Where was the Marvel Cave Cabin?

MoOzark · February 06, 2012, 01:58:39 PM

I've been a lurker on the SDCFans website for quite awhile but this is my first post. I've been a collector of Branson area, Silver Dollar City, Shepherd of the Hills, and Harold Bell Wright items for 20+ years. I've also been researching Branson area history for at least that long. I am currently writing a history of tourism in Branson that will probably be released in multiple volumes. Volume one will be about Marmaros, the Marble Cave Mining Company, and people who lived in the area during the 1880s-1900. The book will probably be more photos than text and I have many photos that have never been published before.

One problem I have is that I still have questions that have not been answered by my research and I seem to have exhausted my source of knowledgeable persons. So, I am going to try asking some questions on this forum and here is one of them:

I have seen several photos of a log cabin that once stood near the entrance to Marble Cave. I have seen it labeled as: the Lynch Home at Marble Cave; the Marvel Cave Lodge; the Marvel Cave Café; Marvel Cave Office; and the Tea Room/Gift Shop. It was apparently remodeled several times over the years and was used for different purposes. See photos #9-14 on Gerry Chudleigh's website at:
http://www.gchudleigh.com/marvelcavepc.htm

My main questions are: Does anyone know the exact spot where this cabin stood? I believe it may have stood where the Hospitality House is now but I'm not certain. Does anyone know when it was built? Was it one of the original buildings from the town of Marmaros that did not burn? I have read that Truman Powell built a home near the cave entrance during the time that the cave was being mined of guano. The cabin looks rather old, even in the earliest known photo. Could this cabin be the home that Powell built in the 1880s? Also, does anyone know what happened to the cabin? Was it torn down to make way for the Hospitality House? Thanks.

Junior · February 06, 2012, 05:31:03 PM

When I worked on park 78-84, one cabin from the old days was left. It was called "Shad's" because apparently Shad Heller lived in it at one point. When I worked there, the cabin had been changed into a security office and a lean to on the side of it was the location that housed a time clock and our time cards. I punched in and out of work there for years. The cabin, or what is left of it, is still there! It is in the Grand Exposition Area, and I think is used for the nursing station. There may still be a security office in there, too, but I can't remember right now. Look for it next time you are on park. The other buildings, I cannot tell you about with certainty. However, there was a building that was located just across the RR tracks from FITH that was known as "The Butterfield Hotel." Look on early park maps, though the location flits around with each new artistic design for the map. The hotel was really an old farm house, left over from pre-SDC days. When it got into a dilapidated condition and became an eyesore, it was removed, sometime around the winter of 1979 or 1980. That spot is part of the pathway leading to Wilson's Farm now.

Junior · February 06, 2012, 05:35:57 PM

MoOzark: Want to add this, you appear to be serious from your post, and I want to say this. You can directly approach Jack and Pete Herschend and ask for an interview. If you don't, who knows, they are getting older, know what I mean? They will be here one day and gone the next. Don't wait. Do it now, when things are quiet in Branson as they are gearing up for a new year. You might get lucky, and one or both of them might actually walk you around the park and point out locations of pre-SDC stuff. You can contact the administration at SDC and make a request. Also, don't forget the phone book. When I lived in Branson, they were both listed. Call 'em at home, talk to their spouses, too, they have been with them since the beginning as well. Good luck with the writing project! (I'm a freelance journalist myself, and have 20 years experience as a broadcast news writer.)

How-doFolks · February 07, 2012, 05:33:02 AM

Very interesting topic & great pictures!! Thanks for sharing MoOzark!!

sanddunerider · February 07, 2012, 10:39:22 AM

Veyr nice shots. good luck on your research. glad to have you AND your knoledge onboard!

Copper · February 07, 2012, 06:10:15 PM

The Lynch home was located where SDC now stores its festival booths and other such items. Basically, it was located just across the road from Uncle Ike's post office. It was willed to Velma Bass, she worked for the Lynch family and many of SDC's archived Lynch photos came from Velma. The house looked closer to numbers 10-12; I was given an old glass bottle from the building before it was removed. I am not sure if number 9 is the same building. At one time the Lynch family had built several cabins to house guests to the property and I know two of them completely burned (not 100%, but the burned cabins may have been located closer to the Cave). There is a good article about a city ladies visit to Marvel Cave, I will have to dig and find it, she was from Chicago and she describe the cabin and the Lynch sisters rather well.

MoOzark · February 11, 2012, 10:57:28 PM

Quote from: Copper on February 07, 2012, 06:10:15 PM
The house looked closer to numbers 10-12; I was given an old glass bottle from the building before it was removed. I am not sure if number 9 is the same building. At one time the Lynch family had built several cabins to house guests to the property and I know two of them completely burned (not 100%, but the burned cabins may have been located closer to the Cave).

Copper,
You are probably right about photo #9 not being the same building as #10-12. This is something that was discussed on the Harold Bell Wright website a few years ago. Some had argued that #10-12 could be the same building as the cabin (#9) after remodeling and adding on to it. One piece of evidence was that the chimney looked the same in all of those photos. Now, I'm thinking the chimney may just be a coincidence. I was looking at my photos with a magnifying glass and I believe the chimneys are slightly different. I have another photo that is not posted on the HBW website. It looks very similar to the cabin in photo #9 and the caption says, "Marvel Cave Cabin." So, I guess I'm still wondering where the cabin was. It is probably one of the cabins that you said had burned sometime in the past.

MoOzark · February 26, 2012, 07:30:40 PM

Another thing that I have found very little info on is the "town" of Marmaros which was supposed to have been at the present day location of Silver Dollar City. In Crystal Payton's THE STORY OF SILVER DOLLAR CITY, she tells about 80+ year old Charley Sullivan coming to Marvel Cave in 1954. Sullivan claimed he had been born in the Marmaros General Store. He showed the Herschend's where the foundations of the store had been and also the school, hotel, pottery shop, and furniture factory. (p. 52).

I have a photo of a school that once stood near the cave, known as the "Marvel Cave School." The school looks like a typical one-room schoolhouse of the early 1900's. It may have replaced one that burned at Marmaros. The school is represented in photos as the "Cove School" from The Shepherd of the Hills.

I would really like to create a map of Marmaros for my book but I have never found any descriptions of where each building was located. The original plat for "Marble City" appears in Crystal Payton's book but no buildings are located. I think I have a copy (somewhere?) of the original post office application for Marmaros but I haven't seen it in a few years. I think that the name "Marble City" may have been on the first application and it was rejected by the government.

Please let me know if anyone knows of a research source I don't know about. It may be that the Herschend brothers are the only ones that might know were some of the buildings were.