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Thanks to everyone who has replied so far; I think tinmann620 and I have came up with a pretty good plan to get the Coast Guard stuff for my future Coastie. 

Question for you SDC experts:

About a month or so ago, I happened to be at SDC with a lady friend and our four kids -- we don't have season passes, but she had guest passes we were able to get on. We happened into the gift shop at Fireman's Landing, and I noted that they had several Coast Guard related toys there. I am a member of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla in Springfield, and anything CG related in terms of kids tends to catch my eye. I wasn't able to buy anything, given my son was with me, but his birthday is next week, and I would like to get him one of the CG toys.

Here's where I'm a cheapskate -- I really don't want to purchase a ticket or season passes to go to the gift shop. Does SDC allow for "off-the-street" purchases or online ordering?

Todd

Post deleted. I guess I wasn't supposed to talk about the topic.

The Stone County Home Guard? They are also linked to another well-known local legend of "Dead Man's" Pond (known officially as Yocum Pond) just outside of Reeds Spring. Vance Randolph has the best-known documentation of that particular ghost story.

Yes, according to the source it was the Stone County Home Guard. However, it did not identify the specific Regiment and Company. There is also another story associated with this about the bushwhacker's wife (or sister) returning about 20 years later to claim the body. Apparently no remains were ever found and there was this theory that the bones had been dissolved by chemicals in the bat guano. In another version of the story, it was Belle Starr that came for the body. So there are several things to be sorted out to get the real story on this.

The Stone County Home Guard was the unit; individual companies would be raised by an individual (Captain So-and-So's Company) and given a letter desgination -- Company A, B, etc. During the Civil War, a regiment consisted of 1,000 men divided into ten-twelve companies; the regiment would be further divided into battalions. Most county home guard organizations would be on the battalion level.

Sorry to get pedantic there. :wink:

I find this discussion quite interesting because I am currently writing a history of the Marvel Cave area of Stone County, Missouri. It is sort of a history of the area before it was Silver Dollar City. One goal I have for this book is to track down the origins of the folk tales and determine if they are based on any actual history. I am finding that many of the stories do have a basis in fact but have been twisted with the retelling. It seems that everyone who writes the history only researches what others have recently written. Like whispering a story in the ear of one person who in turn whispers into the ear of another, the story is continually changing.

Part of the problem with these stories is that it is often HARD to determine what the REAL STORY is. It is difficult to separate the myth from history. The reason for this is often the lack of documentation. Not many towns in SW Missouri had a newspaper in the 1880s. One that did was Galena. However, no issues of the newspaper from that era have survived to this day. With great persistence I have been able to find a few gems of history in some very rare books and an occasional newspaper article in an out of town newspaper.

The story of the man thrown into the cave by the Bald Knobbers is based on fact, but the real story is a bit different. The incident had nothing to do with the Bald Knobbers and was before the Bald Knobber era. It happened in 1865 at the end of the Civil War. An accused bushwhacker is said to have been thrown into the Devil’s Den (now Marvel Cave) by a “home guard” unit of the Union Army.

One story that I have NOT found a source for yet is the one about the Bald Knobbers burning the town of Marmaros. I suspect that a common forest fire may be the culprit but the research goes on. There was a large forest fire in the area about the same time that the cave was sold to Mr. Lynch. If anyone knows of any historical source for the burning of the town, please post it here.

The Stone County Home Guard? They are also linked to another well-known local legend of "Dead Man's" Pond (known officially as Yocum Pond) just outside of Reeds Spring. Vance Randolph has the best-known documentation of that particular ghost story.

I should know more about this by now, but I have heard SDC referred to as supposed the rebuilding of Marmaros, which legend says was burned down by Baldknobbers (after it had already essentially been abandoned though). A lot of older SDC signage was big on referring to Marmaros. I think it's something that the PTB have let slip in favor of being more generic.


Also, there's this from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cave

According to Silver Dollar City park legend, a local group of vigilantes who later turned into outlaws called the Bald Knobbers were known for throwing people through the sinkhole into Devil's Den around the mid 19th century. Though it's likely that roving Bushwhackers and outlaws would've undoubtedly chosen to dispose of their victims through this sinkhole, the Bald Knobbers did not form until 1883 (starting-up in neighboring Taney County), were replaced by an unofficial chapter in 1886 within nearby Christian County, with unofficial chapters in other counties (including Stone County where the cave is located) later than that.

However, though there is no written evidence to substantiate it, it's possible that Stone County's unofficial Bald Knobbers used the cave for various uses sometime in 1889, between the time the mining operations ceased and late October of that year when it was purchased for sightseeing tours.

and on the same page:

Marmaros (Greek for Marble) was a small town that formed along with the Marble Cave Mining and Manufacturing Company in 1884. It was originally called Marble City. It was located on the rough hilltop near the cave and recorded a plat map at the courthouse in Galena, Missouri. Marmaros contained a hotel, general store, pottery shop, white oak furniture factory, and was rumored to have a saloon. The town turned into a ghost town in 1889 after the Marble Cave Mining, Co. closed. When the Lynches bought the cave, the town was burned to the ground by the local group of vigilantes known as the Bald Knobbers.

Interesting, because the hanging of the Christian County Bald Knobbers on the courthouse square in Ozark occurred in 1889; the Taney County Chapter had disbanded several years before. Of course, local legend frequently assigns such acts to others; witness how many towns in the South were destroyed by General Sherman, or how many beds General Washington slept in. 

Given the nature of the two chapters, it's quite probable that the Bald Knobber name and legacy were taken by almost any group wanting to use it to their own ends.

It's still a great story, and like so many other legends, there is an element of truth. Truth be told, I've always wanted to bring the Bald Knobber mask my friend and I had made for our storytelling program years ago to SDC and put it on right before the car emerges from the last drop in FITH. 

[IS]

My point is that even FM, GM, and AP are not integral to the storyline of SDC.  Marmaros is.  I don't want any of that "holy trinity" to leave, but with FitH IS the story, while the others only contribute to it.

With the direction of this conversation, perhaps we were not quite ready for this thread, Shave.

I understand that FitH has the most exciting story and that it is based in actual history, but I'm a little bit confused as to how it "IS" the story.  Is Silver Dollar City itself supposed to be the town that grew out of the ashes of Marmaros?  Or is it a representation of Marmaros had the cave been full of more bat s#`+ and maybe some real marble or silver to boot?  OK maybe I do see your point, but I still wouldn't mess with these 3+1.  Leave well enough alone, I say. There's plenty of room to expand.  As to the original question, it seems like my best bet would be a FE clone or a year off (say less than 3 or 4m), but that's just my outsider's read.

A very good question; To my knowledge, the Taney County Bald Knobbers were never associated with the cave, and they were never known to wear the iconic masks as depicted on the ride. In general, the Taney County group's reputation was not as besmirched as the Christian County organization. I'm not aware of a Stone County Chapter, but vigilante groups were common in SW MO; Greene County had a group known as "The Regulators" immediately after the Civil War, but it was relatively short-lived.

Now that you mention it, the 150th anniversary of the Civil War would have been the perfect time to bring back For the Glory. I didn't get to see it when I was working the NPS/Wilson's Creek information table at the park back in 2001, but I had to give TPB at that time major props for working with NPS and attempting to educate SDC visitors about area historic sites.

A ride themed to a Spooklight would be AWESOME. Like, have any of you guys been on Test Track at Epcot? (the older version) There's a part that has you driving on curvy mountain roads with trees and stuff, and I can see a Spooklight ride using a similar type of ride, only you're in a wagon and trying to get away from the Spooklight.

The spook light could easily be transferred to SDC, given that a number of its legends deal with miners in the Tri-State Mining Area in OK/KS/MO. Randolph documents a number of will-o-the-wisp legends in the Ozarks.

T.

Tom and Huck aren't Ozarkian either, nor are diving bells.  There have been other proposals, like Lewis and Clark, that also do not pertain to southern Missouri or the Ozarks.

I can see the Mark Twain connection, though...at least it's in the same century as SDC. As the link to the MO Folklore Society shows, the whole MOMO story didn't even really begin until the 1970s. Besides the White River Monster, there is the Ozark Howler and even the Hornet Spook light that might make fun "quests" for a themed ride.

There just so much great local material, thanks to the efforts of Vance Randolph and others, that should be highlighted. If it wasn't for the efforts of Randolph and his friends, I daresay there wouldn't even be a Silver Dollar City.

Again, not trying to be pedantic per se. I'd just like to see SDC return to a little of its roots. There's room for everyone at the dance.

T.

Not to be the pedantic killjoy here, but MOMO ("Missouri Monster") has never been associated with the Ozarks, and was only seen in the 20th century in Louisiana, MO.

http://missourifolkloresociety.truman.edu/momo.html

There's plenty of good ghost stories in Randolph's Ozark Magic and Folklore. A ride themed around Breadtray Mountain/the Yocum Silver Dollar legend would be awesome!



T.

Kentucky Colonel & Texas Navy Admiral here!

pardon me if I digress, but as I have mentioned in old posts here there are many ties between Silver Dollar City and rawhide Arizona. The stagecoach is from Silver Dollar City, the Entertainment Group that preformed all of the comedy Street shows was started by Silver Dollar City entertainers. yours truly designed and built the old rawhide blacksmith shop, Cemetery, and some of the performance areas in the old Park.we even purchased old costumes from Silver Dollar City's costume shop

Now that brought a smile to my face! Thank you for sharing that.

Jan and Jon were very, very, disappointed in the early 90's when the direction of park management changed. Jon's mom was Jack Herschend's secretary, and his dad was the famous "Captain Goldsberry" the head scrimshaw artist. You've seen his postcard, and that's Jon's dad in the photos of the craftsmen that I posted a few days ago. I hope that some day they will go back to SDC and perform their traditional music on guitar and hammer dulcimer. They have been successful on the festival circuit, too. Jon was always a good guy to work with. I worked with him on and off from the time I was 16 until when I left the park at about age 21.  I will always have fond memories of him, a guy with a good sense of humor, and with some talent as a songwriter, musician, and performer.

Your post reminded me Junior that Jon was good friends with a friend of mine who used to work at the Gunsmith's shop named Garland Green. I wonder if anyone remembers him? Garland later moved to Springfield and opened up a military surplus & reenactor's supply store called "The Post Exchange". It used to be in an old Flea Market (now trendy lofts) in Boonville Street, and then he later moved to a place on Kearney.

T.

Years ago a friend in high school gave me a tape of a folk singer who performed at SDC named John Corbin <sic?>. This particular tape was of Christmas music from the Middle Ages/Elizabethan period, and I believe was titled "Drive the Cold Winter Away". I also had another one of his tapes, "Whisky Before Breakfast", which had a great rendition of the song "Scotland the Brave" on it.

Is anyone familiar with these albums, and is Corbin still performing? I'd love to have a CD of them, especially the Christmas one. Even though we're not to Advent yet, I'd still love to hear those songs. 

Regards,

Todd