Missouri & Iowa
Branson & Table Rock State Park
In 1882, Reuben S. Branson came to the southern Ozarks where he opened a general store and post office, giving the community its name of Branson. One of the first tourist attractions to open in the region was Marvel Cave which began giving the public tours in 1894. In the late 1800s, a minister/author named Harold Bell Wright began visiting the area and became inspired by the scenery and the people who called the land home. His visits inspired him to write the book “The Shepherd of the Hills,” which introduced the area to the world and sparked an influx of vacationers.
The construction of the Table Rock Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1950s brought an influx of recreation and tourism to the Branson area. The dam spans over a mile across the White River and creates the 43,100-acre Table Rock Lake which has over 745 miles of shoreline in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. The lake was named after a distinct rock shelf standing above the White River, roughly one mile downstream from the dam site. The lake created a huge increase of vacationers to the region who sought the numerous water-based recreational opportunities. A third boost came in 1960 when a small, old-time Ozark village was opened as Silver Dollar City and soon became a huge entertainment complex. This was followed closely by a show of Ozark music and comedy called the “Baldknobbers” and the opening of Presley’s Country Jubilee, the first music theater built in Branson.
Today, Branson is a major tourist destination with a vibrant theater district with plenty of live music and entertainment. In the downtown district is Branson Landing which offers shopping, dining, and entertainment. The nearby boardwalk allows guests to stroll along the White River on those hot summer nights. Another popular destination in the Branson area is Table Rock State Park which offers hiking and biking for miles along the shores of Table Rock Lake. There are also two modern campgrounds at the state park and a full-service marina making this a mecca for boaters.
Kearney, Missouri
Jesse Woodson James was born on September 5, 1847 in Clay County, Missouri near present-day Kearney. His parents, Robert James and Zerelda Cole James, had moved to Clay County from Kentucky. Robert James was a Baptist minister and he died in 1850 in California, where he had gone to preach to the gold miners. The death of Rev. James left the family in a financial crisis and Jesse’s mother married Dr. Reuben Samuel in 1855. These formulative years in Jesse’s life were full of turmoil for Missouri was a slave state, but also had a very strong Union presence especially in St. Louis.
Once the Civil War broke out in 1861, Missouri remained officially neutral in the conflict, but the residents were heavily pro-South. Throughout the woods of Missouri, guerrilla fighters known as “bushwhackers” roamed the state attacking and harassing Union troops and residents loyal to the United States government. Jesse’s older brother Frank was one of these guerrilla fighters. When Jessie was 13 years old, Union troops came to the James farm looking for Frank. They tortured Dr. Samuel by hanging him several times until he lost consciousness and they whipped young Jesse. This experience led a 16-year-old Jesse James to join “Bloody Bill” Anderson’s brutal band of bushwhackers alongside his brother. During the summer of 1864, Jesse participated in the Centralia Massacre, where guerrillas killed 22 unarmed Union soldiers. During this engagement, a 17-year-old Jesse was shot in the chest and he spent some time in Nashville seeking medical treatment for his wound.
Following the conclusion of the Civil War, the James brothers, like many bushwhackers, sought to seek revenge on Union sympathizers. On the afternoon of February 13, 1866, the James brothers and a group of former guerrillas (later known as the James-Younger gang) entered the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri. In what is considered the first daytime bank robbery in United States history, the gang held up the clerk at gunpoint and got away with roughly $60,000 in cash, bonds, and gold. During the escape, a stray bullet killed a 17-year-old student named George C. Wymore. The first robbery that was publicly attributed to the James brothers in the newspapers occurred on December 7, 1869. In what became a pattern of robbing banks linked to former Union officers, the James-Younger gang entered the Davies County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri. In cold blood, Jesse James walked into the bank and killed the cashier John W. Sheets believing him to be the officer who killed a comrade during the war. Beginning in the early 1870s, the James-Younger gang pioneered train robberies which only added to their reputation.
A disastrous 1876 bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota resulted in the death or capture of most of the James-Younger gang. This marked a major change in Jesse James’ criminal career as his robberies became less frequent and the number of his accomplices became fewer. Over a 16-year span, the James-Younger gang led by Jesse James had robbed approximately 12 banks, 7 trains, and 5 stagecoaches stealing approximately $200,000 to $300,000. The gang had committed numerous murders of law enforcement officers as well as civilians. By 1881, Governor Thomas T. Crittenden of Missouri declared Jesse James a wanted criminal and placed a $10,000 bounty on his head: dead or alive.
In April 1882, Jesse was living in a home in St. Joseph, Missouri with other members of his current gang including a man by the name of Robert Ford. The reward was enough to entice Ford, but he knew he had to be patient for Jesse James was cautious with such a huge bounty on him. On April 3, 1882, an unarmed Jesse James was standing on a chair dusting a framed picture when Robert Ford drew his revolver and shot Jesse in the back of the head. A few months later, Frank James negotiated his surrender with the Governor stating that he was tired of being hunted for more than twenty years: first as a guerrilla and then outlaw. Frank was only charged with two murders and was soon acquitted on all charges before he left to live in Oklahoma.
The remains of America’s most notorious outlaw were buried on the James farm in Clay County at the request of his mother. She slept with her bed facing his grave so that she could keep an eye out for would be souvenir hunters. Later in his life, Frank James returned to live at the family farm and would entertain visitors with tails of the James-Younger gang’s exploits for a fee, of course. Following the death of Jesse’s wife Zerelda “Zee” Mimms James in 1900, the family decided to move Jesse’s remains to rest beside her and other family members in nearby Mount Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri. Today, the James family farm is a historical site that includes the restored home where Jesse James was born and a museum. The artifacts within the museum include items from family members, personal belongings of Jesse James, and items related to his assassination and death.
Watkins Mill State Park
Following the expansion of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase, Waltus L. Watkins like many from Kentucky moved to Missouri in the 1830s. In fact, Watkins was a friend and contemporary of Rev. Robert James who actually baptized him. He originally lived in Liberty, Missouri before buying land in the northeast corner of Clay County to start a small livestock farm. Watkins, like most farmers of his day, practiced diversified farming raising cattle, Missouri mules, horses, swine, sheep and poultry, grew various grain crops, and planted extensive orchards.
When the woolen industry reached Missouri in the 1850s, Watkins decided to take advantage of his early training in Kentucky textile mills and in 1860 he constructed the Watkins Woolen Mill. The three-story mill purchased wool from Missouri farmers and spun it into yarn as well as wove it into cloth, blankets and shawls. The entire mill was powered by an old steamboat boiler which drove the pulleys and belts found throughout the works. The bricks for the Watkins Woolen Mill building were made in the brick kiln found on the property. The mill sold its products through a small store on the ground floor or through consignment at general stores throughout Missouri. As Watkins’ business and family grew (he had nine children), he constructed an elegant home named “Bethany” and expanded his plantation to include a gristmill, sawmills, a blacksmith shop, a dairy, an icehouse, barns and other farm buildings, as well as a scale house, a woolshed and houses for the mill and farm workers
By the late-1800s, the equipment of the Watkins Woolen Mill had become outdated and the mill was not profitable. Although the woolen mill closed in 1898, the mill itself continued to serve the surrounding community as a grist mill. Members of the Watkins family lived in the house until 1945 when the farm and mill were sold. Acquired by the Watkins Mill Association in 1958, the property was opened to the public for tours. The property was acquired by the state of Missouri in 1964 and the creation of Watkins Mill State Park soon followed. Today, Watkins Mill is a National Historic Landmark where both the house and mill are open for guided tours. The state park features a campground, picnic areas, trails, lakes, and a visitor center that has exhibits on the history of the Watkins family and the woolen mill.
Winterset, Iowa
John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907 in the rural community of Winterset, Iowa. His father, Clyde Leonard Morrison, was a pharmacist and the family lived in many communities throughout Iowa before finally moving to Glendale, California in 1924. As a star football player at Glendale High School, he earned a football scholarship in 1925 to attend the University of Southern California (USC) where he played tackle under coach Howard Jones. While a student at USC, he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity which remained an important part of his entire adult life. A bodysurfing accident in Newport Beach broke his collarbone and tore shoulder muscles thus ending his football career. During the summers, he worked in the prop department at Fox Film Corp where his work ethic caught the eye of legendary film director John Ford.
John Wayne’s first film appearance was an uncredited role as a football player in the 1926 silent film Brown of Harvard. He followed up that debut appearing as an extra in over a dozen films, sometimes credited as “Duke Morrison”. In 1930, he got his big break when he was cast in the starring role of the western The Big Trail where he was first billed as “John Wayne”. Throughout the 1930s, John Wayne’s acting career was dominated by low-budget “B” westerns. John Wayne’s break through role as a major Hollywood star came in 1939 when he starred in John Ford’s Stagecoach. Wayne and Ford went on to collaborate on 13 additional feature films between 1939 and 1963 including such hits as Fort Apache (1948), Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), and The Searchers (1956). While primarily known as a western icon, Wayne also starred in over a dozen war movies including such hits as Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), The Longest Day (1962), and The Green Berets (1968).
Over a 50-year career, John Wayne appeared in over 170 feature-length films and had the leading role in 142 of those films. In 1970, Wayne won his only Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. Known to his friends as “The Duke”, Wayne had numerous Hollywood friends including Ward Bond, John Ford, Bob Hope, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, and Kirk Douglas. They would often join him at his waterfront home in Newport Beach or on his yacht, The Wild Goose, to play bridge. In 1976, a terminally ill John Wayne appeared in his final film, The Shootist, in which he played a gunfighter dealing with his own mortality. John Wayne died in Los Angeles on June 11, 1979 at the age of 72 from stomach cancer.
Following his death, friends and supporters rallied to preserve and restore the four-room home in which Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa. His birthplace officially opened to the public in the mid-1980s and one of the first visitors was a long-time friend, President Ronald Reagan. After years of planning and fundraising, a new $2 million museum facility opened adjacent to the birthplace house in April 2015. The John Wayne Birthplace Museum showcases an extensive collection of John Wayne artifacts including movie posters, scripts, letters, film wardrobe, and one of his custom-built vehicles. It also includes a 130-seat theater featuring original seats from Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Every year around his May 26th birthday, the town of Winterset hosts the John Wayne Birthday Celebration which features receptions, benefit auction, concerts, a 5K walk/run, and movie screenings at the Iowa Theater in downtown Winterset which opened in 1914.
Clear Lake, Iowa
The historic Surf Ballroom opened along the shore of Clear Lake in Iowa in 1933. It was the brainchild of Carl J. Fox who owned two other music venues in nearby Minnesota. The name and tropical motif of the Surf Ballroom were inspired by Fox’s desire to recreate the ambiance of an ocean beach club. Hand-painted murals on the back walls depicted pounding surf, swaying palm trees, sailboats, and lighthouses. Furnishings were made of bamboo and rattan, enhancing the South Sea Island theme. In the 1930s and ’40s, a big band couldn’t build a national reputation without playing the Surf Ballroom. Legendary acts like Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and The Dorsey Brothers were regulars. At the time, ballrooms were the epicenter of entertainment—dancing was the main attraction.
Tragedy struck in the early morning hours of April 20, 1947, when a fire destroyed the original building. Plans for a replacement were quickly set in motion, and the new Surf Ballroom was constructed across the street where it officially reopened on July 1, 1948. The 1950s ushered in the era of rock and roll, and then-manager Carroll Anderson was quick to book the biggest names in the business. Artists like The Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Ricky Nelson, Little Richard, Jan and Dean, and Conway Twitty all graced the stage at the Surf Ballroom. It became one of the first ballrooms in the Midwest to regularly feature rock ’n’ roll acts, earning its reputation as a must-play venue.
The Surf Ballroom earned its place in history on the evening of February 2, 1959 when it hosted the now-legendary Winter Dance Party featuring Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, Dion & The Belmonts, and Frankie Sardo. Following the concert, Holly had chartered a plane to take him to their next venue. He boarded the plane along with Valens and Richardson in the early morning hours of February 3, 1959. Tragedy struck when the plane crashed in a cornfield not long after takeoff killing all onboard. The event shocked the nation and became known as “The Day the Music Stopped”. Today, there is a small memorial along the fence line in the field where the plane crashed. The Surf Ballroom continues to honor the memory of Holly, Valens, and Richardson along with hosting iconic performers. The venue is keeping its legacy alive as a cornerstone of American music with performers like Santana, REO Speedwagon, Kansas, Alice Cooper, The Doobie Brothers, B.B. King, ZZ Top, Martina McBride, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Robert Plant, and many more. Adjacent to the ballroom is a new museum which has an interactive theater about its history and artifacts from its storied past. It also serves as a center for music with studios and lessons for the community. So really the music hasn’t stopped at the Surf Ballroom, it still lives on.
