Osage River in flood – Osceola – 1915

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Jan 062014
 

728Real Photo Postcards, 1915

Embossed with name of photographer, “McKinney, Osceola, MO” these two unusual images of high water on the Osage were taken on May 30, 1915. The residents seem to take the high water in stride.

Written in pencil on the back of the photo of the woman in the john boat: “All alone on Dank Island. Just as the river was starting over the bank in the front yard.”

 

 

 

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Inscription on the back of the photo of the group gathered around the table says: “You can see the water around the big Elm tree where it just starting over. This is Mr. Fort, one of our neighbors, and Mr. McKinney and Bert and myself and one of our kitties by the hat on the table. This is our watermelon table.  I will go home Tues. Bettie”

 

 

Osage Chief Fred Lookout and his wife Julia – 1928

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Jan 022014
 

 

730Press Photo, August 1, 1928

Photograph is by Love Studio, Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The white lines were the outline for cropping for newspaper or magazine layout. The cutline for the photo states: “Fred Lookout, present chief of the Osage Indians and owner of one of the finest cattle ranches in northern Oklahoma.  Lookout has repeatedly urged his tribesmen to economize.”

Lookout was Principal Chief for three terms, serving a record twenty-eight years, much of it during the turbulent oil boom. He attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, but spoke only Osage while conducting tribal business.  His wife Julia was a descendent of PA-HIÚ-ÇKA (White Hair) whose grave on Blue Mound near the upper Osage River was desecrated after the tribe departed for Kansas.  Their resting place is on a high hill east of Pawhuska, Oklahoma with a panoramic view of Osage County.

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Inscription reads:

JULIA MOGRE LOOKOUT, MO-SE-CHE-HE, Born 1-1-1870; Died 2-28-1950. Great Grand-Daughter of Chief PA-HIÚ-ÇKA (White Hair). A true helpmate and devoted mother

CHIEF FRED LOOKOUT, WA-NŐ-SHE ZHIʺ-GA Born 11-17-1861; Died 8-28-1949. The last hereditary Chief of the Great and Little Osage served his tribe with wisdom, integrity and faithfulness.

May they rest in peace

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Warsaw on the Osage – 1905 Postcard

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Dec 192013
 

 

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Real Photo Postcard, mailed 1905

Sent by Lula G. Davis from Lincoln, Missouri to Miss Edith Belle Ordway of Haverhill, Mass., on December 6, 1905 showing “a scene in our county – at Warsaw on the Osage.” This real photo postcard shows the swinging bridge built by Joe Dice across the main Osage. After discussing her upcoming trip to New Mexico in the “Interesting West,” Miss Davis assures Miss Ordway: “. . . . I too am interested in souvenir postals. I do not think it silly to like beautiful things.”

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Today the remaining Joe Dice ‘swinger’ on the main Osage, the same bridge in Miss Davis’ real photo postcard, is a pedestrian walkway at Warsaw with historic marker.

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Osage River near Osceola

 Uncategorized, Vintage Image of the Week  2 Responses »
Dec 162013
 

727Real Photo Postcard, circa 1920

Message on the back makes it sound like this photo was taken for a particular friend. Written in pencil it says:  “Osage River near Osceola. Here are some river (pictures) near Mrs. MacKenny made for you as we never got to take any while you were here. I guess we will go to Alba the last of the week.”

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HISTORIC HURRICANE DECK BRIDGE OVER LAKE OF THE OZARKS DYNAMITED

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Dec 152013
 

The last of three bridges designed by Svedrup and Parcel dynamited and replaced by new span.

December 8, 2014 – Missouri’s highways and transportation commissioner pushed the plunger, detonating dynamite on a 740 foot section of the Hurricane Deck bridge that once carried Highway 5 over the Osage River arm of Lake of the Ozarks.  According to the bridgehunter.com website, the 1936 bridge was ‘structurally deficient’ and clearly the highway department agreed. The steel will be pulled out of the lake and the rest of the bridge will be taken down in additional demolitions in coming weeks.

Video from Springfield TV station, KOLR-10, shows the demolition blasts and collapse of the first spans to be dropped into the lake.

Early in the development of the Lake, Sverdrup and Parcel, a St. Louis firm, was engaged to design and construct bridges to connect communities in Morgan and Camden counties that were now cut off from each other.  When Damming the Osage was published (2012), the 1936 Hurricane Deck bridge – which was named the most beautiful bridge in its class that year by the American Institute of Steel Construction – was the last remaining span over the lake by that firm. Additional information is available at Bridgehunter.com  http://bridgehunter.com/mo/camden/hurricane-deck/

399Leif Sverdrup, a Norwegian immigrant, with his college engineering teacher, John Parcel, founded the company in 1928. During World War II, General Sverdrup became chief engineer for General Douglas MacArthur.

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Among many distinctive spans, the firm also designed the graceful twin bridges that cross the Missouri River at Jefferson City.

Sverdrup and Parcel also designed the pair of steel-through-arch bridges crossing the Missouri River at Jefferson City  (Cole County, Missouri) in  1955. These spans still carry traffic on the multi-lane freeway of US 54/63.

(click on image to enlarge)

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Dec 102013
 

The title of Harry Styron’s blog – Ozarks Law and Economy: How People, Businesses and Nature Compete – doesn’t fully cover the wide range of topics and interests he shares with his readers. Not a dry law and economy blog – Harry (a Branson attorney) writes of the Ozarks he knows and reflects on its image in movies and literature, the history of land and people and the legal and political issues that affect them all in a lively style with erudite insights.

We were very pleased that last week he posted a penetrating review of our new book, Damming the Osage.

Natural Bridge at HA HA TONKA

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Dec 102013
 

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Real Photo Postcard, circa 1930

Ha Ha Tonka is a cornucopia of karst features – springs, caves, cliffs, sinkholes and a natural bridge., was described in a 1940s brochure: “the 600-acre tract includes all the natural wonders of the place, among which are a 90-acre lake, with a wooded island; a spring producing 158,000,000 gallons of water daily; a natural bridge; seven caves, one of which has been explored for a distance of about two miles and which contains the largest known stalagmite; a natural amphitheater; and many curious and fantastic formations, such as the Balanced Rock and Devil’s Kitchen.”

Now a very popular Missouri State Park, Ha Ha Tonka was originally the property of the Snyder family in Kansas City.  Robert Snyder Sr. built a stunning ‘castle’ there on a bluff overlooking the Osage. When Bagnell Dam created Lake of the Ozarks, the family sued Union Electric over the swamping of their trout lake by the backwaters of the new lake, claiming that it had degraded the value of their estate by more than a million dollars. Courtroom fireworks attracted national media coverage and appeals kept the case going for more than five years. In the end, the Snyders received a judgment of $200,000 which probably about paid for the legal fees. We covered this colorful trial and the high profile players and courtroom action extensively  in Damming the Osage. Check a couple of previous posts for more info

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UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD BRIDGE OVER THE OSAGE – update

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Dec 062013
 

Recently, Union Pacific Railroad officials with the Federal Railroad Administrator and guests from Amtrak and the Missouri Department of Transportation gathered in Osage City to celebrate the completion of a new bridge over the Osage. According to their press release, the addition of a new 1,200 foot span “will eliminate the rail line’s last chokepoint between Jefferson City and St. Louis.”

RR bridge at Osage CityThe original iron truss railroad bridge over the Osage carried traffic only one direction at a time, making trains wait for others to cross before proceeding.  The center span once could be raised to accommodate steamboat traffic. This image of the original bridge was taken in 2010. (page 73, Damming the Osage).

An aerial photo from the Missouri Department of Transportation shows the new span being built next to it.

 

Mo-Pac RR bridge-03In the push westward a hundred or more years ago, avenues of transportation for people and products were explored, promoted and built. Jumping off points to the opening West included Osceola and St. Joseph as well as Westport (Kansas City) Missouri. Local promoters sought improvements to the Osage for steamboats like the ill-fated and ill-purposed Lock and Dam No. 1. The rocky hills and narrower alluvial valley of the Osage River precluded railroad construction for the most part.

But railroads overcame steamboats as efficient movers of goods and immigrants. The alluvial plain along the Missouri River was broad enough to allow for building tracks and the link from St. Louis to Kansas City made the straightest route. That same route today carries 60 daily freight trains and Amtrak’s Missouri River Runner between the two metropolises.

Railroad yards-Missouri River-Jeff CityRail yards at Jefferson City, 2010

Paddlefish – Trophy Fish – 3 snapshots circa 1940

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Dec 052013
 

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These were likely taken in the American South – perhaps Mississippi or Louisiana.  The man in the boat is holding an unbaited trot line. Paddlefish swim the waters with their mouths agape as they filter-feed on zooplankton.  They sometimes are caught on bare, set hooks. Passive or accidental snagging was never a reliable fishing method and the fact that these photos were taken shows he thought the catch was worthy of recording.

Sport fishing with treble hooks (trolling or snagging for paddlefish) probably doesn’t pre-date the 1950s. Paddlefish were a common food fish in the Mississippi/Missouri river systems and were obtained by nets before that.

As we noted in Damming the Osage, adult paddlefish can survive, even thrive, in a variety of modified riverine situations, including reservoirs.  But the construction of reservoirs destroyed paddlefish spawning grounds, which means they no longer regularly reproduce in the wild. In Missouri, populations are maintained through artificial reproduction at Blind Pony Hatchery.

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Clinton, Missouri – “Artesian Princess of the Prairie”

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Dec 022013
 

clinton-mo-badgeCommemorative Coin celebrating the sesquicentennial (1836-1986) of Clinton Missouri.

We recently acquired this gem of history – a commemorative coin mounted on walnut celebrating the 150th year of Clinton Missouri in 1986.  Interesting that they take as their theme the “Artesian Princess of the Prairie”.  The spa-era destination spring with spouting fountain that once attracted visitors to the city faded from use when the fountain ceased spraying in the early 1900s. It is now overgrown. The original site comprised 40 acres. Today, on the remaining grounds there are playgrounds, tennis courts, and the Artesian Amphitheater, built in 2002 by Hilton Hotels Random Acts of Service. See our previous posting on Vintage Image of the Week, for more information on Clinton’s Artesian Spring Park.

Incidentally, the Henry County Museum  located on the square one of the best local history efforts we’ve seen. It is housed in the handsome Anheuser-Busch building, which is on the National Register. The museum is strongly supported by the community, with donations of land, buildings, and artifacts; exhibits change frequently and staff are helpful. Most importantly the museum is open regular hours so if you are in town during those times you can likely get in to see it.

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