Roger Miller Is Alive and Well

“Hello KCI, your temperature is 78.”   Never mind that there may not be a dozen people at KCI listening to KMZU Radio.  That just proves it’s Missouri’s best radio station. Or at least it’s best for me, as I drive … Read More

Downhill

Fort Leonard Wood demonstrates the discipline you’d expect from a school that cranks out military police officers and crime scene investigators – and engineers, adept at road building. It’s fitting, then, that St. Robert sits on the edge of rugged … Read More

Skunks, Laws and Hardware

 “That there’s not a skunk,” the guide pointed to one animal pelt on a table, “That’s genuine Alaskan sable.” It was a skunk, the guide admitted, but to the European fur market in the early 1800s, the term Alaskan sable … Read More

Well-traveled children…

“Got a ham bone?” I asked the undertaker. I pulled a two-pound bag of great northern beans out of my overcoat pocket and plopped it on his desk. He looked puzzled. “Last request,” I said, and told him about my … Read More

Watery Grave

Looking upriver from the Hermann bluff, I could almost see Sonora Chute. It was a cold February day in 1856 when Captain Bill Terrill ran his sidewheeler Sonora through ice floes near Portland, Missouri. At 363 tons, the Sonora was … Read More

Local flavor. Local stories. Missouri’s back yard.

In the aftermath of the tragic events of 9/11, folks wanted to stay closer to home, closer to loved ones. They didn’t trust travel, especially airline travel, until airlines started offering round-trip fares for fifty bucks. Then, magically, people felt … Read More

Old names along a meandering drive

“Next morning we caromed across Lyon Township, named for the first Union general killed in the Civil War, at Wilson’s Creek. We passed Neeper, and the hill where the old Cracker-Neck School stood, and the site of an old place … Read More

Sunrise

The deer and turkey awaken and the fish begin their day at Truman Lake.

Rite of Passage

The train was late. That didn’t matter to seven men awaiting its arrival. “I’ve learned to be patient,” said Mason, sitting next to me in his prison issue gray trousers and white T-shirt. Earlier that morning, seven inmates had been … Read More

The Road By Gads Hill

Boarding a railroad car at Gads Hill, Missouri, Frank James quoted Shakespeare, announcing to startled passengers his gang’s intent to rob them. Just the rich, mind you. Not the working poor, with calloused hands. No women. No children. The Bard … Read More