Progress Notes

This week I am presenting some of the highlights of the very successful and entertaining “Pig and Pickle Festival” celebrated last week, Saturday, September 8 at the Tuscumbia Riverside Park. For many years the park was the site of the annual Tuscumbia Picnic. The “Pig and Pickle Festival” now is the event which duplicates those very crowded and attended Tuscumbia Picnics of the past. Hundreds of Miller Countians and visitors were present last week at the second annual Pig and Pickle Festival which was blessed by excellent weather and superb organization under the direction of Larry Flaugher (photo 01).

01 Larry Flaugher

Larry, a Tuscumbia native now a resident of Eldon, is well known throughout our county as a superb promoter and organizer of public events. He is also very involved with the Eldon Fair. The success of these types of events is dependent upon the participation and support of the community and its leadership. I don’t believe I have ever known a person who so ably organizes and directs events as Larry.

Our hosts for the Pig and Pickle Festival were, as you might guess, Mr. and Mrs. Pig and Pickle (Eddie and Becky Howser) who eagerly welcomed all our visitors to the festival (photo 02).

02 Mr. and Mrs. Pig and Pickle

The center of activities was the old dance floor first built in 1926 where Frank Schlesinger was emcee and host for all guests and activities (photo 03).

03 Master of Ceremonies Frank Schlesinger

The event served around 330 meals, 300 hamburgers, 300 sodas, 100 bottles of water and 30 gallons of pickles! Forty seven cars were entered in the car show. About a thousand visitors were estimated to have attended. One of the first attendees were Mr. and Mrs. Lonnie Ahart of Tuscumbia (photo 04).

04 Mr. and Mrs. Lonnie Ahart

The following is a collage of photos of the festival:

Parade 

The Parade began at the courthouse on the hill and took a route down the hill to the Highway 17 intersection before doubling back through Crackerneck down to Goosebottom where these photos were taken (photos 05, 06 and 07).

05 Parade

06 Parade

07 Parade

Cars

As noted above, forty seven cars were in the car show. Here are some of them (photos 08 - 12):

08 Show Car

09 Show Car

10 Show Truck

11 Show Car

12 Show Truck

Bar B Cue

A Bar B Cue cook off was present with entries from several areas of the county (photos 13 - 16):

13 Barbecue

14 Barbecue

15 Barbecue

16 Barbecue

Specialty Stands

A number of stands were of unusual or specialty interest (photos 17 - 20):

17 Antiques

18 Condiments

19 Painted and Unusual Rocks

20 Purses and Handbags

Dance and Event floor

Frank Schlesinger as noted above was our master of ceremonies the entire day. Two of the featured entertainment acts were singer and musician Helen Marshall and the Eldon Youth Joggers (photos 21 and 22).

21 Helen Marshall

22 Eldon Joggers

Our Miller County Museum also hosted a display (photo 23).

23 Miller County Museum

Our feature item was the quilt which we are raffling this year made by my mother in law, Elva Steen (photo 24).

24 Raffle Quilt

Here is a video taken by Ginny Duffield for the Autogram of the Festival parade and activities at the Riverside Park (video):

Ginny really covered the Pig and Pickle Festival thoroughly in the Autogram for this week. We appreciate so much her reporting and photos. She is an accomplished and professional reporter and journalist; Miller County is very fortunate to have the benefit of her weekly news coverage of our county.

Riverside Park is located in Tuscumbia on the bank of the Osage River. The area has always been known as “Goosebottom,” but no one knows from where that name originated. Certainly, in the late fall many geese migrate south over the area but whether that is the source of the name I do not know. The area where now is located the Riverside Park once was the site of the first Anchor Mill Company buildings (photo 25).

25 Goosebottom - Late 1800's

In the next photo which was taken on a snowy winter day, the home on the left belonged to Dr. McGee (photos 26 and 27).

26 Dr. James McGhee Home on Left

27 Dr. James McGhee

The home on the right down the street was built by Phillip Hauenstein, one of the owners of the Anchor Mill Company (photo 28).

28 Phillip Hauenstein

My grandfather, Madison Bear, bought the home from the Hauenstein heirs in the late 1920’s. It is where my mother, Susie Bear Pryor, was raised.

Goosebottom is one of four areas of Tuscumbia which were given some unusual names.  The town was built over time in four different locations that formed a ‘zig-zag’ pattern. The part of Tuscumbia built on the east end was called “Crackerneck;” the west end was known as “Possum Flat;” across the Shut In Slough bridge it was called “Goose Bottom;” and then the location of the courthouse, on the high bluff, was called “On The Hill.” Many little towns had the reputation of being built on each side of “the tracks,” but Tuscumbia was quite unique in having four different locations where one may have been born! Here are a couple of photos of the Shut In Slough bridge (photos 29 and 30).

29 1895 Flooded Shut In Branch with Bridge Sign
Click image for larger view

30 1895 Shut In Branch Bridge during Goosebottom Flood

I have asked several old-timers why the slough was named “Shut In,” but a definite answer is not known. However, the word “slough” usually is used to describe back water; so when the river was up the slough would have been overflowing and deep such that crossing would have been impossible early on before the bridge was built. Thus, those on the west side of the bridge would have been “shut in.”

Next Monday, September 24 at 2:00 p.m., Tuscumbia native, Alan Sullivan, Consulting Engineer for Ameren Missouri, will be at our museum to present a very informative narrative accompanied by many photos of the history and building of Bagnell Dam (photo 31).

31 Alan Sullivan

You won’t want to miss this opportunity to learn about the construction and function of Bagnell Dam, one of the most important assets of our county. The dam has provided not only employment and tax revenue to the county but also is responsible for creating the great Lake of the Ozarks, one of the most famous recreational areas of the entire Midwest.

Alan’s presentation is free of charge. Afterward, be sure and tour the lower floor of the museum where a ninety foot display of original photos of the construction of the dam is located.

Here is an article about Alan written by Ceil Abbott of the Lake Today newspaper which you will find of great interest and pride about one of our own Miller County natives:

Alan Sullivan: A man for all seasons

Sullivan fills many roles at Lake of the Ozarks
Lake Today

December 7, 2011

By Ceil Abbott

From his job as a consulting engineer for Ameren Missouri, through major involvement in a wide variety of community projects, to his full-time commitment to the roles of husband, father and grandfather, Alan Sullivan truly is a “Man for All Seasons.”

Although born in Kansas City, Sullivan has spent nearly his entire life in the Lake Area.

His ancestors are from the Tuscumbia region of Miller County and that is where Sullivan grew up. His grandfather and uncle actually worked for Union Electric in the early 1930s as part of the original Bagnell Dam construction crew. And, Sullivan loves to reminisce about how the two men got those jobs and how he has been affected by that inherited work ethic.

“The country was sliding into the Great Depression, when they went to a Sunday night church service where the preacher told the congregation that if any of the men were looking for work, Union Electric was hiring men to help build a big dam across the Osage River,” Sullivan said.

“They rode their horses to the job site and got in line to apply for a job. The line was so long that they couldn’t see the end of it from where they were standing.”

Sullivan goes on to tell that because there were so many men applying for the jobs that were available and the applicants had to wait so long, tensions were running high and it wasn’t unusual to see fights break out among the men standing in line.

“A fight broke out just behind Grandpa and Uncle Lloyd and rather than get involved they just stepped out of line and waited,” Sullivan said. “The line boss saw them refuse to participate and came over and told my grandfather that he liked his attitude and offered him a job on the spot. Grandpa said he would take the job if his son got hired, too. So they worked there until the dam was completed two years later.”

Sullivan, himself, went to work at Bagnell Dam shortly after earning a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla and has been employed by Ameren for the past 34 years.

In 2006, he spearheaded a Lake Area-wide celebration of Bagnell Dam’s 75th anniversary and as part of that celebration he brought his aging “Uncle Lloyd” to a number of events to speak about his experiences in working on the original construction crew.

“He loved to tell stories about those times,” Sullivan said.

“And he liked to end his stories by saying he had to help build the dam so ‘the boy,’ meaning me, would have a place to work.”

The “work” that Sullivan performs at Bagnell Dam includes a wide variety of technical jobs that include being responsible for preparing an emergency action plan for dealing with the remote possibility that the dam might one day fail.

“I wear lots of hats here,” he said. “Including preparing an emergency action plans for both the Bagnell and Taum Sauk dams and making the day to day calculations that determine how much electricity we need to generate and whether or not we need to open the flood gates to maintain safe water levels.”

But maintaining the daily water levels in Lake of the Ozarks and the Taum Sauk reservoirs isn’t the only responsibility that Sullivan has. He also fills in for the maintenance supervisor when needed, was involved in Ameren’s 8-year-long Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensing project, just recently completed a project to replace some pumps inside the dam and is currently working on a project designed to determine the amount of erosion along the banks of the Osage River below the dam.

“As part of our license requirements, we survey the Osage River periodically to determine the extent of erosion on its banks. We use a technology called LiDAR, which in simplistic terms is an airplane mounted laser scanner,” Sullivan said. “The plane flies the Osage River from (Bagnell) dam down to the mouth of the Missouri River at Jeff City (86 miles) and shoots millions of data points. From that we can create a 3-D digital model of the river and by comparing it to data collected in 2008 determine how the bank has changed over time.”

And if all that isn’t enough, Sullivan is also responsible for coordinating with the company’s structural engineers to make sure the dam remains structurally sound at all times. Then in his spare time he likes to take on a few community projects.

Sullivan has been a member of the Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for eight years, and has frequently spearheaded various chamber projects, including chairmanship of the annual Magic Dragon Street Meet Nationals car show.

A show that has grown under Sullivan’s leadership to become one of the premier car shows in the state of Missouri. Last year alone, there were more than 2,000 participants in the show and Sullivan has plans to make the event even bigger.

“We’ve about out grown the (Bagnell Dam) Strip,” Sullivan said. “So last year we held a junior car show at Prewitt’s Pointe and we’re going to continue holding that, and we would like to expand the Magic Dragon show to a full week. We’d still keep the part where the cars are displayed on the Strip to a four-day event, but we’d also stage other events that would deep the car owners at the Lake for the entire week.”

Sullivan has also been instrumental in changing the way the annual Lake Area Chamber of Commerce dinner is staged by turning it into “more of a celebration” and for years worked as director of the Crossover Christian Music Festival in Camdenton.

“As you know for a variety of reasons we didn’t hold the festival last year, but some things have changed and we’re looking at bringing it back next year,” he said.

And, Sullivan doesn’t limit his involvement with worthwhile projects to the Lake Area only; he is also involved with a talent show that takes place the week after Labor Day at the Magic Kingdom inside the Disney World amusement park in Orlando, Florida.

“It’s a talent show for performers trying to break into the Christian music scene,” Sullivan said. “There are tryouts and performances through the entire week, then the winners are selected and get to perform in one of the Magic Kingdom shows for a limited period.”

Having been involved in the music scene himself for most of his life, performing is something that Sullivan knows quite a bit about.

From his “long hair and rock and roll band” days in high school, through his current performances at various events around the Lake, to his weekly gig playing the guitar during services at the Potter’s House Church in Camdenton, Sullivan says, “music has always been an important part of my life.”

When he steps away from his time serving the Lake Area, Sullivan also has a private life made rich by his wife, Lori, a teacher in the Camdenton R-III district, and the two daughters, one son and one grandson the couple have together. When he finds time, like the rest of the Lake community, Sullivan loves to go hunting and fishing. However, he isn’t quite ready to turn those leisure activities into a full-time occupation, at least not just yet.

“Ameren offered early retirement this year to anybody over 58 who had enough time to qualify,” he said. “I thought about it, but decided I’m just not quite ready to take that route yet.”

Alan mentioned that the distance along the Osage River from Bagnell Dam to the Missouri River was 86 miles which would amount to about twice what it would require by road. That reminded me of something my grandfather told me years ago. He ran a store on the bank of the Osage River in Tuscumbia and knew a lot about the river. He said no owls could be found in the trees along the banks of the Osage River. I asked why?  And he said “They all died from twisting their heads round and round so much watching all the steamboats go around all the curves in that crooked river!”

That’s all for this week.

Joe Pryor

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