Amish of Webster County

From the Greater Seymour Chamber Of Commerce:
The Amish of Webster County

The Amish in Webster County, Missouri, are resisting the progress of the 21st century. They are “Old Order Amish,” which means plain ways—buggies with no tops, no enclosed cabs, no rubber tires and plain black paint. Most of the Amish here are of Swiss-German descent. They settled in Webster County in 1968, acquiring many old rundown farms and restoring them to successful, diversified farming operations. Friendly people, they are interesting and make good friends and neighbors.

While a young man’s ambition is to own his own farm and raise his large family without having to leave the farm to work, prices for necessities have forced him to seek work away from home, usually as a carpenter. From father to son, the skills of all phases of the construction trade are handed down.

The Amish women, not unlike their husbands, hand down their skills to their daughters. They are highly skilled in maintaining a comfortable well-ordered home. They grow huge gardens and preserve what they grow. They sew all clothing for their large families, do all the laundry without the convenience of electricity, quilt beautifully, help with the outside chores and do all of the things a housewife is required to do in any household. They are busy from before sunup to after sundown.


The Amish are very frugal people and are highly respected for their honesty. A few things they do not allow themselves to possess are television sets, radios, automobiles or any motor-driven vehicles, telephones, electricity, indoor plumbing (except for pitcher pumps at the kitchen sink), insurance, government pensions or Social Security income.

However, it is not all work and no play for the Amish. They enjoy “frolics” (where they all get together and build a house or barn for a neighbor or relative), quilting bees and singing (they sing without the accompaniment of musical instruments and they yodel just like they do in the Swiss Alps). They travel a lot from community to community and out of state for weddings and visits to family and friends. They hire drivers with vans or buses to carry them, and there is always a van full of eager travelers. Weddings are large—often with as many as 400 people in attendance, traveling from other Amish communities in other sates. This is a time of fellowship and is certainly an exciting time for the whole community.

Church is observed every other Sunday, being held in individual homes. Lunch is served to as many as 200 people by the host family. Young people play softball, basketball and other active games, and the young men are strong wrestlers.

The Webster County Amish once sent their children to public schools through the eighth grade. However, with the public schools adding computers and modern technology, they felt they must establish their own schools. They didn’t want their children contaminated by outside influences.

City Of Seymour

Please note: I tried to link to the Chamber and found nothing to link to. The Chamber may have disbanded, not known.

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!

The Lost Web Series

This isn’t your retired folks in a Winnebago. Burning Miles with Chris is on a mission to discover America, even if it means driving countless miles over the most God forsaken roads in North America. It’s a wild trip across America in a vintage bus as Chris meets the craziest people you can imagine. He’ll travel to Burning Man, The Salton Sea, Venice Beach…you name it and Burning Miles will go there. If you have ever wanted to take to the open road, join us for the Ultimate Road Trip.

While on the road I lost contact with Chris and this series ended abruptly. A disappearance unexplained. If you see this man while roaming America, tell him I want my camera back.

Time Lapse Route 66


USA Route 66 Cross Country Road Trip

*** Turn on annotations to see what state is being displayed in the video ***

This Timelapse / Drivelapse video shows my road trip down the entire length of Route 66 (The Mother Road) from Chicago to Los Angeles in August 2012. When given an option for which time era of the road to travel we picked the oldest parts of Route 66 (pre-1937, pre-1928 etc).

Targa California

From Petrolicious

Targa California from Petrolicious on Vimeo.

The Targa California is our favorite way to experience the beauty and back roads of Central California in a vintage car. An homage to the original Targa Florio race in Sicily, the Targa California is a non-competitive 3-day vintage rally open to all cars 1973 or older. Driving in the middle of a pack of Porsche 356’s, Alfa Romeos, BMW 2002’s and other beauties in windy mountain roads is something we believe should be part of any college curriculum.

Petrolicious.com