Branson, MO / Lake Taneycomo Area in early 1900's though 1960's
July 8, 2009from Bluffs...Presbyterian Hill in Hollister overlooking train trussel. Note: now 65 bypass or other bridges.
Train trussel up close.
Train trussel looking from Branson to Hollister, partially washed out in
1916. It would wash out again in 43 and 45. As you drive through that trussel
today, just ponder how high the water would get each spring and why Table Rock
Dam was so important.
View looking downstream, Branson on left; note no bridge of any kind
Crossing White River at Branson.... part of the ole Hensley place.
See Branson depot in back right. Thus picture includes where the HIlton and
Convention Center would be today as well as a part of lower downtown Branson.
Picture could be taken not far from the Post Office or even further away,
perhaps where the old Chuck's RV still remains.
Wow, Coon Creek bridge across from Branson going up to Mt. Branson looks a
lot different. Note Main Street Bridge in background. Also note: all the
trees.
A more modern 30s view of the Coon Creek Bridge.
Besides having a different name, Lake Taneycomo Drive, Lakeshore Drive
looks a little different as well.
Looking down Main street at old bridge. Note: people on the bridge. The
bridge was first constructed in 1913 as a wagon bridge. Automobiles were rare.
The '45 flood washed it from its bindings. Reinforced steel-concreted arched
Taneycomo Bridge had been built by 1931, and fearfully by some, is still is use
today. In 1970 the bypass bridge was added.
Commerical Street looking south. The river would be down to the left.
Things have changed a bit.
The ground seems to slope towards the river to the right. Would this be the
view from the other end of the street, looking back north? Note: if that is the
Commercial Hotel, then this is where the fire starts that destroys the newly
incorporated city of Branson in 1912.
The Malone Hotel (renamed the White River Hotel in 1937) during the 1927
Flood.
27 flood. See train depot. Man, the White/Taneycomo could still
flood.
Main Street Bridge high water 1916. See depot in upper middle.
Main Street Bridge from Sammy Lane Resort. Portions of stairwell on bluff
can still be seen today.
A closer view of steps up Mt. Branson. They can be seen across from the
Landing's fountains today.
Apparently the Main Street Bridge still existed through 1941. See it in the
distant background at the bottom of the hill. Note the trees, cars and
horse-drawn wagon. Eventually, it would be the 45 flood that would tear the
bridge from its bindings.
A Brief Timeline...
A severe drought strikes the area in 1902.
1903, Branson is be a lumber hub for the manufacture of railroad ties. The
land is stripped of its timber. Railroads apparently are still big and how one
will eventually get to Branson.
The railroad blasts through the hills, coming down from Marionville and is
completed to Branson in 1906. Current depot dates to 1905.
Wright's novel, Shepherd of the Hills, about life in and around
Mutton Hollow and Dewey Bald, just west of Branson (on the other end of the
strip) is written while on many visits to the Ozarks from the 1890s to early
1900s, is published in 1907 and comes to the Ozarks the next year.
Branson incorporated in April 1912 with 1200 residents, but then burns down
in August and is immediately rebuilt.
White River Powersite Dam is completed in 1913 forming Lake Taneycomo
(short for Taney County Missouri).
Current Taneycomo Bridge was completed in 1931.
History...
Before 1906, the principal towns of isolated Taney County, Missouri, were
in the center of the county, where the best lands, best farms, most of the
people, and most of the commerce were-Forsyth (the county seat), Taneyville, and
Kirbyville.
The principal wagon road ran there from Springfield at the north, to
Harrison, Arkansas and beyond at the south.
Hollister was a village across White River from the future site of Branson.
Hollister was far enough up Turkey Creek to avoid the frequent floods, and was
on the same side of the river as the Forsyth-Harrison, Arkansas road. So
Hollister was the trade center for the western part of the county. No good
freighting ford existed over the river to connect the road from Forsyth to where
Branson would someday be--a serious difficulty.
The railroad instantly reversed the situation, leaving Forsyth the more
isolated place. The first bridge over the upper White was constructed between
Hollister and Branson, making them service towns on opposite sides of the river
for their respective neighborhoods, as well as for rail traffic along the line
between Missouri and Arkansas. Hollister was redesigned by the railroad to serve
a high-class railroad tourist clientele. The bridge connected Hollister with
such clientele in Springfield, Kansas City, St. Louis, and beyond.
Branson was railhead for construction of Powersite Dam (built 1911-1913)
downstream at Forsyth. Supplies for constructing the dam were off-loaded at
Branson, then floated to the dam site by boat.
...Two events following in quick succession added new dimensions to
tourism: the publication in 1907 of Harold Bell Wright's The Shepherd of the
Hills, set just west of Branson; and the filling of Lake Taneycomo in 1913, the
first artificial reservoir in the central part of the United States. Tourists
came by rail to fish and swim in Taneycomo's warm waters and to visit Shepherd
of the Hills sites. Branson had entered its first tourist era. One could now get
there, quickly, comfortably, inexpensively.
But not by auto--at least, not easily. The roads were terrible, impossible,
urban motorists might say. The auto routes from Springfield were a patchwork of
roads, typical of inter-county routes in the Ozarks. They proceeded south, one
through Ozark, another through Nixa, thence on to Highlandville, plunging off
the Springfield Plain into the steep and rugged jumble of ridges and hollows
that characterize the White River Hills. The road clung to the high ground and
the winding ridges as much as possible. The farther south one proceeded, the
tighter the curves became.
"That road [from Springfield to Branson] would make a preacher swear !"
exclaimed Smith Brookhart III, recalling his journey over the route in the 1950s
and '60s. Brookhart, president of Branson's Ozark Mountain Bank, said in a
recent interview, "I believe it was 63 miles on the old road. You could pass on
exactly 400 yards in the whole stretch. If you got behind an ox-cart or truck
you settled in for the trip."
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