MICROFILM
R631
Ozark National Scenic Riverways (Mo.).
Administrative files, 1965-1994.
Eighty-eight folders.
These are administrative files of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, a corridor along the Current and Jacks Fork rivers in southeastern Missouri administered by the National Park Service from headquarters at Van Buren in Carter County. Included are min utes of the Advisory Commission, minutes of staff meetings, annual reports, papers on local organizations and events, and reports of accidents and injuries.
The Ozark National Scenic Riverways (ONSR) was created by Congress on August 27, 1964 by passage of Public Law 88-492. It was the first National Scenic Riverway, preceding the National Wild and Scenic Rivers act by two years. Previous to the authorizati on, much of the area and its principal sites, Alley Spring, Big Spring, and Round Spring, had been state parks administered by the State of Missouri. ONSR extends along 134 miles of Current and Jacks Fork rivers, encompassing 80,000 acres in Carter, Dent , Shannon, and Texas counties, Missouri. Eminence and Van Buren are the principal towns in the area. The region is typified by narrow, steep-sided hollows, numerous streams, and bluffs. Seven major springs feed the rivers, and the terrain features the springs, caves, and sinkholes of classical karst topography.
The argument for the creation of the Riverways can be traced to the 1930s, and controversial proposals for dams on the Current and Jacks Fork. Other proposals for dams in the 1950s led to a coalition of naturalists, environmentalists, and sportsmen dedic ated to river preservation. This coalition and supporters within the Missouri Conservation Department were ultimately responsible for creation of the park in 1964. Among the most eloquent of the early preservationists was outdoor writer Leonard Hall, who later served as chairman of the ONSR Advisory Commission.
The National Park Service administers ONSR. For the Service, the Riverways was the first attempt to manage a river rather than a block of land. Establishment of ONSR also brought a tremendous expansion of the tourist clientele and attendant problems with safety, overcrowding, and pollution. Differences between local residents, the National Park Service, recreationists, environmentalists, preservationists, and concessionaires became issues which remain to the present day. Issues reflected in the admini strative files include competing types of recreational and tourist use of the Riverways, the Park Service's management plan and administration, the regulation of concessionaires, motorboats, and fishing, management of the watershed in areas adjacent to ONSR, and the impact of mineral and timber development in the southeastern Ozarks.
The files have been selected from administrative records at ONSR headquarters in Van Buren. They do not include papers concerning the creation of OSNR by Congress, but concern the subsequent operation by the National Park Service. The period of the reco rds represents the leadership of successive superintendents including Ted Davenport, Vernon Hennesay, David Thompson, Milton E. Thompson, Randall Pope, and Arthur Sullivan. The files include four major series of records and files on a score of miscellane ous subjects. The most important early records are those of the Advisory Commission (folders 1-8), a civilian board appointed by the Governor of Missouri, the Secretary of the Interior, and the county commissions of Carter, Dent, Shannon, and Texas counties. Among the members and chairmen of the Advisory Commission were Leonard Hall; Oscar Hawksley, Professor of Zoology at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg and author of Missouri Ozark Waterways; and attorneys William C. Schock and Anthony A. Buford. Advisory Commission files include minutes and papers of the council's input during the Park's early years and during formulation of the management plan for ONSR.
The sometimes uneasy relationship between the National Park Service, area residents, and patrons of the Riverways may be seen in the files on associations of local citizens (folders 9-15) and in files of complaints against Park Service regulations, operat ion of Riverways sites, or the actions of its personnel (folders 22-29). Some complaints were forwarded through elected officials, but more originated from Park Service complaint forms or by reports through headquarters at Van Buren headquarters. Matters of complaint concern everything from building and trail maintenance, mowing policies, road closures, campsite booking, and operations of concessionaires. All complaints include the reply by the superintendent. A serious challenge to National Park Service regulation by canoe outfitters (folders 11,12, 88) was turned down by the courts in 1983.
A more comprehensive view of Park Service operations may be seen in the annual reports by superintendents and regional administrators (folders 16-18), commendations of employees (folders 19-21), public relations files (folders 30-39), and minutes of staff meetings (folders 40-50). The hazards to Park Service employees and civilians in a "wild" area maintained for public use are well-illustrated by accident reports (folders 62-71). Despite the emphasis on safety, the reports of personal injuries and drownings of park visitors, as well as the injuries and vehicle accidents of Riverways personnel, clearly demonstrate that human beings do not always act in their best interests. The controversy concerning rope swings (folder 25) is an example of the ill-feeling which can erupt over safety measures.
Other files concern cooperation with the Missouri Conservation Department and transfer of Alley Spring, Big Spring, and Round Spring from state to federal ownership (folders 38, 53, 54), scientific research and natural history (folders 51-52), floods and dam inspections (folders 72-75), and efforts to clean up litter along the Riverways (folders 76-78).
Shelf
List for this collection
Index
cards for this collection
WHMC-Rolla's homepage.