Most Wanted "Lost Photos"

MoOzark · August 01, 2013, 03:11:00 PM

I am starting a new thread to talk about photos I'd like to have. I have been collecting photos and postcards from Branson area locations for many years. There are several photos from Silver Dollar City's past that I have looked for but never found. I'm not giving up on ever seeing them because I have come across photos in the past of places I had almost given up on. For example, there used to be a small sign along MO-76 that pointed out "Sammy Lanes Lookout." I looked for a photo of that for years. Then recently I came across a 1950s postcard of the sign.

If anyone has any of these "most wanted" I like to have a JPG scan in 300 to 600 dpi. The reason is that I not only want them for my collection but I am also working on future books about SDC and the Branson area.

1) One photo I'd really like to find is of the large SDC sign that stood in downtown Branson at the intersection of old US-65 and MO-76. I believe the billboard is still there but has had various ads on it over the years. The SDC sign was there in the 1960s. It was a picture of an Ozark native shown from the back side. His face was not visible. The figure was wearing a black flop hat and holding an ax over his shoulder. His arm was stretched out pointing the way to SDC. It probably had words on it but I can't remember what it said. I remember that the southbound traffic on US-65 was always backed up there. On Saturday mornings it could take as much as a half-hour to get through the intersection. That is the main reason that the MO highway department built the US-65 bypass.

2) Any photos of "Slanting Sam the Miner's Shack." That was the first incarnation of what is now Grandfather's Mansion in the early 1960s.

3) Any photo of the "Haunted House." That was a very early attraction talked about in the first SDC souvenir booklet. I have no idea how long it was there or what happened to it.

I will be listing some others in the future as I think of them.

Junior · August 01, 2013, 03:50:27 PM

MoOzark: I have scanned a photo of the downtown Branson billboard you described. The photo was taken in 1972 and was scanned from the currently available booklet "Branson a Time Line History" by Jerry S. Madsen. The booklet is available at SDC's Hospitality House and Ozark Marketplace. It is also sold at many gift shops and tourist places around Branson. Madsen, to the best of my knowledge, lives in the Branson area and I am sure you could contact him to find his original source. Also try looking for the photo in the Branson Centennial Museum in the downtown area or at the Branson Tri Lakes Chamber of Commerce files. I remember the billboard. It was replaced with the brown background sign with a logo on it in the mid-70s and was in place into at least the mid 80s. Photo available at my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juniordugan

I am eager to see any photos of Slantin' Sam's or the Haunted House you can find. Question: Could the haunted house actually be listed on later SDC maps as "The Butterfield Hotel?" I remember the building, located across the RR tracks from FITH. It was torn down about 1979, but before then, it really was an old pre-SDC farmhouse that was just sitting there rotting down and used as the Butterfield Hotel, mentioned on the stagecoach ride by the coach driver as "fine lodging in the Ozarks." Of course, the line was used just prior to the "hotel" coming into view, and when the visitors saw the ramshackle building, everyone had a laugh. Later, in the mid and late 70's, I remember the singing bartenders and saloon girls sitting on old chairs on the porch during work breaks. They would wave at the passengers on the train as it went by.

MoOzark, if you want me to email this scan to you, leave me a private message with your email address and I will get it to you. Sorry the quality is not higher, but I think it is in the lower end of the quality range you asked for. Give Marsden the credit if he gives approval for its commercial use in your projects. Good luck!

MoOzark · August 01, 2013, 07:54:43 PM

Junior: I have that book but had forgotten that photo is in there. Anyway, my wife and I were discussing that photo. We don't think that is the one we remember. So, either my memory is bad or maybe the photo in the book is of a later sign. Well, my memory has been wrong before. I really don't know where the Haunted House was. I've only seen one reference to it and it didn't say much. Yes, I do need to talk to the folks at the Centennial Museum. I know they have a lot of scanned photos that have not been on display. I had part of my collection on display there last spring when the topic was tourism. So I know those folks.

Joy · August 02, 2013, 12:27:40 AM

I would also try MSU's Meyer Library, 'cause I know they have a whole bunch of Ozark-related stuff in their archives, so you might find some Branson/SDC-related stuff there, too.

rubedugans · August 02, 2013, 10:47:42 AM

I only have postcards of the shack.

MoOzark · August 04, 2013, 12:26:43 PM

Another photo I've looked for is any picture of the INSIDE of Herman the Hermit's Tree House. I'm not sure what year it opened--probably around 1966-67. The inside was Herman's living room with all kinds of things in motion. There were so many things to see that you couldn't notice everything. The upper level was the same type of thing. A few years later they added an infinity room that exited to a concrete slide (or steps if you didn't want to slide).

I have a few different postcards of the outside but I have never seen any photos of the inside. If any video exists of this it would be a national treasure (as far as I'm concerned).

chittlins · August 04, 2013, 01:05:26 PM

Quote from: MoOzark on August 04, 2013, 12:26:43 PM
Another photo I've looked for is any picture of the INSIDE of Herman the Hermit's Tree House. I'm not sure what year it opened--probably around 1966-67. The inside was Herman's living room with all kinds of things in motion. There were so many things to see that you couldn't notice everything. The upper level was the same type of thing. A few years later they added an infinity room that exited to a concrete slide (or steps if you didn't want to slide).

I have a few different postcards of the outside but I have never seen any photos of the inside. If any video exists of this it would be a national treasure (as far as I'm concerned).

Find some of those and you'll be into something good.

Sad, I never saw this, maybe the clocks in Outlaw Run is a homage, nah, no way.

Junior · August 04, 2013, 03:48:58 PM

The inside of Herman the Hermit's Tree Top House was pretty cool. It was all comprised of crazy contraptions, Herman's inventions...and they all worked. For instance, a chicken would lay an egg, which would roll down a chute, and the egg would strike a metal bar which in turn would cause another gadget to move. Very clever and inventive, and all very humorous. Both levels did feature that stuff. I used to work in the tree top house in the period of 80-83. This is at the time it was ending the old original form and was changed to Huck Finn's Hideaway. Of course, most of the young folk here remember that version. Sweeping out the Infinity Room after a night on the town was a blurry, bloodshot eye experience I wish never to repeat again in my life. (Ha!) I know of NO inside photos or video images of the old innards of the tree top house, and, like previously said, it would be like finding gold if anybody had something like this they could share here.

clancomyn · August 05, 2013, 06:36:13 PM

Quote from: Joy on August 02, 2013, 12:27:40 AM
I would also try MSU's Meyer Library, 'cause I know they have a whole bunch of Ozark-related stuff in their archives, so you might find some Branson/SDC-related stuff there, too.

The Local History & Genealogy Department at the Springfield-Greene Co. Library on South Campbell also maintains information files on a wide variety of subjects relating to the Ozarks.

T.