Old Rock Bridge Post Office - Store - Restaurant

Taken by me in December 1970. They still pumped gas at that time.

A late fall day on Spring Creek above Rockbridge Mill

There are some nice trails just above the Mill on Spring Creek at Rockbridge. I spent an afternoon and evening hiking and snapping a few photos. It is really a beautiful place to walk; not quite a pristine as the River of Life Spring trails; but beautiful. Many migrating songbirds were calling along the trail. This is only about a 35 minute drive from the River of Life Farm and makes a nice side trip.

Rockbridge Mill on Spring Creek in February

About 20 miles from River of Life Farm (west and north a bit) lies the old town of Rockbridge. Rockbridge was the County Seat of Ozark County until 1880, when it was moved to Gainesville. A nice side trip can be made and is about a 35 minute drive through the pretty Ozark County countryside. Rockbridge is a great place to grab lunch.

Its cold, snowy, and dark

For me, it's a tough time of the year. I like to think back to mid-May last year, driving the Ozark county ridges and watching for fields of purple and pale purple coneflowers and watching the sun come up over hayfields in the river valley and watching wildlife. I know I should appreciate the winter, but come on spring.

The gravel road and old wooden bridge at Patrick

This picture is of the old gravel County Road H with the wooden bridge crossing in 1964. and one taken in 2008.

The beauty of Vera Cruz access on the Bryant Creek

In the Bryant Creek headwaters, about 30 minutes from River of Life Farm, is the Vera Cruz access. The Bryant cuts a surprisingly deep valley at this point, the bottom is bedrock and the bluffs are beautiful. Try this as side trip sometime. Pictures below are from October 24, 2009.

Ghosts of the past times in Ozark County Missouri

A few building clustered around the North Fork and Bryant headwaters; off of Highway 181.

Mid May moonrise from Tree Top Loft deck

about 10:35 PM.

Large Spring at RockBridge in May 2009

This beautiful spring rises from a bluff base and flows about 25 ' downhill into the Spring Creek. It is located about 30 minutes from ROLF.

Near Caney Mountain Refuge in late May

Pale purple coneflowers and ozark primrose in bloom. About 20 minutes from ROLF.

Sundown on the North Fork

Always a beautiful time.

Stormy Evening in May 2009

This storm came up quickly this May, thundered for 10 minutes, then did not rain.

April, what a difference 6 days make

The Ozark County hills on April 20th and on April 26th.

The intimate beauty of the ROLF Spring Branch

I walked up one side of the spring branch and down the other on an afternoon in mid-May. This is a great short hike and after about 100 yards, you get the sense that you are in a real canyon; which you are. It is shady along most of the length of the clear creek fed by River of Life Spring. The plant life is quite different from the surrounding area; with many large Trilliums, Jack in the Pulpits, and Paw Paw trees, and Maindenhair Ferns.

I saw four varieties of harmless snakes including a Northern water Snake pictured above.

Old Lodge at Rainbow Springs

Upstream about 2 miles from River of Life Farm, enters Rainbow (aka, Double Springs). The old lodge is still visible with the old plank bridge to get to the lodge (private). As you can see from this picture the spring branch flows both north and south from the bridge. The north flow enters about 1/8 mile downstream from North Fork Spring (on the opposite bank), and the south flowing portion enters about 3/4 downstream on the west back of the North Fork of the White River. Picture taken with permission in July 2008. Click to enlarge.

Old Wagon Road along the Bryant Creek

The Old River Road along Bryant Creek was part of the wagon route from Springfield to West Plains.
Here we follow it a short way along the Bryant's west bank.

The red line on the topo map shows the part of the old wagon road in this story. Bryant Creek is at the top. The white area is the bottomland. Pine Creek refers to a local township. This part of the road runs from a ford across from the east bank to Tar Kiln Creek, a distance of about a mile. You can see it hasn't been used for a long time.

The snow reveals the old road between the edge of a wooded hillside (left) and bottomland used for growing hay (right). This agricultural bottomland is about 15 feet above the flood plain, which is out of sight to the far right.

The road begins a gentle half-mile slope down to the river. They located the road safely above the flood plain, which is to the right. That kept it from washing out in a flood.

As it nears the river the overgrown road turns toward the right and downward. By the height of the roadside you can see that its builders dug a cut. That allowed it to reach the river bottom more gradually.

View from the bottomland, looking at the road about 15 feet above. The builders needed to level off a "shelf" along the hillside. It must have been a lot of hard work to dig it without power equipment!

Courtesy watersheds.org

Making Tar at Kiln Hollow on the Bryant Creek

David Haenke of Brixey says, "This land loves pine, and pine loves this land." In 1853-54 B.F. Shumard, of the State Geological Survey, estimated a pine forest of over ninety square miles along mid to upper Bryant Creek. He told of many sawmills producing lumber that was hauled by ox team to Springfield and Bolivar.

Tar Kiln Hollow, where they made tar in kilns, was near an old wagon road along the Bryant. A kiln is an oven for heating materials without letting them burn up.

This part of an 1841 Geological Map of Ozark County shows "Pines" in the Rockbridge and Cane Bottom Hollow area. This was before large-scale logging.

Large-scale logging of pine began around here when the railroad came to Mountain Grove in 1880. Most likely, the land around Tar Kiln Holler was heavily logged between 1922 and 1929. That’s when the Big Mill, literally a small town with the mill as its center, operated along Cane Bottom Hollow. That's where the #95 Bridge crosses the Bryant today.

Logging left stumps with sap-filled heartwood, good for making tar. People used tar for waterproofing all kinds of things, from roofs to tarps. It was spread on wounds in animals. It was anti-bacterial and, like a bandage, made a tough, flexible covering.

The sap in this stump has preserved the heartwood since the 1950's, or before.

Local men would split heartwood from pine stumps into stove-size pieces. Then they would stack them on an iron plate about a yard square. They’d put a large iron kettle upside down over the plate with the pieces of pine inside. This was to keep oxygen away from the wood so it could heat without burning. They would pile slash (waste branches left from the logging) over the whole thing and set it on fire. They fed the fire, letting it slowly burn for several hours. The pine sap would heat up, trickle out of the wood, and collect on the bottom of the plate. The plate had a central groove to drain the sap away and into a pot or jar for storage.

courtesy waterheds.org

Take a trip to Rainbow Springs in 1930

Only two of these photos can be actual location identified. The trip from St. Louis to Dora took two full days; have fun ........ take plenty of patience, auto parts, water, and food. Notice how desolate some of the hills were due to over harvesting the shortleaf pine.

Few more pictures of a Nov. 2008 day at Rock Bridge

Sun in the afternoon  gave way to a few nice shots of the mill and dam. Click to enlarge.

Dawt Mill aerial view and downstream view 1947

Dawt Mill from above and from downstream looking up at the old wood bridge in the summer and winter  of 1947.