67 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
67 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
A LITTLE KNOWN CASTLE IN THE OZARKS
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My wife and I took ourselves and the kids to the Ozarks last weekend.
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Now, this is obviously going to take some explaining. First of all, the Ozarks
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are mountains in Missouri, but, like almost everything else in that fine state,
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they are somewhat paradoxical.
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Missouri is a state of contradictions and the Ozarks are not exempt. In what
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other state do you have the reigning World Series champs AND the runners-up?
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Well, the Ozarks are mountains you drive downhill to get to.
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No lie. I don't know the geological terms, but you just tend to sink down into
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the Ozarks and, sure enough, they are mountains. Now, to Ozark aficionados,
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these mountains which are interlaced by a fine series of lakes, are the chic
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place to get away from it all.
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Back in 1906, a Kansas City businessman fell (not literally) in love with the
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topography in an area now known as the Ha Ha Tonka State Park. This guy
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decided to erect a 60-room castle atop one of the Ozarks' mountains, hopeful
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that he would be able to retire in peace from the hectic life of urban,
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turn-of-the-century Kansas City. (Ha!)
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He started work on the castle in 1906. Stone was quarried on the spot and
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hauled upslope by rail. It was tough work and he didn't live to see his aerie
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completed. He was killed in, of all things, an auto accident.
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His son finished the castle in '22 and lived there for a few years. Later,
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after the crash of '29, a lady bought the place and turned it into a hostel.
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That turned out to be a crackerjack idea except the place burned down in the
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'40s and is now in a state of ruin.
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So. Me and my wife, our four-year-old and our two-year-old headed to the
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Ozarks for a get-away-from-it-all weekend and found our way to Ha Ha Tonka and
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the castle.
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The highlight of our visit was the attempt by our younger son to walk backward
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up a nature trail. I was not amused. The lowlight was staying four feet from
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the water in a fine cove without a boat.
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Underneath a good part of the Ozarks' mountains are caverns. Missouri is
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replete with caverns, as any fan of Mark Twain's would know. We ventured into
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one called the Bridal Cave since it was close by. Both of the kids were
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nonplussed by the subterranean climate but, by then, I was inured to their
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antics. The Bridal Cave has scored nearly 900 weddings, although the frequency
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of marriages has declined in recent years.
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They'd make more money if they called it the Divorce Cave, since that was what
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I was a step away from because of the funky fettle my wife's kids were in.
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Everyone knows the kids are mine only when they're good.
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The Ozarks region is famed for the high incidence of hand crafted baskets and
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pottery, much of it hand crafted in Taiwan. It would also seem an unlikely
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place for fast food chains to sprout but those eagle-eyed brats found every one
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of them. Nevertheless, we had a pretty good time not boating, fishing and
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relaxing. We enjoyed driving the alley-oop roads until one of the kids decided
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to get car sick.
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Still, a castle in the Ozarks is not everyday stuff and few people are aware of
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the Ha Ha Tonka castle (no relation to the toy company). Stop down--or up--to
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the castle whenever you might be around Camdenton just 15 miles from the dam
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which keeps all those hollows filled up with water and fish.
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Let me know if your kid can hike backward up that cliffside nature trail, will
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you?
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