SharePhotos and story by Jo Schaper
Despite the efforts of reenactment commissions, a modern Civil War encampment can never be anything but an (ironically) more civil replica of the real thing. There are the wives and the children around, for one. Hardly anyone is filthy, tired, out-of-sorts or stinks, not to mention actually injured or dying. [...]

ShareWe’re pretty sure raccoons don’t celebrate Christmas as we know it, but one of our roving reporters (Jo’s husband Eugene) came upon this sign on the Missouri Department of Conservation headquarters lawn in Jefferson City while he was finishing up his shopping Thursday night.
Considering that the department and our paper work together (in our [...]

ShareFor a good many years now, Traveler has been offering its leather-bound 12-month hunting, fishing and outdoor appointment calendar to our subscribers. This is a low tech device, involving paper and pencil. It is sized to fit most pockets, and never needs batteries, rebooting, nor a software upgrade. In fact, all you need to use [...]

ShareWhat with all the hoopla about Civil War reenactment, this had to happen.
The declaration asking for the end of the jayhawker mascot as being politically offensive was first reported by the AP on Sept. 18. Furthermore, the resolution asks that neither jayhawk, jayhawker or kansas be capitalized by any University of Missouri [...]

ShareThe central Missouri hay artists are at it again.
This hay bale sculpture (?) is located on Missouri Hwy. 42 in Iberia, Missouri just west of Missouri Hwy. 17.

ShareHere’s an item on a fellow we have always enjoyed visiting with at the Hannibal Welcome Center. It comes via the Missouri Division of Tourism e-newsletter. Hannibal’s loss will be Sikeston’s gain. — Emery
Bob Greenlee, supervisor of the Hannibal Welcome Center, retired on Feb. 1, 2011. Several
industry members and friends attended a January reception in [...]

ShareSomewhere amidst the beautiful, rolling hillsides of rural Missouri in between Ste. Genevieve and Farmington is a tiny community called Kaufman. Kaufman used to have a school house, but that school house is now a brewery. That brewery held a home brewer’s contest on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 30.
Twenty-five home brewers from all over Missouri and [...]

ShareOnline Photo Gallery of Deputy Under Secretary Jay Jensen’s visit.
Jo Schaper
Jay Jensen, Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture, and the man directly responsible for United States Forest Service administration, toured several sites on the Salem-Potosi Ranger District Oct. 28.
The purpose of his visit was to [...]

Shareby Jo Schaper
Back in the days before GPS, when a surveyor measured out a parcel of land, he needed to establish the corners of the parcel for the legal description, preferably using some landmark unlikely to move. Various techniques were used, but in forested areas, the most common was the “witness tree.”
The surveyor blazed the [...]

ShareTake your pick. Learn about native Americans at Washington, white settlers at Big Oak Tree state parks on Sept. 11.
The Three Rivers Chapter of the Missouri Archaeological Society will provide information on Missouri’s many cultural resources and assist with tours of the petroglyphs, rock carvings that are remnants of the prehistoric Native American [...]