Volume 1, Number 8 - Summer 1963


SOCIETY NEWS

More about Rockaway Beach:

Mr. Taylor R. McMaster, Galena, who with his wife was at Hotel Rockaway for many years, writes in a recent letter to Mrs. Ralph S. Coughenour, "The road in front of Hotel Rockaway when I first knew it was just a narrow, dusty trail down the front. Joe Robb drove a Model T truck equipped with a water tank and kept the dust sprinkled down from morning until night. You either had dust knee-deep or mud knee-deep. Dad Steigle had the only horses in the early days for tourists to ride and he kept them in a vacant lot right across the street from the entrance to Capt. Bill's Hotel. He had an old gray horse, one sorrell nag, and a kids' pony. A total of three, and he was in business... Mrs. Merriam wouldn't permit dancing on Sunday night in the pavilion, so we would all go to Branson on one of Hobert McQuarter's big double deckers. The last one went over the dam in one of the floods... You can't imagine what a wonderful place Rockaway Beach was in the early thirties. No money-but a wonderful place!"

We wish to thank Mr. L. V. Yandell, Branson, for lending us an album of pictures dating from November 29, 1911, to March 27, 1913,-the complete picture story of the building of Powersite Dam. We are sorry we got them too late to use in the Lake Taneycomo Anniversary issue.

We are now listed in the Directory of the American Association for State and Local History, and last month we received a request from the Library of Congress for copies of our Quarterly.

A comment made at the annual meeting by Mrs. Jewell Ross Mehus of St. Louis should be passed along: She reminded the members that in addition to old-timers, the Society has "a bunch of new-timers down here, and we are just as interested as can be" in the history of the White River Valley.

June 17, 1963, the Society was incorporated under the "General Not for Profit Corporation Act" of the State of Missouri. In the Articles of Incorporation, the purposes for which we are organized are defined as: the discovery, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge concerning the history of the upper White River Valley of Southwest Missouri and adjacent areas. More particularly:

(A) To discover and collect any material which may help to establish or illustrate the history of the upper White River Valley; its exploration, settlements, developments, and activities in peace and in war; and their progress in population, wealth, education, arts, science, agriculture, manufactures, trade, and transportation; to collect printed materials such as histories, genealogies, biographies, descriptions, gazetteers, directories, newspapers, pamphlets, catalogues, circulars, handbills, programs, and posters; manuscripts, letters, diaries, journals, memoranda, reminiscences, service records, account books, charts, surveys and field books, and museum material such as pictures, photographs, paintings, portraits, scenes, Indian relics, and material objects illustrative of life, conditions, events, and activities In the past or present.

(B) To provide for the preservation of such material and for its accessibility in a suitable structure, as far as may be feasible, for all who wish to examine or study it; to cooperate with officials in ensuring the preservation and accessibility of the records and archives of the region and of its cities, towns, villages, and institutions; to conduct archaeological investigations of aboriginal or pioneer sites in the region and to bring about the preservation of historic buildings, monuments, and markers.

(C) To disseminate historical information and arouse interest in the past by publishing historical material in the newspapers or otherwise; by holding meetings with addresses, lectures, papers, and discussions; and by marking historic buildings, sites, and trails.

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