.org FREE LISTING AND MORE EVENTS Visit MissouriLife.com for even more great events all around the state.

PLEASE NOTE: Event plans sometimes change.

Call before traveling.

TO SUBMIT AN EVENT: Editors choose events for publication in the magazine, space permitting, but all submissions go onto the web site. Submit events well in advance. Please make sure there is a contact phone number with your event. Visit MissouriLife. com to register and enter your own events, e-mail amy@missourilife.com, fax 660-882-9899, or send announcements to Missouri Life, 515 E. Morgan St., Boonville, MO 65233

Steam-O-Rama SEPT. 17-20, REPUBLIC This forty-eighth annual festival will host more than three hundred tractors and a wide variety of steam-driven equipment, plus you can see them in a parade.

The antique and classic tractor pulls and kiddie tractor pull are among the many events that fill the Ozark Steam Engine Association show grounds. The grounds are open from 9 AM to 3 PM on Thursday and Sunday and 9 AM to 6 PM on Friday and Saturday. An admission fee is charged.

For more information call 417-7327136 or visit www.steamorama.com.

CoMe to tHe L e W HorSe Breed ASSoCiAtion A Ation

51 st Annual Show & Celebration S e p te m b er 6 - 1 2 World Class Horses • World Class Hospitality Missouri Fox trotters, the official horse of the state of Missouri, will showcase their talents in performance, versatility and trail.

Shows each Morning & evening At the M F t H B A S h o w G ro u n d s L o c a t e d o n e M i l e n o r t h o f Av a , M i s s o u r i

w w w. m f t h b a . c o m

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41 ST ANNUAL

ARROW ROCK

�

�

HERITAGE CRAFT FESTIVAL �

|

SAT. & SUN. OCT 10 & 11 ARROWROCKARTS.ORG

Enjoy the vivid colors of autumn, as you experience the wares of some of Missouri’s finest craftspeople, music, food and, of course, the beautiful village of Arrow Rock.

FA L L 2 0 0 9

�

�

~ TheVillage of ~

ARROW R O C K A National Historic Landmark

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MISSOU RI MEDLEY Peop le, Places, & Points

HOT

DIPPITY DOG

EACH AUGUST on the closing day of the municipal pools in

COURTESY OF KATHY GANGWISCH; COURTESY OF RICH LAWSON; COURTESY OF YEMM & HART GREEN MATERIALS

Jefferson City, people can take their dogs swimming with them.

Canine owners pay two dollars per dog. Treats are handed out to the four-legged swimmers; owners receive a small gift from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Just once was a rescue in order. A poodle got so excited she went under and had to be pulled out by one of the lifeguards. Mouth-tomouth was not necessary, although Recreational Supervisor Laurie Herzing said the lifeguard staff was ready to perform CPR if needed.

A doggie costume contest is also held at the event, but the big draw is jumping in, splashing, and swimming amid squeals by both species.

Visit Ellis Porter Riverside Pool on August 9 and Memorial Park Family Aquatic Center on August 17 from 6-7 PM. For information, visit www.jeffcitymo.org/parks or call 573-634-6482.

—Kathy Gangwisch

BE KIND, RE-WINE > Recycling a glass wine bottle is easy enough. But what about the cork?

Marqand, Missouri’s, Steve Yemm wondered that very question. Steve founded Yemm & Hart Limited, a company that got its start in 1981 making office furniture. Eight years later, Steve pushed his company in a new direction, making recycled-content materials.

The experiment in wine cork recycling began in 2004, with a call for donations of wine corks. Five years later, more than two thousand contributions of cork have poured in, totaling some three tons of raw cork. Today, Steve is producing several hundred cork flooring tiles.

Visit www.yemmhart.com/news+/winecorkrecycling. htm for more information. —Peter Bronski

In 1821, Missouri was at the forefront of establishing the groundwork of highways and international transportation when the Santa Fe Trail emerged. The trail was the first great commercial highway between the United States and Mexico.

In September in Arrow Rock, the Santa Fe Trail Association will hold its thirteenth symposium to preserve, protect, educate, and promote awareness of the Santa Fe Trail. The focus this year will be on the first years of the Santa Fe Trail’s existence. Visitors can see the spot where legendary explorers, like Lewis and Clark, journeyed through Missouri and

Legendary Trail

established the Arrow Rock, a landmark on the Missouri River, as the rendezvous point for the trail southwest.

The public is invited to the festivities that run from September 24-27. Admission is about $25 per day. Visit www.santafetrail.org for more information. —Matthew Langenhorst

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Missouri Medley > Mo Info

Electric utility

AmerenUE,

subsidiary of Ameren Corp. in St. Louis, is purchasing wind power for the first time. Starting September 1, Ameren will buy about one-third of an Iowa wind farm’s output for fifteen years.

The agreement with Horizon Wind Energy’s Pioneer Prairie Wind Farm was signed in June for 102 megawatts of wind power—enough to power twenty-six thousand households.

The Power of Wind Indian Earthworks

Brad Pitt and his siblings’ families—Doug and Lisa Pitt and Rob and Julie Neal­—have given one million dollars to help St. John’s Hospital in Springfield open a new pediatric center.

The Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center, named for Brad Pitt’s mother, opened this summer.

The money was given in honor of Jane Pitt’s passion for children’s issues. Springfield is where Brad Pitt and his siblings grew up. The Pitt clan still resides in the area.

The Osage tribe of Oklahoma is considering buying St. Louis’s Loaf Mound, the Village Sugar of Altenburg only remaining mound left from a network of American Indian earthworks that gave St. Louis its nickname, “Mound City.” The Osage tribe believes its ancestors included these mound-building people, and if the plan is approved, the property will become a protected, interpretive site.

Up in the Air

Paramount Picture’s new feature film, Up in the Air, starring George Clooney and directed

by Jason Reitman, not only stimulated the St. Louis area in Hollywood terms, but also economically. The St. Louis-based filming of the comedy, completed in April, pumped more than twelve million dollars into the city’s economy and provided work for more than two thousand locals. The film is scheduled to be released in December or January.

Bicycle Friendly

Brad Pitt

levels of awards: platinum, gold, silver, and bronze. Columbia was awarded the silver status.

Currently, the state as a whole ranks seventeen out of fifty on the League’s ranking list.

Columbia is the first city in Missouri to be named a “Bicycle Friendly Community” by the League of American Bicyclists, which rates states, communities, and businesses across the nation for bike-friendliness. There are four

Rolla Rock Food

The Department of Natural Resources is dishing up fast food at the Rolla and St. James Visitor Centers. Stop by for a burger and fries like no other—the “Geoburger Special” is an educational display made entirely of rocks and minerals. The burger is actually coal, the bun is chert, and the fries are made of limestone. If a burger isn’t what you crave, the St. James Visitor Center also includes a fruit and cheese spread made of ore, sandstone, barite, and other minerals.

courtesy of horizon wind energy Pioneer Prairie Wind farm; Sara de Boer/Retna Ltd.

Brad Pitt Supports New Cancer Center

[42] MissouriLife

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Serving Cooper County for 60 years Service you trust by Jim Vanderhoof

Factory-trained service technicians Mon.-Fri. 8-5, Sat. 10-4, Closed Sun. www.columbiaappliance.com

Mon-Fri 8-5 (except Thurs.), Thurs. 8-6, Sat. 9-2, Closed Sun. [43] August 2009

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PROMOTION

“Blind” Boone Plays On in Columbia Restoring the Home of a Ragtime Great

A Travelin’ Man

John Williams “Blind” Boone was a great pioneer of American ragtime music. He was incredibly gifted and could listen to any song once and play it back by ear.

He toured the United States, Canada, Mexico, and it’s been said that he even crossed the ocean to perform in Europe, although there are no records of his performances there. He spent 39 years on the road, played more than 8,600 concerts, traveled at least 200,000 miles, and slept in over 8,000 beds. During the two months out of the year when he wasn’t on tour, he was at home—in Columbia.

The J.W. “Blind” Boone home sits at 10 North Fourth Street in downtown Columbia, right next door to the Second Baptist Church, where Boone’s career was launched after a couple of performances that wowed the community.

The City of Columbia is currently working to restore the Boone home, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, to its original style, with the potential for it to become a living history museum with exhibits and events that could educate and celebrate local African-American history, early American ragtime and jazz music, and the life and legacy of J.W. Boone. Recently, the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau unveiled plans for a life-size bronze sculpture of Boone

by Missouri artist Harry Weber, to be completed after the home is fully restored and furnished.

Boone was born in 1864 to a runaway slave who was owned by the descendants of Daniel Boone. Shortly after he was born, he fell ill with “brain fever,” and his eyes were surgically removed in order to take pressure off his brain and to save his life. He lived with his mother in Warrensburg until she, with the support of the community, sent him to the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis. Boone was a highly intelligent and musically talented child who experimented with all kinds of musical instruments.

Courtesy of Missouri State Historical Society

An Extraordinary Talent

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Notley Hawkins; Courtesy of Missouri State Historical Society

Home Sweet Home

While he lived in St. Louis, he would sneak out to go listen to music in the city, around the time that a ragtime underground began to form. This was the music that inspired Boone and would make him famous— yet he was expelled from school for truancy.

Boone headed back to Warrensburg, and word of this musical prodigy soon spread. He was invited to perform at a Christmas festival at the Second Baptist Church in Columbia in 1879, which was presented by builder and contractor John Lange, Jr. “Blind” Boone was a hit, and he was invited back for another concert a few years later, where he performed with another sightless black pianist, Tom Bethune, who was known as “Blind Tom.” After Boone’s performance, John Lange, Jr. became his manager, and the influential musician’s career was born.

Lange was a clever businessman and marketed Boone by using the motto, “Merit, not sympathy, wins.” Lange was also known to bet a thousand dollars to anyone who could stump Boone by playing something he wasn’t able to reproduce exactly. Lange never did part with those thousand dollars.

Honoring the Legacy

Notley Hawkins; Courtesy of Missouri State Historical Society

Courtesy of Missouri State Historical Society

PROMOTION

Lange kept Boone busy touring North America, and Boone’s career exploded in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Boone toured the country, playing mostly ragtime and renditions of Negro folk music, but he also played classical standards and even experimented with an early form of boogie-woogie and blues. But when Lange died in 1920, Boone was devastated, and his career waned. He died seven years later of a heart attack. He didn’t leave much of an estate—he was a great philanthropist throughout his life and gave most of what he had away, especially to churches in Columbia. One of the only pieces from his estate was his piano, which was called the “Big U.” It was custom-made for him by the Chickering Company in 1891 and has been restored and acquired by the Boone County Historical Society.

In addition to his home, there are several “Blind” Boone landmarks throughout Columbia, including a community center. Columbia is also home to the Blind Boone Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival, held each year in early summer.

For more information, contact the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau at (800) 652-0987.

[45] August 2009

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Checking out art in their own backyard

Join Mike Murphy, Randy Mason, and Don the Camera Guy as they travel the back roads of America documenting outsider artists, grassroots art environments and offbeat attractions of all kinds.

t ommunities thro our c u gh

ed i a

ng c ti

K a n s a s C i t y

con ne

Now in its 13th Season!

Watch Thursday nights at 7:30 p.m. on KCPT or online at www.kcpt.org

r of trusted public se owe rvic p he

em

Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations

The guys revisit sites in Missouri!

[46] MissouriLife

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By day,

ZEST OF LIFE Show-Me Essentials

Todd Lawrence crunches numbers as the CFO and

treasurer of G.M.J. Co., a trucking company in Kansas City. At night, he heads to the Kansas City Arts Incubator, settles into his studio, picks up a pen or brush, and resumes his work.

Flowers, hearts, and stenciled numbers find their way into Todd’s drawings and paintings. “I tell people I’m a creative accountant who isn’t going to jail,” he says with a chuckle. “I say it to get a laugh, obviously, but I don’t enjoy doing debits and credits and journal entries. That’s not what I want to do.”

Despite the prevalence of flowers and hearts in Lawrence’s work, it’s far from cutesy. Todd, who cites Pop Art icon Jim Dine as his major influence, is more concerned with shape and composition than controversy and emotion.

“To me, deep philosophical meaning or politics or whatever— that gets in the way of the artwork,” he says. Todd sees the subjects of his works not as objects themselves but as lines and curves and shapes. “The subject isn’t what’s important. It’s the technique and the layout, the composition of the page and the techniques and the medium that you use to make it live.”

Todd’s piece Guns 1983, a depiction of three side-by-side

Accountant Art

pistols

on

display in his studio, won Todd a state art award in high school.

An offshoot

of Guns 1983 is the way Todd depicts hearts, which he draws and paints for two reasons.

“Jim Dine did hearts, and I’ve always liked the shape,” he says. “The first hearts piece I did, three hearts, I did the same exact technique and layout as I did the guns, and the hearts came out better than the guns.”

The numbers still pay the bills, but the love of art never went away. And unlike his days behind a desk, his nights at the easel give him a chance to break a few rules and have fun.

Visit drawingsbylawrence.com for more information.

Todd Lawrence

COURTESY OF TODD LAWRENCE; ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

—Steve Brisendine

STATE DESSERT: ICE CREAM CONE >  The invention of the ice cream cone is attributed to Ernest Hamwi, a Lebanese pastry maker, and Arnold Fomachon and Charles Menches, ice cream vendors, at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. When the ice cream sellers ran short of bowls, Hamwi suggested rolling one of his zalabias, a thin, crisp, waffle-patterned pastry, into a cone to hold the ice cream. There were numerous other ice cream and waffle vendors at the fair, and some of these have also claimed to be the inventor.

 Nineteen St. Louis County home-schooled students recommended the ice cream cone, and the ice cream cone became the state dessert last summer.  The University of Missouri Commercial Agriculture Program, the Missouri Department of Tourism, the Missouri Dairy Association, and numerous dairy farms, ice cream manufacturers, and ice cream retailers endorsed the sybmol.  Missouri is 8th in the United States in ice cream production.

—John Fisher, author of Catfish, Fiddles, Mules, and More: Missouri’s State Symbols

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ZEST OF LIFE

University of

Missouri

students Gregory Roberts and Jamie Levinson formed a band with a few other Columbia residents in 2004. “We bonded over a love of American R&B music from the ’60s and first-generation New York and UK punk.

We all worked in record stores and music venues,” Greg says.

The

White

Rabbits

received

much attention for their recent

The White Rabbits

album It’s Frightening, a solid ten tracks of rock influenced by a powerful piano, catchy guitar hooks, mesmerizing vocals, and the arresting cadences of the

for a show, and Greg admits he is overdue

State for fifteen students while they were studying,” Greg recalls.

Although the band is now based in

for a visit home to Webster Groves. In the

Brooklyn with no plans to move back to

meantime, they’ll entertain anyone, any-

Missouri, they recently returned to Columbia

where: “We played a pizza parlor at Cal

Visit www.whiterabbitsmusic.com for more information. —Callina Wood

BOOCHES & BASEBALL

Village of Altenburg

ALTENBURG CENTENNIAL > Perry County’s Lutheran Historical Society will celebrate one hundred years and its renovated Heritage Center and Museum in Altenburg in 2010.

The Saxo-Lutheran immigration story dates back to 1838 when a German group settled in Perry County.

They sought religious freedom, and the hills reminded them of home and provided isolation. The culture is well-preserved today through language and cuisine.

The museum is a piece of history itself—a gallery attached to the 1835 church—displaying textiles, firearms, furniture, and altar pieces.

Tours are offered daily. Admission is free. Visit www.altenburgmuseum.org. —Katlin Chadwick

For 125 years, Booches has been a popular establishment in downtown Columbia. The pool hall and favorite haunt of University of Missouri students was an all-male establishment until the mid-1970s. Today, it is known for its old-fashioned hamburgers served on squares of wax paper.

Edgar Vernon Barnhart purchased Booches in the 1950s and owned it for many years, but there’s more to Barnhart than burgers and billiards.

There’s also baseball. One inning. One game. That’s all this Columbia native ever got in the Major Leagues. Just that one.

The twenty-year-old made his debut with the St. Louis Browns in 1924; he pitched one inning, walked one batter, and allowed no hits.

Born in 1904, Barnhart grew up playing baseball. At fifteen, his pitching career took off with a team from Huntsdale. By 1920, Barnhart joined Columbia’s Twilight League, where St. Louis Browns manager “Gorgeous” George Sisler noticed him.

Barnhart blew out his arm not long after his pitching debut. He was traded around in the minors, but his bum arm coupled with the economic reality of the time meant the end of his professional career.

In 1984, the one hundredth year of operation for Booches, the former pitcher died just shy of his eightieth birthday, but his presence is still felt at the billiard hall. —Kate Clabough

COURTESY OF THE WHITE RABBITS; COURTESY OF LUTHERAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY; COURTESY OF CAROLYN KEPHART

band’s two drummers.

[48] MissouriLife

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PROMOTION

GET�A�WAY TO HISTORIC FULTON Awaken to Fulton’s rich history with exciting sights and sounds all wrapped up in the warmth of small-town charm. With brick streets, elegant architecture and 67 buildings on the historic register.

Unwind at two of Missouri’s Top 10 Inns: the historic Loganberry Inn

where Margaret Thatcher stayed or Romancing the Past B&B in the historic Jameson home.

Connect

to our history at the newly renovated National Churchill Museum. This $4-million museum inside a priceless piece of architecture will give you a look back at living history.

Enjoy Rebekah’s irresistible homemade desserts along with the outstanding food and wine at Bek’s restaurant and wine bar.

Immerse yourself in the arts and music at Kemper Center for the Arts or Westminster Gallery.

Sample some distinctive Missouri wines and a creative bistro menu at Summit Lake Winery.

Savor scrumptious dining at one of our great restaurants, like Bek’s, for a unique blend of old and new where Internet and espresso meet 1902 architecture.

Capture a sense of local history at the Historical Society Museum, or pay your respects at the Missouri Firefighters Memorial.

The National Churchill Museum features interactive displays that engage and educate visitors of all ages.

Apple Wagon Antique Mall & Home Décor Outlet has 20,000+ sq. ft. full of antiques and outlet-priced home décor.

Backer Auto World Museum displays an impressive collection of 84 historic automobiles in Hollywood-style sets.

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PROMOTION

Smile

at the offbeat collection at Crane’s Museum in Williamsburg and before you head out, stop by Marlene’s Restaurant. A pulled-pork sandwich and warm slice of pie will leave you grinning.

Revisit the 1930s by sharing a shake at Sault’s authentic soda fountain with locally made premium ice cream.

For your next getaway or family vacation, visit Fulton and Callaway County, Missouri. For more information and calendar of events visit www.visitfulton.com or call 573-642-3055.

Callaway County Fair August 4 - 8, 2009 Callaway County Fair Grounds, Route C Fulton Fair Events, Tractor Pull, Demolition Derby, Livestock Events, etc.

Rob Bristow at 573-220-2613 callawaycountyfair.com Hazel Kinder’s Lighthouse Theater August 11 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm The Brett Family, From Branson September 5, 7:30 pm John Sines Jr. featuring his hit “The Black #3” a tribute to Dale Earnhardt 3078 Lighthouse Lane, Fulton Shows every Saturday, call or go online for full schedule.

573-474-4040 www.lighthousetheater.com hazelkinder@yahoo.com

FOR FULTON GET-A-WAY COUPONS VISIT WWW.VISITFULTON.COM

Calendar of Events

Crane’s 4,000 sq. ft. museum is a one-of-akind viewing experience featuring rural Missouri history dating back to the 1800s.

Bluegrass & BBQ September 20, 2009 noon - 6 pm 600 East Fifth Street, Fulton Five groups performing and great food $5 per person Jack Marshall at 573-642-2039 35th Annual Hatton Craft Festival October 3, 2009 9 am - 4 pm Throughout Hatton 175+ exhibitors with handmade items for sale: dolls, hand-painted china, paintings, pillows, wooden toys, florals, seasonal items, and much more.

A country atmosphere with three buildings of crafts. Free wagon rides.

Lunch served.

573-529-1541 Traveling Art Exhibits Winston Churchill Museum Art Gallery For fall schedule visit www.churchillmemorial.org 573-592-5234

Enjoy a variety of live concerts at Lighthouse Theater.

For more information, www.visitfulton.com 1-800-257-3554 Kansas City

128 miles

I-70

St. Louis

100 miles

FULTON Loganberry Inn’s fruit and hazelnut crepe is a work of art to the eye and the palette.

ad-AUG 09.indd 51

Tanglewood Golf Course features [51] August 6,883 yards 2009 of golf from the longest tees for a par of 72.

6/26/09 10:59:06 AM

ML

ZEST OF LIFE > MISSOURI BOOK S

Book List 100 Unique Eats and Eateries in Missouri

Twist of Fate: The Miracle Colt and His Friends

By Ann M. Hazelwood, Reedy Press, 112

By Washington author Chris Stuckenschneider

pages, $14.95 softcover, nonfiction

and St. Louis artist Kevin Belford, Reedy Press, 32 pages, $16.95 hardcover, children’s book

More than one twist of fate occurs in this amazing true story. The title is the name of the book’s main character, a miracle colt, who tells the story about twenty-six of fortytwo horses headed for slaughter that were involved in a tragic traffic accident in 2006 on Interstate 44 in Franklin County. Twist of Fate’s mother was pregnant with him when the accident happened, and the colt defied the odds to be born. He tells the story of the accident and the group of people from Longmeadow Rescue Ranch near Union, who aided in saving the horses both from the accident and the slaughterhouse for which they were destined. Some of the horses, including Twist of Fate, can still be visited at Longmeadow.

—Rebecca French Smith

Cosmopolitan Twain Edited by Ann M. Ryan and Joseph B. McCullough, University of Missouri Press, 288 pages, $39.95 hardcover, nonfiction

The Flags of Civil War Missouri

By Glenn Dedmondt, Pelican Publishing Company, 144 pages, $22 softcover, nonfiction

It Happened in Missouri

By Sean McLachlan, The Globe Pequot Press, $12.95 softcover, nonfiction

Blindness Isn’t Black Edited by Janie Ellen Ibur, VSA Arts of Missouri, 42 pages, $10 softcover, available by calling 314-920-9701

A wonderful mix of poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction essays, Blindness Isn’t Black is an anthology of work by Missouri writers and artists who have disabilities. The talent within the collection is intriguing and engaging, asking a reader to experience the world as they do through words or images. Some stories, like one comparing hospital stays to vacations and one about a chicken lickin’ dog, add humor while others convey the depth of a disability, such as “Blindness isn’t Black,” about a vision disability. The voice is playful and serious, light and heavy, conveying a range of emotions. —Rebecca French Smith

Scott Joplin and the Age of Ragtime

By Ray Argyle, McFarland & Company, Inc., 231 pages, $35 softcover, nonfiction

Teen’s Guide to Not Being Perfect

By Nixa author Tom Krause, Bluegrass Publishing, 160 pages, $14.95 softcover, nonfiction Books reviewed or on the Book List can be found at book stores and at Amazon.com unless noted otherwise.

Vacation: We’re Going to the Ocean

By Springfield author David L. Harrison, Boyds Mills Press, 62 pages, $16.95 hardcover, children’s poetry

Family vacations are always punctuated with “Are we there yet?” and childhood shenanigans, and David L. Harrison’s way of putting those things into words takes you to a time when you were capable of each and every line of his poetry. From sand castles to stowaway crabs, sharks to no-see-ums, hotels to campsites, and backseats to beaches, there is no corner of a kid’s vacation left untouched. Chanted through the mind of a child, the poetry brings smiles and laughter as it reminds readers, at least the adult ones, of impulses, ideas, and feelings they might have experienced as a child on vacation. —Rebecca French Smith

[52] MissouriLife

ZEST-AUG 09.indd 52

7/1/09 10:37:50 AM

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ML

Zest of Life > Made in Missouri Television aficionados

might associate the name Kramer

with Seinfeld, but people in the antique industry know better.

Sugar Creek’s John Kramer is the creator of Kramer’s Best Antique Improver, a secret blend that he says “works better than any product on the market” to clean, restore, and preserve traditional finishes and wood.

John worked in the museum industry for years, repairing and preserving wood pieces from as early as the 1400s. He recognized that pollution, central

heat,

conditioning,

air and

other modern creations affect wood in ways that it is not

Kramer’s Best Recipe

able to handle. John began collecting old-time recipes for cleaners, preservatives, and finishes to figure out the best way to repair and protect antique wood and finishes.

“After several years of work, I got really lucky,” he says.

“There’s nothing else quite like it.” Since 1987, Kramer’s Best has appeared at antique shows and shops; it is also used by many tool, clock, and radio collectors; old car and motorcycle enthusiasts; and museum conservators.

Call 816-252-9512 or visit kramerize.com for more information.

In the 1970s, Springfield parents were abuzz concerning a diaper rash ointment concocted by local pharmacists upon request. When the Board of Pharmacy intervened, stating that pharmaceutical products required licensed manufacturers, pharmacist John Sherwood saw a window of opportunity. He called the Patent and Trademark office to secure a trademark for the diaper rash ointment formula. Little did he know that pharmacist Jerry Peacock of Lockwood had done the same— two Springfield-area residents, two diaper rash ointments.

For nearly twenty years, Sherwood’s Doctor’s Best rivaled Peacock’s Diaper Doo. Each product was mildly successful, but Sherwood’s patience paid off when Peacock sold him the trademark and distribution for Super Duper Diaper Doo, resulting in its continued availability.

Call 800-658-0331 or visit superduperdiaperdoo.com for more information.

—Whitney Spivey

EARTH-FRIENDLY FEASTING > EarthShell’s biodegradable dinnerware can contribute to eco-friendly tailgates, picnics, or other occasions, and while you’re serving, use the products as conversation pieces.

These paper plates not only decompose in up to ninety days, they’re made from recycled materials. They’re molded from limestone, renewable corn and potato starches, water, and recycled fiber.

Headquartered in Lebanon, Missouri, EarthShell’s central location provides reasonable shipping rates to both coasts, Canada, and Mexico. All ingredients are produced in the United States, but the company hopes to reduce its carbon footprint in the future by using Missouri limestone and Iowa potatoes.

For more information, call 417-533-7675 or visit earthshell.com. —Whitney Spivey

courtesy of retailers

Super Duper Diaper Doo

—Whitney Spivey

[54] MissouriLife

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klklklklkkkllll

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promotion

Discover the magnificent sculpture of Columbia artist Sabra Tull Meyer

C

olumbia is dotted with the intricate, life-like artwork of local sculptor Sabra Tull Meyer. From the Columbia Public Library to the Museum of Art and Archeology, the Missouri Theatre, and more, Sabra has left her mark with her signature bronze sculptures.

Sabra has been sculpting for more than 30 years, and lately she’s been producing work of monumental proportions, literally. She created the Corps of Discovery: Lewis & Clark monument for the Capitol Complex at Jefferson City, which featured five heroic size bronze figures. She also created an edition of thirty smaller-scale figures called maquettes of the same piece, one of which is still available.

Sabra is often commissioned for sculptures at public sites and is known for her true-to-life details and her dedication to her craft. Her monuments grace the grounds of places like parks and government buildings in Columbia, but she also has several hundred bronze sculptures in private collections around the country.

Currently, Sabra is working on a sculpture of an eagle to add to the Veteran’s Memorial Park at Boonville, to be unveiled on Veterans’ Day this fall as well as a bust for former Kansas City Chiefs player Nick Lowry to be added to the Hall of Fame at Arrowhead Stadium. For more information, e-mail sculptures@sabratullmeyer.com.

From top: “Jeté,” a bronze and marble limited edition. Sabra in her studio with a clay model of the eagle that will grace the top of the eightfoot tall center stone at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Boonville. The small-scale version of the Corps of Discovery Monument.

Go on a sculpture scavenger hunt around Columbia for these pieces by Sabra Tull Meyer: Walter Williams Hall on MU Campus: Walter Williams portrait bust.

Missouri Theatre: 58-foot long sculptural mural in the Grand Foyer.

Columbia Public Library: “The Shell Seeker.”

Columbia Cemetery: “Reverie.”

Boone Hospital Foundation Labyrinth Park: “Infinity.”

Hickman High School: Kewpie mascot.

MKT Trail, Stadium Blvd. trailhead: Don Patterson relief portrait.

lllllllllkkklklklklk AD-AUG 09.indd 1

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Zest of Life

Missouri Journal

Defining Daniel Boone

By W. Arthur Mehrhoff

American folklorist Henry Glassie wrote, “The American

A Civilized Fortress

landscape speaks, incessantly babbling myth.” I certainly found Glassie’s saying quite true about the Boone Home Historic Site in Defiance. The Boone Home is literally Ground Zero for the American frontier experience in Missouri. Here you can visit Daniel Boone’s home that wasn’t exactly his home, overlooking an early Missouri pioneer village that never really existed, close to his gravestone where he may or may not actually be buried. In short, the Boone Home Historic Site owned and operated by Lindenwood University is the perfect venue to reflect upon the challenges of interpreting our special places.

The Daniel Boone Home, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a four-story Georgian structure built by hand over a period of seven years between 1803 and 1810. The home, which was actually owned by Daniel’s youngest son Nathan, resembled Daniel Boone’s Pennsylvania birthplace and the family’s ancestral residence in Devon, England. Its two-and-one-half-foot thick limestone walls, seven walnut fireplace mantels, and scattered gun ports look like a civilized fortress.

Inside the Boone Home, an impressive collection of artifacts and antiques, some original to the Boones, help bring the site to life. A separate, summer kitchen of brick and stone reminds us of stifling Missouri

COURTESY OF GREATER ST. CHARLES CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU

B o o n e s f i e l d v i l l a g e at D e f i a n c e s h a r e s a l i f e s t o r y |

[56] MissouriLife

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COURTESY OF DANIEL BOONE HOME AND BOONESFIELD VILLAGE; MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY

heat and humidity in a river valley. An old, framed Boone family lineage chart reminds us that Daniel and his wife, Rebecca, were patriarch and matriarch of the clan and entitled to a separate room in this crowded citadel. Expert guide Caroline Lott explains that the Boones favored pewter for dining because it could be melted down for bullets in the event of a surprise Indian attack.

The hand-hewn timbers of the unfinished top floor room where slaves dwelt remind us of the differences that bound people together on the Missouri frontier.

Perhaps equally important as the home is its commanding view of the hilly, well-watered, and heavily wooded Femme Osage Creek valley, in its day a navigable waterway within the North American system of streams and rivers. As Daniel Boone observed, “I had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, and, looking around with astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains, the beauteous tracts below.”

Lost His Land Twice So how did our hero wind up on the edge of the American frontier?

Missouri became the storm front of westward expansion and a major casino in American’s unregulated economic development, and Daniel Boone was the sharp point of both those spear thrusts, which came together there on his balcony.

From top: Schoolchildren at Boonesfield Village, dressed in period costumes, participate in Pioneer Days. Daniel Boone lived in his son Nathan’s home (opposite).

Daniel Boone was already legendary for exploring the Cumberland Gap and Wilderness Road, helping Americans push into the trans-Appalachian west of Kentucky and Tennessee. Some historians even cite such settlement, violating Great Britain’s Proclamation of 1763 restricting American settlement to the original thirteen colonies along the Atlantic seaboard in order to minimize conflicts with native peoples, as a major cause of the American Revolution. Now Kentucky was starting to get crowded, at least in the sharp eyes of Daniel Boone, and he turned them toward the trans-Mississippi west.

Often the problem with being ahead of the curve is that even when you guess right you can still lose. During Kentucky’s transition from territory to statehood in the 1790s, Daniel Boone lost all his Kentucky land claims due to title errors and debt. Boone was more than willing by that time to entertain an offer from the Spanish government to emigrate to the Spanish territory of Missouri in 1799, lured by a generous land grant and a job offer as a legal magistrate. Boone’s legendary reputation as a man of integrity as well as his extended family made him very appealing to the Spanish government, which was eager to encourage settlement in its territories. You can still see part of the original Judgment Tree near

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Zest of Life > Missouri Journal

the Boone Home, where Daniel rendered his well-respected decisions on all manner of Missouri frontier matters. Ironically, Daniel Boone also lost his Missouri land title from the Spanish government when the Louisiana Territory changed hands and eventually passed to the United States.

The Boone Home was likely the westernmost American village in the early 1800s; Lewis and Clark noted it in their journals. Daniel Boone considered the valley the finest hunting ground he had ever seen. It was also literally the high point of a commercial enterprise that blazed the path for Missouri statehood. Nathan, the actual owner of the Boone Home, and Daniel Morgan Boone, Daniel’s oldest son, discovered a major salt lick near today’s Boonville. Salt was essential to preserve food on the frontier, so the footpath evolved into the famous Boone’s Lick Trail that encouraged new settlements from Missouri’s original capital at St. Charles west to Arrow Rock and paved the way for Highway 40 and eventually Interstate 70.

In another twist of fate, Nathan Boone provided salt from what is now the Boonslick State Historic Site to the new settlement near Kansas City called Fort Osage. Fort Osage was founded by George Sibley, who with his wife, Mary, later founded the Lindenwood School for Girls. Many years later, Lindenwood School for Girls became Lindenwood College and later Lindenwood University. Lindenwood University now owns and maintains the historic Boone Home and the adjacent Boonesfield Village.

Boonesfield Village Daniel Boone would also be astonished to stand on the porch of the Boone Home and see Boonesfield Village there in the valley. Like Henry Ford’s controversial Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, Boonesfield Village is a collection of historic American buildings from other settings reconstructed on-site. However, while Ford went all across America

Grady Manus, chief of interpretation at Lindenwood University’s Boonesfield Village, supervises Boot Camp students in some cutting-edge activities.

buying up buildings that appealed to his imagination, Boonesfield Village provides a sanctuary for early Missouri buildings within fifty miles facing demolition from new development. The village uses the year of Missouri statehood (1821), just after the death of Daniel Boone, as an organizing principle to better understand and communicate Missouri frontier life.

Chief of Interpretation Grady Manus emphasizes Boonesfield Village’s value for placing the people and events that shaped Missouri life into meaningful contexts because, for most of us, pioneer Missouri is a foreign country that requires visible landmarks and an expert guide.

While the American landscape may continually babble myth, students at Boonesfield Village are learning how to decode its messages.

Boonesfield Village is a key part of Lindenwood University’s unique and highly applied master’s program in American studies with its emphasis in interpretation. It has become a center for the study of history, folk arts, natural sciences, and even ethics. Dr. David Knotts, dean of American studies at Lindenwood University and former editor of the Journal of Interpretation Research, perceived a strong and growing need for heritage interpretation by local communities. Dean Knotts notes how people seek increasingly new and meaningful experiences in their travel and consumption, creating the related need for increased professionalization and specialization in the field of heritage interpretation.

Dean Knotts mentioned a young home-schooled prodigy who raised challenging questions for interpreters about the authenticity of an old rifle. I call this the History Channel phenomenon, growing public knowledge of and desire for knowledge of our heritage. Special places

Courtesy of Daniel Boone Home and Boonesfield Village

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like the Boone Home and Boonesfield Village provide a sense of place and perspective.

Living history activities, like Pioneer Days at the end of September, deepen the experience even further. Children often ask Grady, who specializes in living history interpretation of early American frontier life, “Is that real?” He told the story of a young boy who requested wood shavings Grady produced while using an adze to build a dugout canoe.

So is Boonesfield Village real? Perhaps not historically true like an old plat map, but the babbling landscape may reveal a deeper truth. The Boone Home and adjacent Boonesfield Village transport us back to the beginning of Missouri life and allow us to reflect on the meaning of our journey. Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin wrote, “Now the American assignment seemed to come no longer from the conscious choices of individual citizens, but from the scale and velocity of the national projects themselves. Growth, ever more and faster, seemed to have become the nation’s whole purpose.” Like Daniel Boone, we still try to escape into the wilderness and find other settlers following us to the Promised Land.

Grady suggests that in the wake of such growth, we have lost sight of Daniel Boone’s self-reliance and his underlying dream of making responsible life choices—the Judgment Tree. Grady’s message to young people is that knowledge and education are like Boone’s wilderness, where they can shape their lives and futures. On a larger scale, communities could draw upon a program like Lindenwood’s to shape their own futures through knowledge and education. Perhaps if communities would think more thoughtfully about their own special places, such resources could tell the community’s story instead of being relocated to Boonesfield Village.

Pioneer Days Festival

COURTESY OF DANIEL BOONE HOME AND BOONESFIELD VILLAGE; NOTLEY HAWKINS

Set in a time period

At the Boone grave site at Marthasville, Daniel is believed to be buried at the foot of his wife, Rebecca.

The Grave Debate Speaking of relocation, there’s that matter of Daniel Boone’s grave site. His grave marker is in an old family cemetery down the road from the Boone Home. Everyone agrees that Daniel Boone died approximately ten years after his wife, Rebecca, and was buried in this cemetery, but then the story gets complicated. Years later, citizens of Frankfort, Kentucky, Boone’s former home, dug up what they thought were Boone’s bones and interred them in a grave site there. However, Missourians argued that Daniel had been buried in the crowded family cemetery at the foot of Rebecca rather than by her side and that the disinterred skeletal remains were not actually those of Daniel Boone.

A forensic anthropologist who analyzed the skull in 1984 concluded that it most likely belonged to an African-American man at least six feet tall; Daniel Boone was approximately five feet eight inches tall. So the matter simply will not rest.

W. Arthur I think we should leave the last word to the Mehrhoff babbling American landscape. Multiple grave sites and an uncertain land title convey a truth W. Arthur Mehrhoff is the academic about the restless spirit of Daniel Boone and coordinator at the Museum of Art and frontier America.

Archaeology at the Visit www.lindenwood.edu/boone/ for more University of Missouri information. at Columbia.

Visitors will also have the opportu-

between 1799 and 1840, the Daniel

nity to explore more

Boone Home and Boonesfield Village’s Pioneer Days festival

than sixteen histori-

on September 19-20 allows visitors to step back in time into

cal buildings in the

Missouri’s frontier past.

Boonesfield Village,

Pioneer Days, held annually since 1999, is located in the

each equipped with

Femme Osage Valley, just an hour south of St. Louis in Defiance,

a historian to inter-

and is one of the area’s largest events.

pret the structure

The family-oriented, two-day event includes a living histori-

and its period usage.

cal encampment, children’s games, live fiddle music, authentic

There will also be guided tours of the Daniel Boone Home, where

militia, speakers, dancing, and more. A muzzle-loader shooting

Boone spent the last few years of his life.

competition will also take place Saturday afternoon, and traders

Visitors are welcome to come dressed in period wear and enjoy a

and artisans will set up camp in the common area and sell period

weekend of Missouri pioneer life. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for

items such as jewelry, arrowheads, and art.

seniors, and $6 for children ages four to eleven. Price includes cost of

“The whole village is speckled with tents,” says Joe Lovell,

Pioneer Days in the village and a guided tour of Daniel Boone Home.

co-director of the Daniel Boone Home and Boonesfield Village.

Pioneer Days alone costs $7, $6, and $4, respectively; Boone Home

“There are some scheduled events, but it is mostly just visitors

tour alone costs $5, $4, and $3. Visit www.lindenwood.edu/boone/

rendezvousing around the village and enjoying the day.”

for more information. —Katlin Chadwick

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ZEST OF LIFE > MISSOURI JOURNAL

Barney Combs (left), aka Daniel Boone, shows Bob Pecoraro, aka John Filson, his rifle, c.1780. His white powder horn dates to 1750. Filson has a fusil (light musket), made around 1750. His pistol is from 1720, and his ivory-handled, green stained hunting sword (much like George Washington’s) is on his left hip (also below). The neck bag around Bob’s neck bag is a replica of a “possibles” bag, named because things you might possibly need could be carried there.

Bringing Boone and His Biographer to Life On some weekends, visitors to the Boone home in Defiance

“Our forefathers were geniuses,” Bob says. “Each piece was

find Daniel and his biographer, John Filson, waiting to greet them

well thought-out and made to be extremely functional, and

in the drawing room. As part of their portrayals, certified inter-

some even do several different tasks.”

Barney and Bob explain the use of each item to visitors as

not only dress like the two men did, but they have personally col-

if they were Boone and Filson, and only tell stories about the

lected and wear the same accouterments that Boone and other

two men that have been documented. Wearing the artifacts

frontiersmen would have used between 1765 and 1782.

allows the men to show the use of the rare antiques up

“We do not have the actual pieces they owned, but our collec-

close instead of from a display inside a glass case. As a

tion is authentic” to Boone’s time, Bob says, noting that each

result, the life of the two men on the frontier becomes as

item has been purchased with a letter of authenticity from

real-life as possible.

Paul Ambrose, a broker specializing in antique arms from the

“People tell us they feel like

period. “We know they are of the type the men used because

they are in the presence of

many pieces in our collection are described by Filson in his

Boone and Filson,” Bob says.

writing,” he adds. Filson was the only Boone biographer who

“It is a great compliment.”

—Jim Winnerman

actually knew Daniel Boone.

The antique compass is the type both Boone and Filson used as surveyors.

COURTESY OF ROBERT PECORARO

pretive guides Barney Combs (Boone) and Bob Pecoraro (Filson)

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Above: Native wildflowers on the Carver Prairie at 55 Cardwell the George Washington Carver National Monument passion for plants and nature.

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FIND KITSCH, GHOST LORE, AND THE GRANDDAD OF GREEN |

A WITLING WOULD SAY it’s a description of Hell: four thousand toasters, no bread. But hey, if Richard Larrison ever used all his toasters at once, it might create Hell, havoc, or at least a lot of heat, pulling enough electricity to cause a brownout in the tiny Jasper County town of Fidelity.

Besides, most locals know that the region’s most famous Hellfire hovers about a dozen miles southwest of Fidelity, as the raven flies. Near the tiny hamlet of Hornet at the end of The Devil’s Promenade, the Spook Light, also known as The Devil’s Jack-O-Lantern, dances nightly as it has since at least the Civil War. Back in the loyal confines of Fidelity, Richard and Janet Larrison operate JR’s Western Store, tucked a mile south of Interstate 44 on the road

By John Robinson

to the George Washington Carver National Monument. It’s a nice store, with dandy duds and new boot leather smell.

Attached to the store is The World’s Largest Small Electric Appliance Museum, a labyrinth of ceiling-high display cases tastefully packed with waffle irons, mixers, coffee pots, and toasters. Mostly toasters. In addition to 3.5 million watts worth of appliances, “I have eight hundred more to display when I make room,” Richard says.

My friends at the Missouri Tourism Welcome Center in Joplin tipped me off about the museum. It turned out to be a revelation. Did you know that every year, there’s a national convention called OcToasterFest? Me neither. Last fall, more than two dozen collectors converged on Fidelity to swap toaster tales, toasters, and generally jam to toasterity.

COURTESY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER NATIONAL MONUMENT

0

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GAYLE HARPER

From top: Richard Larrison holds a small sample of what you’ll find at the World’s Largest Small Electric Appliance Museum in Fidelity. Richard and his wife, Janet, also operate the attached Western store.

I left there hungry. Traveling south to Diamond and turning west, I bypassed the Carver birthplace for the moment, drawing ever nearer to the Hornet Spook Light. According to observers, this mysterious ball of light actually dances in Oklahoma, but the best spot for viewing sits at the intersection of State Line Road and 50 Road, nicknamed The Devil’s Promenade, just south of Joplin, west of Route 43. There are many theories about the Spook Light’s origin. Personally, I believe it’s a wayward bouncing ball from Sing Along with Mitch Miller that somehow caught the fire of eternal damnation.

The Spook Light show usually doesn’t start until after 10 PM, so at high noon, my empty stomach guided me to another intriguing spot, on old Highway 71 just north of Neosho. There, the busy KC Southern tracks parallel Shoal Creek, a floater’s delight. Tucked under a bluff, the Undercliff Grill and Bar has watched over the creek’s shallow Tipton Ford in one fashion or another since 1928. With a back wall that’s the face of a towering cliff, Undercliff is warm and inviting, in its campy cave chic. The locals keep coming back for the food. Now I know why. The French onion soup was protected by a helmet of Gruyère, and that’s a good thing. My eyes feasted on the décor: racecars, surfboards, airplanes, hornets’ nests, and classic cameos of Elvis, Marilyn, and James Dean. A freight train rumbled past the picture window. Soon, owner Mike Winn’s

Dam Good Sandwich slid before me, a formidable stack of pastrami, ham, and Provolone cheese grilled and served on foccacia bread and slathered with slaw. I devoured the sandwich and the experience, said thanks to Mike and Melissa Winn, and returned my focus to the shrine of my idol.

In the annals of great mortals who made a difference, it’s hard to whittle down my list of favorites.

The renaissance creativity of da Vinci.

The genius of Jefferson. The timeless prose of Twain. But my all-time hero is the son of a slave who grew up to change the world in ways most people don’t realize.

George Carver was born outside tiny Diamond during the last shots of the Civil War on a farm owned by Moses and Susan Carver. As an infant, he and his mother were stolen by slave raiders. George was recovered by the Carvers, but his mother was not. The Carvers raised George and his older brother, Jim. Susan taught George to read and sent him to school in Neosho when he was about eleven. He boarded with a childless black couple, Andrew and Mariah Watkins, for two years before heading to Kansas with other African-Americans traveling west. Over the next ten years, Carver traveled from one Midwestern town to another, before moving to

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get going > Road Trip

Winterset, Iowa, in the late 1880s. There, a white couple who befriended him encouraged him to enroll in nearby Simpson College, where he studied piano and art. After a year, though, George was admitted to the State Agricultural College, now Iowa State University, at Ames.

His legacy transcends mere peanuts. He grew up to be the grandfather of green. A name with no less impact than John Muir or Teddy Roosevelt or Rachel Carson, he became America’s preeminent recycler, its patron saint of sustainable agriculture, and its social conscience.

Schoolchildren have a wonderful opportunity to discover Carver’s reach. On the homestead where he was born, the George Washington Carver National Monument is a scientific wonderland waiting for inquiring minds. It’s the oldest of Missouri’s six national parks, packed with enough common sense to save the world, compliments of Carver.

In the middle of a restored prairie, the monument offers equal parts Carver science, Carver care, and Carver lifestyle.

I visited the George Washington Carver National Monument a few years ago. It was inspirational then. But that old presentation pales in comparison to the site’s new makeover. It has expanded from thirty-seven hundred to eighteen thousand square feet, encompassing a replica classroom based on young George’s Neosho school experience complete with McGuffey Readers and small slate blackboards at

each seat. A movie theater shows the film Man of Vision. Visitors get a hands-on experience in the Carver laboratory, an exact replica of Carver’s classroom at Tuskegee Institute, complete with all the tools necessary to participate in science. Even outside the classrooms, the whole experience is hands-on, with opportunities to look through microscopes and conduct experiments.

It’s understandable that in America’s fast-food appetite for history we know little more than peanuts about Carver. In too many instances, America’s collective knowledge about our icons gets boiled down to the substance of a slogan. Whole lives get reduced to tombstone histories, not enough information to fill the average movie trailer.

Yet Carver strived to be a trailblazer, in agriculture for sure, but also in education, ecology, and life. Sure, he developed more than three hundred uses for the lowly regarded peanut, including paper, ink, gasoline, shampoo, insecticide, and nitroglycerin. No, he didn’t invent peanut butter. But he did develop seventy-five uses for pecans, and colored paints from clay. He made synthetic marble from wood pulp, paint from used motor oil, athlete’s foot medicine from persimmons, paving bricks from cotton, and stamp glue from sweet potato starch.

Perhaps most important for agriculture, Carver introduced the peanut plant as a rotation crop away from continual cotton, which had

courtesy of George Washington Carver National Monument

From top left: The replica classroom at the park helps illustrate how important education was to Carver. Williams Pond at the George Washington Carver National Monument is named after one of Carver’s relatives. Robert Amendola created this boyhood statue of Carver.

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courtesy of George Washington Carver National Monument

From top left: The replica of the Carver laboratory at the National Monument takes visitors back to Carver’s life in the laboratory at the Tuskegee Institute (below). From trash to treasure, Carver found hundreds of uses for different products from peanuts to old fruit jars.

ravaged soils. Peanuts in rotation with cotton introduced nutrients back into the soil. Just as important, Carver’s novel idea to rotate the peanut crop with cotton dealt a blow to the boll weevil’s devastating grip.

Carver pioneered chemurgy, the movement toward renewable bioenergy systems. He made clothing from sweet potatoes, medicine from pine needles, and fuel from corn. And on this day, in tiny Diamond at the Carver monument, I stood in awe of another Carver invention.

His Jesup Wagon was a movable school. This horse-drawn laboratory on wheels is one of the earliest examples of university extension.

I walked the trails Nobody knows young George walked Missouri like every morning. It was John Robinson.

John, a former Director on these morning of Tourism for Missouri, walks that he would is dedicated to driving every mile of state“collect my floral maintained highways.

This makes him King beauties and put them of the Road. To date, in my little garden he has covered 3,659 state roads, with 245 to I had hidden in the go. As he drives each brush not far from the road, he marks it on his house, as it was conKing of the map, which truly has become his treasure.

Road sidered foolishness in

the neighborhood to waste time on flowers.”

Personally, I see another Carver indulgence that elevates him to greatness. He made it a practice to find creative uses for things normally thrown away. As such, Carver became America’s foremost recycler.

He believed that nothing around the house should be discarded if it could be used. “America has got to turn its attention in those directions to save what we have,” he said. He warned that destroying usable items was a lack of vision: “And where there is no vision, people perish.”

“Everything on earth has a purpose,” he told students, and Carver practiced what he preached. To illustrate, he often recounted one of his first days after leaving his alma mater. He had accepted the invitation

by Booker T. Washington to become the new director of agriculture at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. “I went to the trash pile at Tuskegee Institute and started my lab with bottles, old fruit jars, and any other thing I found I could use.” From that trash, he built on a concept that guided his every move: “Nature produces no waste.”

I stayed longer than I planned at the Carver site. It was dark when I left, and I thought about heading to Hornet to see the Spook Light.

Instead, I started the three-hour journey to my own bed and a homecooked meal, maybe a BLT ... on toast.

Visit www.nps.gov/gwca/ for more information.

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50 PLACES ZERO DOLLARS ML0809_FreeFun_1_AB.indd 66

lots of fun

7/7/09 1:57:12 PM

Nelson-Atkins museum of art

and audubon center

OS

Have a good t ime

By Abby Callard, Matthew Langenhorst, and Callina Wood

Courtesy of the nelson atkins museum of art/timothy hursley, wildcat glades conservation and audubon center

S

n

Wildcat glades conservation

for ne xt

to noth in’

Let’s face it: We all have a bargain hunter deep inside, and we all love a good deal. Free is a great deal.

So, this guide to free fun in Missouri will help you find places and experiences that are easy on your wallet. Make it a game. How little can you spend in a day at a park, or a day at the zoo, or a day admiring the works of Van Gogh or Thomas Hart Benton? Gas is a given cost, but lunch doesn’t have to be if you pack your own.

Beyond that, how much fun can you have for free?

Visit MissouriLife.com for web links and more information.

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railroad historical museum

Heritage & Cultural Centers Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center The mission of the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, named after a political and social activist from Kansas City, is to commemorate and interpret the African-American diaspora in Kansas City and Missouri. The center is home to art exhibits, lectures, and live performances that reflect the culture and help preserve the traditions of local African-American heritage.

Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 am to 6 pm 3700 Blue Parkway, Kansas City www.kcmo.org/parks.nsf/web/watkins 816-513-0700 Jefferson Barracks Historic Park Built as the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first infantry school of practice in 1826, the barracks also saw the first parachute jump from an airplane in 1912.

Museums on the grounds include the laborerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house, the stable, and the powder magazine museum. Special exhibits are held in the Old Ordnance Room. Jefferson Barracks hosts a few events each year, including a reenactment the last weekend of April.

Grounds: 8 am to one half hour past sunset Museums: Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 4 pm 533 Grant Road, end of South Broadway, St. Louis www.stlouisco.com/parks/j-b.html, 314-544-5714 Museum of Missouri Military History Charla Shull, the first woman to serve in a combat zone with the Missouri National Guard, is a highlight of this museum, along with many other war artifacts on display.

Now retired from the Guard, Charla works at the museum and shares her story as well

as the stories of others, including a Missouri Assistant Adjutant General who served with the Flying Tigers in WWII. Photographs, uniforms, weapons, medals, and other archives in the museum focus on Missouri military history from the 1800s to the present day.

Mondays through Fridays, 8 am to 3 pm 2007 Retention Drive, Jefferson City 573-638-9603 Railroad Historical Museum The Railroad Historical Museum is dedicated to preserving railroad history. Artifacts, equipment, and art from the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad and others are on display. Explore the cab of the Frisco 4524 locomotive, the Burlington Baggage Car, the Chicago Northwestern Commuter Car, and the Burlington Northern Caboose, and ring the train bell. The museum is located at

Calaboose

Built in 1891 as a jail, the Calaboose is the oldest structure owned by the city. It has been restored with a police museum on the first floor. Original documents and archives were used in the restoration to ensure historical accuracy. Tours are available most weekdays.

409 W. McDaniel, Springfield, 417-837-5868

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50 PLACES FOR FREE FUN

jefferson barracks

courtesy of railroad historical museum/ w.h. houser, jefferson barracks, city of springfield

Grant Beach Park, with access to a public pool, playground, and picnic area.

Saturdays, 2 pm to 4 pm 1300 N. Grant Street, Springfield www.rrhistoricalmuseum.zoomshare.com 417-865-6829

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Mondays through Fridays, 9 am to 4:30 pm; Saturdays and Sundays 10 am to 3 pm 1315 Chestnut, St. Louis www.stlsoldiersmemorial.org, 314-622-4550

Shoal Creek Living History Museum This eighty-acre farm in north Kansas City gives visitors an authentic nineteenth-century Missouri village experience. The grounds feature twenty historical buildings built between 1808-1885. Tours and special events like reenactments, festivals, and more are offered as well, but usually for a nominal fee. Children under five are free.

Dusk to dawn 7000 N.E. Barry Road, Kansas City www.kcmo.org/parks.nsf/web/shoal, 816-792-2655

Vaughn Cultural Center and Urban League The Cultural Center is housed in the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and serves as a cultural venue for the African-American community. The center features six artist exhibits yearly, jazz and gospel concerts, book signings, live performances, local community events, and art classes for children. In the past, events have included a jazz concert with St. Louis Jazz artist Brian Owens and a photography exhibit by local photographer Lance Omar Thurman.

Mondays through Fridays, 10 am to 5 pm 3701 Grandel Square, St. Louis 314-615-3600

Soldiers Memorial Military Museum Opened in 1938, this museum has two galleries dedicated to the history of Missouri military, and is full of artifacts like uniforms, medals, weapons, and memorabilia. Exhibits have included Montford Point Marines: Black Marines of WWII; American Superheroes: Popular Culture and the St. Louis War Experience; and Hometown Heroes: Honoring Local Veterans Who Made it Home to Tell Us Their Story.

Willmore lodge This Adirondack-style log building has an amazing view of the Lake of the Ozarks and is a site to see in itself. The museum at the lodge includes interpretive exhibits and artifacts from the dam construction as well as the Osage Indian tribe that lived in the area.

Mondays through Fridays, 9 am to 4:30 pm; Saturdays and Sundays, 9 am to 3 pm 1 Willmore Lane, Lake Ozark www.willmorelodge.com, 800-451-4117

Creve Coeur Park Sand beaches and a natural waterfall make Creve Coeur Park an easy getaway from the city. The park offers twelve picnic sites and four reservable shelters for groups. The Frisbee golf course is free and open to the public. The 1,185-acre park features walking paths, athletic fields, an archery range, and a 320-acre lake.

2348 Creve Coeur Mill Road, Maryland Heights www.co.st-louis.mo.us/parks/creve.htm 314-434-7792 Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden This two-acre garden features three styles: the Green Garden, the Secret Garden, and the Parterre Garden. The Green Garden features an octagonal pool. The Secret Garden has unique water features. The Parterre Garden has a long pool highlighted with bronze sculptures by local artist Tom Corbin. Brick walkways connect the gardens, and more than three hundred plant varietals decorate the space.

Daily, 9 am to 6 pm 4800 Rockhill Road, Kansas City www.powellgardens.org, 816-932-1200 Forest Park Forest Park is a long-time St. Louis favorite, and recent renovations make the park better than ever.

The renovated Dennis and Judith Jones Visitor & Education Center at the Lindell Pavilion is a great

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St. louis zoo

place to start your visit; volunteers are on hand to answer any questions you might have about the area. The Jewel Box, a renovated greenhouse in the center of the park, usually costs $1 for admission, but go from 9 am to noon on Mondays and Tuesdays and it’s free. And don’t forget old favorites: Turtle Playground, bike trails, World’s Fair Pavilion, and the boathouse.

Nine park entrances are located along Lindell Boulevard, South Kingshighway Boulevard, Oakland Avenue, and Skinker Boulevard.

5595 Grand Drive, St. Louis stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/forestpark/ 314-367-7275 Lakeside Nature Center Wilma, a seventy-year-old box turtle, welcomes visitors to this natural setting in the middle of Kansas City; she also enjoys hiding in the log in her display, so you might have to seek her out.

The center also features birds of prey, fish, snakes, amphibians, aquariums, and walking trails.

Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9 am to 5 pm; Sundays, noon to 4 pm 4701 E. Gregory Boulevard, Swope Park, Kansas City www.lakesidenaturecenter.org, 816-513-8960 Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center Three miles of paved trail wind through 112 acres of forest. The Nature Center holds free

classes for adults, children, and families that are taught by volunteers. Classes include a family canoeing trip, a class for kids about seeds where they can take a science project home, and a class about ladybugs with crafts and experiments.

Daylight Savings Time, 8 am to 8 pm daily Standard Time, 8 am to 6 pm daily 11715 Cragwold Road, Kirkwood mdc.mo.gov/areas/cnc/powder/, 314-301-1500 Springfield Conservation Nature Center Everything from story time for kids to canoeing basics and digital photography programs for adults can be found on the center’s eighty acres of fields and three miles of trails. All programs are free to visitors. The grounds also include a boardwalk over the marshy part of Lake Springfield.

Daily, 8 am to 5 pm 4600 S. Chrisman, Springfield mdc.mo.gov/areas/cnc/springfd/, 417-888-4237 St. Louis Zoo Recently named the third best zoo in the county for kids by Parents magazine, admission to the St. Louis Zoo is a whopping zero dollars and includes exhibits like River’s Edge, with elephants and cheetahs, and Red Rocks, where sea lions and tigers live in natural habitats. Early zoo-birds get the worm: The first hour the zoo is open, the Children’s Zoo and Conservation Carousel rides are free. After that, though, they’re $4 and

$3 respectively. Parking at the zoo’s lot is $11 per vehicle, but you can park along the street in Forest Park and walk in.

9 am to 5 pm daily One Government Drive, St. Louis www.stlzoo.org, 314-781-0900 Suson Park Animal Farm The Suson Park Animal Farm shows urbanites how farm life used to be, through displays and programs such as viewing draft horses that help plow the soil at the farm. Goats, pigs, chickens, cows, and horses are all part of life at the Animal Farm. (Cows and horses are in the barn on weekends only.) Suson Park also has reservable picnic shelters with barbecue pits and a lake for fishing.

April through September, 10:30 am to 5 pm daily; October through March, 10:30 am to 3 pm daily Wells Road, south of Route 21, St. Louis www.stlouisco.com/PARKS/suson.html 314-638-2100 Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center Chert glades—a habitat of openings in dense forest located on ridges, slopes, and valleys along streams only found near Joplin—are home to the center, which features live collared lizards, tarantulas, snakes, and other animals found on the glades. There is also a 1,300-gallon aquarium and 4.5 miles of

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50 PLACES FOR

Ewing and muriel kauffman

FREE FUN

Memorial garden

xeriscape demonstration garden

courtesy of st. louis zoo/ michael abbene, ewing and muriel kauffman memorial garden/duane hoover, springfield-greene county park board, world bird sanctuary

World Bird Sanctuary

Get a glimpse into the world of wild birds, including raptors, parrots, pelicans, and ravens. The World Bird Sanctuary offers free animal encounters every Saturday and Sunday between Memorial Day and Labor Day. There are also free concerts on Thursdays in August with the sanctuary’s in-house band, The Raptor Project.

8 am to 5 pm daily 125 Bald Eagle Ridge Road, Valley Park, 636-225-4390, www.worldbirdsanctuary.org

trail along an Ozark stream, including a short, ADA-accessible loop. Special events like Yoga in Nature and a Mid-Summer Night’s Hike are offered periodically for a minimal fee.

April to October, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9 am to 5 pm; Sundays, 11 am to 4 pm.

December 14 to April 1, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9 am to 5 pm 201 W. Riviera Drive, Suite A, Joplin www.wildcatglades.audubon.org, 417-623-2211 Xeriscape Demonstration Garden Xeriscaping is the use of drought-resistant plants to conserve water. This demonstration garden shows visitors how this low maintenance gardening method helps save water, promote wildlife habitat, and cut down on pollution and pesticides. Plants are separated based on their water needs: high, moderate, or low. The garden is maintained by the Master Gardeners of Southwest Missouri.

S. National and Linwood Streets, Springfield 417-864-1049

art adventures Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis Because the Contemporary Art Museum doesn’t have a permanent collection, exhibits are always changing, bringing the best traveling exhibits to St. Louis. The museum also holds the Great Rivers Biennial competition to recognize emerging artists from the St. Louis area. Free admission for students everyday and to the public on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Wednesdays through Saturdays 10 am to 5 pm; Sundays, 11 am to 4 pm 3750 Washington Boulevard, St. Louis www.contemporarystl.org, 314-535-4660 Daum museum of contemporary art This museum, located at State Fair Community College, features a permanent

collection as well as rotating exhibits of contemporary art, including works by Ansel Adams, Dale Chihuly, and Roy Lichtenstein.

Tuesdays through Fridays, 11 am to 5 pm; Saturdays and Sundays, 1 pm to 5 pm.

3201 W. 16th Street, Sedalia www.daummuseum.org, 660-530-5888 Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art A bronze spider lures visitors outside the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. The sculpture, created by Louise Bourgeois, is part of the museum’s In Touch With Art program, where visually impaired visitors touch selected works of art for a tactile experience. The museum also offers free hands-on activity afternoons for all ages.

Tuesdays through Thursdays, 10 am to 4 pm;

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COLU MBIA ART LEAGUE GALLERY

Known throughout the state for its quality displays, the Columbia Art League rotates exhibits of professional, non-professional, and nationally acclaimed artists.

The art league also places art in public places throughout the city, offers classes for a fee, and holds the free Art in the Park festival each June in Columbia.

Tuesdays through Fridays, 11:30 am to 5:30 pm; Saturdays 11 am to 5 pm 207 South 9th Street, Columbia, 573-443-8838 cal.missouri.org

Fridays through Saturdays, 10 am to 9 pm; Sundays 11 am to 5 pm 4420 Warwick Boulevard, Kansas City www.kemperart.org, 816-753-5784 Laumeier Sculpture Park One of just a few open-air museums in the world, Laumeier Sculpture Park includes a pavilion, indoor museums, and an outdoor amphitheater on 105 acres. The sculpture park displays, collects, and commissions large contemporary sculpture and offers self-guided audio tours and docent-led tours on the first and third Sundays from May to October.

Park: 8 am to sunset daily; Museums: Tuesdays

St. Louis Art museum

through Fridays, 10 am to 5 pm; Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 5 pm 12580 Rott Road, St. Louis www.laumeier.com, 314-821-1209 The Muny Seeing a performance at one of the largest outdoor theaters in the country is great, but seeing it gratis is even better. The Muny offers 1,500 free seats for each performance.

Line up early; seats are given out first-come, first-served at the free entrance at the top of the seating area.

Free entrance opens at 7 pm Located in Forest Park, St. Louis www.muny.org, 314-361-1900 Museum of Art & Archaeology The comprehensive collection at the museum includes art and artifacts from Greek, Roman, Near Eastern, Egyptian, and Byzantium cultures. Rotating exhibits include modern art and artifacts. Recent exhibits have included The Fine Art of Living: Luxury Objects from the East and West and The Poetry of Nature in Japanese Woodblock Prints.

Tuesdays through Fridays, 9 am to 5 pm; Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 pm 109 Pickard Hall University of Missouri-Columbia maa.missouri.edu, 573-882-3591

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins has long been a place to see great masterpieces for free in Kansas City.

The museum’s collection includes photography, American Indian art, expansive print collection, and the classics. The Kansas City Sculpture Park, located outside, includes the famous Shuttlecocks.

The museum offers free tours for the sculpture park, as well as for the permanent collection.

Wednesdays, 10 am to 4 pm; Thursdays and Fridays, 10 am to 9 pm; Saturdays, 10 am to 5 pm; Sundays, noon to 5 pm 4525 Oak Street, Kansas City www.nelson-atkins.org, 816-751-1278 The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts The Pulitzer’s mission is to educate through events like poetry readings, concerts, and films.

The museum exhibits rotating art without labels so as to not disturb the aesthetics of the artwork, and the building was designed by award-winning architect Tadao Ando.

Wednesdays, noon to 5 pm; Saturdays, 10 am to 5 pm; first Sunday, noon to 5 pm 3716 Washington Boulevard, St. Louis www.pulitzerarts.org, 314-754-1850 Saint Louis Art Museum See art from Egyptian, European, African, Islamic, and Oceanic cultures, and that’s only a

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50 PLACES FOR

Saint Louis University Museum of Art Works by Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, and Pablo Picasso hang on the walls of the Saint Louis University Museum of Art. The Pere Marquette Gallery features stunning stainedglass windows, antique woodwork, and the university’s collection of religious work.

Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 am to 4 pm 3663 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis www.slu.edu/sluma.xml, 314-977-6630

courtesy of columbia art league/ lloyd grotjan, saint louis art museum, the city market

Spiva Center for the Arts Spiva Center exhibits include unique art forms like neon sculpture, woodworking, and photography. The center offers classes and rotating exhibits that feature members of the center and local and national artists.

Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 am to 5 pm; Sundays, 1 pm to 5 pm 222 W. 3rd Street, Joplin www.spivaarts.org, 417-623-0183 Springfield Art Museum Student artwork is selected by teachers from Springfield schools to be displayed for Youth Art Month each March. Other exhibits have included paintings of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by Louisiana artist Rolland Golden. The museum is also home to two annual competitions: Watercolor USA and the biennial Prints USA. Sundays, 1 pm to 5 pm; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 9 am to 5 pm; Thursdays, 9 am to 8 pm 1111 East Brookside Drive, Springfield www.springfieldmo.gov/egov/art/, 417-837-5700 State Historical Society of Missouri Works by George Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton are on display along

UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCES Bo’s Hollow Relive the 1930s at this replica village, located two miles south of Montauk State Park. The restored Model A Fords, which dot the landscape, are the highlight of Bo’s Hollow, but you can also see a reproduction gas station, hardware store, barbershop, post office, and “hoosegow.” You can tour the village for free, and Model A rides are available for $5.

Thursdays through Saturdays, 10 am to 4 pm.

22516 Bo’s Hollow Lane (off County Road 6633/Ashley Road), Salem www.bohollow.com, 573-548-2429

with a variety of paintings and prints by several Missouri artists, plus an extensive editorial cartoon collection. The gallery also has rotating exhibits like The St. Louis Gemini Story, images of the Gemini spacecraft and lunar exploration.

Tuesdays through Fridays, 9 am to 4:30 pm; Saturdays 9 am to 3:15 pm 1020 Lowry, Columbia shs.umsystem.edu, 573-882-7083 St. Louis Artists’ Guild Children’s workshops and a program for families called Say Yes to Art are popular attractions at the St. Louis Artists Guild. Work from local artists is also on display, and the guild offers free activities and events like discussions with artists.

Tuesdays through Sundays, noon to 4 pm Two Oak Knoll Park, St. Louis www.stlouisartistsguild.org, 314-727-6266 Third Degree Glass Factory Visitors can observe glass artists during open hours. An exhibit rotates in the East Gallery with a reception and opening on the third Thursday every month. At these events, sign up to work with an artist to make a small, free keepsake.

Mondays through Saturdays, 10 am to 5 pm; third Thursday, 6 pm to 10 pm 5200 Delmar Boulevard, St. Louis www.thirddegreeglassfactory.com, 314-367-4527

The City Market The City Market is open every Saturday and Sunday year-round. Go to catch a glimpse of some of the freshest food around, and wander through more than 140 vendor stands of produce, meat, baked goods, and more during the summer.

Thirty vendors also sell during the winter.

The first Wednesday of the month from April-October is Wellness Wednesdays, and free health screenings are offered.

Wednesdays, 10 am to 2 pm; Saturdays 6 am to 3 pm; Sundays 8 am to 3 pm 20 E 5th Street, Suite 201, Kansas City www.thecitymarket.org, 816-842-1271

FREE FUN

small part of the museum’s rotating collection. The museum offers tours, gallery talks, and Family Sundays, with free hands-on activities for kids. Special exhibits sometimes cost extra, but they’re free on Fridays.

Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 am to 5 pm; Fridays, 10 am to 9 pm One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park, St. Louis www.slam.org, 314-721-0072

Edwards Mill and the Fruitcake and Jelly Kitchen at the College of the Ozarks Edwards Mill is powered by a twelve-foot water wheel turned by runoff water from nearby Lake Honor. Here, students grind whole-grain meal and flour; design and produce rugs, shawls, placemats and more on traditional looms; and hand-weave baskets. Visitors are welcome to watch student workers bake fruitcakes in the Fruitcake and Jelly Kitchen.

Mondays through Fridays, 8 am to 5 pm College of the Ozarks campus, Point Lookout www.cofo.edu/visitorInfo.asp, 417-690-3395

the city market

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grant’s farm

saint louis science center

Hallmark visitors center

Grant’s Farm Grant’s Farm is the 281-acre former home of the Anheuser-Busch family and Ulysses S. Grant. Today, it is home to more than one thousand animal species. Grant’s Farm ranked seventh best family attraction nationwide in a recent Zagat Survey.

Visitors can see Budweiser Clydesdales at the stables, watch bison roam in the Deer Park, and feed pygmy goats in the Tier Garten. Admission is free, but parking is eleven dollars. New in 2009 are VIP tours of the elephant facility, including a meet and greet with an African Elephant, for $5 and a ride on the new carousel for $2.

August 21 to November 1: Fridays 9:30 am to 2:30 pm; Saturdays 9:30 am to 3:30 pm; Sundays 9:30 am to 3:30 pm 10501 Gravois Road, St. Louis www.grantsfarm.com, 314-843-1700 Hallmark Visitors Center A fun and interactive museum that’s a perfect destination for families, the Hallmark Visitors Center features fascinating, hands-on exhibits. Visitors can see the famous Hallmark TV commercials, plus the Emmy Awards that the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie series has won. You can also chat with a press operator while he makes real Hallmark cards, and see virtual exhibits of popular Hallmark characters like hoops&yoyo. Before you go, check out the center’s web site to download a coupon for a free gift at the end of a selfguided tour.

Tuesdays through Fridays, 9 am to 5 pm; Saturdays, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm 2450 Grand Boulevard, Kansas City www.hallmarkvisitorscenter.com, 816-274-3613

Hubble Telescope Replica Marshfield is the hometown of famous astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble, who paved the way for exploring our own galaxy and beyond through the conception of his theories on redshift (Hubble’s Law) and the existence of other galaxies. Hubble is perhaps most known for the telescope that was named in his honor.

A quarter-scale replica of the telescope can be seen next to the courthouse. The Hubble Space Telescope is still a very versatile research tool due to its ability to be maintained by astronauts in space, and we have another ten to fifteen years to enjoy the images the telescope sends to earth from its orbit.

105 N. Clay Street, Marshfield 417-859-3925 Laws Observatory The perfect setting for an inexpensive romantic evening on clear Wednesday nights, you can view stars and other cosmic wonders at the Laws Observatory on the University of Missouri campus. The observatory features a sixteen-inch telescope, a virtual observatory, an astronomy exhibit, and a radio telescope that lets you listen to space noise. No reservations are necessary, and knowledgeable staff can answer questions.

Wednesdays, 8 pm to 10 pm 5th Floor of the Physics Building University of Missouri-Columbia spacescience.missouri.edu/laws.html, 573-449-5777 Missouri State Capitol Tour our state’s capitol, catch a glimpse of the 238-foot tall dome, and see if you can figure out which Roman deity sits on top. You can also tour the museum housed on the first floor, which contains more than ninety-three thousand artifacts from Missouri history and artwork including a series of murals by Thomas Hart Benton.

Free tours are led Mondays through Saturdays every hour from 9 am to 4 pm.

9 am to 5 pm daily (closed major holidays) 201 West Capitol Avenue, Jefferson City www.mostateparks.com/statecapcomplex/index. html, 573-751-2854 Saint Louis Science Center Play a laser harp, climb in a kaleidoscope, or explore the science of flight in the Saint

Martin spilker; courtesy anheuser-busch, saint louis science center, hallmark visitors center

laws observatory

Fort D Four forts were built in 1861 at Cape Girardeau during the Civil War; Fort D is the only one still standing. This earthen fort was staffed throughout the Civil War and commanded by John Wesley Powell, who later went on to discover the Grand Canyon. The fort features interpretive signs.

Dawn til dusk daily Locust Street, Cape Girardeau 800-777-0068

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50 PLACES FOR

Schlafly Bottleworks Brewery Tours If you’re a beer fan, you'll love to see how handcrafted beer is made at Schlafly Bottleworks. Tour the facility and learn about the brewing process, from the mill to the bottle. The tour includes a complimentary tasting of Schlafly’s beers, as well as an educational exhibit about St. Louis’s rich brewing history.

Fridays, noon 2, 4, and 5 pm; Saturdays, noon to 5 pm on the hour; Sundays, noon, 2, and 4 pm 7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood www.schlafly.com/tours.shtml, 314-241-2337

courtesy of kaye malins, soulard farmers market/scott schweiger

Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery Walking tours take visitors through the entire life cycle of a fish at the hatchery, which produces more than one million trout each year. Visitors will see tiny fish

FREE FUN

Louis Science Center’s new Flight! Gallery.

See what it’s like to sit in the cockpit in the Mission Control room, where you can pilot a flight simulator and soar over St. Louis.

This three-story center nestled next to the highway just south of Forest Park provides visitors with tons of free fun, with more than seven hundred hands-on exhibits.

General admission is free, but some galleries have additional costs, and parking at the Science Center’s lot is $8 per vehicle. There is limited free parking available along the streets in Forest Park.

Mondays through Thursdays, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm; Fridays through Sundays 9:30 am to 5:30 pm; first Fridays 9:30 am to 9:30 pm 5050 Oakland Ave., Forest Park, St. Louis www.slsc.org, 314-289-4400

hatching from eggs, as well as grown-up fish that weigh up to five pounds. There are also several fishing points where visitors can fish for trout. Guided hatchery tours are available from Memorial Day to Labor weekdays. Four hiking trails are also located at the hatchery.

September to June, 9 am to 5 pm daily; Memorial Day to Labor Day, 9 am to 6 pm 633 Hatchery Road, Branson mdc.mo.gov/areas/hatchery/shepherd/ 417-334-4865 Soulard Farmers Market The oldest farmer’s market west of the Mississippi, Soulard operates year-round, and even though you can have a lot of fun here just taking in the sights and the experience, you might be tempted by the fresh baked goods, meat, produce, flowers, or the Soulard Market Mini Donuts. You can still save by visiting the market’s web site for coupons for various vendors and tips for free parking. Soulard Market is also home to St. Louis’s famous Mardi Gras celebration each February.

Wednesdays through Fridays, 8 am to 5 pm; Saturdays 6 am to 5 pm 730 Carroll Street, St. Louis www.soulardmarket.com, 314-622-4180 Walt Disney’s Boyhood Home If you can’t make it to Disneyland, a visit to Marceline, Walt Disney’s hometown, is the next-best bet. See the “dreaming tree” and barn on the old Disney farm, where a young Walt was known for letting his imagination run wild. Head to Marceline on the third Saturday of September each year, and you can also take part in ToonFest, where most

Walt Disney’s Boyhood Home

soulard farmers market

events are free and include a parade, crafts, a cartoon sketching contest, and more.

Open daily West Broadway Street, Marceline 660-376-3343

For more free fun, check out local resources like historical societies and public libraries for free programs. For example, the City of O’Fallon offers a free outdoor summer concert series every Tuesday at 5:30 pm in Civic Park in August. You might also find fun activities at your local college or university. For example, the University of Missouri offers free afternoon craft workshops that are open to the public during the school year.

Local retailers can also be a source of free fun—many home improvement stores, hobby and craft stores, and sports and outdoors retailers offer free workshops for kids and adults.

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op h s k r s o n w a t f s i a Story by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann rt -cr a e v f i Photography by Michael Pace t o na s n tio a r e en g In the shade of a sprawling oak Ozark crafts are alive and well at the s e h tree on an August day when the Christianson Native Craft Workshop (CNCW), teac temperatures hovered in the high held every year during the first week of August

On a small rectangular loom, a student uses a continuous strand to weave. Common projects are scarves or place mats. Above: White oak baskets are made during a two-day class that runs two and a half hours each day.

90s, a woman remained calm and collected, focusing intently on the yarn she was weaving on a triangle loom. A few yards away, four pre-teen boys tooled leather on a picnic table under an awning, creating wallets and belts. Across the lawn, the blacksmith fired up his forge and showed students how to hammer the hot metal to form it into a bird feeder hanger.

Under a nearby clump of trees, industrious weavers created freeform baskets using twigs, feathers, antlers, and other natural items. At the pavilion, a cluster of students focused intently on their white oak baskets. Inside the rustic lodge, spinning wheels whirred, loom shuttles clicked, and needles flashed while the hum of many voices filled the air, punctuated by bursts of laughter or an occasional song.

at the Shannondale Community Center on Route 19, about halfway between Salem and Eminence, in Shannon County, deep in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks.

Part summer camp and part family reunion, the workshop offers a chance for families and individuals of all ages, from youngsters to senior citizens, to join together to learn, to laugh, and to create. Around two hundred people gather each August to learn native crafts, make old-time music, and nourish new and old friendships. Afternoons find many attendees cooling off in the nearby Current River.

Evening entertainment includes a talent show, art auction, live music, and folk dancing.

The workshop, founded in 1975 by the late Frances Christianson and members of the United Methodist Church, is still one of the missions of the Office of Creative Ministries.

The workshop celebrates the spiritual value of self-expression through folk arts while offering a family-oriented setting that is safe, friendly, warm, and caring. Some families have been coming for generations.

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Instructor Barbara Sakowicz teaches freeform basket making, a popular class at the Christianson Native Craft Workshop, to Carl Barker and Susan Clauss, both seated.

Jennifer Dudenhoeffer of Linn is a classic Shannondale story. At twenty-three, she has attended the craft workshop twenty-two years, missing only the year her brother was born.

She will miss this year because she is in New Zealand working on a graduate degree. Her parents, Joe and Alice Dudenhoeffer, teach white oak basket making.

“My family is at Shannondale; my family is Shannondale,” Jennifer says. “Every year as we drive up and get out of the car, it is time to greet and hug old friends. This process usually takes two hours, and it is the same when we leave. One of my favorite aspects of Shannondale is that the location has no cell phone reception. There are no distractions. It offers a chance to be creative, have fun, laugh, and just enjoy what is there.”

Her feelings are echoed by long-time

instructors, many of whom first attended as students and later became teachers. Barbara Johnson of Rolla, a member of the CNCW Board of Directors and current workshop director, says: “I’ve been participating in the workshop for fifteen years. I started as the children’s craft teacher, which I did for a couple of years, then worked my way up through the ranks by teaching papermaking, pressed flowers, rug hooking, tatting, Battenburg lace, and felting. My husband Tom and I were asked to join the Board in 1998. I have taken almost all of the classes offered in addition to teaching.”

The CNCW Board is the backbone of the workshop, making decisions regarding classes and instructors. The board includes members of several denominations as well as members with no church affiliation. The director, a rotating position, is selected from the board.

The workshop was started to give families something to do together during fishing vacations in the Ozarks. By the second year, it

The wor kshop w to give f as started am i l ie somethi n g to do t s o duri ng f ishi ng va gether cations i n the O zarks. had focused on preserving native Ozark crafts. As Ann Anderson of Rolla, who has been teaching quilting and other needle arts at Shannondale since 2001, explains, the purpose of the workshop is “to keep the native crafts of the Ozarks alive, the way the settlers or Indians would have done it.” Many of the early instructors were locals, who passed on the folkways as they had learned them from their parents and grandparents. Today, many of the instructors learned their skills as students at the workshop.

In the early days, the workshop also provided instruction to locals who could then develop a cottage industry, making the various crafts and selling them to earn money. Even today, the nearby Wobus Memorial Craft Center, across the road from the Shannondale United Church of Christ (UCC), provides an outlet for local artisans to sell their creations. All proceeds go

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CLASSES OFFERED AT THE 2009 CHRISTIANSON NATIVE CRAFT WORKSHOP Beading on a loom Blacksmithing Bobbin lace Book making Broom making Canoe paddle Chair caning Cherokee basket

aving method on Continuous strand we tangle looms triangle, square and rec Cordage aving Corn dolly (wheat) we Dulcimer lessons s Fiber Christmas item ng Finger weavi Free form or rib basket

celet Friendship button bra Gourd birdhouses Indigo dyeing Inkle loom weaving Knitting Leather tooling Locker hooking Native plant dyeing Oak bucket Old-time singing school Osage beaded gourd Penny rug Photography Pine needle baskets

e Pressed flower pictur Quilting Seagrass seat weaving ng Shaker tape seat weavi g Silversmithin Soap making Spinning Swedish embroidery Toothbrush rug Treenware Twined rag rug ess loom Weaving on a four-harn loom Weaving on a pocket s White oak basket rs, and Santas Wooden flowers, rooste

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Opposite, from top: Cathy Wyatt enjoys a spinning class; both beginning and intermediate spinning classes are offered. Yarns are dyed with plant materials gathered from a morning walk.

Students can make hooks and campfire tripods in the blacksmithing class. From left: Flowers that live forever are one product of the wood-carving class. Instructor Bill Soetaert teaches straw broom making. Several types of straw brooms are made: round, flat, whisk, cobweb, and fireplace brooms.

to the artists; the staff and the building are volunteer donations from the UCC. “It’s such a joy to see these almost-lost arts being preserved in this way,” Barbara says, “and the enthusiasm of the students is heartwarming. It’s an important venue for experts in their craft to have an opportunity to pass along skills learned from their grandparents.”

Kathryn Tucker of Elsinore is typical of many CNCW instructors. She is a member of the Ozark Fiber Arts Guild, a demonstrator at the Pioneer Museum in Elsinore and parttime teacher at a local quilt shop. She has been attending the workshop since 1991, first as a student and later as an instructor of fiber arts, such as toothbrush rugs and twined rag rugs.

She now serves on the Board.

“After eighteen years of going to Shannondale, it has become the highlight of my summer,” Kathryn says. “Shannondale is the place to learn, a relaxed atmosphere. Help is abundant, love pours out, and smiles are numerous. Time spent at Shannondale—a day or a week—is a happy experience but always too short for all the things you want to do.”

Kathryn often brings her family with her.

Last August, her seventeen-year-old granddaughter, Jordyn Dinwiddie of Festus, accompanied her. Jordyn has been coming since she was five. “Even after all these years, I still haven’t done everything,” she says.

Indeed, for many, the best part of CNCW is the opportunity to learn so much in a relatively short time. It’s a chance to sample various skills without having to make a big investment.

For example, Barbara’s favorite craft is one she never does the rest of the year: free-form baskets. “The materials that are supplied are often very difficult to gather, and the teachers have it all ready to go for you. It’s the same with white oak baskets. It’s unlikely that I will ever chop down oak trees and make splits for basket weaving, yet here is a chance for me to work with the material with expert instructors.”

While the crafts are the main draw for most, there are other aspects of the workshop that are almost as compelling. Afternoons spent floating or tubing on the Current River are a huge plus. Special age-appropriate craft classes for the youngsters keep them occupied while their parents are able to concentrate on their own classes. The abundant and delicious homestyle cooking by Judy Hamilton and her team (all local cooks) is another attraction.

Youth coordinator Joel Ahrendt plans a variety of activities for teenagers every afternoon, including canoeing, tubing, swimming, and a ropes course. Extra activities, posted daily,

might include a herding demonstration by border collies or guided nature hikes.

Accommodations vary from an assortment of rustic dormitory-style options to tents, RVs, cabins, or motels in Salem or Eminence, each about twenty-five miles away.

The workshop fills up almost as soon as the brochures are mailed in the spring, but there are usually cancellations, and people can sometimes sign up for a specific class.

This year’s workshop, August 2-7, offers more than forty classes.

“Overall, this is such a unique event. I can’t think of any place else where a person can have access to forty-plus experts in native Ozark crafts in one location,” Barbara says. “When people ask about the workshop, I start whipping out things I’ve made there and extolling the wonders of the experience. I’m absolutely passionate about it, and I find that others are interested in sharing my enthusiasm.”

For more information, e-mail cncwdirector@ gmail.com, call 573-435-6455, or visit www. umocm.com, which includes a brief description of the workshop, plus a three-minute video.

If you can’t get away for a week in August, consider a shorter spring option. Held at the same location as CNCW, the Shannondale Craft Camp offers some eighty classes over an extended weekend, April 22-25, 2010. The crafts are not limited to native Ozark crafts, although many similar classes are offered. For more information, visit www.shannondalecraftcamp.com.

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Promotion

 W B I T I

magine a scene where a blacksmith steadily hammers red hot metal against an anvil. Nearby, a weaver repeatedly pulls on a loom as he crafts a rug. Across the way, an American Indian plays a mournful tune on a traditional wooden flute while a mountain man chips away at flint to make an arrowhead.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur chats idly with Gen. George Washington. Confederate soldiers and cowboys bedecked with spurs and six-shooters wander among rows of historic traders while a squad of World War II-era G.I.s toting M-1 rifles slips through the crowd.

No, this is not the back lot of a Hollywood studio. Welcome to “A Walk Back in Time,” a living history festival and country fair sponsored by the Audrain County Historical Society.

The annual festival will be held September 26-27 on the grounds of the society’s museum complex in Mexico.

The unique event presents American history through reenactments, demonstrations by traditional craftsmen and historical camps arranged in chronological order to provide a walking tour of America’s past.

There are eight time periods represented. It goes all the way from Colonial times to the Korean War. Many people have Civil War reenactments or World War II reenactments, but it’s rare that you have the whole timeline!

On Saturday and Sunday, combatants take positions beyond the park’s historic buildings to engage in a series of simulated

battles. The Army of the North advances on bedraggled units of Rebs while the acrid smell of black powder fills the air and the percussion from a Civil War-era cannon sets off car alarms on nearby streets. The staged battles are effective in conveying the excitement of history, something often lost in traditional lessons.

The Mexico event also features an 1860s-style vintage baseball game and brings a span of history together in one place like few other festivals.

On any day, Mexico’s 12-acre Robert S. Green Park offers a treasure trove for history buffs. The 1857 Graceland mansion provides a glimpse of 19th century life among the gentry class. A restored country church and one-room schoolhouse allow older visitors to relive their youth, and the American Saddlebred Horse Museum delights equestrian enthusiasts.

The most recent addition to the museum complex is the Fire Brick Museum, which contributes to Mexico’s history.

2009 “Walk Back In Time” SEPTEMBER 26 – 27, 2009 Audrain County Historical Society 501 S. Muldrow 573.581.3910 • www.audrain.org.

FREE

Article content courtesy of Rural Missouri.

1.800.581.2765 www.mexico-chamber.org • www.mexicomissouri.net • info@mexico-chamber.org AD-AUG 09.indd 2

7/1/09 5:20:52 PM



M A

Promotion

Little Dixie Shrine Club–5th Annual Country Music and Bluegrass Festival August 28-29 The Little Dixie Shrine Club will hold their 5th Annual Country Music and Bluegrass Festival. The festival will be held at the Little Dixie Shrine Club Park located one mile north of Mexico on Route J on August 28-29, 2009. Admission charged. Call 573-473-9174 for event information.

Mexico Parks & Recreation & Mexico Area Community Theatre presents: “Honky Tonk Angels” September 10-13 Mexico Parks & Recreation and the Mexico Area Community Theatre presents “Honky Tonk Angels” at Presser Performing Arts Center September 10-13, 2009.

Tickets are $5 for adults, and children under 8 years old are free. If you would like more information regarding this presentation, contact the City Hall at 573-581-2100.

Village Square Association 2009 Sunset Festivals September 10, 17 & 24 The Village Square Association is sponsoring the Sunset Festivals on Thursday evenings September 10, 17 and 24. Enjoy a variety of activities in the downtown Village Square in Mexico. Each week has a different theme and a Mexico Idol Contest. Food vendors, activities for the kids and entertainment make this the perfect family event. For more information, contact the Mexico Area Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-581-2765.

Audrain County Historical Society 2009 “Walk Back In Time” September 26-27 The free annual festival will be held September 26-27 on the grounds of the Audrain County Historical Museum Complex.

The unique event presents American history through reenactments, demonstrations by traditional craftsmen and historical camps arranged in chronological order to provide a walking tour of America’s past. Contact the Audrain County Historical Society at 573.581.3910 or visit www.audrain.org.

Keep Shutterbugging October 17 Presser Performing Arts Center announces the 3rd Annual Keep Shutterbugging—Photography Contest 2009 to all photographers. No professional photographers, please.

Deadline is October 7, 2009. Gallery Show on October 17 from 1-3 p.m. with the winners announced at 2:30 p.m. Gallery Show is free to the public. For more information: www.presserpac. com; or contact Lois Brace, P.O. Box 845, Mexico, Missouri 65265; phone: 573-581-5592 or 573-473-0919; email lois@presserpac.com.

1.800.581.2765 www.mexico-chamber.org • www.mexicomissouri.net • info@mexico-chamber.org AD-AUG 09.indd 3

7/1/09 5:21:57 PM

R re E FCulLinAarVy O -M SHurOanW Cultu ts, Recipes, &

Resta

I-70 EATS

CONVENIENCE FOOD IS REDEFINED ON THE CROSS-STATE THOROUGHFARE | By Nina Furstenau

Nothing makes a cross-Missouri trip better than stopping, be it ever so briefly, along the way for good food. The thirty-six thousand travelers who hit Interstate 70 each day often settle for fast food due to convenience, but here are five places close to Interstate 70 that deliver fairly fast but always memorable meals.

Tatsu’s

Our first oasis from fast food is the farthest from Interstate 70 at 13.2 miles, and it’s just over the line in Kansas. And it’s French. But Tatsu’s began as a French pastry and luncheon shop almost thirty years ago, and you can still get a fresh touch of French cuisine for lunch there Mondays through Fridays.

Tucked away in the suburb of Prairie Village, Kansas, owner and chef Tatsu Arai says his dishes are made to surprise the locals. Although he works with a set menu, Tatsu throws in novelties as well, such as Chilean sea bass or lemon butter oysters.

For every staple item, though, the secret’s in the sauce. The veal or duck can be served in a creamy peppercorn sauce, the seafood specialties in a champagne sauce, and the beef or braised oxtail in red wine reduction. Customers can buy the madefrom-scratch House Salad Dressing and the Teriyaki Sauce by the bottle.

And don’t pass on the desserts. The Grand Marnier Soufflé is the chef’s favorite, and he has mastered its difficult preparation.

Prices are reasonable. Lunch entrees hover between $10 and $18. The soufflé is $6.50 and serves more than one. As the haven’s many regulars know, the weekly entrees are a real treat. Tatsu’s is worth the few extra miles and dollars, and it’s a lot closer than France—and a world away from a burger and bun.

Directions to Tatsu’s, 4603 W. 90th Street, Prairie Village, Kansas, 913-3839801: Interstate 70 West to the 57th Street Exit 417, left onto 57th Street, merge onto Interstate 70 E/US-40/Kansas Turnpike via left exit, merge onto Interstate 635 Exit 418A, Interstate 635 becomes Metcalf Avenue, left on W. 75th Street, right on Roe Avenue, left on W. 90th Street.

Hours: Lunch: Mondays-Fridays, 11:30 AM-2 PM. Dinner: Mondays-Thursdays, 5:30 to 9:30 PM; Fridays and Saturdays, 5:30-10 PM; Sundays, 5-9 PM. At Tatsu’s, Medallion de Veau Orloff is dish of veal medallions with mushroom duxelles (a paste-like reduction of mushrooms, shallots, and butter) and Mornay sauce.

COURTESY OF TATSU’S

Mile Marker 417, Kansas City

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Mile Marker 103, Boonville

WJ’s

If you want a small-town welcome and good food, WJ’s in Boonville is a perfect pit stop. Due to its Wednesday through Saturday hours, WJ’s will not work for all travelers, but it is wonderful for an evening meal. Owned by a brother-sister-friend team, this local joint has a lively, warm atmosphere in an early-1900s bungalowstyle house. Local festivals are hosted throughout the summer in the backyard.

Dining seating is available on the porch for those who want to kick back and take in the town scene. Steak is popular here, but so are the blackened pork chop and the seafood specials each weekend prepared by chef and partner Joel Gast.

Desserts are homemade by the mother of the brother-sister duo, Brad Wooldridge and Mandy Eichelberger, and include items like chocolate bread pudding, country coffee cake, and more. Sandwiches and salads range from $3.50 to $9, and entrees from $13 to $24 on the high end for the eight-ounce beef tenderloin filet. The hot crab dip appetizer for $6 is delicious.

Directions to WJ’s, 418 Sixth Street, Boonville, 660-882-7333: Interstate 70 to Boonville Exit 103, turn north on Main until you reach downtown, take a right on E. Spring and a right onto Sixth.

Hours: Wednesdays-Saturdays, 5 pm-10 pm.

Tina Wheeler

WJ’s seafood specials, like jumbo shrimp and Italian sausage tossed with alfredo and homemade marinara, are prepared fresh each weekend.

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Fordla Cabool Puxico Mississippi Fish Shack owner Kim Perry points out a photoWilliam ofsvilleher grandmothVan Buren Birch Tree Bloomfield Mountain View Vanzant er Jeraldina Payne hanging on the wall amongst other family memorabilia.

“I Matthews East Prairie Grandin Penermon na Pomo Highlandville Wilderness Thomasville Squires Bernie learned grandma and mom,” she says, and they did good.

Garrison to cook from Dora Brownbranch New Madrid Alton Briar Lilbourn Qulin Doniphan sville Thornfield Neelyville You’ll be hooked as soon South as ForkyouBrandKoshk see the menu, which includes friedCampcatfish onong bell sville Gaine Portageville Thayer Myrtle Theodosia Bakersfieldfrog legs, shrimp and more. Kim’s memories of and chicken, buffalo fish, Wardell Pascola meals served at family dinners make for an outstanding meal today. Sweet potatoes, baked beans, coleslaw, southern medley (some call it succotash), Steele Rives fried pickles (a warm and tart counterpoint to fried catfish fillets), beets, Cardwell okra, greens, corn fritters, and more make this place an unexpected haven for veggie lovers. The breading used at Mississippi Fish Shack is house-made.

A catfish filet dinner here is $8.75 with fries, slaw and hush puppies, and a three-piece fried chicken dinner is $7. Or, order an open-face sandwich ($5.75 for catfish, $4 for chicken) and pick your own sides from all the amazing choices for $2 apiece.

Directions to Mississippi Fish Shack, 929 E. Broadway, Columbia, 573-8143474: Interstate 70 to Providence Road Exit 126 at Columbia. Turn south on Providence to Broadway. Turn left on Broadway to 10th Street. Restaurant is at 10th and Broadway.

Hours: Mondays-Thursdays, 11 AM-9 PM; Fridays and Saturdays, 11 AM-10 PM; closed Sundays. nd

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Arrow Point

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Butterfield Cassville

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Marquand

Centerville

Mile Marker 126, Columbia 76

Galena

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Bunker

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Pierce City Purdy

Akers

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Marionville

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Raymondville

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Ash Grove

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Top: James Ford, Kim’s dad smiles in the photo behind, from left, Kim Perry, owner; Barbara Ford, Kim’s mom; and Alan Perry, Kim’s youngest son, who all work at the Mississippi Fish Shack, where they specialize in fried catfish.

EVAN WOOD

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Ruiz Castillo

Mile Marker 199, Wright City

Everything from the refried beans to the chili is made in-house at Ruiz Castillo in Wright City. “No tin cans here,” the waitress tells me when I ask about the kitchen. “The dried beans come in fifty pound sacks.” I overhear a customer on his way out saying, “That was the best chimichanga I’ve ever had.” The menu ranges from simmering soups with chicken and hominy, nachos, mouthwatering fajitas, empanadas (wheat pastry folded over savory meat filling) to shrimp and steaks marinated in butter, lime, and cilantro. The restaurant sports white arches across a wide front veranda visible from the highway. The floors are mellow red tile, and black wrought iron accents the windows. Inside, Ruiz Castillo is relaxed and comfortable, and the service is quick and friendly. The Mora family, Beni and Teresa Mora; Beni's brother, Nibalbo Mora; their children; and extended family work at the restaurant and prepare all the food. Try the combination fajitas—the chicken is wonderfully spiced, the steak is tender, and the fresh tomato, lemon, and onion relish is crisp. Lunch specials are $6.99, and lunch fajitas are $8.99 to $10.99. Fajita dinners are $8.99 for veggie and $17.99 for the rib eye steak; the Ruiz Chimichanga is just $10.

Directions to Ruiz Castillo, 233 W. Service Road North, Wright City, 636-7457900: Interstate 70 to Exit 199 at Wright City, turn north off the exit ramp to the outer road, turn east, and drive about one-half mile. Ruiz Castillo is on the left.

Hours: Mondays-Fridays, 11 AM-9 PM; Saturdays, 11 AM-10 PM; Sundays, 10 AM-9 PM. Ruiz Castillo’s fajitas, beans, and rice are all made fresh, in-house.

Stefanina’s

Mile Marker 217, O’Fallon

KAREN SATTERFIELD

An immigrant from Sicily, Stefanina Vitale Roderick, opened Stefanina’s in 1981. Today, Stefanina’s is perhaps best known for its twenty-one-inch extra large pizza, but there is much more in store for food lovers. The family-friendly restaurant is located just off the interstate and makes a refreshing break from fast food. Try the toasted cannelloni or baked cavatelli for $8.50, chicken parmigiano for $8.25. The Taste of Italy is $10.50. There are also steaks, pork chops, chicken, and sandwich choices. Kids can pick from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, chicken strips, and more.

Directions to Stefanina’s, 8645 Veterans Memorial Parkway, O’Fallon, 636-272-3499: Interstate 70 to Exit 217 for Routes K and M, turn south off the ramp to first traffic lights, and go left on Veterans Memorial Parkway.

Hours: Mondays-Thursdays, 11 AM-10 PM; Fridays and Saturdays, 11 AM-11 PM; Sundays, noon-9 PM. Stefanina’s twenty-one-inch pizza is their claim to fame. The restaurant even has a 2009 Stefanina’s Challenge, in which they ask customers to compare their pizza to other area pizzas.

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Show-Me Flavor > Restaurant Recommendations

ToAdSuck Grill

Iconium

Off the Beaten Path Full of charm and western motif, ToAdSuck Grill is pure country, and you’ll get nothing but down-home hospitality from owners Warren and Maria Love. Their specialty is barbecue, and they do two types. Pulled pork and hickory smoked pork ribs are slow-cooked “Southern style,” while the beef tri-tip and chicken are grilled on the oak-pit and prepared “California style,” using a simple blend of seasonings that brings out the natural flavor of the meat. The side dishes are just as popular. The younger crowd raves about the cheesy corn, while some say the baked beans are so good you could make a sandwich out of them.

Save room for some fresh baked cobbler, or couple your favorite flavors of Stewart’s Soda and homemade ice cream to create a gourmet ToAdSuck’n Float. Dinner for two will run you about thirty bucks, but forty will get you a full family-style meal. It might be off the beaten path in tiny Iconium, southeast of Clinton, but it’s well worth the drive on Fridays and Saturdays. You’d better hurry, though; ToAdSuck goes into hibernation on August 29 and sleeps till spring. 417-6468006 | www.toadsuckgrill.com —Tina Wheeler

St. Louis a london connection > With the economy being what it is, a trip to Merrie Olde England might not be in your plans this year. Wm. Shakespeare’s Gastropub offers a close-to-home alternative for St. Louisans. Wm. Shakespeare’s strives to provide an authentic London West End theater pub experience in the heart of midtown’s Grand Center. The term “gastropub,” coined in 1991 in London, combines pub and gastronomy and reflects the priority placed on quality food, wine, and beer. Wm. Shakespeare’s is true to this concept, focusing on locally grown meats and organic produce. Don’t miss the signature potato rolls. You might opt for a pub classic, such as steak and mushroom pie or fish and chips, or go vegetarian with the curry tikka masala. For dessert, many diners swoon for the chocolate pâté; for others it’s the English farmhouse cheeses. Wm. Shakespeare’s is only open for dinner Tuesdays through Thursdays, though, when there is a local theater event, so make reservations. 314-601-3922 | www.gastropubstl.com —Barbara Gibbs Ostmann

Wm. Shakespeare’s Gastropub

Tina Wheeler; Andrew Barton

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Joplin

Kelso

Staying in vacation mode, despite the soonto-be changing seasons, is easier for Joplin residents and visitors, thanks to Coconuts Tropical Grill. The restaurant opened last January, just in time to provide miserably cold Missourians with a bit of warmth with the colorful booths, beach-inspired murals, and booth signs reminding you “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.” Lunch or dinner scenery comes complete with surfboards, bamboo huts, live palm trees, and food fit for King Neptune. From the Southwest chicken spring rolls as an appetizer to the fresh seasoned tilapia over coconut rice served

Sand & Sun

with a fresh fruit skewer and pineapple slaw, two diners

will

delight in the “south of the border” tastes of this tropical paradise close to home for about the price of a Jimmy Buffett ticket in the cheap seats ($30). 417-782-3400 | www.coconutstropicalgrill.com —Ann Leach

Coconuts

Ray’s Stuff of Dreams > In the town of Kelso, just down the road from Cape Girardeau, Ray’s Restaurant is an oasis of culinary delight. The appetizers, like Crab Cakes sautéed in butter and Port wine and the Stuffed Portabella Florentine, with artichokes, spinach, and Parmesan, are the stuff of dreams. But save room for the Chateaubriand, a twentyounce tenderloin char-grilled and served with Bearnaise Sauce and herbroasted baby potatoes. Steak runs from eighteen to forty dollars, but if beef isn’t your thing, try the Sea Bass Provencal for twenty-three dollars.

It’s seared with lemon and white wine, topped with shrimp and mushrooms, and seasoned with fresh herbs. Special bar drinks include the outlandish “Kelso Kool-Aid” made with Barcardi, Malibu Mango Rum, Grey Goose La Poire, Peach Schnapps, Chambord, and juices. So enjoy the food, but watch out for the Kool-aid! 573-264-1115 —Karen Mitcham-Stoeckley

Kansas City

Courtesy of the restaurants

Delizioso!

ML Missouri Life braves

the many, tastetests the menus, and pays our own way to bring you restaurants worth the trip.

Great Italian restaurants put a tablecloth on a table, light a candle, and still allow you to dig in to your food with abandon. That’s Italian. That’s Salvatore’s Ristorante, which carries on the great Garozzo family tradition in Kansas City, with roots that extend from The Hill in St. Louis. The ambience is welcoming and authentic, and the food is as plentiful as it is delizioso. Order the special olive oil with garlic and Parmesan, and watch the bread disappear. The signature dish is Chicken Spedini, but if you’re a marsala sauce aficionado, treat yourself to Vitello Marsala, Pollo Marsala, or Bistecca Marsala; all are less than twenty dollars.

816-737-2400 | www.salvatores.us Salvatore’s —John Robinson

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SHOW-ME FLAVOR > MISSOURI WINE

Smokin’ Delicious Ribs • Beef • Pork Chicken • Turkey Try our homemade chips!

3505 Missouri Blvd. • Jefferson City, MO Dine In or Carry Out • We Cater • 573-636-4227

Experience the Difference

Baltimore Bend Vineyard offers great wine without intimidation and pretense. Come experience a welcoming, fun environment, whether you’re a novice or a connoisseur. Learn more about Missouri wine, and find your favorite.

Open: Mon.-Sat. 11-6, Sun. 1-6 Located at 27150 Hwy. 24, Waverly, Mo. Join our mailing list at www.baltimorebend.com or call (660) 493-0258.

MY JOB HOLDS endless fascination for some people. I recently received an e-mail from a friend about becoming a judge at one of my wine competitions. “Sure,” I told my friend, “you’re welcome to give it a try, but tasting two hundred or so wines in eight hours (do the math) is grueling work.” Most competitions require a couple of days, and it’s enough to put most people off wine for a couple of months.

I’m not trying to discourage my friend from becoming a wine judge; I’m just making sure he knows what’s in store.

In nearly three decades of wine judging, several questions have come up; one of them arrived just yesterday. It’s a question that makes me go crazy: Are there any good wines made in Missouri? Ten or twenty years ago, my response was a patient elucidation of the virtues and characteristics of Missouri’s many different wines. Yesterday, I found myself staring at my questioner, wondering if she’d been on a desert island since the last century.

“Yeah, lots of them,” I offered. “Well, they’re all sweet, right?” was the reply. It was enough to put me off answering wine questions for a couple of months. First off, the answer was no. Some of the best wines made in Missouri are dry wines, and certainly the idiosyncratic Norton varietal has many, many dry versions in the market.

Chambourcin is another dry red wine that I happily toss into blind tastings with national or international wine judges.

But what the heck is wrong with sweet wine? In the depths of summer’s sticky warmth, with the dog panting to the rhythm of neighborhood lawn mowers, I look forward to a bottle of well-chilled, fruity white wine. The grapes that grow in middle America tend to be tangy and tart, and a dose of fruity sweetness can offset that potency in pleasing and refreshing ways.

Grapes such as Vignoles, Vidal Blanc, and particularly Traminette are often more intriguing when they carry a ripe peach or even tropical note to accompany their tart, lemony personalities.

Sure, there are plenty of so-so Missouri wines that I’ve been subjected to over the years. Sure, there are ho-hum wines that a judge must endure in a long day of a wine

By Doug Frost competition. I try to judge the wines on Doug Frost is one of their quality: interest, character, and above three people in the all, balance. And I have found plenty of world who is both a Master Sommelier and Missouri wines that strike such poise—and a Master of Wine. He have offered them gold medals as a result. lives in Kansas City.

SETH GARCIA

IT’S A TOUGH JOB

[88] MissouriLife

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Raines Victorian Inn

This elegant Victorian, Queen Anne-style bed and breakfast inn at St. Charles has been restored to its original Victorian style, while maintaining a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere.

z

Curl up with a book in the library, or relax in the perennial garden and gazebo—also a great place for weddings and parties.

z

Located just minutes from historic Main Street!

1717 Elm Street • St. Charles, MO 636-947-4843 • rainesvictorianinn.com

Gourmet breakfast • 5 luxury suites, most with jetted tubs • Within walking distance of Columbia’s downtown District with its 110 unique shops, 70 bars and restaurants and 45 live performances each week

Mizzou’s own bed and breakfast gatheringplacebedandbreakfast.com 573-443-4301

[89] August 2009

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ML

SHOW-ME FLAVOR > MISSOURI RECIPES – MissouriLife –

French Vanilla Fantasy

Ray’s Crab Cakes Courtesy of Ray’s Restaurant, Kelso

Ingredients: ½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded 2 tablespoons fine (Italian) bread crumbs 1 cup Panko (Japanese) bread crumbs 3 eggs 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 rounded teaspoon Old Bay seasoning 1 rounded teaspoon lemon pepper Juice from ½ of a lemon 1 cup mayonnaise ¹/³ cup Grey Poupon dijon mustard ½ cup chives, finely minced 1 pound lump blue crabmeat ¼ cup butter, clarified 1 bag baby greens mix Directions: Mix first 11 ingredients together, then gently fold in 1 pound of lump blue crabmeat. Form into patties.

Sauté patties in clarified butter, and serve over baby greens with a side of Remoulade sauce (recipe below). Serves 4-6.

Remoulade Sauce

– MissouriLife –

Coconuts Tropical Grill Pineapple Slaw Courtesy of Coconuts, Joplin

Ingredients: ¹/³ cup mayonnaise ¹/³ cup sour cream ¾ cup Heinz chili sauce 2 tablespoons dijon mustard 3 tablespoons horseradish ¹/³ teaspoon granulated garlic ²/³ teaspoon smoked paprika 2 tablespoons pickle relish 2 tablespoons red onions, minced 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 2 tablespoons sugar Dash of cayenne pepper to taste Directions: Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl; best if allowed to refrigerate overnight before serving.

Ingredients: 4 cups sugar 2 ½ cups vinegar 5 teaspoons celery seed 3 cups pineapple tidbits 1 large bag cabbage mix Directions: Mix together sugar, vinegar, and celery seed.

Pour over pineapple and cabbage. Toss.

Refrigerate until serving. Serves 10.

– MissouriLife –

French Vanilla Fantasy Courtesy of Sharon L. Wooldridge, WJ’s, Boonville

Ingredients: 1 box white cake mix 4 eggs ¹/³ cup butter, softened 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract 1 cup strawberry jam 1 cup white chocolate chips 2 tablespoons light corn syrup Directions: Mix the first five ingredients together for 3 minutes. Bake in a well-greased 9x13-inch glass baking dish at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Remove from oven and spread 1 cup of strawberry jam over the warm cake. While cake is cooling, melt the white chocolate chips and light corn syrup together. Drizzle the mixture over the strawberry jam.

Ray’s Crab Cakes

Serve with whipped cream or vanilla bean ice cream. Serves 12.

©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; ANDREW BARTON; TINA WHEELER

Coconuts’ Pineappl e Slaw

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ARE YOU READY TO GET INTO

THE GAME? JS F 8

E F 3 ATHLETIC SUPPLIES

CROSSROADS WEST SHOPPING CENTER 2101 W BROADWAY COLUMBIA, MO 65203 573-445-4931 www.redweir.com

[91] August 2009

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6/30/09 6:30:18 PM

PROMOTION

∑

∏ Help the Missouri Film Commission and Missouri Life identify great new potential film locations for every season to share with Hollywood producers.

We’re looking for a range of ideas, and anything could be the grand prize winner.

Take those digital cameras and start snapping. Major prizes will be chosen quarterly for a year.

Go to MissouriLife.com home page, click on Location Scout and follow the directions for uploading your entries.

You will upload a low resolution photo, but you will need to keep a larger image for possible printing. You will also need to give us a two-sentence description of the photograph and precise directions for finding the location. Get permission to shoot private property if you do not own it.

Enter photographs of public sites, too. Hollywood is happy to work out filming permissions and fees, should the site you shoot be chosen.

• Location, location, and location are the criteria we’ll use to judge the contest. Think fascinating locations more than beautiful photography.

• You must include the precise location. We have to be able to tell scouts how to find your entry.

• The location must exist as shown in the photo today.

• Shoot inside and outside. Producers look for the perfect interior shots as well as exteriors.

E N T R I E S

F R O M

T H E

S E C O N D

Q U A R T E R

CLIFFS ON LAKE O

PONDS)

∑

F THE OZARKS

CH RISTIN E HERR

BETH HARRIS

NDOLET, ST. LOUIS

• S MALL TOWNS • L ANDSCAPES • O ZARK M OUNTAINS • L ANDSCAPES WITH WATER (RIVER, LAKES, • U RBAN S CENES • C OLLEGE CAMPUS S CENES • C OUNTRY ROADS • FARMSTEADS • H ISTORIC B UILDINGS • M ANSIONS, I NSIDE AND O UTSIDE • O THER H OMES, I NSIDE AND O UTSIDE • C EMETERIES • A IRPORTS • THEME PARKS • C OMMERCIAL B UILDINGS • B USINESS LOCATIONS • I NDUSTRIAL LOCATIONS • TRAIN STATIONS AND TRACKS • O THER U NUSUAL LOCATIONS

IES

W I N N I N G

SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH OF CA RO

We’ll pick one major prize winner plus a winner in every category quarterly, and one grand prize winner who submits the most entries accepted by the film commission at the end of a full year of scouting. Enter as many locations as you’d like.

[92] MissouriLife

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7/1/09 5:13:20 PM

PROMOTION

∑

• Community entries may be submitted by anyone, but

must include at least 12 photographs of location-worthy spots around your community. You may define your community. Perhaps you’re a small section of a larger urban area, such as Maplewood in St. Louis, or Downtown Columbia. Separate prize for this winner.

Category

Landscape Small town Ozark mountains Landscapes w/ water

• This contest is sponsored by the Missouri Film Commission, Net fl ix, the M issou ri Motion Media Association, True/False Film Festival, and Missouri Life.

Urban Scene Farmstead Historic building

• Summer and Early Fall Season, • GRAND PRIZE WINNER

Enter By

Win By

Sept 20 Sept 20

Sept 30 Oct 15

Trains and tracks

Community

• Grand Prize Winner: A four-day vacation to Branson with

Carondolet neighborhood, St. Louis Beth Harris

• Major prize winner: Urban scene of St. Louis by Beth Harris See MissouriLife.com for complete rules.

∏

lodging and tickets to shows and attractions, plus a year’s subscription to Netflix movies (see netflix.com), plus two passes to all films shown at the next True/False Film Festival in Columbia.

• Quarterly Major Prize Winner: A six-month subscription to Netflix, plus a $100 gift certificate to the theater of your choice.

• Quarterly Category Winners: Two tickets to one movie shown at the theater of your choice.

• Community prize is a 30-second commercial using images submitted on Missouri Life’s web site to run in a theater of your choice for one week, plus special recognition in a future issue of the magazine.

See MissouriLife.com for more prize details.

Elephant Rocks, Southeast MO Brad Bryant Clarksville Caron Quick Elephant Rocks, Southeast MO Brad Bryant Bluffs on the Lake of the Ozarks Christine Herries St. Louis Beth Harris Fennewald Farms, Laddonia Lisa Snow Sisters of St. Jospeh of Carondolet Motherhouse St. Louis Beth Harris Trail of Tears State Park Overlook, Cape Girardeau Tammy Cefalu

CLARKSVILLE

CARON QUICK

BR AD BRYA

NT

U RI EAST MISSO H T U O S , S K OC ELEPHANT R

[93] April 2009

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[94] MissouriLife

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COURTESY OF COLUMBIA TRACK CLUB; COURTESY OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

MOST CHALLENGING RUN > Runners from around the state will descend on Columbia on Labor Day for the race Runner’s World magazine deems the most challenging non-mountainous marathon in the country.

The Heart of America course begins at 6 am in downtown Columbia; the early start time is an attempt to beat the heat and humidity. Participants loop south into the Missouri River bottoms, taking in six major hills and numerous smaller undulations. Easley Hill rises 246 feet over seven-tenths of a mile and is among the reasons eight-time Olympic trial qualifier Hal Higdon calls HOA the race “designed by the devil to discourage the undisciplined.”

Between 130-160 runners typically enter the HOA, and the Columbia Track Club has several new events for the marathon’s fiftieth anniversary this year.

Call 573-445-2684 or visit www.heartofamericamarathon.com for more information.

—Whitney Spivey

MISSOU RI LIFESTYLE Inspired Ideas & Savvy Solutions

One of the greenest buildings in North America not only flaunts locally grown cedar siding and waterless toilets, but also hosts a bat condo under its eaves.

The Living Learning Center, designed by Hellmuth + Bicknese Architects and located in Washington University’s Tyson Research Center in St. Louis, was designed to meet all sixteen requirements of the Living Building Challenge, launched in 2006. It is cur-

Green Gateway

rently the most stringent green building rating system in the world. A project is certified after one year of occupancy and compliance with the sixteen prerequisites.

The Living Learning Center was the first challenge project, of more than sixty underway worldwide, to open its doors.

—Katlin Chadwick

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MISSOURI LIFESTYLE

BAMZI BAGS her purse. She didn’t lose it or leave it; she sold it to a passerby who said that they loved it.

Sondra has been making these purses— Bamzi Bags—for almost five years. They have the features, she says, every woman would want in a purse—bright colors, with leather appliqué, a sturdy bottom, and six pockets, plus a Velcro key holder.

The creations Sondra loves to make began as a craft but have quickly turned into a business.

(She just shipped an order to Cairo, Egypt.) Each purse takes three hours to make, so Sondra is sewing and cutting for twelve to fifteen hours each day. She uses either leather or fabric and combines colors and patterns in new ways.

Sondra VanArsdale

An online store and shows keep Sondra busy. Many of her shows are connected with the Children’s Miracle Network, which receives 30 percent of the sales from those shows. “Shows are the place for people to see, feel, and get an idea of sizes,” Sondra says. They are also the place to see her newest creations, a smaller Load-n-Go purse and checkbooks.

Bamzi Bags range in price from thirty-five dollars to ninety-five dollars. Visit www.bamzibags.com for more information.

—Katlin Chadwick

COURTESY OF SONDRA VANARSDALE

THERE HAVE BEEN OCCASIONS when Sondra “Bams” VanArsdale has walked into a store and left without

MISSOURI’S LARGEST EXPO

AFFORDABLE FAMILY FUN!

Connecting Mid-Missouri Travelers to the World www.FlyMidMo.com (573) 874-7508

BLACKHAWK INN

FRE

FREE

E!

The Amazing

Anastasini Cir

!

cus

FREE! ShenaniGuns!

Comedy Wild West Show!

More FREE Entertainment....

El Gleno Grande – Illusionist

The Greg Frisbee Show – Juggler

A Bed & Breakfast at the Lake of the Ozarks

For reservations, call: 573-480-6597 or visit www.blackhawkinn.com

The Barry DeVoll Show – Magician

FAIR ADMISSION

$8 reg Adult, Kids 12 & under FREE

Available at the Missouri State Fair for the price of admission!

Learn how to create an ideal country lifestyle at the Missouri State Fair, August 13–23 in Sedalia. Come listen, see and experience new exhibits and demonstrations that will help you maximize your enjoyment of country living. Visit our Web site for more information, then come discover the largest Rural Lifestyles Showcase in Missouri.

• Farmers Market • Green Initiatives • Cooking Demos • Gardening Tips • Wine Classes • Couponing • Sensible Living • Much more!

www.mostatefair.com/living

[96] MissouriLife

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6/30/09 5:22:46 PM

PROMOTION

FLOAT

THE

MISSOURI

AND SO MUCH MORE! Come join us for the Magical, Mystical, Marvelous, Moonlit, & Mysterious Missouri River Tour Thursday, September 10 through Monday, September 14.

Experience a very special outdoor adventure that combines luxury camping, floating through stunning scenery, and a magnificent blend of entertainment and gourmet food and wine.

Weʼll kick off the adventure at Arrow Rock, and float down the river for four days and three nights.

NITTY GRITTY DETAILS ❂ ❂ ❂

Professional guides and gear by Kansas City Paddler

“Luxury Camping” with showers and personal hygiene amenities Epicurean delights—incredible meals and evening social

CHECK OUT THIS MENU

Hereʼs a sneak peak of what weʼll be feasting on! You wonʼt be able to resist these gourmet meals: BREAKFAST: Hickory-grilled pancetta and lox bagels with quail eggs, with Swiss chard, red onion, tomatos and dill-caper cream cheese, and Honey wheat pancakes with blackberries, apples, and maple syrup DINNER: Prosciutto, herb, and Maytag bleu-stuffed peppercorn filet mignon stacked with spaghetti squash and sauteed arugula, drizzled with thyme brown butter and Cedar plank snapper with olive, goat cheese, and tomatilla tapenade with balsamic micro greens, tomatoes, and grilled French garlic bread, all served on a plank (see the entire menu at MissouriLife.com)

activities, followed by stargazing, moon dancing, and …

❂ Professional massages from Bodyworks Day Spa and Boutique ❂ Evening campfire with music, tall tales, and other surprises ❂ All food and beverage, insurance, shuttles, opening ceremony, ❂

and closing celebration

Explore historic Arrow Rock, Lewis & Clark Cave, natural history and wildlife, American Indian pictographs, the Big Muddy

PRICING

All Inclusive! $947 Per Person $899 Each Additional Person – 5% Discount

Wildlife Refuge, ecology, local culture, and much more

WE

AD-AUG 09.indd 1

HANDLE ALL THE DETAILS!

C ALL 636-230-3310

OR

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[1] April 2009

7/1/09 5:33:48 PM

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missouri Lifestyle > Home

20 Years on Bugle Mountain T h e Ta n e y c o u n t y c a s t l e t h at w a s b u i lt t o b e s h a r e d Story by Rebecca French Smith and Photography by Notley Hawkins

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IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY on Bugle Mountain. The air is clean and fresh. Storms ravaged the area last night, but the lush green Ozark hills held their own. Now named for the Rocky Mountain elk that bugle on its pastures in the heart of Taney County on the Beaver Creek Elk and Cattle Ranch, this particular hill was once known as Bee Bait Bald. Locals used it to lure bees there and track them back to their hives. Even though James Leon Combs grew up in the area in the ’40s, he first set foot on Bugle Mountain in 1989.

Leon grew up nearby in the small community of Bradleyville.

He thought once that he would never return—until his wife, Dorothy, caught sight of it and caused Leon to see it through different eyes.

“It’s a beautiful, wonderful place,” she says. Who wouldn’t want to live here?

Their first home in the area was on 120 acres in a hollow near their current home. It was a small house, which they call the Reese House after the former owner, Albert Reese. As properties became available, Leon and Dorothy bought adjacent farms and now own 3,300 acres of pastures, forests, and streams nestled along the Mark Twain National Forest.

A View and A Vision

Samson, a giant bronze elk, keeps watch over Bugle Mountain. Dorothy and Leon Combs had their family and friends in mind when they built their home in Taney County in southwest Missouri.

The first dynamite blasts into the mountain went off in the fall of 1995, and in the spring of 1998, the Combses moved in.

“You could never see the sunrise or the sunset,” Dorothy says, from their first home in the hollow. From their veranda now, not only can both the sunrise and sunset be enjoyed but also the night lights of Branson, Springfield, and Ava. It’s a large house. At 14,535 square feet, it could house several families, and often does. One of the factors that went into the size of the house was the lack of lodging in the area and the size of the Combs’ family. They have seven children between them and fourteen grandchildren who come twice a year.

There are five bedroom suites, each with its own bathroom and private entrance. There is also a conservatory, a craft studio, a recreation room, a library, a maid’s quarters (though they don’t employ any live-in help), and a gym, complete with a whirlpool spa and a sauna.

Eleven bathrooms are scattered throughout the home, and ten furnaces and ten air conditioners provide climate-controlled zones.

“This is a very comfortable house for two old people,” Leon says. “Course, we don’t need a house like this, but when we get all of our kids together—and they all come—they come in droves.

“When you’re raised like I was, in a poor family with no electricity, no running water, no telephones, it’s quite a change in lifestyle,” he adds. As a teenager, he swam in Beaver Creek, which runs through

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missouri Lifestyle > Home

Bojangles, one of the Beaver Creek Elk and Cattle Ranchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s herd sires, is mounted over the fireplace in the hearth room. He replaced his father, Bodacious, who was mounted there originally. The taxidermist had problems getting Bojangles up because of the enormous size of his antlers. He is twice the size of his father.

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From left: The woodwork throughout the home is sealed with a clear coat to show off the natural beauty of the walnut. The mosaic above the entryway at the top of the staircase is painted on canvas by Springfield artist Margo Skiles.

Octagonal-patterned walnut graces the floor in the formal family room, and the view at night includes Springfield, Branson, and Ava. Numerous curved edges in the dining room were painted by hand to match the wallpaper.

the ranch for three miles, and hunted, fished, and played basketball. To hear him tell it, he had a great life. But at the same time, in the ’40s and ’50s, he felt deprived because visitors who came seemed more fortunate.

At seventeen he left Bradleyville, went to college, became the number one salesman for Jostens for fifteen consecutive years, bought Sanford-Brown College in St. Louis in 1981, and opened truck-driving schools in Crystal City, Missouri; Granite City, Illinois; and Dayton, Ohio. He worked hard to make a living and credits his work ethic to his parents, Etcyl and Susie Combs.

So when he returned to the area with Dorothy and began construction on the home, he says, “I told the builders, ‘I want this to be a firstclass Ozark home. I want it to reflect the hills. I want it to be something that my local friends can come in and be comfortable in.’ ” Designed by the late Steve Busch of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the home is European country, with the flavor of the Ozarks blended in beautifully.

Steve had designed several upscale homes in southwest Missouri and was the third architect to design a home for the site. His vision is nothing short of a castle, high on a hill overlooking the Ozarks below.

Because the home sits on a hillside, terrain was one obstacle the builder, Ron Middleton of Middleton Homes of Nixa, had to overcome.

Another was the design of the home itself. “The way that it was cut up, there weren’t too many straight walls,” he says. His first priority was to construct the foundation with the best materials possible because then the rest of the home comes together well.

Limestone boulders, an abundant material in the Ozarks, were brought in from along Highway 125 near Chadwick as well as quarried on the property from Kentucky Hollow, named after settlers who came from Kentucky, some of which were Leon’s ancestors. Stones were custom cut for the home’s exterior, as well as for each of the three fireplaces.

To complement the natural look and feel of the limestone, an exhaustive search was made for a complementary brick. In the end, it was the old world charm of the Kansas City railroad yard that emerged.

Seventy thousand historic pavers from the streets of the yard took up a new residence on the exterior of the home. Historic elements are a passion for Ron, who’s been building houses since 1975. He also found large 125-year-old heart of pine beams from textile mills in North Carolina that now grace the home’s ceiling and floors.

“We’ve always tried to use old materials, best we can,” Ron says.

“The old bricks and beams, that’s just what I’ve done over the years; I’ve gone all over the country snooping for that kind of stuff.”

The grounds that surround the home have been developed with just as much attention to detail. Samson, a giant bronze bull elk, keeps watch over Bugle Mountain. The sculpture, created by Wyoming artist Chris Navarro, is bolted into a limestone base just off the main driveway.

The pool and waterfall also feature natural stone found in the area.

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missouri Lifestyle > Home

Lake Jordan is an engineering marvel.

Blasting the bedrock to create it made the ground beneath the lake unable to hold water, so after two years of trying to keep it full, it was drained and lined with vinyl. It has a drain that carries away water that may rise up under the lake and disturb the vinyl.

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From left: A waterfall extends from the pool in the rear of the home to Lake Jordan just downhill at a rate of about four hundred gallons per minute.

Sixteen-by-sixteen inch pine beams set eight feet into solid rock support the entrance gates, which can be opened from anywhere in the world with a phone call. The patio overlooking the pool and is one of Leon’s favorite spots.

Water spills over a negative edge drop from the pool to Lake Jordan, or at least it appears to do so. The waterfall is actually split into two sections: One recycles the pool water back up to the pool, and the other pumps water from the lake up the hill to cascade down the hillside, providing aeration for the fish in the lake and giving the impression of a singular stream.

Lake Jordan, named after a granddaughter, was created with the grandchildren in mind for fishing, canoeing, and paddle boating. It also serves a secondary purpose: three million gallons of water for fire insurance.

A Kind of Community Center More than size or materials, the Combs’ home was built for sharing.

Weddings and fundraisers, schoolchildren and complete strangers have enjoyed Leon and Dorothy’s Ozark hospitality.

On more than one occasion, the curious have also ventured onto the grounds. “It’s just people, good people who want to see,” Leon says. “If I’m here, I’ve gone down and opened the gate and shown them around.

“You don’t see this around everywhere. It’s kind of a gross display of wealth, and I didn’t think about that until it was done. I thank God everyday. I don’t know exactly what caused this to happen except I’ve worked hard.”

The Combses also host fundraisers as well as Bradleyville community events. In his “retirement,” Leon sits on the board of directors for Skaggs Hospital in Branson, University of Missouri Press, Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Boys and Girls Club, and more, as well as authoring several books. (He sold the movie rights to his book Hicks from the Sticks, which tells the true story of the state champion ’62, ’67, and ’68 basketball teams from Bradleyville. The movie is still in the production stage.) Dorothy especially enjoys having the area schoolchildren come out for an annual pool party and having friends out for the annual girlfriends’ weekend.

Leon also has a soft spot for the kids in the area. Fourteen years ago, along with Lonnie Combs, one of the Hicks from the Sticks and Leon’s first cousin, he established a scholarship for Bradleyville students continuing their education at a college or university. Every student, based solely on the fact that they went to Bradleyville High School, receives a one-thousand-dollar scholarship each year they attend a post-secondary institution. The scholarship is funded though an annual Bradleyville Run/Walk each May, after which the Combses host an open-house party at their home. To date, more than $250,000 have been awarded.

“You know, the Combses are wonderful people,” Ron says. “They’re not selfish people.” He notes that Leon’s intentions always seemed to include the community.

“This home is meant to be shared,” Dorothy says. “After we’ve had people out, they always say, ‘Your house will never be the same,’ but it always is.”

Visit beavercreekelkranch.com for more information.

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Missouri Lifestyle

Musings

Twist and Shout Thanks to a twister that decided to drop by in early May, the woods surrounding my cabin on the Gasconade are less crowded than they were a year ago. Oh, they’re still virtually impenetrable, but the familiar landscape is missing a few of its ancient and formerly towering oaks. There are now streaks of light shining through what was once a nearly solid canopy of green.

I won’t know the full extent of the damage until the cold times roll around, for my woods are not exactly user-friendly during the typical Ozark summer. They are not a place one ventures, unless your idea of quality time in the great outdoors includes intimate conversation with chiggers, seed ticks, and copperheads. During the summer, I stick to the river, for the only bites I enjoy are the ones that come from bass, bluegill, or catfish.

It’s an amazing thing to witness Mother Nature when she gets her nose out of joint. That’s especially true when you consider that, by tornadic standards, the storm that hit my little haven barely reached the level of tantrum. Ma Nature was only having a bit of a snit, a puff of a huff, a cumulus-born conniption that still possessed ample power to yank up countless forest elders by the roots as if they were wild onions in wet soil. The trees cracked, cried, and were scattered hither and yon like toothpicks. I’m still in the clean-up stage, and assuming that my natural tendency toward sloth and ambivalence will remain on vacation just a bit longer, I should amass enough cut firewood to survive a harsh winter at the North Pole.

I sat huddled in the single hallway of my tiny cabin when the storm reached full velocity, truly expecting the roof to fly off at any moment. My right arm was around Boris the blind malamute; my left was around the venerable and ancient Henry Dog. We huddled together as the winds shrieked like a banshee with a toothache. We jumped as a smashing sound came from above. I held tight to my beloved canines and was surprised that I felt oddly calm. I tightened my grip in shivering fur and said aloud, “Boys, I think we’re screwed.”

But, obviously, we weren’t. We did not go sailing off into the sunset like Dorothy and Toto. The twister skimmed over the top of the cabin, and the crash we heard was the landing of an entire treetop that experienced a spinning amputation. It missed the house by perhaps a yard, which was good since it measured nearly thirty-by-thirty-by-ten feet high. Most of the damage was to the forest itself and to my workshop,

the latter still out of commission due to a collapsed front porch and a couple of fullgrown hickories leaning against the roof.

Several days after all the excitement, once power was restored, I began to relate the tale to concerned friends in various parts of the country. In the wake of the twister, in the telling of the story, I repeatedly heard the inevitable comment, “Man, you were lucky.”

Looking around at the downed trees, brush-covered yard, and devastated shop, I didn’t feel all that fortunate. I was very thankful that the boys and I were alive and grateful that my home avoided destruction. The last thing that would have entered my mind, however, was that I was lucky.

“No,” I would reply, recalling the fact that five people lost their lives and quite a few lost their homes as the massive storm bulldozed its way across the state. “I think in this case I’m just a lot less unlucky than some folks.”

You see, one has to place the concept of luck in its proper perspective.

You’re lucky if, when it is laying waste all around you, a storm misses you entirely. You’re very lucky if it happens to leave you untouched but gently deposits a suitcase full of unmarked bills and a supermodel on your doorstep. You’re unlucky if the black clouds decide that you need a minor kick in the teeth. You’re very unlucky if the climate gods decree you should lose things far more valuable than mere property.

Though it goes against my pragmatic and logical side, I actually do believe that some people are luckier than others. Therefore, by the same token, I think some are unluckier.

Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. We have good days and we have bad days. We have joy and we have sadness. A few times during our existence we are on top of the mountain; a few times we stare up from the depths of the ocean. All we can really do is take one day at a time, take whatever life throws at us, and expect nothing more, nor less, than the unexpected. Keep in mind that the only consistency is inconsistency.

And most important, particularly when skies Ron Marr turn black in Ozarkland, don’t forget to duck.

©istockphoto.com

By Ron Marr

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St Louis, MO

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Compiled by Rebecca French Smith

An estimated 68,580 children will start kindergarten this fall at Missouri’s public schools.

Taste summer’s bounty at the 5th annual TOMATO FESTIVAL at the Bradford Research and Extension Center on the MU campus in Columbia on September 3.

The festival will feature 60 tomato varieties and 30 pepper varieties.

“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.”

—George Washington Carver

The current pole-and-line record in Missouri for blue catfish is 103 pounds.

That fish was caught from the Missouri River in 1991.

The Missouri State Fair was created 100 years ago by the 40th General Assembly.

Happy National Catfish Month!

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Water Wise.

Missouri's rivers define our state. They sustain wildlife, provide a source of our drinking water and enrich our landscape and our lives.

Our daily actions in our watershed can affect the water quality in our rivers and streams. That's why Missouri American Water works with organizations across the state to advance watershed education and preservation programs. We're honored to have received the World Bird Sanctuary's R. Marlin Perkins Award for our conservation efforts.

Learn more about protecting your watershed at www.missouriamwater.com.

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Close to Home...

far from ordinary.

The Cove A R O B E R T T R E N T J O N E S S R . S I G N AT U R E C O U R S E

NEW for 2009!

Our newly remodeled course has been re-named The Cove and opens in May 2009 featuring new greens and bunkers, the addition of some forward tees, a re-design of some holes, and a new state-of-the-art GPS system which will make this Robert Trent Jones Sr. signature course, THE course to play, for many years to come.

With a mix of traditional and modern, The Lodge of Four Seasons truly offers the finest resort experience.

We have upgraded our Lodge sleeping rooms, public space and outdoor event areas.

Equally exciting is the addition of the Avila luxury suites featuring access to all Lodge amenities and offering a very upscale option for guests looking

for a modern, earthy, today’s look.

Choose a single bedroom with two queens or one king bed, or a one bedroom or a two bedroom suite each with identical baths featuring oversized walk-in showers, jetted tubs and flat screen TV’s.

There's even a full-service kitchen with granite counter tops, a fireplace and much more.

Spa Shiki offers a new tiled whirlpool, steam room, infrared sauna, new pedicure chairs, and new exercise equipment in the Inner Balance room.

Guests love our new Parrot Bar overlooking the lake. A great place for a sandwich or watching your favorite sport on TV. We’re still here after all these years... and better than ever!

©Anderson Creative

THE LODGE G O L F

Central Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks

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The tradition continues at HK’s Steakhouse. Fabulous steaks, great seafood, pasta and pizza. Join us for happy hour and appetizers - buy one - get one FREE. Then dance the night away at the MIST lounge or take in the piano bar just off the lobby. Great fun for everyone!

&

S P A

S H I K I

1-800-THE LAKE (800-843-5253)

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