Battlefield
Springfield Daily News, February 10, 1977
Battlefield Miffed Over Miss
by Mark Goodman
"What if there was a Battlefield and nobody found it?
"It may not be that bad in this community on Greene County FF about six miles southwest of Springfield, but it would be if people trying to find the place used an official Missouri map.
"For some unknown reason, Battlefield was left off the 1977 map, although it is an incorporated town with a population, some citizens say, of more than 1,000.
"Many of the men at Junior Perkins' general store and gasoline station admit that they hadn't noticed the town wasn't on the map before, but they weren't too happy when they found out. 
"'Heavens to Betsy,' declared one. 'We used to be on the map.' Another felt like the state ought to give back the town's tax dollars.
"'I'm a little upset because I'm the fire chief,' exclaimed Jerry Sparkman. 'There is Bois D'Arc (on the map) and they don't have a third of the population we have and we're incorporated.'
"Perkins admits that 'everybody had trouble finding this place.'
"Strangely enough some people seem to find the town when they are looking for other things.
"'One lady came in here one day,' remembered Perkins, 'looking for the Mall (Battlefield Mall).' Lonzo Johnson had said another person knocked on his door one day wondering where the Mall was.
"Although those at Perkins' store can understand why someone would come out to Battlefield to look for the mall or Wilson's Creek Battlefield about a mile to the west one couple from Arkansas still had them confused.
"'They came in here and wanted to know what the quickest way to the Mardi Gras was from here,' claimed Perkins. He didn't say what his answer was.
"For C. A. Phillips, who had lived in Battlefield 75 years, not being on the map is no problem. 'When you have lived here as long as I have, you know how to get here,' he said.
"Phillips remembered when farms came right up to the main business district, which included a bank, a theater, a blacksmith's shop, a general store, a mill and a pool hall.
"Phillips lives in one of the four original houses in the town. It was built by Stewarts and Youngs, he said.
"'A lot of farmers used to come here for their weekly needs,' said Phillips, 'but that was when people came to town with a horse and buggy.'"
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