Buried Treasure: An Interview with Artie Ayers

by David Rittershouse 

Who wouldn’t like to find a buried treasure? You’d have fame and fortune !! I’ll probably never be lucky enough to find any, but there is no shortage of stories about lost Spanish hoards, secret Indian mines, treasure caches of the old bushwacker era, and even tales of gold buried in Mason Jars. 

The “lost” Yocum Silver Mine is our most famous local tale. But tales of the Yocum mine and Yocum Silver Dollar are based in reality. As the story goes, in the early 1800′s Jim Yocum arrived in Stone County and took an Indian wife. Sometime later the tribe moved west and somehow Jim came into possession of the secret location of their silver mine, according to Jim. Soon after,  Yocum dollars were being traded in southwest Missouri. Sometime in 1846 Jim and his wife were killed in a cave-in at the mine. The entrance was ‘hidden’ and since then it’s been officially lost. 

Artie Ayers and wife Mary

I recently had the pleasure of my first time in front of a camera for an oral history interview. The subject of the interview, Mr Artie Ayers, was a most charming and knowledgeable man. His family has been in Stone and Taney county for many, many generations. 

He has written several articles, one book (Traces of Silver), and given a few lectures on the Yocum silver mine legend and the Yocum dollars used as currency. He started the interview with a historical preface beginning long before the Civil War and talked about the arrival of the Yocum family, many of whom still live in Stone County today. 

In the late 60′s a Yocum descendant did give Artie a map. Artie thought he had found the lost mine, but eventually proved himself wrong. He has since found a new possible location and is still actively searching. 

Although the legendary mine was said to exist in a hidden location,  the fact is that silver has only been found in one other place in Missouri. Many suspect the Yocum silver came from some other ‘source’ and that the mine was used as a ruse to disguise the actual (perhaps illegal) source of the silver. 

Some claim to have seen Yocum dollars,  but Artie knows of no one today who owns one, to the best of his knowledge. There is no accurate guess as to how many of these dollars were passed into circulation but tales persist of those who  saw barrels of newly minted coins. When one was analyzed by Federal Authorities in Springfield during the 19th century,  the Yocum dollar contained a higher quantity of silver, and was therefore worth more than the federal dollar. 

Mr. Ayers brought in a fire hoe said to have been used to stir the fires under the smelting pots.  This is an authentic tool passed down thru the Yocum family and given to Artie. 

We hope to reconnect with Artie each year for updates on his project in locating the Lost Yocum Silver Mine. 

 

Leonard Smith (1911-2000)

Leonard grew up in Lead Hill, Arkansas and later lived in Stark City, Missouri. Leonard lost his arm at age 22 in a hunting accident. He continued to play fiddle and judge fiddle contests throughout his life. He also recorded an album of fiddle music entitled “Leonard Smith, the One-Armed Fiddler” sometime in the mid 1970′s.

Here he is during a fiddle convention in Compton Ridge, Missouri, recorded in May of 1987.

Boys & Girls Club Summer History Project

  

Boys & Girls Club Research Teams at Forsyth Cemetery

 

by Leslie Wyman, Managing Director 

A trip to Forsyth Cemetery was included in the kick-off to a summer history course for participants of the Forsyth Boys & Girls Club.  Educational events like this have been a goal of ours for some time, especially when it  touches on so many areas that we’re involved in – history, research, historic sites, cemetery hopping, collection care and oral histories.  We’ve started off with 14 members involved, and have another 10 registered to join after summer school ends! 

The "Ralph Dunn" research team

 

A particularly fun aspect of this program is that we had each research team draw the name of an individual who’s buried in the cemetery to “adopt” for research this summer.  While at the cemetery, each team transcribed all of “their” person’s information and took photos for their future presentation displays, plus learned a little about military markers and the various symbols found on some tombstones. 

The "Teddie Mary Parrish" research team

 

During the next five weeks, the teams will review pictures of Forsyth when it was in its’ original Shadow Rock Park location, conduct research at the Historical Society, Forsyth Library, Taney County Recorder’s Office, and Community Presbyterian Church, learn to search historical records online and interview a Taney County native who personally knew each person being researched.  After the final presentation in August, the team displays will be exhibited for a few weeks at the White River Valley Historical Society.

Random Comments: It’s Tourist Season

An Early Fairy Cave Tour

It’s the first of May, and for about the last two weeks I’ve had to add an extra five minutes to my drive time each morning, and an extra prayer for my patience. Must mean the tourists are back. And for those of you who believe that this is a recent phenomenon, plan on attending our exhibit on Ozarks tourism, “Greetings from the Ozarks,” which opens on May 10.

This exhibit will cover the highlights of more than one hundred years of our biggest industry, from the intrepid adventurers who read the Shepherd of the Hills and came to experience the caves and rivers for themselves (and do a little dining and dancing on the banks of the new Lake Taneycomo as well) to the bus tours that still arrive daily in Branson for shows and shopping.

Time and space restrictions kept us from including much about our very earliest visitors, but I’d like to mention here that even the mighty Osage tribe that once owned this land only used it for summer hunting and fishing expeditions. Once the buffalo got fat, the Osage returned to their permanent homes on the prairies.

The first tourist who recorded his journey, Henry Schoolcraft, went on to be quite an explorer, but his foray here in 1818 was marked by mistakes, confusion, and a generally distrustful attitude toward the settlers in the area. His journal is fascinating, and often hilarious, reading.

That aside, we’ve done our best to include at least highlights of the past century or so, loosely divided into three sections.

Camp Ozark Boaters on Lake Taneycomo

During the Arcadian period, residents of America’s urban areas started to notice what they had lost, and began to flock “back to nature.” This was evident in the formation of the National Parks system, the development of remote meccas like northern New Mexico, the Wisconsin lakes, and the Smokey Mountains, and was romanticized in the popular fiction of the time. Books like Ramona, Girl of the Limberlost, and of course, Shepherd of the Hills created a national fad for vacationing in the wilderness.

Anchor Travel Village

The depression brought this era to a sudden halt, but prosperity, new roads, improved automobiles, and the desire to put WWII behind us brought new growth in the 1940′s through the 1960′s. For the Ozarks, this was the era of the big dams, lake resorts, family fun, and the beginnings of the Branson music show. This is a particularly memorable era this year, as both Silver Dollar City and Shepherd of the Hills celebrate their 50th anniversaries.

We’re still in the current era, of course, although it seems to have come in two stages. The Branson Boom, where music shows and new hotels proliferated like fleas on a coondog, hit a slight slump in the mid-nineties, but since then we’ve seen our region continue to grow as we draw more shoppers, year-around retirees, and golfers.

It’s a story of boom and bust, dreamers and con men, hopes and failures, and an ongoing attempt to find the balance between tradition and progress. We hope you like it.

Enjoy yourself!

Ingrid

RoadRunner Fishin’ Lure

Bert Hall's RoadRunner Lures and Caps

The Crappie catchin’est, bass baggin’est, perch poachin’est fishin’ lure ever invented was the RoadRunner.

In 1958 Bert Hall of Forsyth, Missouri created this lure, which is considered by many to be one of the best lures of all time. It will catch any fish, anywhere, if one simple rule is obeyed, and that rule is from Bert himself :

“You can’t fish a RoadRunner wrong, as long as you fish it slow.”

He was in the automotive parts business in Forsyth, Missouri at the time, and had two trucks that serviced tackle shops all over southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma under the name of the Hall Tackle Company. The company was actually a jobber that serviced tackle shops and, after running into Sam Walton, all 15 or 20 WalMart stores with all kinds of tackle, including minnow buckets, hooks, and weights.

Jim Blakemore started Blakemore Lure Company over in Shelbyville, Tennessee. His company made trout flies, so to be closer to the trout market, he moved his company to Lebanon, Missouri. In the spring of 1969 Joe Hall, Bert’s son, purchased Blakemore Lure Company and moved the operation to Branson, Missouri. Joe Hall, a natural born jet-setter in his time, was young and eager to make his dad’s lure the most productive fishing lure in the world. Joe started producing the Road Runner in Branson and had several families that hand-tied the lures for years.

The marabou Road Runner remains one of the most popular lures on the market. The bait will catch any game fish swimming anywhere in the world. The 1/8-ounce white marabou Road Runner is the No. 1 seller for Blakemore Lure Company to this day.

Well, about a year ago I had the pleasure of recording an oral history with Esther Hall, Bert’s wife, who still lives in Forsyth. Leon Combs and I met her one summery Saturday morning for the purpose of setting down “on the record” the true story.

While owning the National Auto Parts store in town, an idea was born and tested in a rain barrel and became one of the most popular fishing lures of all time. It was my pleasure to record this event and listen to Esther tell the rest of her story. The conversation was almost an hour long and Esther started  with life as a schoolgirl, described meeting Bert, the moving of Forsyth “up on the hill” when Bull Shoals Dam was built, and much more of her personal history and the history of Taney County.

You can drop into the museum and listen to that story if you wish, as it’s now part of our permanent oral history collection at the museum.

Dave Rittershouse

Random Comments: Here We Go

As the White River Valley Historical Society continues to grow, we’ve become more and more aware of the need to get information out in a more timely way than through our website, newsletter, or the WRVHS Quarterly Journal. We think this blog will do the trick. Not only will it allow us to keep you up to date on the latest happenings at the society, but it gives us a place to show off some of the events, exhibits, and other activities that you might have missed.

So, we’ll use the White River Review to let you know what the latest is. The newest articles will be listed in ‘Recent Posts.’  All older articles can be read in the ‘Archives.’ Both are listed on the right side of your screen. General Information that doesn’t change often can be found in our “Pages” listed at the top of the screen.

Posts are all organized by ‘Categories’ like Cemetery Hoppers or Oral Histories so you can find things easily.

3 Miles in the Snow: Taney County’s One Room Schools

We recently completed our first exhibit that was put together entirely by our members. We were thrilled by the response, and we’ve put together some of the exhibit materials and videos from our noon-time programs for those of you who weren’t able to make it. The short videos are in the 3 Miles article or can be found on YouTube. We now have a 2- DVD box set of the entire ’3 Miles in the Snow ‘  oral histories  available for sale in our gift shop.

The Video Corner

Most of you know that last spring the historical society began sprucin’ up our new home in the old Catholic church in downtown Forsyth (right across from the new justice center). This spring we are a bit more settled and organized. You can now take full advantage of the new museum facilities, and we are open six days a week for visitors and researchers. With lots more room, the gift shop is open, books and archives are making their way to shelves, but most importantly there is space (and equipment) for folks to drop in and watch a video or play some music.

Lots of VHS tapes and music recordings are being donated (or copied) and cataloged for you to come by and enjoy. The Video Corner postings here are a chance for you to sample some of what is currently available.

Outstanding Women of Missouri

Until April 30 we are hosting a traveling exhibit from the Missouri Women’s Council. “Outstanding Women of Missouri” profiles 72 women including educators, physicians, politicians, attorneys, journalists, ambassadors, pioneers, adventurers, artists, entrepreneurs and members of the military.

We’ve added a local touch with displays on prominent and unique women in Taney County’s history. Artists, educators, authors, journalists and publishers, physicians, tourism pioneers, ministers and businesswomen are profiled. Come and see us! If you can’t, we’ll be posting some of the exhibit highlights here in the next couple of weeks.

3 Miles in the Snow

Union Hill School

3 Miles in the Snow, a look at Taney County one-room schoolhouses, was the first completely in-house exhibit for the WRVHS.

Along with the exhibit, we hosted two noon-time events, a talk by J. D. Nave on his experiences as a student and a teacher and a preview of oral history interviews conducted by Forsyth High School students.

The student oral history program began in 2009 with a grant from the Roy Slusher Foundation. That generous donation allowed the White River Valley Historical Society to partner with a group of students from Forsyth High School under the direction of teacher Laura Dees.

For 3 Miles in the Snow, life in the one-room school was discussed with charm, humor, and heartwarming affection. The students touched on many topics: how they got to school, pranks and punishment, recess games, the challenges of the depression years, boyfriends and girlfriends, pie suppers, outhouses, teachers, grades and graduation.

The original intent of the project was not only to gather historical information, but to encourage conversations between the generations. The funding from the Slusher Foundation enabled the WRVHS to purchase a video camera and other oral history equipment, and we hope that the success of the project will encourage other students in Taney County to continue gathering the stories of their elders.

We showed only about 35 minutes of our favorite “bits” from all six interviews during the program. The complete interviews are available as part of our growing oral history collection. The interviewees had much more to say about their school days, and also covered topics ranging from WWII in the Pacific to a history of the Layton family.

The six complete oral histories recorded by the students & a two-disk set will be available in our gift shop on May 1. It will include the program by J.D. Nave, a discussion by Board President Ingrid Albers and Managing Director Leslie Wyman about the overall project, the “3 Mile” video clips, audience stories and comments from the event, and photos and commentary from our exhibit. Below are samples from the oral history interviews.

For those of you who missed the exhibit, we’re including a little history about Taney County schools on the “Schoolhouse History” post here.