50 years ago
Oct. 16, 1974
— 300 CASSVILLE PACKS TO U.S. PARKS MEET
Three hundred packets containing a Roaring River State Park paper weight and a genuine Barry County buckeye, will be presented state park organization representatives in a national meeting on Lake of the Ozarks next week. Joe R. Ellis of Cassville, a member of the Missouri Park Board, will make the presentation. The packets were prepared by the Cassville Chamber of Commerce. A tab closing the packets has a picture of the twin falls at Roaring River and a message about Cassville and the luck of the buckeye on the back side. Paper weights for the project, which have a figure of a trout fisherman, an outline of the State of Missouri with Roaring River’s location were furnished by Johnston’s Hardware and Variety. The buckeyes were gathered by Mrs. Dale Rowland. Each of the Missouri directors was asked to furnish a souvenir of their community for the project. Bill and Virginia Ward of the C of C office completed the project of packaging the articles.
40 years ago
Oct. 17, 1984
— FOREST COLOR SHOW GETS EXPLANATION FOR CHANGE
Since the weather has been changing slowly from the hot humid nights to the brisk cool nights that always mark the beginning of fall, we have been hearing the question, “Will the fall colors be pretty this year?”, asks Bruce Polmar, area conservation commission Forrester. It seems that there are two schools of thought on this subject. One, if the weather is dry and there has not been ample rainfall, the colors will not be bright, but dull with more browns than during a normal year. The other, it doesn’t make any difference to the tree or its leaves whether rainfall is plentiful or not. One thing for sure, as the days are getting shorter, and the nights cooler, the leaves are beginning to change color. Even before frost some of the leaves had begun to transform into a beautiful array of color. Contrary to belief, frost doesn’t repaint the autumn leaves. The chemistry is set in motion by the shortening day length as winter grows near. It signals to the tree that it is time to shut down the laboratory, the green leaf, for the winter. The tree pulls in from its leaves, the foodstuffs such as sugars, starches and proteins, and draws them down into the branches and trunk for winter storage. Next, the leaves must fall to keep them from drawing on the tree’s now dormant sap system. A clean break from the tree is assured by a tiny layer of cells at the base of each leaf which disintegrates, stripping it from the twig. The formation of the separation layer takes about two weeks, and it is during this time that autumn presents her grandest display. As the layer forms, it clogs the pipeline from the twig to the leaf. The chlorophyll in the leaf, which dominated the intense green color of summer, is no longer being renewed, and it breaks down quickly. But it doesn’t change into the colors of fall foliage, as once believed. It simply wastes away, revealing other pigments which were hidden in the leaf all summer. The first colors to shine through are the carotenoids, which appear elsewhere in nature, sunflowers, oranges, lemons, red peppers and tomatoes. Yellowish and yellowish- orange to red, they color the hickories a dull gold and poplars a pale yellow. These yellows are fall’s most common color. The scarlets, lavenders and vermilions come about through an entirely different process. They are produced by anthrocyanius, which also color ripe apples, roses, violets, grapes, blueberries and beets. Although not found in most summer leaves, the anthrocyanius are active in the bright days and crisp nights. They peak in color as sunlight and the last bit of chlorophyll trigger a final burst of sugar production in the dying leaves. Lastly the golden bronze of some of the oaks is produced by a combination of carotenoids with still another group of pigments, the brown tannins. What do you think? Are the fall colors pretty this year? Remember, Paul Johnson, ranger of the Cassville district of Mark Twain National Forest, estimates the fall color peak to be the weekend of October 19-21. Dry conditions this summer might change the date and intensity of the show, but that’s the date of the peak as of now. The peak of the fall color in Ozark Mountain Country is expected this year after the middle of the month. According to District Forester Bill Todd, this fall should be a fairly colorful one. In the fall, the best coloration usually starts at the end of September, continues all during the month of October and spills over into early November, depending, usually, on the minimum nighttime temperatures. Because of the Ozark’s central location among the contiguous 48 states, the forests are a unique blend of what are probably more varieties of trees than any other part of the continent. Missouri, for example, has 34 varieties of oak trees, more than any other state. While the Pacific Northwest has its beautiful maples, New England is mostly hardwoods, and the Appalachians is a vista of yellow popular, the Ozarks has trees of both the northern and southern areas of the Central Hardwood Forests. Along with this is a small region in Southwest Missouri that is classed as southern forest, an area of alluvial bottoms and swamps, with trees such as tupelos, swamp oaks, cypress and swamp hickories. District Forester Todd stated, “If the early frost didn’t knock us out, the height of the Fall color will be the week beginning October 15.”
— TOURISM DID WELL IN NEW SCHOOL START
Missouri’s tourism industry experienced a 25 percent increase in business from August 19-31 of this year compared to last year, resulting in approximately $40 million in increased gross revenues, $4.2 million in additional payrolls TOT 16,000 seasonal workers, and $1.6 million in state tax revenue, according to statistics compiled by the Travel Federation of Missouri. Preliminary indications from 23 tourism- related attractions and businesses around the state showed that Missouri’s new post-Labor Day school opening law resulted in significant increases in attendance during late August. Most of the visitors to these attractions and businesses during this period were from Missouri. “The strong attendance figures are evidence that opening Missouri’s schools after Labor Day makes significant contribution to the state’s economy,” said Travel Federation of Missouri President Peter Herschend. “In addition, Missourians are taking advantage of the extra opportunity to vacation before summer’s end.” Missouri’s new school opening legislation requires that schools open after the Labor Day weekend, except for schools in districts which the local school board defines as agricultural in nature. According to Dr. Arthur Mallory of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, almost all school districts in major metropolitan areas opened after Labor Day, as well as most other school districts around the state. Final data on school district openings will be available in October. “The positive economic impact of the post-Labor Day school opening law on Missouri’s tourism industry provided an ideal finish to a strong late-summer tourism season,” Herschend said. “Even with some school districts opening early, the economic goals for Missouri that we said would be achieved through this law have, in fact, been realized.” During the same period, business in the Ozarks was up approximately 45 percent over last year, while the Lake of the Ozarks area generated an estimated 30 percent increase business over last year. in Arkansas tourism industry is also reporting significant increases in business during late August, Arkansas is the only state contiguous to Missouri which has a post-Labor Day school opening law.
30 years ago
Oct. 5, 1994
— KANSAS FIRM PURCHASES BARRY COUNTY LUMBER
A Manhatten, Ks., family firm, Kansas Lumber Co. Homestore, has extended holdings in Missouri to include Barry County Lumber Co. in Cassville. The Glasscock family has purchased the business in Cassville from Mr. and Mrs. Herschel Stehlik. Transactions were completed Tuesday after the Cassville business was closed Friday, Saturday and Monday for inventory. Todd Fulmer, general manager of The Homestore operations in Kansas and Cassville, said Bob/ Close would become manager of the Cassville operations. He said personnel would remain the same with the only immediate change planned was in signing of the business and extension of business hours. Mr. and Mrs. Stehlik started Barry County Lumber from scratch, opening in a South Main Street truck dock in June of 1958. They later expanded the business and moved to the present location on Highway 248 east of town. The Stehliks previously disposed of building material operations in Osceola, Ash Grove and Shell Knob. Stehlik will remain with The Homestore for a limited time as consultant. Fulmer and Close said the firm coming to Cassville presently has operations in Manhatten, Corcordia, Phillipsburg and Norton in Kansas; Marshall and Hannibal in Missouri and Keokuk, Iowa. Close will be moving to Cassville with his family to join him later. Stehlik is also involved with his son Corky in Barry County Ready-Mix Concrete in Cassville and operations in Shell Knob and Eagle Rock. The family is also developing Jumping-Jacks subdivision on the northwest edge of Cassville.
— ROARING RIVER RECORD TAG TO ‘JOLLY IRISHMAN’
Roaring River State Park has a brand new trout tag sales record. And, receiving the record tag number 110,674 was James C. Kirkpatrick, former Missouri secretary of state who never missed a park opening during his tenure in the state office. Jack Nickols, park concessionaire presented “the Jolly Irishman” with the daily tag while he was here on a political speaking event. To make the record official, Kirkpatrick paid the concessionaire the $2 daily fee for the tag. Reaching a new record, which excels the 110,673 standard set in 1989, Roaring River could establish a record that will stand for years to come. Jerry Dean, Missouri Conservation Commission hatchery manager, said the state normally provided 120,000 daily tags at Roaring River. He said this week Nickols had ordered an additional 5,000 tags over that usual supply just to be certain they didn’t run out before the season closes at the end of the fishing day October 31. Kirkpatrick got the tag as a bonus, after addressing a crowd of some 400 at a Democratic party sponsored rally in the park. He noted in the speaking his visits to this area most usually included a fishing trip to the park. He was greeted by well-wishers in groups, most of whom recalled previous appearances both in Roaring River and in Cassville. The one-time secretary of state said he wasn’t surprised Roaring River was experiencing a special year in all departments. “It’s no secret I’ve always been prejudiced to Roaring River and have been here at every opportunity.” Kirkpatrick, 89, has virtually left the political speaking circuit in Missouri, but made this one exception at the invitation of county clerk Rex Stumpff. Regarding the trout tag record achieved, Dean said hatchery crews of MCD had provided 258,125 fish thus-far in the season. The fish, ideally at the 12 inch size, weighed 203,000 pounds. “That’s 31,000 more fish at the end of September than stocked last year,” Dean noted. Roaring River raised 205,000 of these fish, the remainder coming from Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery below Table Rock Dam. The imported fish come in an eight to nine inch size, Roaring River personnel gets them to around a foot long by their growing process of about one inch a month. Roaring River might be cutting a record that will be most difficult to break in the future. By noon Tuesday of this week the tag sales had grown to 11l,587. Music for the event was provided by the Baker family. Organizer Rex Stumpff, introduced other Democrat candidates for short remarks. Bob Mitchell introduced Kirkpatrick.
