Camp Lewallen Archives

December 10, 2013

Marble Hill Artesian Well

A trip to or from Cape Lewallen wouldn’t have been complete without a stop outside Marble Hill to fill up canteens and water jugs from an artesian well on the south side of Missouri Hwy 34. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Been on my bucket list

Getting down to see if the spring was still flowing has been on my bucket (bad pun) list for a couple of years, so Mother and I took off to Bollinger County to see if we could find it. We headed west on Missouri Hwy 34 and thought it was near Woodland School, but we couldn’t spot it. There was a lot of road work going on, so we were afraid they might have “improved” it like, I think, Cape County is going to do to the spring off Bloomfield Road.

After driving four or five miles, we headed back toward town. There, just before the school, just like we remembered from the old days, was a nice paved parking spot right at the artesian well.

Listen to the sound of the water

I produced a short video showing where the spring is located and what it’s like. To be honest, I think the audio of the rushing water is better than the pictures. It’s worth 1:07 of your life.

Road to be dedicated December 17

The pull-off gives you plenty of room to get off the road and would easily hold half a dozen cars parked side-by-side

The Missourian had a story that there will be a ribbon cutting December 17, 2013, to mark the completion of a project to add shoulders and curve corrections along that stretch of road.

What’s the history of the spring?

I didn’t think it would be hard to find out when the well was drilled, how deep it is, how long it’s been flowing, etc., but I struck out. I figured if anybody would know, it would be Missourian blogger James Baughn who wrote about it in 2008. James is a pretty thorough guy, so surely it’ll be in his story.

He must have run into the same problem: about the only fact he had other than a Wikipedia definition of an artesian aquifer was that it was a test drill for oil and mineral exploration.

Cold and sweet

When I went back down to Marble Hill to shoot the flags for Veterans Day, I made sure to bring along half a dozen gallon jugs to fill with the pure spring water for Mother to use in her coffee maker.

While researching this, I ran across a 1907 United States Geological publication called Underground Waters of Missouri – Their Geology and Utilization. It listed just about every source of water in Missouri and some of the surrounding states. This well, unfortunately, wasn’t one of them.

The section dealing with mineral waters, including Excelsior Springs, was particularly interesting. “When the the intelligent practitioner reads that a certain water is positively curative in an imposing list of diseases set forth in divers pages of testimonials from renovated statesmen, restored clergymen, and rejuvenated old ladies, and then learns from the analysis that it contains 2 or 3 grains of lime salts to the gallon, with the remaining ingredients required perhaps a third or fourth decimal point to express, he can hardly be blamed for tossing the circular into his wastebasket, with an objurgation upon quacks generally, and mineral springs quacks in particular,” Dr. Cook wrote.

OK, maybe mineral waters DO help

Then, he conceded there COULD be some benefits: “There is no doubt that much benefit is derived from most of the health resorts connected with mineral springs or wells; and while a great deal of it is undoubtedly psychic, some is unquestionable due to the use of the waters. People who are broken down from overwork or who are troubled with many incipient diseases find at these resorts rest, which they perhaps can not get elsewhere; a change of air; a new environment; distractions from trouble; and they use, both internally and externally, perhaps a much larger amount of water than has been their custom at home; these, together with faith in the curative qualities in the water (since every wise physician recognizes faith as a helpful element in cure), form a stimulus to nature in the restoration of normal action to the functions of the body.”

Just for the record, the spring waters not captured in canteens and gallon jugs, run into Crooked Creek.

June 10, 2013

Troop 14 at Camp Lewallen

Troop 14 raised most of the money it took to go to Camp Lewallen in the summer of 1966. When their sales of soft drinks at the Arena Park stock car races and distributing posters came up a little short of being able to send all the boys to camp, the Cape Girardeau Jaycees made up the difference.

Somehow or another I managed to convince jBlue to devote the whole July 30, 1966, Youth Page to the boys. It’s the only single-topic page I can recall. That made me happy, because we ran eight pictures, which brought in almost as much money as I made in salary that week. I’m missing a couple of the photos that ran, but I substituted some that were close. The information under the photos came from captions that appeared in the paper for the most part.

Doing their swim checks

Most Scouts take to water with the fervor of ants heading for a picnic basket, and these members of Troop 14, sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Jaycees are no exception. Hitting the water for their swim check at Camp Lewallen are Roscoe Newbern, 304 LaCruz; Ed Slaughter, 532 College; David Vann, 522 South Frederick; Raymond Ward, 1211 South Sprigg; Harold Webb, 620 Vine; Calvin Sides, 548 South Frederick, and Larry Ross and Ervin Williams, 1622 South Sprigg.

Medical check

Before they go swimming, they are given a quick medical check to detect any major physical disabilities that might limit their participation at camp. Dr. Tim Talbert listens to Ed Slaughter’s heartbeat, while a nurse examines Calvin Sides for possible skin infections that could keep him out of aquatic activities.

Some quiet time

Ottis Johnson, 1610 South Sprigg, finds that there’s even time for a little solitude worked into his busy schedule of axemanship, horseback riding and a little advancement work. [I don’t know if ‘Ottis” is the correct spelling, but that’s what was in the paper.]

Acting Senior Patrol Leader Ervin Williams

The responsibilities of an acting senior patrol leader are mirrored by Ervin Williams’ wrinkled brow. Ervin, the oldest scout in the troop, was elected to the post at the group’s first meeting at the camp. [This wasn’t the photo that ran, but it’s close.]

Jaycees helped out

[This isn’t the photo that ran, so the names won’t match up. I wanted to get them listed, even if they might not be in this particular photo.]

Talking over the plans for the week are are, from left, Harold Webb, David Vann, Acting Scoutmaster Roy Dzurick, Ed Slaughter and Troop Committee Chairman Jeff Ryan, a Jaycee. Because the boys’ regular scoutmaster couldn’t attend camp, a Lewallen staff member was in charge of the nine scouts.

Newbern and Moore sell drinks

Roscoe Newbern seems to turn up everywhere. The Missourian photographer caught him and Joe Moore dishing out soft drinks to Jeff Ryan at the Arena Park stock car races. Proceeds from the stand helped pay the troop’s way to Camp Lewallen.

A pensive Tenderfoot

Roscoe is silent, pensive, wondering, perhaps how it was possible to cram so many projects into a six-day period.

Making a tent a home

Roscoe and his tentmate Calvin Sides worked so hard to make their tent liveable that one of the other boys shouted, “Hey, Roscoe, you’ll make some woman a good wife someday.” Roscoe, always a good Scout, didn’t reply.

Most boys advanced in rank

At Lewallen, most of the boys advanced at least one rank and some of them picked up merit badges.

“Kind of spooky”

Long-term camping was something new to most of the scouts, but a few random comments would indicate they they got along all right.

“It was great – the food was good and there was plenty of it…those Indian dances Thursday night were terrific – I really liked the Hoop Dance… I had trouble getting to sleep that night we spent out under the stars: it was kind of spooky.”

Camp Lewallen photo gallery

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the side to move through the gallery. Bonus point if you can find the photo with me in it.

June 8, 2013

Boy Scout Troop 14

These are the boys from Troop 14 standing in front of May Green School before they head off for a week at Camp Lewallen in July 1966.The scouts raised money by selling soft drinks at the Arena Park stock car races and distributed posters. When they came up short of enough money to send all the boys to camp, the Cape Jaycees made up the difference.

I’m going to resort to an old trick I used when doing picture pages at The Athens Messenger. If I had a topic that was worth more than one day, I’d run a big picture – let’s say of a general store – with a headline and a short caption ending with “Tomorrow, we’ll go inside.”

My film scanner was taking a lot longer than usual tonight, then I ran into an odd Photoshop output glitch.

So, falling back on my old trick, “Tomorrow we’ll follow the boys to Camp Lewallen. There are plenty of pictures. I think the story might have been the only single-topic Youth Page I ever saw. (You can click on the photo to make it larger.)