TIMELINE
- TABLE ROCK LAKE and SURROUNDING AREAS
With 645 historical entry items on 57 pages (to date). (Copyright
– James F. Barrett – 2006)
This is a listing of significant dates in the history of Table Rock Lake and the Cities of Branson, Branson West, Kimberling City and the nearby areas and towns of the Mid-Ozarks Region. See the list on the last page for additional items needing firm dates and information – to add. This document is now Current as of December 15, 2006.
"Should you, dear reader, discover anything herein, which contains an inaccuracy, please do not hesitate to notify me, your historian-journalist, in order that the “final” document becomes as accurate and properly written as possible. I will be very pleased to have your comments!"James F. (Jim) Barrett
Email: barrett@cebridge.net
1818-1850 | 1850-1875 | 1875-1900 | 1900-1910 | 1910-1920 | 1920-1930 | 1930-1940 | 1940-1950
1950-1960 | 1960-1965 | 1965-1970 | 1970-1980 | 1980-1985 | 1985-1990
1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999
2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006
1. 100 million years BC: The White and James River Basins were formed by the erosion of receding ocean waters from a vast sea bottom. The exposed great rock ledges along today’s highways now show the fossil remains of sea bottom creatures laid down many millions of years ago.
2. 14 thousand years BC: The first records of humanity in the Mid Ozarks Region are the remains of the Sandia Man, the Folsom Man, and the Clovis Man, who “invented” the world famous, historically important “Clovis Points,” which were “napped” flint stone points for the spears of that prehistoric day.
3. 1, 000 years BC: Archeologists have found evidence of the first of “modern” man, in the remains of the Ozark Bluff Dwellers. The most recent and valuable find is in a cave near Springfield, MO. That amazing cave was discovered by accident in 2006, after a highway excavation opened it. It had been sealed by a rock and earth slide for many hundreds of years, preserving everything in near pristine condition. It is widely believed that excavations there in coming years will reveal this to be one of the most fruitful and valuable pre-history caves in America.
4. Late 1700’s: Many French Voyageurs and other white hunter/trappers came and went in what would become Missouri and Arkansas. But there was no known permanent settlement in the Mid-Ozarks region before Joseph A. Philibert. (See 1819.) Until the early 1800’s the region was dominated by the Osage Indians, from the Missouri River south nearly to what became the state of Louisiana. They were a powerful, tall, handsome race of people, and often quite warlike. They tolerated few other tribes and no white settlement. (see also 1825)
5. 1776: The American colonies declared their independence from England and the War of Independence began. The war came as close to the Mid-Ozarks as just west of St. Louis, but for only a few days. The intended British and Indian capture of St. Louis was thwarted by s little French officer using hastily salvaged and moved black-powder cannons.
6. 1789: George Washington was inaugurated as first President of the United States on Jan. the 7th, in 1789. He was born Feb. 22, 1732, became Commander in Chief of the army on June 15, 1775, and died on Dec. 14th, 1799 in his home.
7. 1803: The Louisiana Purchase. A vast territory west of the Mississippi was purchased from France for a few cents per acre. All of the Ozarks was a part of this amazing purchase.
8. 1806: Daniel Boon and Nathan Boon come to central Missouri and begin producing marketable salt at a place that became known as Boon’s Lick, near Jefferson City. Daniel died Sept. 26th,1820.
9. 1811: (and 1812): The infamous and monstrous New Madrid Earthquakes strike the Mississippi Valley in the vicinity of Missouri’s Boot-Heal region. Seismologists say that eight of the many quakes in the series were “8” on the Richter Scale. One, they believe was a gigantic 8.8. If the Madrid Quakes return in modern times the results would be disastrous almost beyond belief.
1. 1818-1819: (Winter) Henry Row Schoolcraft and his companion, Levi Pettibone, explored the Ozarks including the Branson, Forsyth, and Springfield area. He was exploring for minerals. The events, carefully recorded in Henry’s published journal, marked the first known exploration near here by white men that was recorded for historical study. It’s amazing that the two young men survived the adventure, for they were amateurs and came poorly equipped in the dead of winter.
2. 1819: Joseph L. Philibert and William Gilliss, funded by Menard and Valle of St. Louis, establish a trading post on the James River near what is now Nixa, Mo. They set up to trade with the recently arrived 2,100 Delaware Indians. This small remaining tribe had been given the James River area. They were to have it forever. The Delaware originated on the East Coast where they were the group that welcomed the Pilgrims ashore. The Delaware were moved on again in 1829.
3. 1820: Joe Philibert “married” a Delaware lady, Star Shell. Historians believe they had children. When the Delaware moved on into Kansas Territory, Star Shell and the children went with them.
4. 1821: Missouri becomes the 24th state in the new American nation, with a population of 66,000.
5. 1825: The Osage Indians ceded their vast holdings by treaty and left for Oklahoma Territory.
6. 1829: The remaining 2,100 Delaware were moved out of the James River Valley. They moved to a 1.5 million acre reservation just North of the Kansas City area. Kansas City had recently been founded by Joe Philibert’s partner, William Gilliss, who was the Delaware Indian’s friend.
7. 1830: The city of Springfield, Mo. was begun when Charles Campbell invited his family members to come from Illinois and join him in a tent-town, there in the “field” by the fine “spring” he had found a couple of years back while he was still the Indian Agent for the Delaware on the James River. The family drank considerable liquor as Campbell circulated, debating what his new town would be called. He finally won out and the future town was called, logically, Springfield. The principal street there, leaving to the south, is Campbell Street in his honor.
8. 1830: Joe Philibert married Peninah Yocum (of the famous Yocum Silver Dollar family) and they settled at the junction of the James and the White. This was the first recorded marriage in the Mid-Ozarks. They become one of the first permanent settler families. Joe and Peninah’s direct descendant, Dr. Robert Philibert, and his son and grandson live in Shell Knob. Bob Philibert’s wife is a direct descendant of the German Schell family that settled Shell (Schell) Knob.
9. 1831: The first steamboat ascended the White to the location of present day Forsyth, at the mouth of Swan Creek, opening Ozark trade. Eventually, two shallow draft steamers made it to the mouth of the James, but the route was too dangerous and no more boats ever made that trip. When Forsyth was founded in 1837, it became the shipping center for the Mid-Ozarks. Trade and necessary goods were brought and taken by boat to and from the Mississippi.
10. 1832: In Springfield, the first piano was brought to the Ozarks by the Smith family. It was a present to them from the famous General Winfield Scott. The Smith’s Hotel was on the northeast corner of the Square where Barth’s men’s clothing store later stood for many years.
11. 1835: Three families from Kentucky settled where they were shown a tall prominence between a creek and the James River by the local Indians. It has a very nice view of the waters, so they call it Cape Fair.
12. 1835: John B. Williams built the first gunpowder mill west of the Mississippi, on Flat Creek, a mile above the creek’s junction with the James River.
13. 1836: David Shannon built a new log house at the mouth of Swan Creek. With $100 worth of trade goods he opened a trading post, selling powder, lead, corn meal, fine thread and other frontier necessities.
14. 1837: On Dec. 16th, the 365 Cherokee members of the B. B. Conner group passed through Springfield, going south, through SW Missouri. They were a small part of the infamous Cherokee Trail of Tears forced migrations. A part of Campbell Street was on their sad route.
15. 1837: John Hancock established a post-office at the junction of Swan Creek with the White River. He named the post-office and the growing town “Forsyth,” in honor of his good friend, John Forsyth, of Georgia, from whence Hancock came.
16. 1837: Taney County was founded, named after Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney, who tried the famous Dread Scott case. Taney County originally contained not only that county but most of what is now Stone County, Christian County and Douglas County. The new town of Forsyth was then named as the county seat. At the time the town was right on the banks of the White River.
17. 1845: Amos Edwards built a log church a few miles above the mouth of Swan Creek. Levin T. Green came all the way from Little North Fork River to preach there.
1. 1851: Stone County was cut out of Taney County and established. It was named for Judge William Stone of Taney County. Joe Philibert, one of the Mid-Ozarks earliest settlers (1819), became the county’s first official, President Pro Tempore of the County Court.
2. 1852: Martha Canary, soon to become infamously known as Calamity Jane, was born in Princeton, Missouri. Before being gunned down with a shotgun blast to the back, she fraternized with the Border War fighters and became a sure and deadly shot.
3. 1854: C. C. Owen settled at a nice site that he later named Protem. The name is a contraction of the words “pro tempore,” meaning “temporary.” But the name stuck and is Protem to this day.
4. 1854: The Border Wars between residents of Missouri and Kansas Territory begins. During this disastrous era the Red-legs, the Jayhawkers, Bloody Bill Anderson, the religious zealot John Brown, the James Boys, the Daltons, Belle Star and many other such infamous people come forward into history. After the Civil War, their failed attempt to surrender created the gangs.
5. 1854: Myra Belle Shirley, later known as Belle Starr, was born in Virginia, February 5th, 1848. Her parents came to settle in Carthage when she was 6 years old. Eventually, she became Cole Younger’s lover and, eventually, the most infamous woman frontier criminal ever. She was known as The Outlaw Queen of the Ozarks. Her criminal career ended on February 3rd, 1889, when she was gunned down by a shotgun blast.
6. 1858: The famous Butterfield Stage Lines made its first run from Springfield to Ft. Smith, Arkansas. The U. S. Government had spent $800,000 to establish the Butterfield Stage Line, eventually running from Rolla, Missouri to the West Coast.
7. 1858: Edward Washburn painted the famous “Arkansas Traveler” picture showing a traveling man playing a fiddle for folks at a rustic mountain home. Currier and Ives later published a lithograph of it and the “Ozarks” appeared in thousands of homes across the nation in the 1880’s.
8. 1859: The Nickerson Cabin was built by Herbert and/or John Nickerson, and was the first permanent home on the Wilderness Road. It was restored in 1970 by the owners of Kimberling Hills for use as their temporary sales office at the entry to their development. It was demolished in 2004 to make way for a new parking lot for the new Kimberling Village building. This “like new” building was created from an elaborate remodeling of the old, original Kimberling Hills clubhouse and golf pro building.
9. 1860: On April 3rd, the Pony Express began its first run from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco, California. This “high speed” mail delivery system lasted about one year. The coming of the cross-country telegraph did it in by sending instantaneous messages coast to coast.
10. 1861: Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated our 16th President. He was born Feb. 12th, 1809 and was assassinated April 14th, 1865. He took office just before the first gun of the Civil War was fired and died barely days after it concluded. Isn’t that strange? Perhaps he came for that purpose.
11. 1861: The firing on Fort Sumter on April 12th touched off the American Civil War, which the Border Wars and the succession of many southern states had already fueled. It raged across America until the Armistice was signed at Appomattox on April 9th, 1865.
12. 1861 to 1865: The Civil War flamed across the nation. Much of it was fought in our Ozarks, with Pea Ridge in Arkansas and Wilson’s Creek in Missouri being the two major battles west of the Mississippi. The North had 640 thousand men killed, wounded or died of injuries. The South had 450 thousand men killed, wounded or died of injuries. With over 600 thousand total combined military deaths, the Civil War cost more American lives than all of the wars before and since. In money of that time, the war cost the North 6.1 billion and the South more than 2 billion. That equals something like 200 billion dollars in today’s money.
13. 1862: President Lincoln created The Homestead Act, which made it possible for veterans and others to settle and own 160 acres of the frontier lands. This became a powerful influence for Westward movement after the Civil War. It brought many of the settlers to the Ozarks.
14. 1862: On March 8th, the Battle of Pea Ridge was fought near Fayetteville in Arkansas. It was the first of the two major, decisive battles fought in the Civil War, west of the Mississippi River.
15. 1862: The first incorporated trade group in the America was founded, the United States Brewers Association. In 2006, and forever, it will be the oldest incorporated trade group in America.
16. 1863: On July 22nd, the Battle of Wilson Creek was fought just southwest of Springfield, Mo. It was the second of the two major, decisive battles fought in the Civil War, west of the Mississippi River.
17. 1863: On Feb. 2nd, Corporal Zack Thomas killed the infamous Bush Whacker Alf Bolin 14 miles south of Forsyth. He cut off Bolin’s head and took it to Springfield in a gunnysack to collect his reward. There are many different tales about the final display and disposal of Alf Bolin’s head.
18. 1863: The Union forces burned the Taney County Courthouse to the ground. Forsyth, the county seat, had changed hands several times in the early years of the Civil War.
19. 1864: On September 27th, the infamous Border War fighter, Bloody Bill Anderson, was killed. Upon examination he was found to have $300 in gold, $150 in U. S. notes, 6 loaded pistols and about a dozen human scalps tied on his belt. He was a very tough, strange and dangerous man.
20. 1865 – 1884: Over 40 murders were committed in Taney County with no convictions or punishment. To historians, this era became known as the Ozarks’ Reign of Terror.
21. 1865: Summer: At high noon, Wild Bill Hickock gunned down Dave Tuit on the Square in Springfield. It was Wild Bill’s first face to face shoot out. He was cleared of murder.
22. 1865: The American Civil War ended, with the final shot being fired in Texas, after the signing. There were over 600 thousand men killed during this four year war, wherein brother fought brother, son fought father - and many women fought, disguised as young men. (see 1861)
23. 1865: Joseph Philibert (1802 – 1885) and W. W. Kimberling (1847 – 18??) hired returning Civil War veterans to begin building The Wilderness Road of the Ozarks. They connected many old game and Indian trails to form the route from Berryville up to the north side of Springfield, where the new and long awaited railroad was soon to arrive. Using hand labor, draft animals and black gunpowder, they cleared, leveled and widened the trails into a passable wagon road. This changed the “tenor and pace” of the Ozarks forever. The Wilderness Road was first officially recognized by the U. S. Government as named on the 1907 edition of the USGS Reeds Spring Quadrant map. It was recognized by the State of Missouri and Arkansas and all the counties along the route by being “described” in many of the very old abstracts and deeds of title for adjoining properties.
24. 1866: Several important campgrounds grew along The Wilderness Road as it came into heavy, every-day use. Linchpin Campground was 1 mile north of where Branson West is today. Radical Campground was where Kimberling City is today. Dutch Store was where Highlandville is today. And many little towns, at intersections with busy trails, came to exist because of the road.
25. 1866: The coming of The Wilderness Road of the Ozarks and its associated, sister roads, also caused a number of ferries to be built to gain profit from hauling the heavy traffic across the White and other rivers. One of the more famous was the Kimberling Ferry, which replaced the old Maybry (Mayberry) Ferry, across the White River, just west of the old (and the new) Kimberling Bridges.
26. 1869: The first recorded exploration of what was to become Marble (eventually Marvel) Cave. Henry Blow, a St. Louis lead mining magnet, led an expedition of six seeking lead or other minerals.
27. 1860’s (late 60’s & 1870’s): Two brothers from Texas named Reed always stopped on their cattle-drive north to water and graze their animals at a fine big spring with lots of grass. Each drive, the Reeds drove 1,500 to 2,000 three-year-old cattle to Kansas City. Walker Powel remembers helping to dismantle the Reed Brothers’ cabin where their cow-hands wintered. When the White River Line was built through a new tunnel in 1902, the town of Reed’s Spring came to life in the valley.
28. 1869: A Mr. Warner plated Warnersville with three 60’ wide avenues and nine cross streets. In 1871, William M. Kirby built a post office there and renamed the town Kirbyville. (see 1871)
29. 1870: The long awaited railroad arrived in (North) Springfield, Missouri, radically altering the business methods and lifestyles of the Mid-Ozark Region. The instant demand for farm products and massive amounts of railroad crossties caused vast changes in Mid-Ozark business and the way of life. The Wilderness Road carried freight and produce to and from the new railroad.
30. 1870 (until about 1922): The “tie-hacking” business became the central money making industry of the Ozarks. Many millions of huge oaks were cut down, hacked into ties and floated down the rivers to the railroads in eastern Arkansas. A large number were loaded onto wagons and shipped painfully and slowly up to the new rail terminal in Springfield. (The 1903 railroad arrival in Branson and Reed Springs changed all this. The new railroad carried trainloads of ties every day for many years.)
31. 1870: The Butler Barrens area on the Mo/Ark state line in Stone County was named for the Elbert Butler family. When he became postmaster of the little town growing there on The Wilderness Road, his bright, intensely blue eyes caused the Postal Official to name the post office, “Blue Eye.” And so the town, half in Missouri, half in Arkansas, became Blue Eye.
32. 1871: Sub-district Number Two, just north of Hurley, built the first tax supported school in Stone County. It was a hewn log building. It was torn down in about 1950, after serving 80 years.
33. 1871: Kirbyville, Mo. was founded on the old Springfield-Harrison Road by William Kirby. It replaced Warnersville. It became a major trading center for the Mid-Ozarks, long before Branson existed. (see 1869).
34. 1872: The first Montgomery Ward mail order catalog was distributed. It became an outhouse staple in later years – both to peruse and to use. Farmers were practical and conservative people.
35. 1872: The Mansfield Opera House was built in Springfield, just off the Square on South Street. It was a three-story building and is still there today, but not an opera house, of course.
36. 1874: Charles Dumars was probably the first music “star” of the Ozarks. He was a principal performer in the Bolivar Coronet Band. In 1885 he established the Carthage Light Guard Band, which traveled and entertained throughout the Ozarks. Dumars became widely known and greatly appreciated for many years.
1. 1877: On January 2nd and 3rd, in his personal journal, Alonzo S. Prather recorded the following daily prices of goods he purchased: Coal oil 30c, tea 30c, two prairie chickens 25c, 2 ½ lbs steak 8c, burgundy pitch 5c, wine 50c, candy 10c, New York Times $1.20, hand washing 50c, slate pencils 5c, P.O. box rent 60c, shot caps and powder 25c, oysters 40c, lamp chimney 50c, muslin and linen $5, pair boots $4.50, Presbyterian Church magazine subscription 50c, boy for day chopping wood 25c, valentines 10c, cigars 15c, shirt studs 75c, gargling oil 50c, hired man $12,50 per month. Prather was one of the honest people who helped found the “Law and Order League,” which degraded into the infamous Bald Knobber vigilantes.
2. 1880: Some of the city populations in the Ozarks in 1880 were: Joplin 7,038; Springfield 6,522; Carthage 4,167; Eureka Springs 3,984; Granby 1,882; Fayetteville 1,788; Neosho 1,621; Salem 1,624; Webb City 1,588; and Rolla 1,582.
3. 1880: May Kennedy McCord was born in Carthage, raised in Galena and spent the last 50 years of her life in Springfield. She was a major folklore and music collector and very popular guitar and singing entertainer of her age. She became one of the truly “great” ladies of the Ozarks.
4. 1880: Taney County adopted a 4-days-per-year commitment to work on the county’s roads for each adult male, or the family had to pay a poll-tax to help keep the roads maintained.
5. 1882: T. H. Jones and Truman S. Powell made the second exploration of Marble Cave in hope of finding mine worthy lead. They and some Lamar, Missouri men formed a mining company.
6. 1882: Jesse James was killed by Robert Ford shooting him in the back in St. Joseph, Mo, April 5.
7. 1882: The famous horticulturist, George Washington Carver was born 4 miles from Laclede, Mo. Among the other famous discoveries and innovations made by Carver was – peanut butter! This caused a new wave of planting of peanuts in the South and more prosperity for the poor blacks.
8. 1882: Rueben Branson, a schoolteacher and shopkeeper from Gasconade County, opened a tiny store and a post office at the mouth of Roark Creek, where it joins the White River, where Branson stands today. He planed to serve the needs of the many river bottom farmers coming to and already settled in that area. (see also 1886 and 1935)
9. 1883: (Captain) Nat Kinney, a former bar owner from Springfield, moved to Forsyth. (see 1885)
10. 1883: Al Layton murdered storekeeper Jim Everett and was acquitted, probably by a paid off jury. The Layton family once drove 2,000 head of steers from Taney County to California.
11. 1883: Levi Morrill came to eastern Stone County with his family. He became Harold Bell Wright’s “Uncle Ike” after Wright’s novel, The Shepherd of the Hills, became a worldwide smash hit. (See later information on Wright and on Shepherd of the Hills novel and site.)
12. 1884: The Taney County “Citizens Committee” or “Law and Order League,” was organized to restore Ozarks law and order. It quickly degenerated into the Bald Knobbers. Thus began the reign of the most infamous vigilante band of desperados in history.
13. 1884: Newt Herrell murdered his mother’s lover. He was jailed but was acquitted. (see 1885)
14. 1884: T. H. Jones bought the land containing Marble Cave and formed the Marble Cave Mining Company, intending to take marble and/or lead from the cave. He plated a town, Marble City, and filed the plat in Galena. No marble or lead was found but they began “mining” bat guano and selling it at more than $700 a ton, a fortune in those days. Some rough buildings were built around the cave, including a grade-school. In 1886, the town became known as Marmaros, a foreign name for marble, when a post office was established there. The buildings burned some years later when the last business, a pottery company, went up in flames. On July 12th, 1929, the post office, called Marmaros, was moved to the Bud Rice farm on Joe Bald Peninsula, on the White River.
15. 1885: The Citizens’ Committee held the first mass recruiting meeting on Snapps Bald mountaintop. They built huge fires and post guards to keep the curious away. They then became popularly known as the “Bald Knobbers.” Big Captain Nat Kinney, a powerful man, took firm control. Later Kinney would organize sub-groups under loyal lieutenants across the Ozarks.
16. 1885: One hundred Bald Knobbers broke into the Forsyth jail. They beat Herrell with ropes and bull whips, leaving bloody nooses hanging in the courtroom as a warning and they threatened to hang Herrell if the county didn’t do it first. (see 1884)
17. 1885: Frank Taylor, a long time Ozark criminal tried to kill storeowner John Dickenson and his wife. He and his trouble-making brother, Tubal Taylor, were jailed, but everyone knew they’d be acquitted. The Bald Knobbers, led by Captain Kinney, snatched the Taylors from jail and lynched them from an oak tree atop a nearby hill. A frightening note crudely penciled on the lid of a cardboard shoebox was nailed to their back. “This is the first, but it won’t be the last!”
18. 1886: Rueben Branson moved to Forsyth for a political job. William Hawkins took his place at the little general store on Roark Creek. (see also 1882 and 1935)
19. 1886: Nat Kinney increased Bald Knobber mountain top meetings, and he began to spread the organization into Douglas and Christian Counties. At its peak, there were over a 1,000 of the Bald Knobbers. Kinney’s attempt to spread Bald Knobbers into Stone County was thwarted by the powerful Philibert family. The Bald Knobbers began rapidly taking over all the political offices by intimidation and murder.
20. 1886: Nat Kinney shot Andrew Cogburn down in cold blood. Kinney’s bodyguard, Wash Middelton murdered Andrew’s buddy, Sam Snapp. Both Bald Knobbers were acquitted by frightened juries. (see also 1882)
21. 1887: Chadwick Bald Knobbers killed Bill Edens and Charles Green in a firefight at their home.
22. 1887: A post office was established in a White River trading town and was given the name “Baxter.” In 1939, the part of Baxter that grew at a nearby junction on The Wilderness Road, now 13 Highway, was renamed “Lampe,” in honor of a major landowner in the area. However, Fayette Lampe actually lived in Springfield.
23. 1887: New taxes permit local road “overseers” in the Mid-Ozarks area to begin marking every crossroad corner with proper directional and name signs for the very first time.
24. 1887: Old Spanish Cave was discovered near the Wilderness Road, just north of Stutts (now Reeds Spring Junction). The little town of Tauria (called Tarty by the natives) grew there, at the cave and on the old road. The road much later became U.S. No. 65, and later 160. Eventually the highway became “old 160,” paralleling the new 160, which was now lying just to its west.
25. 1888: Billy Mills, hired by the Anti-Baldknobbers on the turn of a card in a game called by the Anti-Bald Knobbers, killed Captain Nat Kinney. He was never brought to trial.
26. 1889, May 10th: Three of the last Bald Knobbers were hung on the square in Ozark, pretty much ending the reign of the most infamous band of vigilantes in American history – after four years of terror. But the need for proper anti-crime authority and enforcement was implanted and began to grow. The era from the end of the Civil War to the end of the Bald Knobber vigilante time became known to historians as Missouri’s Reign of Terror.
27. 1889: The bat guano was now all gone from Marble Cave and the mining company ceased. Truman Powell sold the cave to one of the Lynch brothers for $1,000. W. H. Lynch and his two daughters bought the cave from his brother, and a square mile of land for $10,000.00.
28. 1890: Uncle John Hilsebeck operated the Northside Hotel in Forsyth. In 1895, he was, curiously enough, acquitted of operating a gambling house on the 2nd floor there. His gambling house was the first one in Taney County.
29. 1890: Taney County’s sheriff and deputy were killed in a shoot out with Billy Miles and his brother. Billy Miles was selected by the Anti-Bald-Knobbers in a card game and had recently killed Captain Nat Kinney, the Bald Knobber’s chieftain. (see 1888)
30. Late 1890’s: A few tiny businesses grew up around Rueben Branson’s post office and general store on Swan Creek. (see 1882 and 1886) A water driven mill ground grain and sawed lumber. There was also a cotton gin, a tobacco barn and a tool handle factory. The cotton gin tells us that cotton was a major local product. In the 1930’s the abandoned tobacco barn became a little “hard-times” hard-work factory. (see 1930’s).
31. 1894: The Lynch family opened Marble Cave for tourist visitor operation. (It was later renamed Marvel Cave, see 1927) Dances and musicals were held in the cave to build up business.
32. 1895: Levi Morrill established his post office on the first part of the Indian Ridge Road (now 76) and called it Notch. Indian Ridge Road turned off there and ran down through the present location of Silver Dollar City, near the Marble Cave Pond, past the entrance to the cave, down the ridge, then crossed the White River on Coombs Ferry at the mouth of Indian Creek.
33. 1895: Waldo Powell opened the first tomato cannery in the Mid-Ozarks. It was near the present site of Talking Rocks, formerly known as Fairy Cave.
34. 1897: The first valuable, 14 grain, pink, fresh water pearl was found in a mussel shell on the Black River by Dr. J. H Myers, starting a years long frenzy of pearl hunting on every river bar on the White River and all its tributaries, including the Black River. Later on, tons of shells were regularly shipped by steamboat to St. Louis and Arkansas to be turned into “pearl” buttons.
35. 1897: The Parent & Teachers Association organization was founded. It was first called The National congress of Mothers.
36. 1899: Frank Rice and other local residents built a 400 ft. long hewn timber, plank and rock dam across the often raging Long Creek, one mile east of the Stone County line. A three-story wooden mill was built to use the power generated by a new-style turbine within the dam. A community grew up there called Cedar Valley Mill. It was soon changed to Oasis, which was a prosperous town on the Harrison-Springfield Road for 50 years. In 1958/59 the entire town was covered-over 100 feet deep by the new Table Rock Lake.
1. 1900: Twice a year, “pearl” button factory boats came up the White to “punch-out” button-blanks rather than shipping the entire shells to St. Louis by steamboat. The tons of button “blanks” were then taken to Arkansas and St. Louis to be drilled and finished into clothing buttons.
2. 1900: Harold Bell Wright first happened upon the J. K. Ross Cabin after he and his guide-friend could not cross the swollen White River. Wright stayed with the Ross family for much of the summer recuperating from an illness, which is why he had come to fish in the first place.
3. 1900 (approx.): The Missouri Pacific Railroad began planning their White River Line that would connect the lead and zinc mines of Carthage and Joplin to their main line in eastern Arkansas. Land Agents began exploring the area, choosing the route and buying land for the right of way and for projects the MoPac leaders had in mind to help pay for the new, about to become very expensive, route.
4. 1900’s (early on): Float fishing on the White and James Rivers, long a local pastime, became an important industry in the Mid-Ozarks. The float trip was 137 miles from Galena to Forsyth – or 250 miles from Galena to Cotter in Arkansas. (see also 1934)
5. 1901: Harold Bell Wright returned to the Ozarks with his family. They camped near the Ross home while Wright wrote his first book, “That Printer of Udell’s.”
6. 1901 to 1904: All outgoing mail from Rueben Branson’s post office was post-marked, “Lucia,” pronounced “Loo’-sha.” A farmer named Thomas Berry owned the farm at the mouth of Roark Creek where the post office stood at that time. At Berry’s demand, the Branson post office became the Lucia post office.
7. 1901: The Missouri Pacific sent Charles Fullbright to oversee the business requirements of the White River Line. Building the line from Helena, Arkansas to Carthage, Missouri would be very difficult and expensive. The MoPac and Fullbright planed to acquire land for town business lots they could sell. They also financed orchards, cattle ranches and modern farming areas, to encourage more mining and to seek other ways to exploit the many miles of beautiful valleys, rivers, mountains and views along the upcoming White River Line.
8. 1901: Mr. Fullbright and the Land Agents began acquiring land for The Branson Town Company, to be owned by the Missouri Pacific and controlled by Fullbright. They acquired most of the land for the new town, but farmer Thomas Berry refused to sell and claimed he would plat and start his own town instead.
9. 1902: Thomas Berry died under mysterious and suspicious circumstances, without selling the land to The Branson Town Company. His son, Henry Berry, took over the farm and the Berry inheritance. He said that he would go ahead with his father’s plans and would plat a town called Lucia, as they once called the post office on their farm. Then he, too, mysteriously died.
10. 1902: At this time there were 54 acres of premium burley tobacco being grown in Taney County, with a yield of 35,100 pounds. In Stone County there were 15 acres, yielding 22,000 pounds. Tobacco was becoming an important cash crop, replacing much of “King Cotton,” which had been the river-bottom principal crop for many years.
11. 1903: U. S. statistics of the year are interesting. There were 8,000 autos and 21,000,000 horses in use nationwide. In current years it seems like there are nearly 21,000,000 autos in Branson alone!
12. 1903: The Springfield Shriners were established on the north side of the Square in Springfield.
13. 1903: Harold Bell Wright returned once again to the J. K. Ross cabin. This time he sent wagons ahead with a huge summer tent, his family and all his camping supplies. He began writing his famous book, The Shepherd of the Hills. It was published in 1907 and became an instant, international hit. It became the fourth most published book in the entire world – the King James Bible being the first. By 1917 it had sold two million copies, a vast amount in those days. It is believed that Truman Powel was the man Wright chose to be his “Old Shepherd” in his book.
14. 1903: The Berry heirs filed their grandfather’s Lucia plat, 10/02/03. Immediately, Fullbright’s Branson Town Company filed their plat, 10/26/03, directly adjacent to the Lucia plat. Somehow, by November 3rd, 1903, Fullbright and the Missouri Pacific had acquired the Lucia property. It was absorbed into The Branson Town Company and Lucia was never heard from again.
15. 1903: The Weaver family, which became musically famous, built its home on 3rd Street, first individual home in the area. There are claims that it was built as early as 1894, but that seems unlikely as Branson didn’t exist at that time. Perhaps the records are in error and the family built on 3rd Street in Springfield – because the family definitely lived in Springfield in the 1920’s. (see also 1920 and 1938 for more Weaver information.) The actual final location of the Weaver’s home (as confirmed by Walker Powel and Bob Mabe) is a stone home, well hidden by shrubbery, on the west side of 160, just north of the James River.
16. Early 1903: The MoPac engineers began clearing the purchased right of way. Then they began cutting the mountainsides, filling the grades, building trestles and boring tunnels for the new White River Line. Having no compacting equipment they let the fills settle for many months. So they moved to new areas of the line’s right-of-way and continued their work.
17. Early 1903: The only business in the new Branson Town was Henry Sullengen’s two-story, gable roofed saloon, several blocks up the hill from the White River.
18. Late 1903: The MoPac engineers began laying the final roadbed gravel and putting down the rails and crossties for the railroad. Fullbright was MoPac’s so called “Immigration Agent.” His job was to bring people to settle, build and prosper along the new railroad. He was to help them create businesses that would ship over the MoPac’s rails and make it profitable.
19. 1904: Rose O’Neil (6/25/1874 to 4/6/1944) began having her “dream-home,” Bonniebrook, built 10 miles north of Branson. It was completed in 1910. Much later it burned and was eventually restored by The O’Neil Society. Rose O’Neil became the world’s most famous, most highly paid, lady magazine illustrator. Many famous people and celebrities came to visit at her home.
20. 1904: Branson now had a hotel, a second saloon, two doctor’s buildings, and two general merchandise stores. They were all up the hill near Sullengen’s Saloon.
21. 1904: The Hollister Post Office was founded by R. Kirkham. (Origin of “Hollister” unknown)
22. 1904: The first Taney County Fair was held at Forsyth. At the time there were no bridges nor any culverts on the primitive dirt roads of the Ozarks. Everyone came to the Fair on horseback, in wagons – or they walked. The railroad coming through the newly created Branson Town was now a sure thing, but still a long ways away from completion.
23. Early 1905: The Branson Town Company built the Branson Hotel in anticipation of the coming railroad crews and the probable run of passengers, prospective businessmen and tourists.
24. June 10th, 1905: A landmark date! The first freight train pulled into Branson, coming from the north, and bringing much desired supplies and building materials. The railroad bridge across the White and the Turkey Creek Tunnel were not yet quite done, so the trains from the south were still on hold.
25. 1905: A group of St. Louis businessmen bought the State of Maine’s huge, log exhibition building after the closing of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. They shipped it to Branson on the new railroad and had it reconstructed on a bluff overlooking the White. It was now called the Maine Hunt and Fishing Lodge. They hired gardeners, waiters and huntsmen full time. Great apple orchards were planted to raise ongoing maintenance money. These same men became instrumental in the funding and building of early Branson Town. 10 years later the building on Point Lookout was purchased for $15,000, by the School of the Ozarks. (See also 2005, Keeter rebuilds.)
26. 1905: The first Branson School District was formed.
27. Late 1905: St. Louis and Springfield businessmen were heavily involved with financing and building Branson Town, even underwriting some of the town’s expenses. They saw a valuable market developing, with Branson as it’s focal point. Also they saw opportunities to expand their business interests into the developing town, the railroad and surrounding countryside.
28. Late 1905: Now the area’s richer farmers began buying lots from The Branson Town Company, because they wanted to create businesses along or near the new and exciting railroad. Little local merchants moved their businesses to Branson to be near the action.
29. 1906: R. O. Whelchel opened a hardware store, a furniture store and several small businesses in a block long concrete, stone and brick building. Nearby, a large frame building went up and became the Commercial Hotel. Another block long building went up, also of concrete, brick and stone. The ground floor was shops, the second floor was hotel rooms. This building had electric lights, run by a generator. It also had bathrooms and running water, a first in Branson.
30. 1906: The shallow-draft side-wheel boat, the MoArk, began shipping freight between Forsyth and Branson on the White River. The freight came up the White to Forsyth by much larger steamboats, brought from the Mississippi River.
31. 1906: In April, St. Louis businessman, Vernon Todd, built a lumberyard facility along the lakefront. He also built a small banking facility at Main and Commercial. He was one of the Main Hunting and Fishing Lodge creators.
32. 1906: The Ross family deserted Inspiration Point and helped found Garber, down on the new railroad on Roark Creek – because the old farm was not supporting them anymore.
33. 1906: The new 22 room Portland Hotel was built in Crane, Missouri, to serve the needs of the new Missouri Pacific Railroad, its crews and passengers. The hotel was still operating in 2006.
34. 1906: The Missouri Pacific initiated the first public excursion train on the White River Line. (see 1960 for the closing)
35. 1906: In this, the sixth year of the new century we DID NOT have: Accounts receivable tax, building permit tax, CDL license tax, cigarette tax, corporate income tax, dog license tax, federal income tax, federal unemployment tax, fishing license tax, food license tax, fuel permit tax gasoline tax, hunting license tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, IRS interest and penalties tax, liquor tax, luxury tax, marriage license tax, Medicare tax, property tax, truckers’ road use tax, sales tax, recreation vehicle tax, school tax, state income tax, state unemployment tax, telephone taxes, utility tax, vehicle registration tax, vehicle sales tax, watercraft registration tax, well permit tax, workers compensation tax, and so on. AND - there was NO national debt.
36. 1906: However: Though we had far fewer taxes, other things weren’t so cool in “the good old days” of 1906: Life expectancy was only 47 years. Only14% of homes had a bathtub. 8% had telephones. A three-minute call across much of the nation cost eleven dollars. There were only 8,000 cars and 144 miles of paved roads in the nation. In most cities the speed limit was 10mph. California had 1.4 million people and ranked 21st in population. The Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world. The average wage was 22 cents per hour. The average worker made between 200 and 400 dollars per year. Over 95% of births took place at home. 90% of all doctors had no college education, they “graduated” from “medical schools.” Sugar cost 4 cents a pound, eggs were 14 cents a dozen and coffee was 15 cents a pound. Most women washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo. Canada refused to admit poor people. The leading causes of death were pneumonia, the flue, tuberculosis, diarrhea, heart disease and stroke. The American flag had 45 stars. Las Vegas had a population of 30. Canned beer or soda and iced tea were unheard of. One in five adults couldn’t read and only 6% graduated from high school. Marijuana, heroin and morphine were all available at the corner drug store. 18% of American households had at least one servant. There were only a total of 230 reported murders in the entire country.
37. 1907: Now came a major change in the Branson and Ozarks’ scene!!! Because Harold Bell Wright’s book became a worldwide hit and because the fine railroad connected Wright’s story-land to the rest of the nation – people began coming from everywhere to see the fabled people and country of The Shepherd of the Hills fame. By 1917 it had sold over two million copies. Thousands of tourists began to arrive – from all over America – and from lands abroad. Tourism became a very serious reality for Branson and the Ozarks – big time! And so it continues!
38. 1907: Fullbright sold the last of the Branson Town Company to a St. Louis company headed by Willard P. Heath. Heath had supervised the building of the Main Hunt and Fishing Lodge on the bluff above the White River. Vernon Todd became the new president of the Town Co. ( See also Todd 1906)
39. 1907: The Parnell Brothers Mercantile was founded in Branson by Sam and Albert Parnell.
40. 1907: On the 4th of July, The Branson Commercial Club held the first big festival at Branson. They had riverside festivities, swimming contests, boat races, picnics, baseball games, dancing, fireworks and political as well as religious speeches. The boat races were cancelled because of the immense amount of harvested logs and ties floating on the White River. (The boat races were re-instituted in the 1930’s to build up flagging interest. They bored Walker Powel, he says, ha!)
41. 1907: The Branson Boat Company had a boat-building yard on the riverfront. They also had boat and fishing equipment rental. Their early powerboats hauled passengers and freight up and down the river.
42. 1907: The evidence of growth, business and prosperity were everywhere. At every bend in the riverfront great piles of logs and ties lay waiting shipment. There were spreads of cotton bales all along the railroad tracks. Up Roark Creek many small stock pens were full of animals waiting to be shipped north to hungry towns, or south to the Mississippi River.
43. 1907: On March 19th, the town of Melva was platted. The Josie B. and Silver Moon mines soon opened in the hills nearby, mining lead and zinc that was shipped on the new railroad to Aurora to be smelted. Large orchards all around Melva furnished fruit, stored in sheds to be shipped on the railroad. The town was completely destroyed by a tornado in 1920. (see 1920)
44. 1907 to 1910: Ten new industries came to Branson. A cedar factory, a wagon factory, a foundry and machine works, a wood products factory, a box factory, a wood veneer mill, a spoke factory, a tie and timber yard, a feed and flour warehouse and a cannery.
45. 1909: In September of 1909, the “mammoth” Landers Theater opened in Springfield. Many of the “greats” of the day played there, including: George M. Cohan, Lillian Russel, Lon Chaney and Phillip Sousa, among many others
46. 1909: The Empire District Electric was organized to serve the entire Central Ozarks Region.
1. 1910: The growing railroad town of Hollister was incorporated. J. W. Blankenship was first mayor. The English flavored town was started by the building of Ye Olde English Inn and a small bank.
2. 1910: Now came the third major change in Branson’s formation and finances. The Amberson Hydraulic Construction Company began surveys for a site for a hydroelectric dam on the White River. It would be somewhere downstream, but close to Branson. That would mean big money for Branson as it was being built. And lots more fishing and tourist trade when it was done!
3. 1910: Powersite Dam was begun. All the heavy construction materials for it were shipped by rail to Branson, then by freight barges 12 miles downstream to the dam site. Homes for a thousand workers and their families were built at Camp Ozark at the dam site. The payroll and the needs were quite large. A commissary was established at Camp Ozark by B. A. Parnell. Trains of wagons began shipping people and supplies from Branson to the dam site, day in and day out for three years. The dam was completed in 1913 at a final cost of $2,250,000, a small fortune in that day. It was operated by City Service, Inc. – Empire District Electric.
4. 1910: The Echo newspaper came to an end. It was replaced by the Taney County Democrat and The Branson Sentinel.
5. 1911: Rose O’Neil designed and sold her first Kewpie Doll, starting a world-wide promotional landslide. Kewpie Dolls and anything “Kewpie” were highly collectible. The O’Neil commemorative festival, Kewpiesta, is still celebrated each year at the restored Bonniebrook.
6. 1912: By April 1st, enough land was in the private hands of 1,200 residents to support incorporating of Branson as a 4th Class City. The bounds were Roark Creek on the north, the White River on the east and south, and the original plat lines for Branson Town and Lucia on the west – running from Roark Creek to the White River. A large part was left out for a farm still owned by a local farmer and not given over to the incorporation. (See 1903, when the original plats for Branson Town were registered at the county seat.)
7. 1912: Howard Claybough brought a little used generator to his Chevrolet Agency in Reeds Spring. He wired the bank and a couple of other businesses with one light bulb each. At the time it was the only electricity source in Reeds Spring.
8. 1912: On August 29th, the first mayor of Branson, C. H. Nichols, awoke to the alarm bells sounding from the tower of the Presbyterian Church. The town was in flames. There was no fire company. Volunteers fought the fire, but 21 mostly wooden business buildings on 3rd street burned to the ground including the Parnell Brothers Mercantile and others.
9. 1912: Late 1912: The Sammy Lane Commercial Boat Line was launched for service on the new Lake Taneycomo.
10. 1912: The Berryville Band was organized there and played for silent movies at the Ozark Theater, also in Berryville, Arkansas at the time.
11. 1913: A huge log bridge was built to start a seriously proposed dam on the James River at Virgin Bluff, near Cape Fair, Missouri. Proponents were working hard to raise the funds, but it failed.
12. 1913: The first issue of the White River Leader, on May 19th, announced the completion of Powersite Dam. Within 36 hours of completion torrential rains in the area flooded the White River and filled Lake Taneycomo to overflowing. Branson became a lakefront town almost overnight. Taneycomo was the first lake of any size in Missouri. The White River Leader eventually became The Branson Tri-Lakes Daily News.
13. 1913: By now excited and enthusiastic tourists coming to see Harold Bell Wright’s country and its people had completely stripped the Ross family sawmill, taking the parts for souvenirs. This sawmill originally belonged to Uncle Will Powell, and was located down on Fall Creek.
14. 1913: All of the burned buildings in Branson were rebuilt, but this time they were of concrete blocks and brick. Most were rebuilt some distance from the new Lake Taneycomo – but not far enough to escape the future rampaging of the ever dangerous White River.
15. June 1913: The Sammy Lane Passenger Boat began service ferrying people and U. S. Mail up and down the new Taneycomo Lake.
16. Summer, 1913: The steel bridge across Taneycomo was finished from Main Street across to the bluffs on the other side. A new wagon bridge was built over the much-widened Roark Creek to serve businesses down the lake. Coon Creek was bridged and a road was blasted and cut along the bluffs to Hollister. It continued south to the Main Club and orchard. (In 1915 this would become The School of the Ozarks when the original school’s building was burned out in Forsyth that year.) (See 1945, when the Main Street bridge washed away.)
17. 1913: On October 13th, gunfire woke Branson to a new conflagration. Six of Whelchel’s businesses were burned out. All were insured and quickly rebuilt.
18. 1914: A cooperative, two-county effort built a rough, graded dirt road around Dewey Bald Mountain to the now world famous Shepherd of the Hills Farm, Marble Cave and on to Reeds Spring.
19. 1914: Because of the ever-increasing tourist traffic in Branson and Hollister, new and unique businesses sprang up. A commercial ice plant, a candy factory, and ice-cream factory and a soft drink bottling plant grew because of the new demands and markets.
20. 1914: The Branson women organized the Branson Civic League and began to beautify the town and the community. They demanded that the logs and ties along the river, the stocks of bricks and lumber in the yards and the piles of cotton bales along the railroad be entirely removed or kept stacked neatly. All the trash and debris was ordered to be picked up and disposed of immediately. Modern, ladylike civilization came to Branson and the Ozarks.
21. 1914: The War to End All Wars, World War I, began in Europe. America knew it was threatened. Despite many folks in opposition, America would soon be drawn into the war.
22. 1914: Hobart McQuarter opened the Sammy Lane Camp on the Taneycomo shoreline at Branson.
23. 1916: The Electric Theater opened in Branson, the first in the county. It was a “still” picture show (not yet “moving” pictures), but it was so novel it sometimes played to standing room only crowds. These pictures and crowds were noted by the 1916 Branson Echo paper.
24. 1916: Willard Merriam founded Rockaway Beach on the shores of the new Taneycomo Lake. It soon became the Ozarks’ most famous swimming, boating and partying playground. It stayed very popular until Table Rock Dam began releasing icy cold water into Taneycomo, thus ruining the swimming etc. Mr. Merriam also founded Merriam Woods, the subdivision there.
25. 1916: On October 10th, of 1916, the Electric Theater opened on the Square in Springfield. The theater had both silent movies and stage acts. The first silent movie featured Tom Mix.
26. 1917: On April 6th, 1917, the United States entered World War I, which had already been raging in Europe for several years. Germany occupied most of Europe and was threatening England.
27. 1918: On November 11th, 1918, the Armistice was signed ending World War I. Europe was virtually in ruins and hundreds of thousands of military and civilians were dead or injured.
28. 1919: The first of the Shepherd of the Hills movies was made with Harold Bell Wright’s assistance. It was in black and white with the usual early-on “over acting” to compensate for it being “silent.” The script was printed as “titles” along the bottom of the screen. It was accompanied by local organ or piano music.
29. 1919: About this time the colorful Pearl “Sparky” Spurlock turned her big wooden-spoke-wheel Buick into a taxi, taking people out to the old Ross cabin in Low Gap, commonly called Inspiration Point. She wore a cotton dress well below her knees, a bonnet and “smoked” a corncob pipe to remain “in character” for her hundreds of touring customers. She made hundreds of trips over the next many years. In later years, Walker Powell often parked her seven-passenger Buick in her “special spot” at Marvel Cave Park.
30. 1919: The Ozarks Playground Association was founded in Joplin, Missouri in that year. It was a business group that actively advertised and promoted the interests of the Ozarks, centered around the junction of the state lines of Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. It started out serving only the newly built Lake Taneycomo, but ended up serving eight recreational and fishing lakes, many Ozark towns and cities and hundred of businesses. Its final 1979 annual budget was $119,000. It began losing financial support, active members and physical support to the many now growing local Chambers of Commerce and finally closed its doors and ceased operation in 1979. It had served the Ozarks diligently and well for almost exactly 60 years. The OPA coined the famous promotional terms, “Land of a Million Smiles,” and “Land of the Big Red Apple,” for the large area of the Ozarks it served. (see 1979)
1920
- 1930 (back to top)
1. 1920: A new “highway” was built to connect
Branson and Springfield. It is called Missouri Highway 3, (some sources
called it Federal No. 3), it was hilly, twisted and sparsely graveled.
It was mostly single-lane and it was seventy-five miles long. It crossed
many creeks and a couple of rivers – without any bridges early
on. Ben Parnell told us he remembered it taking his folks two days to
drive to Springfield because there were so few places where early motorcars
could pass slowly plodding wagons. If the creeks became flooded it could
take most of a week to drive to Springfield from Branson. But that was
the way things were in those formative days.
2. 1920: By now the log cutting and tie-hacking industry had about died away. There were now almost no standing large red oak or post oak trees left in the Mid-Ozarks. Hundreds of thousands of hilltop acres were nearly denuded. The railroads were now sprawled all across the continent and the huge demand for crossties was waning. Walker Powell’s father got stuck with 1,000 cut and squared ties lying out in the woods.
3. 1920: Now the Ozarks’ cedars began to start getting seriously thinned out, for many millions of 6’6” posts were shipped to Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois and Kansas. The thousands of new farms being located there required the 3” topped posts for their miles of fence-lines. The posts were buried two feet deep for strength.
4. 1920: Branson now had three hotels, The Commercial Hotel, the Branson Hotel and the Malone Hotel (later renamed The White River Hotel in 1937). Once built to serve the railroad, they now all catered to the growing tourist trade.
5. 1920: Hobart McQuarter, owner of the Branson Boat Factory and the Sammy Lane Boat Line, as well as a bulk gasoline business, built the Sammy Lane Resort on the Lakefront. He was still wary of the White’s floods, which the low Powersite Dam wouldn’t control. His Resort was built up on top of poles and all anchored to the ground with heavy cables to keep it from floating away.
6. 1920: The world famous writer, poet and novelist, John Neihardt (1881-1973), moved to Branson. He lived there twenty years, until 1940.
7. 1920: Famous writer, Vance Randolph (1892-1980), moved to the Branson area. For thirty years, until 1950, he traveled the Ozarks, collecting folk-songs on tape and writing down all the native stories, legends, tales, myths and so on he could find. He wrote many great-fun books using all his collections. Randolph became one of the Ozarks’ greatest, most respected historical writers.
8. 1920: The 19th Amendment to The American Constitution was passed granting Women’s Voting Rights. It was the Women’s Suffrage Amendment.
9. 1920: The Melva Tornado struck the little thirteen-year-old town on the morning of March 11th. It washed a small house into the raging Turkey Creek with nine children hiding inside. Only one child survived. The town of Melva was destroyed completely with only the foundations surviving. (see also 1907)
10. 1920: The 20’s were good for “The Weaver Brothers and Elviry and their “Arkansas Travelers.” Originally from Branson, the group grew to 30 performers and toured all over the nation. Leon and Frank Weaver called themselves Abner and Cicero. Elviry was really June Weaver, married to Leon. She later divorced Leon and married his brother Frank. The entire family lived in Springfield in the 1920’s. (see also 1903 and 1938) (This gives the location of the home there.)
11. 1921: Branson’s entire schooling was housed in a two-story red brick building. The grades were on the lower floor and the high school on the second floor. In 1922, a cut stone building was built nearby for the high school and the grades then had the old building.
12. 1922: In September of 1922, WHAH, in Joplin, became the first radio station in the Ozarks. Its signal radiated to about 100 miles at the time.
13. 1922: Though Powersite Dam was completed in 1913, the first electricity of record to reach Branson was in 1922. When the dam first began generating, the power was sent to Springfield and Oklahoma. Sometime around 1915, Reeds Spring became electrified.
14. 1923: Anna Ross (Aunt Molly) died and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, near SDC, on 76 Highway. J. K. Ross (Old Matt) died the next year while being taken to California by his son and he, too, was buried in Evergreen Cemetery. In 1926, Levi “Uncle Ike” Morrill died and was buried beside the other two characters from H. B. Wright’s novel. The graves all went unmarked until Pearl “Sparky” Spurlock (the lady taxi driver) raised the few hundred dollars necessary to buy the monuments to commemorate these famous and colorful people.
15. 1923: The first Kimberling Bridge was completed crossing the White River. It replaced the old Kimberling Ferry, which in turn replaced the old Mabry (Mayberry) Ferry. The 1923 Kimberling Bridge was accidentally left intact when Table Rock flooded. It is still there, about 100 feet beneath the lake’s waters.
16. 1924: Ruel Williams established the Stone County Oil Company, a DX Petroleum distributor. It soon became Stone County’s largest business and remained so until Table Rock Lake was built.
17. 1924: Professor Oscar R. Gleason, of Kansas City, and Lindsay Wilson, sat up temporary quarters for a movie-making studio in downtown Branson. They also bought acreage west of Branson where they claimed they would build a permanent studio and a movie lot, similar to those developing in Hollywood. Movies were becoming big business all across the nation.
18. 1924: On January 1, the famous “Red Front” store opened in Crane. It was still in operation in 2006.
19. 1926: The first commercial water well was drilled to serve Branson. Prior to that time the town used water from the White River and then Lake Taneycomo. After that time many, many wells were drilled. In 2000, a huge water treatment plant was built and the city went back to drinking lake water from Lake Taneycomo.
20. 1926: Ms. Lizzie McDaniel, daughter of a Springfield banking family, rescued and restored the old Ross cabin, complete with original furnishings that she patiently sought out and recovered.. She also restored and the grounds around it. She acquired all of Inspiration Point. She soon produced the first of the outdoor dramas re-enacting Wright’s Shepherd of the Hills story.
21. 1926: Great Bend was where the White River crossed from Arkansas into Missouri and then back into Arkansas. There was more than 1,200 acres of prime bottomland there owned by twelve families. The rich dirt was given to truck farms and melon fields for many years, until Table Rock Lake covered it over. Further along, Owens Bend was more than 30 miles around its great loop. One could float and fish for three days and end up only 3 miles from where they first “put in,” just across the neck of the river loop.
22. 1926: The world famous “Mother Road,” U. S. Route 66, was completed connecting Chicago to Los Angeles – though much of it was still unpaved. It passed through downtown Springfield, on St. Louis Street and through the Square. It later became world famous in books, song, television shows and plays. Eventually it was completely graded and paved and became one of the nation’s most used and famous routes. Especially in the Great Depression days of the 1930’s.
23. 1926: The Gilloiz Theater opened in Springfield. After the Second World War, the Gilloiz began to decline and was finally closed and abandoned. For years, tramps and homeless people broke in and built fires to keep warm. Nearly 80 years later, it was reclaimed and restored to its original condition at a cost of over $ 3,000,000. It reopened as a performing theater in 2006.
24. 1926: The “Y” bridge, in Galena, was started. It was completed and dedicated in 1927. It originally served the new Missouri 34 Highway that ran from Galena to Blue Eye. It was in use there until it was closed in 1986. The serving highways received a major reconstruction at that time and the bridge was no longer viable. It was restored in 1991 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today it is a tourist attraction and a footbridge across the James.
25. 1927: Branson got its first Model T Ford fire truck. For the preceding 24 years it had depended upon hand carried buckets and a pull cart with a small water tank and pump on it. The next vehicle upgrade was a Model A Ford fire truck.
26. 1927: The White River flooded all of the riverfront of Branson and all of downtown Hollister. This became the worst flood of record in the Mid-Ozarks to that date because of all the new development in homes and businesses all along the river’s banks and in its lowland places on many feeder creeks and rivers. The Corps of Engineers informed us that the flood extended the entire length of the White, clear to the Mississippi. It caused nearly a million displaced persons, at a time when there was little or no government or institutional aid for them. The White rose 50 feet above its normal level during this flood. It ran hundreds and hundreds of feet wide in many places.
27. 1927: Young Charles A Lindberg flew solo pilot across the entire Atlantic Ocean in his mono plane, The Spirit of St. Louis. Lucky Lindy became a Missouri and a national hero.
28. 1927: The Lynch Sisters renamed Marble Cave to Marvel Cave. They built a few wooden cabins and a little camp ground near the cave’s entrance. (see 1894)
29. 1927: Camp Kuggaho first opened on Lake Taneycomo. Spike White, one of the young camp advisors became a manager and eventually bought the camp. He and his wife later turned it into a Christian camp, Kanakuk Kamp. Later the one camp became four prospering Christian youth facilities throughout the White River area.
30. 1927: The then famous booklet, “The Stone County Booklet, A guide to Prosperity and Happiness,” was published. The last known copy was sent to C. W. Crawford, publisher of the Crane Chronicle.
31. 1928: The second version of The Shepherd of the Hills movie was produced, generating new interest in the farm and in Ms. Lizzie’s proposed historical museum there. Still black and white and “silent,” the movie was usually accompanied by piano or organ music.
32. 1929: The infamous national Stock Market Crash occurred, bringing on The Great Depression of the 1930’s that lasted until the years of prosperity returned during World War II, in the 1940’s. Many Branson artifacts were created by President Roosevelt’s Works Project Administration, “The WPA” during The Depression. The first masonry Reeds Spring school building was also a WPA project. Most of the original building is still standing there.
1. 1929 through the 1930’s: The effects of The Great Depression came to the Ozarks and many businesses closed. However, the reign of tourism was still strong and continued to support much of the remaining businesses in Branson and the surrounding areas, as well as the working non-farm people there. Tie hacking was now very minimal, but tomato raising and canning had become huge. In Branson, the only industries that remained operating were one small logging company, the American Cedar Pencil factory, a stove factory, a box factory and two bustling tomato canneries. Tomato canning stayed busy through WWII, due to the military’s heavy demands. The Emerson Canning Company in Reeds Spring shipped 90 train-car loads of tomatoes one of those years.
2. 1929-1934: For some unexplainable reason, Pine trees rarely grew on the north side of the White River, until the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) planted them in Stone and Barry County during the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
3. In the 1930’s tomatoes sold for $40 a TON. A good crop was 10 tons per acre. In 2006, tomatoes sell for 99 cents a pound. A crate of today’s tomatoes would hold 40 POUNDS and sell for about $40. That’s two-thousand times as much as in the 30’s.
4. 1930: The nationally infamous outlaw, murderer and bank-robber, Jake Fleagle was captured in Ridgedale, south of Hollister. 13 law officers were involved in the shoot-out and arrest, Oct. 13th. Shortly thereafter Fleagle died of the gunshot wounds.
5. 1930’s: The little dirt and broken rock road from Branson, around Dewey Bald and connecting to Indian Ridge Road was finally rebuilt and graveled, bringing wheeled traffic to Inspiration Point, Old Matt’s Cabin and to Marvel Cave. It remained dirt surfaced or barely graveled from Marvel Cave to Reeds Spring. It was a WPA, “Farm to Market” road in those days.
6. 1930: In the early 1930’s, President Roosevelt established the “Bank Holiday” period. B. B. Coney, of Crane, published one-dollar certificates, payable to the “bearer” on demand. His paper “money” was backed up by a $5,000 asset reserve. His dollar-bills were a very popular item and circulated widely through the Ozarks. A few still exist in bank and private money collections.
7. 1932: The Bank of Branson fails because of the Great Depression.
8. 1932: Bonnie and Clyde came through Reeds Spring looking to have a tire fixed. They were on their way to Hot Springs, Arkansas, which was the criminal hangout and recreational place in its day – before the mob created Las Vegas. They discovered the “good old boys” were closing in. They kidnapped Joe Gunn and told him to direct them how to escape. He did and they released him in Berryville, Arkansas. The gang had two gunfights along the way. They gave Joe $10 and thanked him – instead of killing him as they did so many other folks. (see same event 1934)
9. 1932: Elvin Akers built a small, concrete block building at the corner of what is now 13 Highway and DD Highway. It was a general store. He bought, or traded for, hundreds of cedar fence posts and hauled them by the truckload to Springfield and Kansas City for resale. A post office was eventually established here called, ???????? Elvin lived in a 2-story colonial house on DD.
10. 1932: On January 2nd, the infamous Young Brothers Massacre took place in Brookline, Missouri, west of Springfield. The Greene County Sheriff and two of his deputies were killed. Two Springfield detectives and a patrolman were also killed. Harry and Jennings Young were holed up in their parent’s home in Brookline. They had killed a deputy sheriff in Republic and the lawmen were seeking to arrest the pair. It became the worst massacre of lawmen in America ever, until the 2001/ 9/11 destruction of the New York City Trade Towers.
11. 1933: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was inaugurated as President. He was born in 1882, at his family’s estate in Hyde Park, New York. He served three, four year terms as President and had just been returned to office for a forth term when he died, April 12th, 1945. Harry S. Truman, then his Vice-President, assumed office and governed the country through the end of WW II.
12. 1933: Jim Owen came to Branson to help his father build a drug store. He fell in love with the area and remained. Eventually he became a very important business, financial and historical figure in the Ozarks. (See Jim Owen notes at several later dates herein)
13. 1933: The U. S. Government began assembling property to create the Mark Twain National Forest throughout southern Missouri.
14. 1934: On October 12th, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow passed through Reeds Spring and had a shoot out south of town (on today’s 76 West) with deputies Earnest Hayes and Sam Thompson. They were on their way to Hot Springs, Arkansas, which was the “gangster playground” of that time, before Las Vegas. (Some reported that this took place in 1932, see that entry. RESEARCH)
15. 1934: Reish Shoes and Branson Mercantile businesses open their doors. These two venerable, family owned business were still operating in 2006, serving Branson and the Ozarks after more than 70 years.
16. 1934: Jim Owen opened the first movie theater in the Mid-Ozarks. It was in the Civic League’s Community Hall downtown. Howard Claybough later opened one in Reeds Springs. It was next to the Bushong’s Grocery Store. It was run by Don Emerson and his wife Leatta, who was Howard’s sister. It was called the Princess Theater. It showed silent pictures, 10 cents for a child, 25 cents for an adult. The first movie starred Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson.
17. 1934: Jim Owen launched his soon to be famous float and fishing trips on the James and White Rivers. Launched at Galena they floated 127 miles to Branson, camping at night along the way. Sometimes the floats extended to 250 miles, to Cotter, Arkansas. They were avidly attended by politicians, movie stars and many other famous people – because one became “unreachable” for at least a week on the trips. It eventually became the largest float-trip business in the world.
18. 1935: The Branson Airport opened in a mowed grass field along the graveled road to Marvel Cave and Reeds Spring. It was closed when School of the Ozarks opened its paved airport. In the late 1990’s the abandoned field became the site of White Water and the Red Roof Mall, among other businesses. (see 1970)
19. 1935: On June 11th, 1935, Ruben Branson died in Forsyth. Ruben Branson formed the first post-office, where the town, Branson, which was named for him grew. Shortly after setting up the post office he moved to Forsyth and became a county officer. (see 1882 and 1886)
20. 1936: The first Easter sunrise pageant was planned by the Branson business community to be held at Inspiration Point. The WPA, the Highway Department, Missouri Standard Bell Telephone Company and others rushed to get the new highway completed in time and to get telephone service to Inspiration Point. Easter morning 2000 people attended the sunrise service and it was carried by telephone wire (for the first time in Mid-America) to KWTO in Springfield and was then broadcast to the world.
21. 1936: The Security Bank was organized with B. A. Parnell as President.
22. 1936: Jim Owen built his rustic Hillbilly Theater on south Commercial Street. Here many famous people and movie stars were photographed in front of the theater with Jim Owen and the young man whom he hired (in 1945) to run the theater, Steve Miller. Steve later achieved great artistic fame with Silver Dollar City, as well as in Branson and the Christmas Pageant. (The theater remained in operation in 2006 with stage shows.)
23. 1936: Ned Mann grew up in Hollister and went on to fame in Hollywood as a director and special effects man. He often came to float with Jim Owen and eventually built the Hollywood Hills Hotel on a bluff overlooking Taneycomo, north of Branson. Hollywood stars often stayed there while touring the Ozarks, hunting at the Main Hunting and Fishing Lodge or floating with Jim Owen. One star even bought a hideaway ranch near Branson.
24. 1937: On May 21st, murderer Roscoe Jackson was publicly hanged in Galena. It was the first hanging in Galena and the last hanging in the Midwest.
25. 1938: The Second World War, WWII, broke out in Europe. America would be involved soon.
26. 1939: In February, the White River Valley Electric Coop was organized with such memorable names as Arch Mayden, Hobart Parnell, Hazel Powell Dyson on the board. (see 1940)
27. 1939: Twentieth Century Fox came to the Ozarks to shoot the movie, The Jesse James Story. They shot it in the towns of Pineville, Noel and Anderson. Burt Akers later told folks that the bluff where the horses jumped from was east of Chadwick on Swan Creek. The railroad scenes were in the Chadwick area where you can still see some of the old railroad beds. Tyrone Power, the star of the movie often came into Burt’s store to shop.
28. A MUSICAL NOTE: During the 1910’s, 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s Branson residents, Leon and Frank Weaver, with Leon’s wife, June, entertained all over the nation for forty years, from the Electric Theater in Springfield to the old Palace on Broadway. They were also in some moving pictures with such actors as Roy Rogers and Ronald Regan. They performed as The Weaver Brothers and Elviry. There is some claim that the Weaver home was built on 3rd Street around 1894, which would make it the first home in the Branson area - but Branson and 3rd Street didn’t exist at that time. (Perhaps the record should have said “Springfield,” because the Weaver family definitely lived there in the 1920’s.) However, it is certain that The Weavers and Elviry were the first professional singers, musicians and entertainers in the Branson area – whatever the initial date of their residence. Many of their fun instruments were home-made from household implements and containers. Much of their musical performances included lots of comedy. Their group eventually grew to 30 performers, touring the Ozarks and the nation. (See also 1920 and 1903)
1. 1940: On March 25th, the WRVE Coop borrowed 148 thousand dollars to build the first 195 miles of electric lines in Christian, Ozark and Taney Counties. They then served 364 customers. (also see 1939 & 1946)
2. 1941: December 7th, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, launching America into World War II. The war ended with Victory in Europe Day, May 8th, 1945, and Victory in Japan Day Sep. 2nd, 1945.
3. 1941: Ozark river float fishing and camping trips were the “cover” and main story in Life Magazine. This brought another blast of tourists to the central Ozarks.
4. 1941: The Shepherd of the Hills story was once again made into a movie. This time in Hollywood, in color and featuring the great star of the time, John Wayne, as Young Matt. It was not a popular version because it portrayed the people of the Ozarks as lazy, less than desirable people, including Old Matt and Aunt Molly. In those days, this was the way many people envisioned Ozarks folks. At the first showing in Branson the anger nearly started a major riot.
5. 1940’s: The Weaver Brothers and Elviry, working for Republic Pictures, made “Shepherd of the Ozarks,” a word-play on Shepherd of the Hills. Their traveling bus was named “The Arkansas Traveler.” Another famous Arkansas Traveler of the day was Bob Burns, a comedian and musician from Van Buren, AR. His “bazooka,” a homemade humorous musical instrument, became famous when the US Army nicknamed their shoulder held rocket launcher, the “Bazooka.” The bazooka played a major role as a tank killer all through World War II.
6. 1940’s: Universal Pictures made another in the long line of popular Ma and Pa Kettle pictures called “The Kettles in the Ozarks.” As usual it starred Marjorie Main and Arthur Hunnicut.
7. 1941: Branson and it’s world famous White and James River Float Trips were featured on the cover and in a full story within Life Magazine, one of America’s most popular publications.
8. 1941: The Branson Chamber of Commerce was created.
9. 1945: President Roosevelt died, April 12th, 1945, and Harry S. Truman assumes his office. (see the year 1933 for more details about Roosevelt.) He was the only man to ever serve as President for more than two terms. Had he not died he would have served four terms, that’s sixteen years.
10. 1945: The Bruce and Mary Trimble family bought the Low Gap area from the Branson Civic League, which had bought it at the settlement of Ms. Lizzie’s estate. They leased the cabin and the barn and Inspiration Point, which the League had also bought. In 1970 they purchased those properties as well.
11. 1945: The Second World War ended. (See WWII in 1941 for more details.)
12. 1945: James Cushman attended an auction at Dewey Bald and acquired 800 acres of Mutton Hollow. It became an obsession with him and he eventually acquired 2300 acres. He intended to preserve the Ozarks’ pristine wilderness for as long as possible. The Cushman family eventually sold Dewey Bald and a lot of surrounding ground to the creator of the Beverly Hillbillies, Paul Henning and his wife. The Jerry Cushman family later developed much of Mutton Hollow.
13. 1945: The White floods came once again. This time it came up so high it washed away the steel Main Street Bridge and actually carried it twelve miles downstream and pushed it over the top of the Powersite Dam. The White cut out much of the Kimberling Bridge road. It also flooded out Jim Owens’ warehouses and many other businesses along the riverfront. (see 1913, building the bridge)
14. 1945: Bud and Maxine Brown acquired the Sammy Lane Resort. Chris Meadows acquired the Sammy Lane Boat Line. These sales were probably because of the 1945 flood disaster.
15. 1946: The Security Bank is sold. The Golf Ranch south of Branson opened.
16. 1946: Norwood Speight was employed to be the WRVE Coop manager. They now had 1511 customers, 440 miles of line and electricity cost was down to $5.32 per kwh. (see 1939 & 40)
17. 1946: The Independent Stave Mill opened east of the junction of 76 and 13. They bought white oak bolts and processed them into barrel staves, used to form liquor ageing barrels. The Independent Stave Company still existed in 2006, but it was located elsewhere. White oak staves are still used to make ageing barrels for quality whiskey. After use these barrels are still very expensive and are reused by other producers.
18. 1948: A new cheese and milk products company was
encouraged to go into business by the Branson Chamber of Commerce. It
soon employed many people in the plant, as well as many drivers and
service people on the road, collecting milk from hundreds of farmers,
and making deliveries.
19. 1949: Steve Miller and businessman Joe Todd dreamed up the idea of putting a huge, lighted, Adoration Scene up on Mount Branson, across Taneycomo from Branson. The figures were 28 feet tall. It was first lighted the night of the first Sunday in December, 1949.
20. 1949: Jim Owen and the Parnells got together and applied to open The People’s Bank in Branson.
21. 1949: In May of that year, the Mark Twain National Forest received its first organized fire protection. The first fire tower was built just south of Hollister.
22. 1949, the fall: The Herschend family signed a 99 year lease with the Lynch sisters, giving them control of Marvel Cave, the Lynch cabins and the 2,000 acres around it. The Herschends moved to the Branson area. Their home later becomes the training center for SDC, Historic U. (Look into the Lynch sister, Elizabeth Walden, deeding 640 acres to the Presbyterian Church – School of the Ozarks. There’s a conflict of facts here.)
1. 1950???: Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey, (8-16-1877) the famous Ozarks poet and writer, dies.
2. 1950: The People’s Bank was chartered and opened with Jim Owen and the Parnells as officers. Ben Parnell and the People’s Bank become important financial founding and motivating sources in Branson and the surrounding area. (See People’s and Parnell notes many times following.)
3. 1950’s: The Shepherd of the Hills play was performed in a building down on the waterfront in Branson until the late 1950’s. It was also performed at the School of the Ozarks.
4. 1950: Skaggs Hospital opened its doors. It was a two-story brick building with 25 beds. It was built with a million dollar donation given by M. B. Skaggs, the founder of the Safeway Grocery chain of stores. It has been enlarged and upgraded many times, until it is now among the top ten hospitals in the nation. It has over 30 physicians and 450 employees. (see 2005 for more growth information)
5. 1950: On June 30th, America entered the ongoing Korean conflict. It was called a “police action,” but thousands of Americans were killed in what was undeniably a vicious war. (see 1953 – end)
6. 1951: The first appropriation for Table Rock Dam was approved and the construction access road was built and graveled. Test drilling at the first, Table-Rock, site detected flaws and fissures. The dam site was moved to its present location, some miles upstream from Table-Rock, delaying the project two years. (see also 1954, 1955 and 1959)
7. 1951: In October, the very first “I Love Lucy” show aired on CBS television. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez divorced in 1960, ending the fantastically popular series of shows.
8. 1951: Bull Shoals Dam was completed, 256’ tall and 2256’ feet long, all concrete.
9. 1951: The entire city of Forsyth was removed from the flood plain of Bull Shoals Lake and raised to the bluff top site it now occupies. The Army Corps paid part of the moving bill.
10. 1952: In August, Crane held the fist annual Crane Broiler Barbeque. It was still running in 2006.
11. 1952: Graham Clark became President of the School of the Ozarks.
12. 1952: Dr. Carl H. Chapman, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri, began excavating cliff-dweller caves on Indian Creek. Robert Neumann was his chief shovel man. (see also Chapman, 1958 and 1960)
13. 1953: The Adoration Scene above Branson was now drawing such huge crowds that the Chamber of Commerce put together the Adoration Parade to be added to the lighting ceremony. Eventually, the Parade and the lighting drew crowds of more than 30,000 people each year. In the 1960’s, the Kimberling City Jaycees won the parade top honor three years in a row and were politely asked not to re-enter in the following years. The Jaycees laughingly agreed and retired with their three trophies.
14. 1953: On July 27th, an armistice was signed ending the Korean (police action) War. (see 1951)
15. 1954: Hugo Herschend died. Mary Herschend assumes control of Marvel Cave, etc. She would “rule” with an iron hand for many formative years as she raised her two sons, Jack and Pete.
16. 1954: Full appropriation for Table Rock Dam was approved. Preparation for the construction of the dam and lake began. Speculation and land buying goes completely mad all around the coming lake area. The displacement of the river bottom natives would soon start. Some had lived on their family’s land for well over a hundred years. Feelings for and against the new dam and lake run high and hot! (see also 1951, 1955 and 1959)
17. 1954: Red Foley was brought to Springfield by the famous Si Siman.. With 38 Top-Ten Hits, he was already a famous Country and Western star. He launched The Ozark Jubilee, one of the first successful ongoing television network shows in the nation. It also marked the Ozarks area, including Branson, for the music-mania to come many years later. Red Foley’s daughter married Pat Boon, one of many famous entertainers to play Red’s show. Foley (6/17/10 to 9/19/68)
18. 1954: In August, the first of the final eight Shepherd of the Hills figure statues were installed.
19. 1955: Early spring. Construction began on TR Dam. $24,438,736 was the bid for the dam. The project total cost was estimated at $78,600,000. The excavation was soon done and the concrete was being poured day and night. 162,000 yards were in place, with 682 workers by mid-summer.
20. 1955: In October of 55, Tappan introduced the first microwave oven. It cost $1,200.00.
21. 1956: On December 21st, the Shepherd of the Hills Broadcasting Company launched KBHM, 1220 Radio, in Branson. The first staffers were Orville Barton, Clotes Barker and Frank Piper.
22. 1957: A new DeSoto sedan cost $2,732.25 at Fugitt Motor Co., whose phone number was 69. At this time ladies dress shoes cost $7.95 and pure lard sold for $2.84 for a 16 pound tin. In Branson, a Rocket 88 Oldsmobile cost $2,733.47, and a Buick Special cost $2,595.83. A Maytag automatic washer (a new innovation at the time) cost $219.95. The big moving picture of the day was “High Society,” starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly, showing at the Owens Famous Hillbilly Theater downtown. At that time, 56 acres of land, with ½ mile of lakefront sold for $6,000 on Table Rock Lake, near the dam.
23. 1957: On January 17th, the Corps celebrated the pouring of the one-millionth cubic yard of concrete at Table Rock Dam. On the same date, the license was granted for a Missouri State Park near the dam, which was a very big deal for the local Booster’s Club, etc.. The dam’s concrete substructures were nearly complete.
24. 1957: On April 19th, Company C, 5th Combat Engineers, of the Army Corps of Engineers were mustered to bring a pontoon boat for transportation of vehicles and passengers at the site of the Kimberling Bridges. The 1923 bridge was going under flood waters and the new bridge was far from complete. The barge had four side-by-side pontoon boats with a wooden deck capable of carrying six “essential only” vehicles at a time. (later, see Bob Connell’s contract barge replacement.)
25. 1957: In May, the citizens of Crane tossed out their hand-cranked phones. They got dial phones.
26. 1957: On May 4th, Smiley Burnette, known as “Frogg,” Gene Autry’s movie partner, visited Branson as a parade celebrity. He rode through town in a convertible and clowned with the police and city officials. Burnette was also a famous song writer, Riding Down The Canyon being one of his better known “cowboy” pieces.
27. 1957: On May 17th, 4 million small walleye Jack Salmon were put in Table Rock Lake. They were distributed up-lake and down-lake from the Corps’ barge at Kimberling City. This was the first fish stocking of the river, slowly filling to become a lake.
28. 1957: In May of 57, Standard Oil made big advertisements of its new Gold Crown leaded gasolines. They put special lighted, blown-glass gold crowns on their gas pumps, for the last time – ever. Those pumps and glass crowns are avidly collected, high-cost items these days.
29. 1957: On May 21st, Vester Keeter opened his first charcoal plant in Arkansas. (See Keeter – builds for C of O. in following years)
30. 1957: Marvel Cave opened the underground train. The new People’s Bank financed the train. Under the direction of Ben Parnell the People’s Bank financed and encourages many of the area’s new businesses. Jack Herschend nearly died when the first “test run” of the train got away and crashed into the rock wall at the bottom. He escaped with a badly broken leg. The first public passenger “ride” was accomplished with Casey Jones Junior at the “throttle.”
31. 1957: The School of the Ozarks became a Junior College.
32. 1957: In May of 57, the spring floods on the White built up behind the uncompleted T.R. Dam and began to overflow it by 7 feet. The Corps and Branson realized that, had the dam not been there, Branson, Hollister and Forsyth would have been flooded, very seriously, as they were in the earlier years.
33. 1957: The new 1957 Chevrolets got the exciting new “Turboglide Transmissions.”
34. 1957: In February, a new hearing was set concerning the central lake crossing, not yet approved.
35. 1957: Nixa held its 8th annual “Old Fiddlers Contest,” in October. The famous radio and TV personality, Slim Wilson, was the Master of Ceremonies. The door prizes totaled $168.00.
36. 1957: In February, Jessee McGrath was killed in a battle royal at the Half Moon Tavern in Reeds.
37. 1957: Saturday, May 18th, Pop Wernell opened his drugstore in Reeds Spring near the spring. A chocolate sundae was 10 cents and ice cream was 19 cents a carton.
38. 1957: In the summer of 1957, an 18’ x 82’ barge, and the tugboat to move it, were brought up from the Mississippi by new owner Bob Connell. It was bought May 12 at Columbus, Ky. It arrived on 86 highway on June 5th and fell through the blacktop. It weighed 20 tons. It was launched on the newly forming Table Rock Lake and went into operation on June 15th. Bob had a contract with The Corps of Engineers to furnish temporary ferry-boat transportation across the lake at the Highway 13 area until the new Kimberling Bridge was finished and operational. Bob’s ferry replaced the Corps temporary one from earlier in 57. (see also Corps in 57, 1958, 1961 and 1962)
39. 1957: On July 16th of 57, Jack and Pete Herschend brought the very new Branson radio station, KBHM 1220, down into Marvel Cave to make the first six live radio broadcasts ever performed from a natural cave. The last broadcast was from 4 ½ miles back in the cave, some 400’ below the surface, and in an area that had never been seen before by the Herschends - or anyone else.
40. 1957: On August 3rd, the Third Annual Square Dance Festival was held in the great room of Marvel Cave. It was broadcast by KBHM of Branson. There were 14 dance callers and over 1000 dancers. The event was opened by Ben Parnell who was president of the new Branson Chamber of Commerce. Harold Ensley of KCMO Television in Kansas City was the special guest.
41. 1957: In August of 1957, the summer floodwaters temporarily backed up behind the incomplete T. R. Dam were receding. The piers for the new Kimberling Bridge were in place before the flood came. The lowering waters began to reveal the Jennings cemetery and the tops of the buildings of Radical, as reported by Mary Scott Hair.
42. 1957: District 8 of MoDot announced in the newspapers, at the end of September, that the 1923 Kimberling Bridge and the old Long Creek Bridge at Oasis, would be reopened Saturday, the 28th of September, at 8am. The flood waters had receded, the bridge floors had been scraped and cleaned and the approach roads rebuilt. But more floodwaters were soon to come.
43. 1957: In November, Twin Lakes Telephone Co. announced the installation of the 1500th phone.
44. 1958: The train running through the woods above Marvel Cave first operated with Casey Jones Jr. at the throttle. It was bought in Germany. (Was Casey Jones Jr. on this SDC ride? Research.)
45. 1958: A scandal was brewing and came to a head on Jan. 30th, 1958. The corps sent an investigator to the Table Rock Area to discover if all of the remains were being removed from the gravesites in the White River Valley cemeteries. B. A. McConnell, of Hartford, Arkansas was the Funeral Director that was the Contractor the Corps hired to oversee the moving of the White River Cemeteries. Many of the graves were found to still contain some remains. They hadn’t been “cleaned out” deep enough. They were all investigated and properly “moved” once more.
46. 1958: A serious fire on February 6th, at the old Branson High School killed a student.
47. 1958: Vester Keeter built the Royal Oak Charcoal processing plant at Gretna, up the railroad west of Branson. Keeter became an important part of the Branson scene and later rebuilt the Main Hunt and Fishing Club log building as Keeter Center for the College of the Ozarks. The original one was their first building, but it burned down many years ago.
48. 1958: Marshal Ralph Hooker walked the entire length of the Santa Fe Trail, 780 miles. He was sponsored by Big Smith Overalls. That famous garment contains exactly 110,753 stitches, the basis of many a gambling bet. Marshal Hooker became the fast-draw lawman at S. D. City.
49. 1958: On March 26th of 1958, Bob Connell, owner of the converted Mississippi River ferry-boat and the Happy Bob tug boat, hauled 493 passengers, 198 cars and 76 trucks across the newly forming Table Rock Lake (until recently, the White River) at the Kimberling Bridge area. He and a staff of three helpers made the trips back and forth for several months. By April 3rd, the steel for the new bridge was in place and floor construction was proceeding to get it open. But the old (1923) Kimberling Bridge was under flood waters much of the time – thus the need for the ferry boat to haul Mo. Highway 13 traffic back and forth.
50. 1958: The new Kimberling Bridge was being built by the Corps of Engineers, from xxxx until April of 1958. It was officially opened and turned over to the Missouri Dept. of Transportation on April 23rd of 1958. On that date, Fred and Nana Kimberling, the last of the Kimberling family in SW Missouri, drove the first car across, a 1950 Ford sedan. Then they posed for the press, with Fred’s sister and with Fred Olson, in a hard hat, representing the Corps of Engineers.
51. 1958: Bob Connell’s barge was moved to Lake Taneycomo, completely refitted, a superstructure added, all repainted and tested by the governing authorities. The new party barge was named the Betty C, for Bob’s wife. The tug-boat was also refitted, repainted and the engine overhauled and then the boat was named the Happy Bob. A second tugboat was purchased to back up the Happy Bob. By December 30th, 1958, the party barge was operating on Lake Taneycomo. It operated there until February 16th, 1962, when it was taken to the Kimberling Bridge area once again to work as an excursion and party barge out of John Q. Hammons’ new Holiday Inn built there.
52. 1958: John Q. Hammons acquired many over a thousand acres of land on Table Rock Lake at the north end of the new Kimberling Bridge, being built by The Corps of Engineers for the Missouri Dept. of Transportation (MoDot). John started building Kimberling City there in December, 1960. For the thousand acres m/l that eventually became Kimberling Hills Subdivision, John tells us he paid $50 per acre. However, he paid $30,000 per acre for the land where he built Kimberling City.
53. 1958: Dr. Carl H. Chapman, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri, was given a $500 grant by the National Park Service to research the Joseph Philibert home and trading post at the junction of the James and White Rivers before Table Rock Lake covered it up forever. His hand sketched, crude but fascinating, map is preserved for the W. R. Museum. (The historical documentation indicates the grant was made in 1960, but that’s impossible because the lake was full of water long before that time. We need to research Chapman’s findings, as probably recorded at M.U.) (see also 1952 Chapman)
54. 1958: The new and beautiful Williams Chapel and Hyer Bell Tower were dedicated at the School of the Ozarks on May 1st.
55. 1958: On May 7th, Geno’s American Italian Café opened on East Main by the lakefront. Geno’s remained one of Branson’s preeminent restaurants until bought out and destroyed to make way for the new “Lake Front” expansion. In its last years it was made into a “floating” restaurant.
56. 1958: The Lakeview Rest Home, remodeled from an older three-story hotel, opened on July 18th, with 32 rooms, at Ozark Beach on Lake Taneycomo.
57. 1958: A major caravan of vehicles and wagons traveled the original Butterfield Stage route from Tipton, Missouri to San Francisco, California, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the line. The caravan passed through the Butterfield route in Springfield and SW Missouri. One of the original Concord coaches used on the old route, now 100 years old, ended up at the “new” Silver Dollar City, where it was used for years to haul tourists behind a four horse hitch. (see also 1858.)
58. 1958: The residents of Shell Knob and surroundings on 86 Highway had to lobby hard and well to get the Corps to commit to building yet one more bridge there across the upcoming Table Rock Lake. It became known as the “Central Crossing” bridge effort. They finally won the battle.
59. 1958: The Paramount Motor Lodge opened on July 4th, with 12 modern units on 65 Highway.
60. 1958: In August, Dink Suiss and his wife were gunned down in the Reeds Spring Tavern kitchen.
61. 1958: On August 15th, the City of Branson and Empire District Electric agreed to install a total of 210 each, 10,000 lumen street lamps throughout the town’s streets.
62. 1958: On September 12th, the highway across Table Rock Dam was opened to traffic.
63. 1958: The People’s Bank began running ads announcing the installation of their Posi-Tronic, electronic banking and bookkeeping system, the first in the Mid-Ozarks region.
64. 1958: On October 9th, Hart’s huge new Super Market opened for business, pharmacy and all.
65. 1959: Table Rock Dam was completed and the actual and official “filling” of the lake began. Now a new wave of tourism and frantic construction hit Branson, Kimberling City and the surrounding areas. The concrete part of the dam was 240 feet tall and 1602’ long. The rock and fill part of the dam was 4821’ long. A large part of the old fill part has since been replaced by a new concrete emergency spillway unit, completed in 2006. (see also 1951 and 1954)
66. 1959: On February 4th, the North American Air Defense Command announced the first S.A.G.E. system at Richards Gebaur Air Base in K.C. Mo. This marked the beginning of the Star Wars era.
67. 1959: As of May 15th, Branson still had a drive-in-movie theater. It was now showing Hard Man, starring Guy Madison. Also showing was Let’s Rock, with Julius LaRosa and Paul Anka.
68. 1959: On May 21st, wealthy St. Louis baseball star, Stan Musial and Julius (Biggie) Garagnani bid on a 99 year lease of the Missouri State Park near the dam on Table Rock Lake. It failed to win, but what would be there now if those entrepreneurs had won the bid?
69. 1959: Forsyth’s Superintendent of Schools, the famous Ozark Historian, Elmo Ingenthron, was elected President of the State School Superintendents’ Association, on June 12th, a singular honor.
70. 1959: On July 10th, a contract for a major enlargement of Skaggs Hospital was signed. Construction started on July 31st.
71. 1959: In August, The Bank of Table Rock Lake was established in Reeds Spring. The principal owner was Howard Claybough. Jack Stone was a teller, but he soon rose to President of the bank.
72. 1959: A brand new 7.5 hp Scott outboard cost $259.95 and a new 15’ Lone Star runabout was only $775.00. A Nash Rambler Wagon cost $1835.00 and was listed as “super fuel efficient,” at 25 mpg. A BMC Morris 1000 auto cost $1495.00. Ah, the good old days!
73. 1959: Crane Lake, a large earthen-dammed lake, was proposed on Crane Creek at Crane. It never happened there.
74. 1959: Table Rock Dam was officially dedicated on June 14th. Senator Dewey Short dedicated it in the name of the President. There were many state and Corps officials present. Also present was a curiosity, having nothing to do with the dam, but the feds wanted people to get used to seeing and being aware of them. It was a huge and shiny Nike Missal.
75. 1959: In June, Branson held a large Water Carnival, with guest stars and all. The Lions held their 6th Annual Horse Show at Forsyth. The Kiwanis held their 14th Annual Rodeo at the Branson Ball Park.
76. 1959: Starting August 7th, KYTV from Springfield began filming their version of the Shepherd of the Hills play. It was filmed mostly at Old Matt’s Cabin, with some filming in Marvel Cave.
77. 1959: In August, the first Shepherd of the Hills play was performed at the new outdoor theater at Inspiration Point, in the Old Mill Theater, as constructed over the years by the Shad Heller and the Trimble family. Shad Heller played the Shepherd and Mark Trimble played “the Stranger,” the man who tells the story and keeps the drama going. The play eventually became the longest running outdoor drama in the nation.
78. 1959: Table Rock Lake was nearing power pool. The Corps Public Use Area at the Kimberling Bridge was given to Reeds Spring. Campbell Point was given to Cassville. Viola Public Use was given to Berryville and Eagle Rock to Eureka Springs. This radically changed soon after. (see the old and new maps of Table Rock Area Usage.)
79. 1959: The stage play, Li’l Abner, appeared on Broadway for two years. It came to the Shrine Mosque in Springfield on March 14th 1959. Tickets were $4.38 adult, $1.00 child. The concept of Al Capp’s characters, Li’l Abner and Daisy May, was adopted into the Hillbilly Bowl, in Kimberling City, in 1962. Later the entire genre was brought to Harrison in the Dogpatch theme park that flourished there for a few years. The Daisy May Bowling Tournament was still running after 45 continuous years. As of 2006, it has been run by the same lady for 35 years. In 2006 she became 92 years old – and still “running” the event. She mowed her own acre lawn until aged 90.
80. 1959: Troy Hilton, the well known well driller from Crane, obtained the Ozarks’ first deep well rig that could drill commercial wells clear down to the assumed inexhaustible Jefferson City Sand.
81. 1959: Bill, Jim, Lyle and Bob Mabe began to entertain in Branson, down on the lakefront above the old city hall. Their music, comedy shows took place twice a week to start with. They soon moved to the 200 seat Sammy Lane Pavilion, then to the old skating rink with 500 seats in the Branson city area. They called their show The Baldknobbers’ Jamboree. (see also 1968)
82. 1959: In August, Paul and Bea Langford took over the famous and long running Crane Chronical.
83. 1959: In October, the residents of Galena trashed their wall-hung crank-phones. They got dial up.
84. 1959: The Lake Queen paddle-wheeler boat was launched on Lake Taneycomo.
1. 1960: St. Louis businessmen Mel Taylor and Hobe Jennings bought 600 hilly acres of land, with a huge amount of lakefront, from John Q. Hammons. Together with Jim Wolf they began building Kimberling Hills, the first upscale major residential development on Table Rock Lake.
2. 1960: On February 12th, someone shot a bullet hole in the nose of Mark Trimble’s Cessna 195 while it was flying over Indian Point. It missed a fuel line by 1 ½ inch. Very lucky for Mark!
3. 1960: On March 4th, KYTV in Springfield received a prestigious national award for originality in the filming of its version of the Shepherd of the Hills play on August 7th, 1959.
4. 1960: On March 11th, the entire roof of the Whelchel Hardware warehouse collapsed under the load of recent heavy snow and ice.
5. 1960: On May 1, Silver Dollar City officially opened for business. The Herschend family opened the first five buildings of Silver Dollar City, above the nationally famous Marvel Cave. It was built on the foundations of the ghost town, Marmaros, which grew up when bat guano was being excavated from Marble Cave. On June 15th, the first services were held in the Wilderness Church, which had once been the Wilson Creek log schoolhouse. The pulpit was carved from a single log by Lester Vining. Later the original Casey-McHaffie Homestead was restored there. The People’s Bank loaned the Herschend family $16,000 to create the beginnings of Silver Dollar City. Everything was originally built by the two Herschend brothers and by the cave guides, who called themselves the Mole Hole Gang.
6. 1960: In July, a Texas plane crashed at the Branson airstrip. The Summer Theater on the lakefront was still playing their version of the Shepherd of the Hills Play. It opened July 9th. And in Forsyth, movie star Tex Ritter was featured at the Taney County Fair that same July.
7. 1960: On July 22nd, the Missouri Conservation Commission announced acceptance of the Fairy Cave Park as the first Wildlife and Forestry Demonstration Area in Stone County. (Talking Rocks)
8. 1960: After 56 years of bringing tourists to the Mid-Ozarks, the Missouri Pacific announced the cancellation of all passenger service on the White River Line – just as the new wave of tourism caused by Table Rock Lake, Silver Dollar City, Shepherd of the Hills and the beginning of the country-music industry began. Alice Compton Vaughn rode the first and the last passenger train to run on the famous White River Line of the Missouri Pacific. Walker Powell also, sadly, rode the last run. (See also 1903, for the beginning of the Line)
9. 1960: The first aerial water skiers fly 200 feet in the air at Branson’s Holiday on Skis Show.
10. 1960: As weird as it seems now, in 1960, Aurora, Missouri made a serious bid to have the national capital moved to that town. They sincerely felt that it would be more appropriate to have the capital in the middle of the nation – particularly in the beautiful Ozarks.
11. 1960: Silk stockings, still popular among the wealthy, required 130 silkworm cocoons to make.
12. 1960: Mr. And Mrs. Fred Kimberling celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the old Kimberling Home, just south of the Kimberling Bridge – where Fred was born.
13. 1960: The 1960 census revealed that Stone County had lost 1,660 persons in the past 10 years. This was caused by two things: People were moving to larger towns and cities – and – Table Rock lake had displaced hundreds of river bottom families. Because of Taneycomo, Table Rock Lake and the growth in Branson, Taney County’s growth was UP 279 persons.
14. 1960: On August 19th, construction commenced upon the large, stone, Methodist Church out on 76 Highway. The church is still there, functioning well, right in the middle of the Music Strip.
15. 1960: Sal Trent’s “ultra-modern” Skelly Service Station opened September 3rd, on 65 Highway.
16. 1960: Charles Jones, of Jones Hardware, was involved in a near death accident. He was severely burned over 40% of his body when a gas stove exploded and burned his house on 76 Highway.
17. 1960: The Happy Bob tugboat, the motive power for the Betty C party boat, sunk in Taneycomo.
18. 1960: Taneycomo and Forsyth were featured in “Spotlighting Missouri” in the Motel Association’s national magazine in the summer of 60.
19. 1960: In August of 1960, working closely with Shad Heller, the Trimble family and The Old Mill Theater at Inspiration Point launched its Shepherd of the Hills play at their outdoor amphitheater. An excellent write up in Variety Magazine came to the attention of M.C.A., representing EMKA, the assign of Paramount Studios. They called Bruce Trimble and told him that the play must stop, forthwith, and royalties be paid to Paramount for any plays done so far. After 30 days of lawyer wrangling, M.C.A. and Paramount finally agreed to let the show proceed, if certain royalties were constantly paid. 35 loyal members of the cast donated part of their salaries to help pay the royalties due for past performances. Everyone was amazed that Paramount still held those performance “rights” to the story after 50 years. Also, the college had been performing the play in Branson for years! And – KYTV had just put their version of the play on area wide television! (See also August, 1959 – conflicting launch dates for the SOH play. Research!)
20. 1960: In the summer of 60, Mrs. Ruth Plummer installed a new rag rug in Old Matt’s Cabin, which she had woven the past winter. The Branson Civic League still owned the cabin at the time. The rug contained over 80 lbs. of rags contributed by a thrift shop. She wove the rug on an antique loom made from trees cut in old Gretna, where she was raised. She went to Sunday School at Dewey Bald and J. K. Ross, the Old Matt of S. o t Hills fame, was her teacher there.
21. 1960: In late December, John Q. Hammons’ right-hand man, Lloyd Kipp, began grading off the trees and brush to start Kimberling City, John’s first shopping center, which would eventually house a Holiday Inn, one of the first in the chain and John Q’s first motel. He built it in partnership with Roy Winegartner, now President of Holiday Inns International. First built was the lobby, a small restaurant, offices and the 60 unit Holiday Inn in a horseshoe around a central swimming pool and playground. Hammons and Winegartner have since become the largest Holiday Inn owner/builders in the world. (see 1958)
22. 1960: The Harbor Blue dining and lounge and the Kimberling Arms motel were built by Springfield builder, Bob Withers, for Eddie Daniels the first year that Table Rock Lake existed. The Cove Resort was built the same year. Bob Withers managed the Harbor Blue for years. Eddie tells us that he made his “money” in a drugstore that he owned in Missouri, over on the Kansas border. “Rum-runners” used his store to run his huge liquor supply into Kansas when it was a dry state. (see also 2006)
23. 1960: The famous Stone County Sheriff, Tommy Walker, made his last run at the sheriff’s office, which paid $220.00 per month. A prisoner was charged 10 cents a mile to the jail, $1 for the warrant, $1 for the plea and $1 for the commitment. The county then paid the sheriff 7 cents a mile for hauling the prisoner. Not much of a reward for a tough job, but Tommy was good at it.
24. 1960: The old, twisted, only partly graveled highway to Springfield, which had been Missouri Highway No. 3, (sometimes called Federal No. 3), was no longer adequate for the vastly increased traffic. MoDot undertook to straighten and shorten it. It became a two lane, paved highway, cutting through the mountains, instead of wandering up and down around them. It was cut from 75 miles to less than 40 miles long. The trip changed from 2 days to just over an hour. It was then renamed as Missouri Highway 65. (see also 1920)
25. 1960’s: The Table Rock Times was published weekly in Galena by Leon Fredrick, a famous publisher. He later headed up The Stone County Republican, published in Crane.
26. 1960’s: The Jesse James Museum and Motel existed on the south side of 76, ½ mile west of the city limits, where the Strip is today. It was marked by a famous “rocking” mechanical white horse. The horse stood upright on its hind legs on a large platform and slowly rocked back and forth. The site also had a tall wooden “viewing” tower and a tourist walk-through attraction, “Confusion Hill.” It was all demolished and replaced by ????????????????, in 19??.
27. 1960: On May 12th, the Corps of Engineers, working through Shopen Realty Auction Co. of Kansas City, auctioned off 28 units, comprising 123 lake-front parcels of land, ranging from 3 to 27 acres in size, and scattered virtually all over Table Rock Lake’s shores.
28. 1960: In May, AAA, the American Automobile Association, published a book by their public relations director, Michael Frome, who was also travel editor for AAA. One of the 15 highly recommended sites in his book, “Better Vacations for Your Money,” was the Ozarks region, in particular the Ozark Playground Association’s area. This brought another huge wave of tourists.
29. 1960: In April, the Corps of Engineers held a meeting and put out directives cautioning concerning serious dangers to those building on the flood plain below the new Table Rock Dam.
30. 1960: In February, MoDot, the Missouri Department of Transportation announced their plans for a $729,400 relocation of 13 Highway from OO Highway to the new Kimberling City Bridge. The twisty, curved old 13 Highway had been the route of the Old Wilderness Road, first built by W. W. Kimberling and Joe Philibert just after the Civil War ended. Bits of it can still be found the woods above the lumber yard in Kimberling City. This old route was also once Highway 43 from Galena to Blue Eye, over the famed Y Bridge.
31. 1960: At the 40th annual convention of the Ozarks Playground Association, at the Conner Hotel in Joplin, the District Engineer, Colonel A. M. Jacoby, proudly announced that the Table Rock Lake area had received 493,500 visitors in 1959, up from only 61,000 in 1958.
32. 1960: In early 1960, The State Historical Society of Missouri began soliciting information on historical sites across the state. On behalf of the Stone County Historical Society, Gerald H. Pipes, a famed publisher from Galena, submitted the following to the state society: Site of the Last Official Public Hanging in Missouri at Galena. Site of Joseph Philibert Trading Post and Burial Ground. The Mayberry Ferry on the Old Wilderness Road. Treasure Country. The First Gunpowder Mill West of the Mississippi. Uncle Ike’s Post Office. Wash Gibbs Free Museum. Ponce de Leon. Missouri Pacific Tunnel near Reeds Spring. Butterfield Stage Line through the County. And the Lynch Pin Camp Grounds, which is now Branson West.
33. 1960’s: In April, Branson celebrated, with tongue in cheek, Plum Nelly Days (Plumb Nearly Anything Goes Days), as were once seriously celebrated fifty years before when Branson was a brand new town. It was a time when plum-nearly anything was permitted and people enjoyed acting and dressing strangely. In the 60’s nearly 3000 people attended and/or participated. They had cake-walks, horseshoe pitching, hog calling, marble games, mumbly peg, fishing contests, foot races, celebrity speakers, band concerts and so forth. Everyone wore antique costumes and only genuine antique cars or horses were permitted on the town’s streets.
34. 1960’s: Earl Allen, who played the jawbone of an ass in the early Bald Knobber musical group, had his Wash Gibbs Free Museum on 76 Highway, near Marvel Cave. He also had a scaffold and a rope with a noose, hanging a dummy, to represent the last hanging in Missouri, at Galena.
35. 1961: Dick’s 5 and 10 opened in Branson. It became a huge, faithful restoration of bygone days. In 2006, 45 years later, it was still huge, stocked to the ceilings and a major tourist attraction.
36. 1961: March 16th, a tornado destroyed much of Hideaway on Table Rock Lake, as reported by Lyle Chamberlain, who had the large resort there.
37. 1961: The Stone County Oil Company, established in 1924, and the largest business in Stone County, changed hands for the first time in nearly forty years. It remained the largest business until Table Rock Lake was built. (see also 1924)
38. 1961: Marshal Ralph Hooker was the “law” in Silver Dollar City in the 1960’s. Hooker was a retired law officer and a genuine “fast-draw” artist of the old school. He lived in Carthage, Mo. (see also 1958, When Ralph Hooker walked a great distance!)
39. 1961: After only 20 years since Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and started WW II, America was selling them $1.7 billion in produce, causing the employment of 200,000 American workers. Missouri was selling the Japanese over $30 million, mostly soybeans, cotton and metal scrap.
40. 1961: John Q. Hammons has Lloyd Kipp build the Pier Thirteen Supper Club in Kimberling City. After 45 years of continuous operation and several major remodels, it was acquired by RT’s Family Restaurants and the name changed to The Lake House. (see 2006)
41. 1961: Channel Master advertised its most powerful tv antennae. The “10TW” was almost 8’ wide, by 16’ long and had 20 - 4’ arms. It was guaranteed to get good reception in remote spots. In its day, owners stood in their yards and proudly pointed out the monster on their roof, proving that they were affluent and up to date.
42. 1961: On March 7th, a Sunday, a major flash flood struck Harrison, Arkansas with a 14’ high wall of water down the main streets. The destruction citywide was tragic.
43. 1961: In the summer, the large, ornate, landmark house, the McCullah home, built in 1885, in Crane, Missouri, was torn down.
44. 1961: On September 7th, Grover Hatcher destroyed his new Corvette when it rammed a 57 Chevy in the very first accident on the brand new Kimberling Bridge and in the also brand new Kimberling City area.
45. 1962: Marked the foundation of the new Missouri Commerce and Industrial Commission. Lester E. Cox became the first Chairman. Cox, the founder of the Cox Hospitals, held many powerful positions in Springfield and Missouri at the time, including those with the Frisco, Drury and M.U.
46. 1962: On February 16th, Bob Connell’s Betty C party barge and it’s two tugboats were taken from Lake Taneycomo and returned to the Kimberling City area once more. This time they would serve as an excursion and party barge out of the new Kimberling Inn newly built by John Q. Hammons and Roy Winegartner. (see also 1957, 1958, 1961)
47. 1962: Coke now came in ½ quart glass bottles. A carton of 8 (a full gallon) cost 69 cents. And a Gillette safety razor, using double-edged razor blades, sold for $1.50.
48. 1962: The Sherer family of St. Louis moved to Kimberling Hills and began building the Hillbilly Bowl, 12 lane bowling alley, restaurant and lounge complex. It soon became the Mid-Ozarks’ watering-hole – because it was nearly the only thing “open an’ blowin’ an’ goin’” in the wintertime during Table Rock’s earlier days. In those days, Branson had only one restaurant that stayed open – and a very few streetlights in the winter. (see also 2003)
49. 1962: The world famous Lt. General Jimmy Doolittle was honored by American Airlines by flying as its 100,000,000th passenger. It took AA ten years to fly its first million. Through the 60’s they were flying a million passengers every day. This marked the end of the passenger railroad trains.
50. 1962: The Ozark Empire Fair, running annually in Springfield, featured the nationally famous Ink Spots, one of the top-or-the-charts black singing groups of the era.
51. 1962: In Crane, the Red Front Store, established in 1924, changed hands for the first time. The store was still operating in Carne in 2006.
52. 1963: The now famous Peter Engler first began woodcarving at Silver Dollar City.
53. 1963: Don Richardson came on full time as publicity director of SDC.
54. 1963: The beloved young President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated.
55. 1963: Magistrate Clifford Crouch of Taney County was appointed to serve as judge, and Kenneth Babbit of Galena was appointed to serve as prosecutor in a trial concerning a fisticuff battle between Sheriff Tommy Walker and Leon Fredrick, publisher of the Stone Cy. Republican.
56. 1963: The Presleys began their music show in a cave on DD Highway. It was called the Herman Meade Underground Theater (Herman owned the pasture and the cave.). It’s now underneath Bruce Herschend’s new (very “castle” like) home. One of the Presleys’ early guest entertainers was the nationally famous Red Foley.
57. 1964: Beaver Dam was completed and Beaver Lake began to fill. (put the size of the dam here)
58. 1964: In October of 64, the then new musical group The Rolling Stones was introduced to the American audience by radio on the Ed Sullivan Show. They are still premium performers in 2006.
59. 1964: On Friday, the 13th of November, 1964, Branson very nearly burned down once again. Four large fuel storage tanks burst into flames near the waterfront. The resulting huge fire burned down nearly all of the oil and fuel company buildings near the tanks. Flaming oil was scattered over four city blocks. Branson’s modern fire company battled the blaze and saved the town.
1. 1965: Developer/builder James F. Barrett, with Layne Morrill as his partner, acquired all of the Kimberling City Shopping Center and surrounding grounds on the west side of 13 Highway from John Q. Hammons. The next year their company, Table Rock Enterprises, began developing Old Towne Square northwest of the Kimberling Shopping Center. Ben Parnell and Branson’s Peoples Bank financed the acquisition and most of the following development of the City.
2. 1965: In March of 1965, America entered the conflict in Vietnam. Like the Korean War, it was called “another police action,” but many thousands of American fighting men died in the conflict. America was involved until 1975, when we were driven out and left the battle.
3. 1967: The Foggy River Boys organized and played in Joplin until 1971.
4. 1967: Lloyd Presley and The Presleys moved to a brand new theater on 76 Highway, which they called Presley’s Mountain Music Jubilee, where they remain to this day. The story is told that they built that first theater in a metal building with a flat concrete floor and 363 folding chairs for seating. The idea was – if the theater plan didn’t work – they could always take up the chairs and use the building for boat storage rental. In the early years they never set up more than half of the 363 chairs.
5. 1967: The Presleys form The National Crafts Foundation. (what was this and what happened?)
6. 1967: In Hollister, the long closed Ye English Inn was refurbished and reopened for the new “lake” business.
7. 1967: In order to generate new tourist and guest enthusiasm in the Kimberling City area, power boat racing was begun in September of 1967. Sunday afternoons would see from one to two thousand enthusiasts gathered in the Holiday Inn and Fischer Creek area to watch 170 members of the three-state Prop Riders Racing Club of Springfield race their high powered boats in 6 classes. These events didn’t last long and were soon banned, as the terrifically loud, howling sounds became most unwelcome in the residential and motel areas.
8. 1967: John Q. Hammons pulled his first Holiday Inn franchise from Kimberling City and the (then small, 60 unit) motel there became The Kimberling Inn. (see 1960 for the beginning)
9. 1968: Mary Herschend received the national Small Businessperson of the Year Award.
10. 1968: The Mabe family, performing as The Baldknobbers’ Jamboree, built their new theater out on 76 Highway, on 14 acres of land. It seated 865 people and has since been enlarged to seat 1,700. (see their start in 1959)
11. 1968: Orville Barton and five investors built the first TV cable network in the Mid-Ozarks. They called it Taney County Cable Vision.
12. 1968: The last operating tomato canning factory in the Ozarks, owned by Bob Emerson, closed in Reeds Spring. (see also the beginnings of the tomato industry in 1885).
13. 1968: Dogpatch, USA opened just north of Harrison, AR. It was in a valley below a tall cliff. On top of the cliff was a commercial building that sold timeshares, etc. You could go to Dogpatch on a cable car. The theme park featured young people playing Al Capp’s “funnypaper” people, Li’l Abner, Daisy May, and others. It closed in 1993, after years of poor attendance.
14. 1969: The Beverly Hillbillies made five shows originating in Silver Dollar City. They had come to make just one show, but the originator, Paul Henning, fell in love with the Ozarks and SDC. He bought Dewey Bald Mountain and several hundred acres, which much later he sold cheaply to the state for a memorial park.
15. 1969: The frequent appearance on The Beverly Hillbillies by scenes and characters in Silver Dollar City brought vast new crowds of tourists and interested visitors and potential investors to SDC and to the Branson and Table Rock areas.
1. 1970: The airport at the School of the Ozarks opened, making the grass Branson Airport obsolete. (see 1935 for opening)
2. 1970: The Gerald and Amanda Cushman family opened Mutton Hollow. It had antique craft and food shops and was a replica of an old Country Fair, featuring an antique carousel and a Ferris wheel. Like old SDC, it tried to preserve the historic flavor of the Ozarks. The first 1880’s styled craft building was called “Amanda’s,” for Jerry’s wife. (see 1991)
3. 1970: Lloyd “Shad” Heller, who had long worked at Silver Dollar City, wanted to “go on stage” once more. He was a very experienced entertainer. With his wife, Mollie, they carefully planned a new venue for the both of them. They established The Wilderness Settlement amid the trees, on a curve of 76 Highway where The Musical Strip is today. They soon accumulated enthusiasts who helped them build and staff The Corncrib Theater. Eventually, The Wilderness Settlement had Aunt Mollie’s General Store, a stone carver, a leather worker, a person napping arrowheads, a doll shop, a knife shop, a glass shop, a cameo lady, a candy store, a wagon manufacturing building, a gun shop and a photography studio. The entire establishment was replaced by in ???? by ????????????????????. Shad Heller died in 19?? And Mollie died in 19??.
4. 1970: Woody Akers bought several hundred acres southeast of the junction of 13 and 76 highways, which much later became Branson West. Over the years he sold property to Howard Claybough and others. After his death his widow, Margery Akers, sold the remaining 700 acres to the new Indian Hills Resort properties in 2006.
5. 1971: The Foggy River Boys moved to the theater in Kimberling City, originally built by developer, Jim Barrett, for the Springfield song writer and entertainer, ?????????. They stayed in Kimberling City for three years.
6. 1971: The first “Duck” was taken off a railroad flat car on the banks of Lake Taneycomo. The Gillispie family operated it on that lake with their “office” being a cigar-box of money under a shade tree. “Ride the Ducks later became a huge, many “Duck” business, “swimming” Table Rock Lake, headquartered on the 76 Strip. The “Ducks” are now (in 2006) owned by SDC and they are also restored, repaired and new ones built by the crew of Silver Dollar City.
7. 1972: Sam Walton opened a Wal-Mart on “The Strip” in Branson. Once again The People’s Bank and Ben Parnell were instrumental in working with a new business. They loaned Walton the money to build the building and stock it. (Don’t we all wish we had bought Wal-Mart stock away back then?)
8. 1972: Mary Herschend received Missouri’s very first Missouri Tourism Award.
9. 1973: McDonald’s was the first major chain restaurant to come to Branson.
10. 1973: Richard M. Nixon resigned under pressure as President of the United States.
11. 1973: The Plummer Family Music Show built their theater on 76 Highway. They had planned to set up at The Lake of the Ozarks, but changed when Branson began to rapidly grow, musically. They sold their theater to Moe Bandy in 1990. Randy Plumber then joined with the Roy Clark Celebrity Theater.
Dolly Parton, Buck Trent and Porter Waggoner were the first nationally known country music stars to perform in Branson, at the Baldknobbers’ Jamboree.
13. 1974: At the intersection of MO Highways 76 and 13, in Stone County, Howard Claybough tore down the old Woody Acres store and filling station. He began building the first Claybough Shopping Center on the northeast corner. The area was soon incorporated and Woody became the first mayor. It was then named Lakeview by Howard and Woody. Howard opened a branch of The Bank of Table Rock Lake and moved his Chevrolet agency from Reeds Spring to his new shopping center. (see also 1985 and 1992 for more info)
14. 1974: For many years, when Woody Akers had his store on the northeast corner, his brother Elvin Akers had a very nice, white, semi-colonial home on the southeast corner. It was originally built for Clara and Dale Powell at a cost of $750. Over the years that home was moved around several times on old 76 Highway. It ended up where it is (in 2006) as the office building at the motel property near the east end of Branson West.
15. 1974: The Foggy River Boys moved to their theater on 76 Highway in Branson, the third show out on that highway.
16. 1975: A four-lane bypass, Mo 65, was built around the west side of Branson, despite the many heated objections by business folk downtown who thought it would route all the business away from them. A new bridge over Taneycomo and interchanges with 76 and 248 highways sped traffic and took pressure off the crowded downtown Branson area. The old highway downtown became Business Mo 65.
17. 1975: Harts Super Market moved out on 76 – to everyone’s amazement and disbelief. At the time there was nothing out there but trees and brush. Most people believed the Harts would fail. Their store building is now part of a huge complex. There’s a commemorative brass plaque on the corner telling of their brave adventure in the wilderness of 76 highway.
18. 1975: Lake Taneycomo was nationally proclaimed to be the “Trout Fishing Capital of the USA.”
19. 1975: America quit the conflict in Vietnam. One terrible war we didn’t actually “win.”
20. 1976: Branson area tourism had now reached 2 million visitors per year and they were spending $18,400,000. All this despite a recent financial recession and a bad gasoline energy crisis.
21. 1977: Bob Mabe left the Baldknobbers and built his own 1,800-seat theater. He named it the Bob-O-Links Country Hoe Down. The Burdette family danced there full time until the late 1980’s.
22. 1978: The Kenneth Babbit family acquired the Kimberling Inn (which used to be John Q. Hammons’ first Holiday Inn). They planned to turn it into a time-share operation, but the restaurant and offices burned to the ground. The Babbits had to rebuild the entire building. A firewall saved the Pier 13 from burning, but its famous ship and pier decorative entry was burned and never replaced.
23. 1979: The Ozarks Playground Association, founded in 1919, was officially terminated. See the year 1919 for a description of the group and details of their operation and organization that served and promoted eight lakes, parts of three states and many, many counties and businesses for sixty years.
1. 1980: The People’s Bank, which had encouraged and financed so many of Branson’ early and influential businesses, was bought out and now became Centerre Bank of Branson.
2. 1980: Apple Computer went public in 1980 creating an instant $1.8 billion in capital, nearly 4 billion dollars in current money. It also created several hundred instant millionaires.
3. 1980: The Herschend family businesses opened White Water, a themed water park on a part of the old Branson Airport property on 76 Highway. It occupied 12 acres with many slides and other water fun. (Some sources claim White Water opened in 1984 – check this out!)
4. 1980: The Rubik’s Cube was introduced. Over 300 million have been sold since that time.
5. 1981: The Ozarks Marketing Council was formed. (tell more about this, why, what, etc.)
6. 1981: The Presleys’ Country Jubilee was expanded to 2,000 seats, making it the largest theater in Branson at the time.
7. 1981: The movie, Urban Cowboy, played in all national theaters. It started a renewed country music and cowboy style dress for young people and richer urban people across America. Branson, headed in that direction already, received a large tourism boost from this movie’s popularity.
8. 1981: The Wilkinson Brothers built a new theater across from the now defunct Branson Airport. In 1986 they sold their theater to Boxcar Willie.
9. 1981: On the shut down Branson Airport, Jim Thomas built the Hee Haw Theater for Roy Clark, but Clark didn’t appear until 1983. Archie Campbell, Buck Trent and Lulu Roman were often guests and lived in Branson part time. The show was ahead of its time and shut down in 1983. The theater was eventually bought by Bill Daily and remodeled to serve as a venue for his latest lady “discovery.” (see also 1983 and 1985)
10. 1981: The Campbell Ozarks Country Jubilee opened in an abandoned theater on 76. They bought the Ozarks Country Jubilee name from the Red Foley people, who had made it nationally famous on the radio in Springfield in the 1950’s. (see 1954)
11. 1981: The first Starlite Theater was built. (see Childs in 1982)
12. 1982: The two “Queen Marys” passed away. Mary Herschend and Mary Trimble both died that year. For many years after the untimely deaths of their husbands, these two ladies managed the Ozarks’ premier tourist attractions while raising their families. Mary Herschend “ran” Silver Dollar City and Marvel Cave Park while her two sons, Pete and Jack grew up, were educated and completed their military requirements. Then she gave Jack the cave to run and Pete the city. Mary Trimble, with Shad Heller, brought The Shepherd of the Hills outdoor drama to fruition. At her death her son, Mark, assumed control of the sprawling attraction.
13. 1982: Chisai Childs bought the 1-year-old Starlite Theater from George Shipman and changed the name to The Grapevine Opry. Such Branson stars as, Shoji Tabuchi, Doug Gabriel, Jess Hudson, Michael and Kelly Jackson, Terry McBride, Lori Lock, George Giddens, Fred Carpenter, John Paul Cody, Linda Davis, David Evans, Buddy Green, The Texans, Jeanie Dee, the Branson Brothers, Johnnie Long, Shauna Smith, Sami and David Straub, Bill and Randy Brooks, Box Car Willie, Buck Trent, Bill Tinoco, Lonnie Smith, Craig White, Rick Inman, Randy Hardison, Dennis Parsons, Steve Tennehill, Kenny Walker, Kimberly Dawn, Dean Church, Shane Vorhaban, David Milligan, Greg Bailey, Jerry Dykes, David Houseman and Cliff Wagner all first performed on Chisai’s stage. Chisai was also the first to have her theater open for the Christmas Season.
14. 1983: The Lowe Family opened their theater in June on 76 Highway. The Lowes were the only original owners still operating their theater as late as 1995. Their first theater on Indian Point Road, built in 1980, was leased to the Braschler Quartet for one year. It was then hit by lightning and destroyed.
15. 1983: Local developer, Jim Thomas brought Roy Clark to entertain in the brand new Roy Clark Celebrity Theater on 76 in Branson. He became the first nationally known musical star to have his name up in lights there. Other celebrity acts such as Lee Greenwood, Conway Twitty, Roger Miller, Mel Tillis, Ray Stevens and Louise Mandrell came to entertain in Roy Clark’s new theater. Many fell in love with Branson and built their own theaters. (see 1981)
16. 1983: Compact disks (CDs) made their début, but CD players at the time cost over $900.00.
17. 1983: Branson’s new City Hall opened in the downtown area. In 1997 it received a 3.7 million dollar addition and updating.
18. 1983: The Kimberling Inn properties was acquired by Jim McGuire, an investor and Irish high-roller from Kansas City. McGuire was already developing Irish Hills and some other businesses on Joe Bald Road, just west of Kimberling Hills.
19. 1983: Jim McGuire had developer/builder Jim Barrett begin building three-story, lake-front, luxury condominium units at the Kimberling Inn, in Kimberling City.
20. 1983: Silver Dollar City jumped on the music bandwagon and built the 4000 seat Echo Hollow Amphitheater. Rodney Dillard and his Time Machine Band headlined here for several years.
21. 1983: The Harold Bell Wright Museum was opened in Mutton Hollow by his son.
22. 1983: Motorola came out with “the brick,” a hand-held portable phone. The size of an actual brick, it weighed over two pounds. It cost about $3,000.00 and talking on it cost about $1.00 per minute.
23. 1984: The Herschends built White Water on part of the old Branson Airport property on Mo 76. (Some sources say White Water was built in 1980. Check this out and enter correctly.)
24. 1984: The visitors’ center building at Table Rock Dam was named The Dewey Short Table Rock Lake Visitors’ Center to honor Senator Dewey Short who battled for years for the funds and permission to construct Table Rock Dam and the lake. Senator Short knew it was vital for the area’s safety and growth.
25. 1984: The Sons of the Pioneers began regular performances at Lowe’s Theater in Branson.
26. 1984: The Braschler Music Show opened on Indian Point, at the Lowes’ south of Silver Dollar City.
27. 1984: Musicland USA opened on Gretna Road, just off Highway 76.
28. 1984: Jim McGuire had Kimberling developer, Jim Barrett, design and build The Fishing Shack at the Kimberling Inn complex. It was originally built to annoy Jim Thomas who owned the condo right next door, but it didn’t seem to bother Mr. Thomas. However, Jim McGuire’s big paddle boat mysteriously sunk that spring. (see also Ahoy’s comments 1995 and 2002)
29. Late 1984: Bill Gates had Kimberling City developer, Jim Barrett, build the 7,500 seat outdoor Swiss Villa Amphitheater in Lampe, Missouri. This became important to the “Branson Scene,” because such famous entertainers as George Strait, Reba McEntire, Earl Thomas Conley, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Ray Charles, The Beach Boys, The Kentucky Headhunters, Warrant and Extreme all played there and were exposed to Branson – where many of them played in later years after Swiss Villa and its theater closed down.
1. 1985: Howard Claybough bought 13 acres on the south side of MO Highway 76, which originally belonged to Elvin Akers, Woody Akers brother. It had been through several hands since Elvin, including Starr Hawkins. He began building the new Claybough Plaza. Keet Short was the contractor. He is the son of John Short, the lake’s first building contractor of any size. Howard had to pay to have 76 Highway lowered 11 feet at the intersection to allow access to his new parking lot. (See also 1974 and 1992 for more information.) (Elvin Akers had an old Cessna airplane on Branson’s grass airport years ago.)
2. 1985: Mark Trimble sold The Shepherd of the Hills Farm to Gary Snadon, who had been an actor in the play for many years. At the time, it seemed that Mark’s daughter’s terrible, accidental death took away his enthusiasm for SoH.
3. 1985: Pat Boone taped several segments of his TV show at SDC, bringing more huge popularity.
4. 1985: At the Kimberling Inn, the last of the original 60 Holiday Inn units were converted to time-share condos. Some receive a 2nd story. All were converted from two motel rooms to one condo.
5. 1985: The Braschler Quartet left Lowes’ old theater on Indian Point Road and moved to the Musicland U. S. A. Theater on Gretna Road. This theater had been occupied by the Lester Family.
6. 1985: Janet and Bill Dailey bought the old Hee Haw Theater and had Kimberling City developer, Jim Barrett, remodel it into Country Music World, to become the venue for Bill’s latest lady “discovery.” That act lasted less than a year. The Daileys then booked the new quartet, “Branson Brothers,” who later signed with SDC in 1989. They also booked Shoji Tabuchi, John and Paul Coty for one year each. In 1989 they brought Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass to their theater. The Dailey’s theater eventually became the Mickey Gilley Theater. Danny Davis moved to Harbortown Mall.
7. 1985: The Sons of the Pioneers performed at the Lowes’ Theater. In 1986 they moved to the Foggy River Boys Theater. They then moved out to The Shepherd of the Hills Farm in 2003. The Sons of the Pioneers were the first big name entertainers to appear in Branson on a regular day-to-day basis. They have been performing together on stage and in many movies since the 1930’s.
8. 1986: Boxcar Willie borrowed a million dollars to buy and renovate the Branson Brothers Theater. He opened in 1987, saying he was glad to finally get off the road. He was the first Grand Old Opry star to settle in Branson. Box was the first nationally known entertainer to perform permanently in Branson.
9. 1986: The Ozark Mountain Amphitheater opened on the SoH Expressway. It seated 8,500 and featured guest entertainers and performers. It became defunct and closed down in xxxxxxx.
10. 1986: The Lowe Sisters were the first Branson entertainers to appear on the Grand Ole Opry.
11. 1986: The Sons of the Pioneers were named into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
12. 1986: The entire Kimberling Inn Complex, including The Fishing Shack (later, Ahoy’s) and the condos, was acquired from the Jim McGuire estate by McGuire’s old friend, Branson developer, Steve Redford.
13. 1987: Gary Snadon, now the owner of the Shepherd of the Hills Farm, built Phase I of The Shepherd of the Hills Expressway and deeded it over to the city of Branson. He retained a lot of the land along the route where, during the next “boom,” he eventually built motels, sold them and recovered his expenses plus a very handsome profit.
14. 1987: Glen Campbell opened his theater.
15. 1987: Silver Dollar City hosted Good Morning America, live on ABC. Presley’s Jubilee and the Baldknobbers’ Jamboree were featured entertainment. This brought another wave of public attention.
16. 1987: Glen and Venus Robinson opened the 76 Music Mall Complex with the Sounds of Time Show.
17. 1987: John L. Morris opened big Cedar Lodge on the site of the old Devil’s Pool Guest Ranch.
18. 1987: The old People’s Bank, now Centerre Bank of Branson, beame Ozark Mountain Bank.
19. 1988: Year’s end: Box Car Willie and The Ducks were instrumental in encouraging a number of shows and merchants to try remaining open in the early winter. Ozark Mountain Christmas was begun, extending the tourist season into November and December. It took a couple of years, but it soon took off, making the Christmas Season Branson’s biggest tourist and money making time of the year. (Thanks Box and Ducks!)
20. 1988: Scott Earls built and opens Branson’s first TV station, The Vacation Channel.
21. 1988: Chsai Childs leased her Starlite Theater to Ray Price.
22. 1988: Gary Snadon built the 243’ tall observation tower at Inspiration Point, Shepherd of the Hills Farm. It was at first contested, but it soon became an admired Branson/Ozark landmark.
23. 1988: The Factory Merchants Mall opened. This began another “leg” of Branson’s business area, massive factory-outlet mall shopping. It became a “Christmas Season thing” for the Midwest .
24. 1988: The entire Kimberling Inn complex was acquired by Jim Christiansen from Steve Redford.
25. 1989: Christy Lane purchasee the Starlite and opened her show there.
26. 1989: Shoji Tabuchi and his backers bought Mark Trimbel’s closed down Ozark Auto Show Museum and opened his variety show. It was called the Ozark Theater and featured some guest performers.
27. 1989: The Branson Brothers came to Echo Hollow at SDC. They signed with Warner Brothers, making them the first Branson group to have a major recording contract.
28. 1989: Freddy Fender opened his Tex-Mex Theater, but he left after one season. Freddy Fender finally died of lung cancer in October, 2006.
1. 1990: Shoji Tabuchi and his backers buit a new 2,000-seat theater on Shepherd of the Hills Expressway and Shoji moved there from the Ozark Theater on 76.
2. 1990: Mel Tillis took over the Tabuchi theater in the old Ozarks Auto Show Museum building. He renamed it the Mel Tillis Ozark Theater.
3. 1990: Mickey Gilley bought the Dailey’s Country Music World Theater.
4. 1990: SDC announced the intent to build the 4,000-seat Grand Palace, as well as the White River Landing with a huge 1,000-seat showboat, the Branson Belle, to cruise Table Rock Lake.
5. 1990: Ben Parnell, founder and president of The Peoples Bank, retired after 40 years of Branson banking. Ben and Peoples were fundamental in founding and financing many of the area’s early businesses, entertainers and attractions, including much of Kimberling City.
6. 1990: The Plummers retired and sold their theater to Moe Bandy and Mac Stringfellow. Moe and Mac opened the refurbished theater in 1991.
7. 1990: The 76 Music Hall became the first theater to offer three different shows daily.
8. 1990: The General Zebulan Pike, an old excursion boat, sunk in January near Indian Point on Table Rock Lake. It was raised by the Corps of Engineers and re-sunk on February 2nd, in the Jacques Creek area to form a fish spawning shelter there.
9. 1990: Jim Stafford began performing at the Stars of the Ozarks Theater.
1. 1991: In December, Morley Safer, on 60 Minutes, aired a 13 minute segment featuring Branson and its amazing music theater expansion, including all the new, national stars. This immediately kicked off another fantastic growth boom.
2. 1991: Bob Nicols opened his show at the Wildwood Flower lounge and theater, owned by Bill and Janet Dailey and newly renovated from the Old Bavarian by Kimberling City developer, Jim Barrett. Bob later moved to Campbell’s Ozark Country Jubilee and added Buck Trent to the bill.
3. 1991: Ray Stevens opened his 2,000 seat, $4 million theater at the west end of the 76 Strip.
4. 1991: In April the $30 million Cash Country Theater and Complex was announced and work started on 76 strip. It was supposed to feature Johnny Cash.
5. 1991: In August, Andy Williams announced he would start building his Moon River Theater on former Bill Daily land in the middle of the 76 Strip.
6. 1991: Mel Tillis and the Gatlin Brothers announced they would build new music theaters.
7. 1991: Silver Dollar City began building the Grand Palace music theater on some of the ground once owned by Bill and Janet Dailey on the 76 Strip.
8. 1991: The School of the Ozarks changed its name and became The College of the Ozarks.
9. 1991: Jim Stafford bought The Stars of the Ozarks Theater, renamed it and opened in 1992.
10. 1991: Mutton Hollow Craft Village underwent a million dollar upgrade with three staged entertainment facilities for guest entertainers and performers. (see 1970)
1. 1992: The City Council of Lakeview met and, at the urging of Artie Ayres, changed the name of their town to Branson West – to take advantage of the huge boom (actually “booms”) taking place in Branson. (see also 1974 and 1985)
2. 1992: Kenny Rogers, Charley Pride and Wayne Newton all announced they would be building new music theaters in Branson.
3. 1992: Early: Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard performed at the Mel Tillis Ozark Theater.
4. 1992: Dino Kartsonakis opened at the former Legends Theater.
5. 1992: Late: Willie Nelson took over the Mel Tillis Ozark Theater and it becomes the Willie Nelson Ozark Theater. Merle Haggard announced his opening at the Willie Nelson Theater.
6. 1992: The 4,000 seat, $43,000,000 Grand Palace Theater opened on a part of the old Bill Daily property on 76. It is by far the largest and grandest theater in Branson. It was built and is owned by the Herschend family corp. The opening acts were Louise Mandrell and Glen Campbell.
7. 1992: The Osmond Brothers purchased the Celebration Theater and began performing in September. They renamed it the Osmond Family Theater. They also planned an entertainment, shopping and lodging complex to be called Branson Meadows. It was eventually built on a hill far north of the Strip.
8. 1992: The Gatlin Brothers opened a theater.
9. 1992: Andy Williams’ Moon River Theater opened.
10. 1992: This year, before the huge building boom really began, Branson had 12,000 motel rooms.
1. 1993: The Branson Scenic Railroad opened on the old White River Route of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Line. This brought passenger traffic back to the Mid Ozarks for the first time since 1960.
2. 1993: Conway Twitty performed at the Mickey Gilley Theater. Twitty died on June 5th, 1993.
3. 1993: John Davidson, Bobby Vinton and Tony Orlando announced that they will build new music theaters in Branson. Vinton’s will be the Blue Velvet Theater and Orlando’s will be the Yellow Ribbon Theater, named after their most popular songs. The Glen Miller Orchestra played at the Vinton Theater.
4. 1993: Yakov Smirnoff opened at the Christy Lane Theater and later moved to the Osmonds.
5. 1993: The Ozarks Discovery Imax Entertainment Complex opened on Shepherd of the Hills Expressway. It soon faced bankruptcy, but it recovered and flourished. The main theater has 550 seats and a six-story screen. The complex has restaurants, retail stores and other theaters as well.
6. 1993: The Branson Fan Fest, a festival for the fans began its first annual event.
7. 1993: The First Community Bank opened in the old People’s Bank Building, making it the fourth name change since People’s opened half a century back.
8. 1993: The Wayne Newton, John Davidson and Tony Orlando theaters opened.
9. 1993: Jim Stafford moved to the Lowe’s Theater and renamed it the Jim Stafford Theater.
10. 1993: The Herschends opened the Grand Village next to the Grand Palace Theater on 76 Strip. It was a large, 1880’s themed shopping complex.
11. 1993: The Pump-Boys and Dinettes opened their show, bringing a Broadway musical to Branson. (see 1998 for closing)
12. 1993: The Kimberling Inn’s entire office structure and the Garden Terrace restaurant both receive major south facing expansions in Kimberling City.
1. 1994: More than 2,500 new motel rooms opened in Branson to serve the rapidly growing music and tourist trade.
2. 1994: The Lawrence Welk Champagne Theater with the Lennon Sisters , Jo Ann Castle, the Lennon Brothers and other of Welk’s television show acts opened across the highway from Point Royale. (tell why it came to Branson?)
3. 1994: The Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum opened on the 76 Strip.
4. 1994: Christmas Time: The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes opened at the Grand Palace. This is the first time the group has entertained outside of Radio City in New York City.
5. 1994: Bill and Janet Daily bought the Moe Bandy Theater, where Moe would continue evening shows.
6. 1994: Mickey Gilley opened his new theater on The Strip. The former theater was destroyed by fire in 1993. Entertainer Jim Owen performed morning shows at Gilley’s.
7. 1994: Tony Orlando began his annual tribute to veterans with his Veterans Homecoming on the national Veterans Day. This began a Veterans commemoration that would grow year by year into the largest Veterans celebration in the entire nation. (Thanks, Tony!)
8. 1994: Illusionist Kirby Van Burch and singer Doug Gabrial opened shows.
9. 1994: The Tanger Factory Merchants Mall opened for business. This second huge shopping mall in Branson helped bring the Christmas shopping crowd from all over the Midwest.
10. 1994: Wal-Mart built one of its Super Centers in Branson West, just north of the junction of 13 and 76 Highways. Wal-Mart then became the second major source of tax money for Branson West and Stone County, as well as one of the area’s largest, year ‘round, steady employers.
11. 1994: In Kimberling City, The Pier Restaurant, built in 1961 and major-remodeled three times, was greatly expanded
1. 1991-1995: Branson, Table Rock Lake and the entertainment businesses were featured in such major papers as: Entertainment Today, The Atlanta Constitution, U.S.A. Today, The Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, The Chicago Tribune and many others. They were featured and/or discussed on many television and radio shows as well. The free publicity was estimated to be worth more than 15 Million Dollars to the Mid-Ozarks Area.
2. 1995: The Showboat Branson Belle, built by the Herschend family and Kenny Rogers, was launched on Table Rock Lake near the dam. It seats 1,000 people and makes three dinner tours a day. The boat cost $13,000,000 and is as big as a football field. It was launched on skids covered with tons of environmentally safe bananas. Later, Rogers dropped out of the picture.
3. 1995: The Dixie Stampede opened. It was jointly owned by the Herschend family and Dolly Parton. The theater opened an area on 76 formerly thought too physically rough to develop.
4. 1995: Dino’s Christmas Panorama opened at the Will Rogers Theater.
5. 1995: Jennifer opened her morning show at the former Moe Bandy Theater. She later became a huge supporter of the area’s ongoing Veterans’ memorial celebrations.
6. 1995: Country Tonite took over the Ray Stevens Theater and remained for many years.
7. 1995: The Braschler family moved in November to a new theater on the SoH Expressway.
8. 1995: The Magical Mansion and the Gettysburg Theater opened.
9. 1995: In an attempt to extend the now very popular Ozark Mountain Christmas season, the first Hot Winter Fun experiment was run in January through March. It was not as successful as hoped. January through March are very tough months to bring in the tourists.
10. 1995: Branson now had 16,000 motel rooms in the city and 4,000 more quite nearby.
11. 1995: The historically important Ozarks Legacy and Legend film premiers at the Imax Theater. It was produced locally by Silver Dollar City and others. It also used some local talent. The red bi-plane featured was owned and flown by Mark Trimble, who developed the Shepherd of the Hills Theater and its evening show.
12. 1995: Jim Christiansen and the Kimberling Inn Complex now acquired the Hillbilly Bowl complex, which was built in 1962 by the Sherer family from St. Louis. It had changed hands several times and was in bankruptcy. Christiansen wanted it for the huge conference rooms at the back, built by Ray Smith, the second owner after the Sherers. When Ray bought The Bowl, he had just sold the K.O.A. Kampground, which Kimberling developer, Jim Barrett, had built for him several years back. The Sherers acquired the Kimberling Arms after selling the Bowl.
13. 1995: The eleven year old Fishing Shack, on the lakefront at the Kimberling Inn Complex, owned by Jim Christiansen, received a major remodel and expansion. It was renamed “Ahoy’s.”
1. 1996: The Springfield Airport was renamed. It became the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport.
2. 1996: Silver Dollar City now acknowledged the Ozark Mountain Christmas effort and stayed open for Christmas and New Years. This confirmed the original effort by Boxcar Willey, The Ducks, and others. Eventually SDC became the “biggest duck in the Christmas-time puddle,” putting up vast amounts of decorations with millions of lights.
3. 1996: Barbara Fairchild purchased the Ozark Country Jubilee Theater.
4. 1996: The Promise Christian show opened in the Will Rogers Theater.
5. 1996: The Hollywood Wax Museum opened.
6. 1996: Jennifer’s Americana Theater opened at the old Moe Bandy Theater owned by Bill Dailey.
7. 1996: The Wild Wild West Show and Red Hot and Blue opened.
8. 1996: Branson completed a 14 mile, 3 year road expansion project, making several welcomed major bypasses around the ever growing traffic jams on The Strip on 76 Highway.
9. 1996: The Kimberling Inn Complex completed the last of the long line of 3-story condominium buildings along the lake front. Together with two large motel buildings built in the next year, in 1997, The Kimberling Inn became the largest and most complete motel/condo complex on Table Rock Lake, with 363 units, pools, docks and many other ammenities.
1. 1997: On May 19th, the elegant hotel, The Chateau on the Lake, owned by John Q. Hammons, opened. Also, the Top of the Rock opened. The project began in August of 1995 and was completed and opened in two years at a cost of $50 million. It has 24,000 windows, nearly 2,000 doors, 30,000 yards of carpet and, in the lobby, features a two-story high ornamental concrete tree shipped from California, costing $85,000. On the outside, 6,500 trees were planted and a playground built for $45,000. 339,000 man-hours were contributed to the entire project.
2. 1997: The Duttons opened their show on the Strip in Branson.1997:
3. 1997: Yakov’s American Pavilion, the Remington Theater and Positive Country Theater opened.
4. 1997: The City Hall in downtown Branson received a 3.7 million dollar addition. (see 1983)
1. 1998: Branson hosted the world famous Miss USA Pageant, live on CBS at the Grand Palace. This brought another vast amount of public attention, recognition and interest to Branson and the Music scene.
2. 1998: Wayne Newton and Tony Orlando joined forces to perform at the Talk of the T.O.W.N. Theater, formerly the Glen Campbell Theater.
3. 1998: The Branson Scenic Railway dedicated its new ’98 engine.
4. 1998: The First Lady of Magic, Melinda, debuts at the Magic Theater.
5. 1998: “Two From Galilee,” a Broadway style production, opened at the Promise Theater.
6. 1998: The Oak Ridge Boys became a perennial act at the Grand Palace.
7. 1998: Ava Barber had a supper show at the Welk Resort’s Stage Door Canteen.
8. 1998: The Osmond Family celebrated 40 years of family entertainment history.
9. 1998: Ronnie Prophet relocated to the Shepherd of the Hills Homestead Parlor Theater.
10. 1998: Pam Tillis performed Super Tuesday with her dad at the Mel Tillis Theater.
11. 1998: Anita Bryant left Branson.
12. 1998: Moe Bandy left the Gilley Theater. He acquired the Bryant’s theater and renamed it The Moe Bandy Theater.
13. 1998: Jim Stafford created one of America’s most unusual shows on the world’s largest, rear projection, 3-D stereoscopic screens on stage in his Jim Stafford Theater.
14. 1998: The Pump Boys and Dinettes closed after five years of Branson performance.
1. 1999: The Baldknobbers Jamboree, one of Branson’s oldest shows, celebrated its 40th anniversary.
2. 1999: Wayne Newton and Tony Orlando split up. Neither continued performing in Branson.
3. 1999: The Grand Palace acquired Melinda’s Magic Theater and renamed it the Grand Mansion.
4. 1999: Boxcar Willie’s cancer returned after two remissions. He died in April.
5. 1999: The Promise moved to the old Charley Pride Theater.
6. 1999: Broadway For Breakfast premiered at the Osmonds Family Theater.
7. 1999: Silver Dollar City opened its $8,000,000 Buzz Saw Falls roller-coaster thrill ride.
8. 1999: Spirit of the Dance, the Irish Step Dance like Lord of the Dance, performed at the Grand Mansion. It would remain in Branson for years, moving from theater to theater.
9. 1999: The Remington Theater opened its indoor ice skating rink. It was also open to the public.
10. 1999: Bob and Sharon Wehr opened Branson U. S. A., a themed amusement park on the west end of the 76 Strip. It featured a 724 seat theater, many rides and a 92 foot tall Ferris wheel. (see also 2003)
11. 1999: The Corps of Engineers began building a multi-million dollar emergency spillway and set of locks at the north end of Table Rock Dam. It replaced much of the vulnerable earth and rock fill and would permit the Corps to control the lake level in case of a “Thousand Year Flood,” which had happened elsewhere in the Midwest with often disastrous results.
1. 2000: The estimates of tourist visits to the Branson/Table Rock Area now reach 7 million!
2. 2000: Silver Dollar City opened its Red-Gold Heritage Hall entertainment facility. The name, “Red-Gold,” refers to the time of the huge tomato harvests here in the Ozarks. At that time the canned, train-load shipments were referred to as being “Red Gold.”
3. 2000: White Water opened Rain Tree Island at the Herschend’s water park on 76 strip.
4. 2000: Branson Creek Golf Club opened. It is a Tom Fazio designed 18 hole championship course.
2001 (back to top)
1. 2001: The city of Branson and HCW Development Company announced the proposal to build the Branson Landing Project. This would replace nearly all of the old properties along the Lake Taneycomo Waterfront. There was much opposition from folks who revere all the old, weary facilities there.
2. 2001: Silver Dollar City opened Wildfire, another massive roller-coaster thrill ride.
3. 2001: The Duttons purchased and renamed the Box Car Willie Theater. It became the Dutton Family Theater. They also began building lodging and shopping facilities there.
4. 2001: Craklin’ Rose débuts at the Grand Palace.
5. 2001: Ripley’s Live! Show maked its world premier at the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Theater.
6. 2001: The Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers Christmas Reunion Show began at the MGH Center for the Performing Arts. (The spirit of Box Car Willie, who helped start Ozark Mountain Christmas to extend the tourist season, is surely watching and is happy.)
7. 2001: Dino’s Easter Spectacular aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network world wide.
8. 2001: Mississippi Love opened at the Mark Twain Playhouse
9. 2001: On September the 11th, the infamous destruction of the World Trade Towers in New York City took place. It became the worst terrorist invasion and destruction ever.
1. 2002: The Kirkwood Motel was completely rebuilt and renovated into Music City, a combination theater and motel. The Haygoods were the opening act there.
2. 2002: The Promise Theater was renovated into the White House Theater and opened.
3. 2002: Legendary stars Ed McMahon and Barbara Fairchild appeared at the Majestic Theater.
1. 2003: The Herschends and Silver Dollar City opened their $40,000,000 Celebration City theme park on the West edge of Branson. It was formerly Branson USA, opened in 1999 by the Bob Wehr family. (see 1999)
2. 2003: Yakov Smirnoff welcomed superstar Pam Tillis, who performed at his What a Country Theater.
3. 2003: The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum and Happy Trails Theater opened in the spring. The theater and museum existed for many years in southern California on a highway. However, it had been languishing with very poor attendance. The directors were encouraged to relocate in Branson by the town’s Economic Development Director, Michael Rankin. The museum and theater, near the west end of the 76 Strip, is reportedly doing very well now.
4. 2003: Perennial favorite, 50’s at the Hop, opened in a new theater with the Lennon Brothers.
5. 2003: The Highway 13 Bypass, connecting Branson West to 160, north of Reeds Spring and The Junction, was completed June 3rd, 2003, at a cost of 19 million dollars. It was started in February of 1999. This removed all through traffic from Reeds Spring and allowed rapid travel both north and south.
6. 2003: The old Hillbilly Bowl building became the Towne Center Complex, owned by Jim Christiansen and the Kimberling Inn, but managed and operated by RT’s Family Restaurants LLC, owned by Randy Thamm, the grandson of the Sherer family, which built the businesses in 1962.
1. 2004: Ground breaking ceremonies for the Branson Landing project began. The City of Branson would build a new bridge over Roark Creek, with a circle-drive and a new highway to serve the project. (see the years 2005 and 2006, following, for much more detail and information.)
2. 2004: In Branson, there were a number of items on the lakefront built during the Great Depression, during the 1930’s, under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration (the WPA). The last of these remaining were the well-worn and beloved old concrete “steps” down by the waterfront. These were removed without ceremony when The Landing was under construction. Also, the “Liberty Tree,” the ancient oak believed to be young when “The Liberty Bell” was first rung in Philadelphia in 1776, diseased and probably dangerous, was removed to clear the way for The Landing. The many tree pieces were stored outdoors south of Lampe, Mo.
3. 2004: The Missouri Highway Department began rebuilding all of Highway 65, south of Branson, to the Arkansas line. It will all become a divided, 4-lane expressway, with overpasses and cloverleaves. It was completed and opening ceremonies held in November of 2006.
4. 2004. The north phase of The Ozark Mountain High Road was completed April 3rd, at a cost of 48 million dollars. It was started in September of 1994. The Herschends were powerfully behind getting the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDot) to start the project. Box Car Willie was one of the many Branson folks who tried to get it stopped, fearing it would divert all of the potential Branson traffic directly to SDC. A south phase, continuing on from 76 to 65 Highway, crossing Taneycomo just below the Table Rock Dam, will be started one day soon.
1. 2005: Ground breaking for the 220,000 square foot Branson Convention Center and the 12-story Branson Hilton Convention Center Hotel, with 553 rooms. They are to open in 2007.
2. 2005: New building construction in Branson achieved $173.5 million. This broke the record $119.5 million, achieved in 1993, at the height of the “theater and motel building boom.”
3. 2005: The Branson Mill, a historically themed shopping center, opened on Gretna Road.
4. 2005: The Shang-Hai Theater on Highway 165 and the Bel Air Theater on 76 open.
5. 2005: The RecPlex, Branson’s 44,000 square foot recreation center, opened on Branson Hills Parkway, near the location of the future Target and Home Depot, far to the north on Highway 65.
6. 2005: Branson opened a unique public services building overlooking Highway 65 at the 76 junction. It is a one-million gallon, concrete water tower. But the “stand” for the 114’ tall tower houses 5 stories and 5,600 square feet of office space where the entire Public Works Administrative offices are housed.
7. 2005: At the end of the year, Branson boasted of: 47 theaters with 57,623 seats and more than 100 different shows, 205 motel/hotels with 17,904 rooms (with another 4,000 rooms nearby), and 410 restaurants with 35,266 seats. That’s more shows and seating than Las Vegas or Broadway! Wow!
8. 2005: By the end of 2005, Skaggs Hospital had caused 21 satellite facilities to be built around the area and now employed some 150 physicians in all its facilities. Skaggs was joined in the lakes region by a Springfield’s Cox Hospital satellite, together with a major satellite clinic and helicopter facility built by St. Johns Hospital, also centered in Springfield.
9. 2005: The Keeter Charcoal business financed the rebuilding of the “Main Hunting and Fishing Lodge” at the College of the Ozarks to replace the aging welcome center and dining facilities there. The original Main building was brought from the 1904 World’s Fair and erected at Point Lookout. It became a sportsmen’s club for many years. It was finally sold to the “School of the Ozarks” for $15,000, and became their first building. That valuable, historic building later burned to the ground. (see 1905)
1. 2006: The giant new stores, Target and Home Depot, opened in the new 141 acre Branson Hills Plaza area, way north of the Downtown area, on 65 Highway. This will be a three phase development starting with 300,000 square feet of lease space.
2. 2006: The Titanic, The Legend Continues, opened in April on the 76 Strip. It is the largest museum quality production in the world. Regis Philben hosted the grand opening. The outside of the museum/theater is made to look exactly like the front half of the Titanic, complete with the “iceberg,” and some of the “Atlantic Ocean,” but it is 1⁄2 the size of the original. Still very BIG!
3. 2006: Opening of the 300 million dollar Branson Landing project. It covers 95 acres on 1.5 miles of Lake Taneycomo waterfront. It has over 100 shops occupying 1⁄2 million square feet. It is anchored by Belk Department Store with 68M square feet and Bass Pro with 60M square feet of space. It also has luxury condos and a 243 room Hilton full-service hotel, as well as restaurants, cafes and kiosks. It has 3500 parking spaces. The public square can accommodate 5,000 people for festivals and so on. (see also 2004 and 2005)
4. 2006: The Herschends opened the Butterfly Palace on the west edge of Branson’s 76 Strip. They also opened a large aviary and bird show at their Talking Rocks Cavern. They also control The Wild Animal Predator Zoo south of Branson West, and they also put a kid’s spook show building there.
5. 2006: Dick Clark’s Bandstand Theater and 1957’s Auto Show opened across from Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede on the 76 Strip. Few of us remember the fine old veterinarian building and the great old grassy park beneath huge shady trees that once stood there.
6. 2006: Work started on the huge highway bypass to take through-traffic around the rapidly growing Branson West. It will be a limited access, 4-lane expressway with one traffic signal at the junction with 76 Highway through Branson West, going to Branson. It will be completed by MoDot in 2008, at a cost of 23 million dollars.
7. 2006: The historic Gillioz Theater reopened in Springfield after a several million dollar remodel. The Gilloiz had run down badly by the 1980’s and closed. It was very nearly demolished. But a group raised the funds and it was carefully and in detail exactly restored to its early grandeur. (see also 1926 for the original opening)
8. 2006: Work started on the Indian Ridge development on 76 highway in Branson West. It is slated to be a 1.5 billion dollar development when completed, with condos, shopping areas, residential areas, marinas, entertainment venues and a historical museum. (see also Woody Akers, 1970)
9. 2006: The Kimberling Arms, one of the oldest motel complexes in Kimberling City and on Table Rock Lake was demolished. It included the famous Harbor Blue, built the first year Table Rock existed. (see 1960) It will be replaced by six 7-story luxury, time-share condominium buildings. This complex is owned by xxx xxxxxxx.
10. 2006: The Ayers Building (Silver Mine Realty) complex across 13 from Wal-Mart, in Branson West was demolished. The largest building in the group was nearly 50 years old and had housed many businesses over the years, including a bowling alley, The Silver Bowl, and the foundling Ayres Advertising, about 1970, as well as a larger version of “Predator World,” in 2000, which started as a tiny pet fish shop in another of the complex’s buildings years before.
11. 2006: RT’s Family Restaurants LLC acquired management and operation of The Pier Supper Club, built by Lloyd Kipp for John Q. Hammons in 1960. It was renamed, “The Lake House.”
12. 2006: After a lot of very curious “ground shuffling and mysterious digging” the Stone County Bank began building a new facility at the northwest corner of 13 Highway and DD Highway on a bit of the 400+ acres there, owned by the Ayres family Silver Mine Realty.
13. 2006: In September, the Cushman family announced that it will return to the entertainment business on a large part of the Cushman Properties in Mutton Hollow, on 76 Highway, at the west side of Branson. They plan to build a 600 million dollar village and entertainment center there.
14. 2006: In October, Branson West broke ground for a $6,000,000 municipal airport with a 5,000 foot concrete runway and 20 hangers for openers.
15. 2006: On October 14th, The United States Air Force Memorial, built at a cost of $30 million, was dedicated at the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. All the other forces had memorials.
16. 2006: In October, Freddie Fender, who was a national musician figure and had had a one year run in a theater in Branson, died at the age of 69, after an ongoing battle with lung cancer.
17. 2006: On the 18th of October, the population of the United States reached 300,000,000. On the 19th of October, the Dow Jones reached 12,000, a 110 year record and all time high. In the month of October, nearly 100 Americans were killed in Iraq, a death record for that “war,” trying to bring them Democratic freedom. In October, the North Vietnamese frightened the world with an atomic bomb test. Also, in October, President Bush’s approval rating dropped to 30%, an all time low.
The following items will be added when the dates and info is all correct:
xxx. Was there an Electric Theater in both Branson and Springfield? Check this out and correct.
xxx. When was KWTO built in Springfield. Mention the Keep Watching the Ozarks sign.
xxx. Dogwood Canyon, when built, by Johnny Morris, tell a bit about it.
xxx. Big Cedar Lodge, built by Johnny Morris, when? Etc. Replaced old Devil’s Pool.
xxx. The Lawrence Welk Theater complex, when? What brought them to Branson.
xxx. Janet Daily, date of birth, when to Branson? Her folks’ home, etc.
xxx. Pointe Royal, when built, how big, etc. By Steve Redford.
xxx. The building of the KOA Kampground in Kimberling City. Tell about Ray Smith.
xxx. Stonebridge, how big, who built, famous Arkansas Folks, Steve Redford’s part, etc.
xxx. When was the Branson Meadows actually built? And did the Duttons build it?
xxx. When did serious development start on 248? What was first, big time? What else?
xxx. The tearing down of the old Ray’s Market and the new building. Tell about the town there.
xxx. The building of the first Ozark bank in Branson. What it meant
xxx. The commercial building and Arvest bank – when and why? Arvest is Wal-Mart.
xxx. The building of the large bank and financial office center on 76 in downtown Branson.
xxx. Discover other significant buildings in Branson and elsewhere, other than theaters.
xxx. Tell the dates of the major “space” events, Sputnik and so on."More events and dates will be added as important and/or interesting historical information is detected or presented to the author."Best Bersonal Regards, Jim Barrett
Email: barrett@cebridge.net
This above documentation is Copyright by James F. Barrett.
No part of it may legally be copied or reproduced by any means.
Special thanks to Jim Barrett for allowing me to share his information on my site. Please feel free to contact Jim at barrett@cebridge.net if you have any comments or would like to purchase his publication, TIMELINE - TABLE ROCK LAKE and SURROUNDING AREAS.
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