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[History Buff]

Here is the new thread for our discussion about real history that can be found at Silver Dollar City.  Keep it positive, keep it productive, and let's try to understand differing points of view.   

[History Buff]

As a fourth grade teacher, I can attest to the fact that history has long been pushed into a dusty corner in elementary school.  That makes for poor conditions for getting kids interested in the subject by the time they enter middle school or high school.  Recognizing that history is how we teach citizenship, critical thinking, heritage, and growth, I advocate for bringing it out of the corner and emphasizing it in our classrooms.  It won't do any good for our kids to learn how to read and calculate if they don't know anything about the nation in which they function.  Here is the first of a series of History Mythbusting posts I am rolling out on my website about the subject:  https://hoggatteer.weebly.com/homeroom/history-mythbusting-i.  Some of it pertains to the subject at hand as I try to understand our Cancel Culture and our current climate in context.

[Duelist]

I think it was Voltaire who said: "Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it".

[History Buff]

I think it was Voltaire who said: "Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it".

Mark Twain:  "History doesn't repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes."  Then there is this:

[History Buff]

I prefer all of the history and attractions to accurately fit the theme.  Even though many of the things break theme, the opportunities to educate abound.

History at Silver Dollar City includes:

- Marvel Cave
     - Discovery and legend
     - Attempts to mine
     - Beginnings of tourism
     - Harold Bell Wright
     - Harvesting guano for saltpeter (See Powderkeg)
     - Lost River (search for the Fountain of Youth)
     - Mystic River

- Baldknobbers
     - Fire in the Hole (legend)
     - Pheobe Snapp's Taffy (Snapp's father killed by Baldknobbers)

- World's Fair/Traveling Fair (Grand Exposition)

- Train Robbery
     - Alfie and Ralphi Bolin (One was a real outlaw, executed by hanging; other is fiction.)

- Mining
     - Flooded Mine
     - ThunderaTioN
     - Mine Restaurant

- Carrie Nation/Prohibition (Saloon Show, some years)

- Farm Life
     - Petting Farm
     - Barn
     - Barn Swing
     - Hi Lo Silos
     - Mill Restaurant

- Pinkerton Show (Echo Hollow Stunt Show, past)

- Diving Bell (Missouri Innovation, St. Louis)

- Civics
     - Voting for Mayor (1980s)
     - Citizens

- Opera House
     - River Show
     - Headin' West Show
     - Branson in the last year's new show (though I don't want to give it any more credit than that)
     - Christmas Carol (historical fiction)

- Red Gold
     - It's a Wonderful Life (historical fiction)

- Hatfields and McCoys (not really local history)

- Material Culture
     - Cannon
     - Mining Equipment
     - Farm Tools
     - Fire Fighting Equipment
     - Log Cabin Building
     - Furniture Building
     - Food Culture
     - Fishing (Jim Owens Float)
     - Lumberjacking (Log Rolling at Waterfall, past; Log Flume at American Plunge)
     - Lathing
     - Henry Ford's Train Engine
     - Liberty Bell
     - Costuming of Citizens for the period (though this is waning)
     - Music Presentations
     - Schoolhouse
     - Wilderness Church
     - Birdle's Cabin

- Historic Trades
     - Woodcarvers
     - Lye Soap
     - Basketweaving
     - Gunsmithing (past)
     - Blacksmith
     - Candy Making
     - Cowboy Skills (Chuckwagon, Riding, Roping)
     - Pottery
     - Glassblowing
     - Railroading
     - Riverboating (with added Mark Twain literature theme - historical fiction)
     - Seasonal Crafts (Coopering, Molasses Pressing, Mule Jumping)

- Pop Culture
     - Beverly Hillbillies

CAN YOU ADD TO THE LIST?

[Duelist]

Wow!  That is a very impressive list HB!  I would add the old fashioned ice cream making at Hannah's Ice Cream Parlor and the old player piano they had in there with Piano Pete.

[mhguy77]

Also at the Opera House was "For The Glory".  90's I think.  Good show with some memorable moments and a decent cast. 

[Jemmicat]

Does anyone remember the civil war themed drama that was there when echo hollow first opened? They served dinner with it. I was a kid so it is fuzzy

[History Buff]

Also at the Opera House was "For The Glory".  90's I think.  Good show with some memorable moments and a decent cast.

I knew there was another show!  I couldn't think of it.  It was better than Headin' West by a long shot.

[Preachin_Bill]

As a high school history teacher, I can attest to today's lack of actual history education going on in America's schools.
I fear that it is even worse than some of you realize. Frankly, parents would be astonished at what their children were learning, or not learning, over the past 15-20 years of high school and college education. People really have no idea. Even many liberal-minded people over the age of 40 would be surprised.

My area even has what I consider to be good public schools. As a Catholic school teacher, I thankfully have a lot more freedom in my classroom than my public school fellows. But the problem plagues all schools, and it all starts at the top with colleges, textbooks, and bloated administrations.

I was, and still am, flabbergasted at the lack of history education I received in college considering my major was education with history. I literally learned more history, especially American history, from my high school teacher. I only had one truly effective history professor in college and I took two classes with him. I was forced to take more sociology and political science classes than history classes, to be a history teacher!

The problem with this is my classmates didnt know any better and still likely don't, which means their students are learning the same anti-American drivel we did in college. I have self taught myself through books and research. Forget the Constitution—it is literally nonexistent in government, political, or history classes in Colleges. I have had to read numerous books and primary sources and take classes through places like Hillsdale or online lecture series to become proficient enough to teach it effectively.

I have an advanced degree as well and will be going for my third degree soon...and when researching programs, to get an advanced degree in Constitutional studies at one local university had the most absurd class list. It was full of classes like "civil rights and women" and "minorities and the supreme court." There was no class that actually taught...you know...the Constitution or the founders intent. Its obvious whats going on.
I dont think having multiple degrees makes me smart. Quite the contrary...multiple degrees has only made me smart enough to know that they dont make me smart at all. There are plenty of people out there who know a lot more than me.

One positive I can share with this board is I have had three students do semester research papers about the Baldknobbers over the past five years. They get to choose the topic and of course I list it on topic example handouts and also I have the book. Two of those students and multiple others have visited SDC and Im always sure to discuss its history in class when we talk about their trips. And Im from Nebraska.

Long post, sorry...but its no wonder to me that this generation hasn't got a clue. What a reckless bunch of no-good, entitled, willfully stupid idiots. SDC absolutely should NOT take down anything baldknobber related, and shame on anyone on this forum or otherwise who knows better but would stand aside and say "ah maybe its for the best". No. It isnt. We need to stand against this attempt to ruin America, which is what it is, nothing less.

[Preachin_Bill]

Also at the Opera House was "For The Glory".  90's I think.  Good show with some memorable moments and a decent cast.

I absolutely loved For The Glory as a kid.
I also bought my first of what is probably 50 Civil War books at Silver Dollar City's bookstore in like fifth grade. I still read it every other year. "Civil War Stories" by Ambrose Bierce.
Bought a few others there later as well.

[palallin]

[snip] But the problem plagues all schools, and it all starts at the top with colleges, textbooks, and bloated administrations.[/snip]
[snip]We need to stand against this attempt to ruin America, which is what it is, nothing less.[/snip]

This movement is one of the reasons I re-enact.  The level of ignorance about one of the most important, formative events in US history astounds me, and it is evident in people from childhood through grad school.  I have been asked who won, who the sides were, when it happened, and why so many ACW battles were fought in National Parks.  Yes, really.

[Okiebenz]

At this point I am really not sure what can be done, so much damage has been done from uneducation and misinformation, can the country even be saved?

[Jemmicat]

To put this a bit back on topic...

Does anyone else remember the civil war themed drama that was in Echo Hollow when it first opened? It was a dinner type show. Or has my memory completely failed me? I would have been about 8 when Echo Hollow opened so I could be misremembering or convoluting that memory with another similar type show my family saw in the Lakeside or Kimberling city area

[History Buff]

To put this a bit back on topic...

Does anyone else remember the civil war themed drama that was in Echo Hollow when it first opened? It was a dinner type show. Or has my memory completely failed me? I would have been about 8 when Echo Hollow opened so I could be misremembering or convoluting that memory with another similar type show my family saw in the Lakeside or Kimberling city area

For years, growing up, I wasn't even aware that EH even existed, much less did shows.  I do go as far back as seeing the Dillards and the Branson Brothers in evening shows, but nothing before that.  I know there were shows there, and maybe even a dinner show, but someone else would have to comment on all of that.  I can see how they might have thought they could capitalize on the then-successful show at SotH with a new outdoor drama.