Windows, Railroads, and The Bluebird
by Ed Crabtree ©2001-2002

All across the Ozarks and this great land, there are wonderful institutions that house artifacts and appliances that to some are of priceless value and to others just old junk as the items were common things we used or always had around the old home place or barn. These items are memorabilia of those bygone days, items prized by collectors and revered by historians. No, the institutions that I am referring to are not what we know as flea markets but rather the smaller museums found in communities large and small throughout the land.

Typically these wonderful archives are operated by historical and genealogical societies and in some cases non-profit groups or by for profit entrepreneurs. What ever the motive, these fine folks have realized the importance of preserving the items from the past that were everyday common tools and appliances to our ancestors, but yet items that have outlived their usefulness and then discarded, replaced by newer improved more efficient technologies. By preservng these items in a safe place for all to see, we are offering to our young a “window” to the past, letting them look out on a vista to see how their grandparents or great-grandparents lived. Just as the computer “Window” you are now using to interface with the information superhighway, as they refer to the Internet, inorder to read this article, the “windows” in a museum are a means by which to interface with the low-tech world of yesteryear, or to “surf” the network of time.

In my opinion, the best part of these museums is when you encounter an exhibit that you have some degree of familiarity with, and you suddenly make a connection with the past. Maybe the exhibit is an item or on a subject that you have studied or read about, or perhaps it is a car that you, your Dad, or Grandfather once owned, or an airplane, or even a Naval ship that you or a relative served on. Perhaps it is just a tool or appliance that although commonplace in a bygone era you had forgotten about the significance of the particular article and the importance it had in its day. The experience of seeing such things again opens the floodgates of memories stored in the recesses of your soul allowing fond recollections to come forth and take control over your conscious mind, momentarily transporting you back to another place, another time. It is at that very special moment when you make a connection with the past that is so wonderful of a sensation or emotion.

Trains and railroad memorabilia are just some of the things that I enjoy viewing when I visit a museum, partially due to the connection of my Father to railroading, just like many of you readers who have retired from or had relatives employed in the railroad industry.

Before moving my family to these old Ozark Mountains from Kentucky, my Dad was employed with the Southern Railroad company. Shortly after the second world war, the Electro Motive Division of General Motors built the first practical diesel-electric engines and proceeded to take them on tour, across the country demonstrating to the various rail road companies the practicality of these streamlined monsters over their steam powered predecessors, the Southern purchased the demonstrator units, promptly painting them with the colors of the line. Then they photographed the “A” or lead engine and the three “B” units pulling a long line of freight cars out of a tunnel and across a high trestle at a location in southern Kentucky and proudly had the photo reproduced into large posters suitable for framing, with the following caption, “The World’s First Diesel Freight Locomotive.” His employers presented one of these framed posters to Dad and for more than fifty years this print has been proudly displayed first in Dad’s home and now in mine. So after growing up looking at this picture on a daily basis, of Southern #6100 in the lead, pulling that long line of freight cars, can you imagine how I felt when I first visited the National Transportation and Railroad Museum in St. Louis where the old #6100 was on display and actually got to touch that behemoth, the engine that was at the forefront of the demise of the era of steam powered locomotives?

By now you are probably wondering where I am going with this story, well just be patient with me and I will tell you a story that relates to this article and is more historically important to the central Ozarks region, and the museums in this area.

A phenomena that I have always thought to be wonderful is that when two people find common ground through the telling of old family histories, the most of us having backgrounds so similar. My Father-In-Law and I were able to find such common ground through, among other things, the sharing of old railroad related stories, as both our Dads were old railroad men. My Father-In-Law is always telling me of how his Dad was at one time an engineer with the old Kansas City and Ozarks Southern line that served Douglas and Wright Counties nearly a century ago and until this particular day his stories had included his Father’s exploits while operating Steam Engines.

His Dad had told him that on one particular run between Ava and Mansfield, while at the controls of the Bluebird and looking forward along the tracks ahead, he saw a large Copperhead, and he then stopped the Bluebird and promptly dispatched the snake. Now not being familiar with the “Bluebird,” I envisioned a large iron behemoth belching steam and smoke like any other railroad engine of the day. Being somewhat familiar with such and knowing that a iron and steel monster that weighed in the tens of thousands of tons and the fact that the forward momentum of the train would have carried it forward considerable distance after the brakes had been applied, it occurred to me that the Copperhead would have had to be extremely large in order for Granddad to have seen it in time to stop the train. So I “filed” this story away in the back of my mind as one of those “folk lore” stories that you hear about the size of snakes throughout the Ozarks in days gone by.

I never suspected that the Bluebird and its predecessor were basically buses or truck chassis, modified to run on the railroad tracks. While doing some research into the old railroads of the Ozarks, I came across the photo above of the “railroad engine” that Grand Dad Dix was at one time the operator thereof. When I found the photo I suddenly realized that the joke was on me, I had been mistaken in my assumption that my Father-in-law’s Dad had been at the controls of a steam engine the day of his encounter with the monster Copperhead. Obliviously the Bluebird, the vehicle in the photo above, was indeed capable of coming to a complete stop in nowhere near the distance required to stop a steam engine. I then realized that Grand Dad Dix probably did see a snake on the tracks ahead of his engine in time to stop the vehicle to rid the Ozarks of another Copperhead.

Isn’t it ironic how we can arrive at false conclusions about the past when we can’t see a visual representation of items described in folklore? Then when we find a photo or a physical part of something from the past the aspect of being able to see the item confirms or denies our preconceived notion regarding the subject or article. We then realize how special those folks are that work to preserve our past, providing us with “windows” by which to view history!

On a recent visit to my in-laws home in Ava, I spied a current issue of the Herald, the newspaper that serves Douglas County Missouri and as I always do when I can get my hands on a copy of the Herald, I immediately opened it to my favorite column, “100 Years Ago This Week.” There I found a brief article telling that the local paper had carried a story a century past reporting of speculation that the White River Railroad might change its plans and construct its new line north from Mountain Home Arkansas to Gainsville, Ava, and on to connect with the road at Mansfield. Suddenly it occurred to me the significance of this article. Had this plan been carried out, the effect upon the history of Taney and Stone County would have been enormous! The entire central Ozarks region that we know today would be completely different. Without a railroad the impact on commerce and tourism in early day Branson, Holister, Galena, and Crane would have been profound, possibly even preventing the economic development of the area as we know it today. But the plans were not changed which in turn necessitated the formation of the Kansas City and Ozarks Southern railroad and the Bluebird along with other engines that served on this short line.

Just like the communities in Christian, Stone, and Taney counties, that we have so often wrote about in this electronic magazine, Ava and the rural areas along the Bryant and Beaver water sheds depended upon the old wagon routes in Douglas County, counterparts of the Wilderness Road, to provide a passage to the outside world by which to haul local produce out and a means to bring needed manufactured goods into that region of the Ozarks. Wagon masters drove their teams along river bottoms and ridge tops roads like the Glade Top Trail, the Old Girdner Road, and the wagon routes that eventually became Old Highway Five, trails that connected Ava and other area communities to regional markets like Springfield. Then when the Frisco constructed their line from Memphis to Springfield, the wagon masters made their way to points like Mansfield to transfer their goods to waiting railroad freight cars. When it became apparent that the railroad was not going to materialize between Mansfield and Mountain Home, entrepreneurs set about to construct the short line that would guarantee the economic growth of the city of Ava.

The Douglas County Herald reports that on Sunday, 17 February 1910, at about 9:30 P.M. the first steam locomotive pulled into the newly built depot in Ava. Waiting at the station was a crowd of folks from all over the area along with the local band that played in celebration as the crowd cheered the arrival of the Iron Horse. Excited with the prospects that the “modern technology” offered, local citizens with determined foresight vowed that nothing would stand in their way of developing their community into an important hub of commerce.

The KC & OS served the area well, for a number of years, until the completion of the early highways that allowed practical use of motor vehicles in the region, trucks competing with the steam engine of the KC & OS for business. Like so many other short line railroads, this line fell victim to progress, just as it had replaced the rickety wagons that hauled freight before the days of rail in the central Ozarks. Today, archeological remains consisting of earthworks are that remain in mute testimony to these old railroads, but in some of the wonderful museums I wrote about earlier in this article, there are exhibits displaying the glory days of Ozark railroading, which keeps alive the memory of these companies, machines, and the men and women that depended on them for employment and commerce.

Now for those of you that have been patient enough to read the more than 2469 words you have read thus far in this story, I will make my point as I promised some time back.

Just east of the square in Ava, on highway 14, the Historical and Genealogical Society of Douglas County Missouri, maintains one of those wonderful museums that I wrote about earlier on in this incredibly long story. These wonderful folks are really working hard to create themed rooms that portray the history of the county with exhibits such as the room that has been remodeled to resemble a one-room schoolhouse with all the appurtenances that one would have expected to find in the houses of education that once dotted Douglas county as well as the rest of the Ozarks a century ago.

When I toured the museum, I found one of those exhibits that I alluded to in the beginning of this article, a piece of memorabilia that connects you to the long ago past. Although it might seem insignificant to others, the item immediately reminded me of the story of my wife’s Grand Dad, the Bluebird and the snake. Probably the only remaining physical remnants of the old Bluebird, there is in the room dedicated to transportation, a wheel from the old vehicle pictured above.

In past issues of the Message Tree, I have proselytized the “gospel” of supporting those who work to preserve history, to keep the “windows” open that offer broad vistas onto the world of our predecessors. I can’t begin to stress the importance of maintaining these means by which our children and their children yet to come, can connect with the past. As I have pointed out in other articles, how can we make rational decisions about our present, pointing our society along a path to the future, if we don’t know our history and the past, if we don’t know where we have been?

If you have kids or grand kids, spend some real quality time with them, visit museums and other attractions that display the history of the Ozarks, our children’s inheritance. If you can find time you might even consider becoming a part of our work. Get involved, find a means to give of yourself to preserve the inheritance we have received from our predecessors. A visit to a meeting of many of these historical and genealogical societies across the land, will reveal that most of the folks involved are nearing the end of their allotted four score and ten, a testimony to the necessity of less senior folks learning the ropes so that they can one day pick the banner that has been borne so well by older Ozarkers and continue the work of maintaining the heritage of the region we love so much, the Ozark Mountains.