Tag: Photography

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No Vacancy

On this trip I was lucky enough to have a running mate, my son Jake. I am hoping to instill my love of Ozarks history into him, even if I have to beat it into him. He seems to enjoy the abandoned side of the adventure so it isn’t going to be too hard. We traveled south of Cassville on Hwy 86 to our destination the Eagle Rock Motel. From what I see in the architecture it was a 1950’s-60’s design, low slung with a canopy as most of those motels were. I can’t find much information on the subject of the Eagle Rock Motel aside from this excerpt from The Barry County Museum.
“In 1909 some of the men here got jobs cutting railroad ties for the railroad coming in. The ties were cut and slid down the bluff on White River (the bluff we now call the Tie Slide across the road from the Eagle Rock Motel). They were floated down the river to Branson where the ties were sold.

The late 1800’s and early 1900’s were not all hard work and no play. On Saturday nights the local people would take turns having dances and parties at each other’s homes. One Saturday night they would go to John Munsey’s home and do the two-step and then the next Saturday night to Bartolomew Stringer’s house (Vernon and Johnny Stringer’s great-grandfather), which was reported to have 83 people there. Can you imagine that many people in those tiny homes back then?” For the complete article click here. I was lucky to run across Fields Photo in Cassville. Fields sure documented Barry County, lucky for everyone they kept those records.

Lets get to the trip, When we got to Eagle Rock Motel it was the entrance to some homes that sat behind the motel. I know they would like to see the motel demolished and cleaned up. I was told that the owner hasn’t made a decision on what to do with the property but likely will expand an adjacent business onto the property. Who knows?


I’m sure the brochure would have read: “Your family can enjoy our clean modern pool”. Amazingly it really wasn’t in that bad of shape structurally. I bet the pumps are shot though.

The office walls were completely gone, but they are still serving a continental breakfast after 7:00A.M. in the dining room.

The lobby closes at 9:00 P.M. but if you need anything you can ring the bell at the entrance.


There are rooms on the back of the property if you need privacy and quiet.

We chose to stay on street side so we could overlook the pool and bypassing traffic.


We got a double but had to call for room service. Out of towels!

We always pack light. It’s just an overnight, I can wear the same pants but I need a change of shirts. Which I forgot but lucky me the previous occupants left one just my size.

Jesus saves, but he didn’t lift the lid.

A bit of a twist in this story, neighbors told me that the owners/operators of the motel divorced and the two continued to occupy the motel. The man moved from the adjacent house to a room in the motel. Don’t think I could do that, the tires were 225 I need 265.

Overall it was a fun trip…Thanks Jake, let’s do it again!

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Flying Below The Radar on 66

This structure left in Spencer, MO was first built in the 1920’s. Johnson Creek trickles under the old steel bridge, at one time many years ago Johnson Mill was on the banks of Johnson Creek. In later years a store was built on the site of the old mill by Mr. Spencer. In 1868 a post office was in place and the settlement of Spencer began.

When Route 66 came through it brought new life to the town in the 1920s. Travelers came through headed off to California or might have been soldiers on Greyhound buses headed off to boot camps during the war time. However nothing major ever really materialized for Spencer with the addition of the then new Route 66 and eventually it’s nothing more than a ghost town.

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Break Time is over, now get back to work!

Every adventure starts with planning, this time it’s localized. No big road trip just close to home, down and dirty foot work. Over a number of years I’ve been visiting as many locations as possible digging up images from the Ozarks past. Whether it’s an old mill site, abandoned home, deserted road or well traveled touristy spot I’m shooting it.

I’m in the process of updating my website to reveal this project and all the while planning the next project. No I’m not in it for the money I’m doing it to preserve the image of these places while they still exist. Already a few of these places have been removed, bulldozed, fallen into oblivion, or burned. It won’t be too many more years before the structures of my grandfathers era are nothing but a memory. When I get the site functional I’ll put you out a notice and hope you’ll visit.

If you have information on any historical, abandoned or sentimental site you would like to share and see permanently captured leave me comment below. I’ll do my best to visit it.

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The Cane Hill Store

This is the Cane Hill Store, which sold numerous items for many years including butter churns. Back when a fellow named Jack Roy was a boy, Cane Hill had two stores, a barbershop, a mill, a school and a post office. Cane Hill also was home to the Buttercup Churn and Mixer, a patented product manufactured by the Pyle-Roy Mixer Company, which advertised a new deal for the housewife. The churn, which sat on the lid of a standard glass mason jar, offered a convenient alternative to other methods of churning butter.
I can give the churn my thumbs up, we were lucky enough to find one.

Roy’s father, Guy, worked with his two brothers, Lonnie and Clarence; his father, W.H. Roy; and his brother-in-law, Virgil Pyle, who invented the churn. Guy Roy lived in a white house just up the road from where Roy lives today, near Cane Hill. That’s where Roy’s father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather all lived.