hey all out there in sdcfans land, I know someone will remember this maybe junior will know. OK first on route 76 just west of branson, between hwy 265 and branson there was an old store right off the hwy 76, it was in the 70s or early 80s when i remember stopping there, i can remember buying an old corncob pipe, lol i was just a kid 10 or 11 maybe anyway does anyone remember that place if so can you tell me the name?
number 2
OK on hwy 76 at the henning conservation area. if your heading west on76 the left side down in the hollow there stood an old cabin and it seemed like everytime we would drive by there was smoke coming from the chimney. so i was wondering if anyone had seen this cabin and knows what it is or was, last time we were there it looked like it had fallen in on itself.
number 1
You could be thinking of Shad Heller's Corncrib Theater/ Wilderness Settlement on Hwy 76. The Wilderness Settlement was located across from the current Andy’s Frozen Custard on Highway 76.
(http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu218/rubedugans/mollystore.jpg)
Any luck on this one?
Sorry but the one i was thinking of looked like the old man that ran it lived there in the back of the store. kind of a mess nothing was organized and had a little bit of everything. and if my memory is correct it was past sheppard of the hills.
Hmm...I have a few older maps of the area, I will have to look to see what was located in that area then...
thanks rube
At the entrance to the old Mutton Hollow there was a cabin. It was called the "Jim Lane Cabin" after the character in the Shepherd of the Hills novel. It actually was preserved for several decades by the Shepherd of the Hills Historical Society. It was torn down in the 1990s because of vandalism and it falling into a delapidated condition. In reality, it was a cabin lived in by a family named Hall. At the turn of the last century their son took a series of photos of now "lost" sites around Branson. Hall did a series of photos on Shepherd of the Hills themes and marketed them to tourists. Hall took hundreds of photos, made some money, and the family eventually moved out of the area, I think to Illinois.
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The photo above is of Aunt Mollie's Store at the Wilderness Settlement. Shad and Mollie Heller ran it. That is where the Corncrib Theater and Toby Show ran for years. The Wilderness Settlement was on the approximate site of the Jim Stafford theater.
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The Wash Gibbs Museum was ran by Chick Allen. He was an herb doctor, made famous by his appearance on those Beverly Hillbilly episodes shot at SDC. Chick was the old man on the medicine wagon with granny. Chick was an early SDC citizen, and ran his Wash Gibbs Museum in a series of broken down sheds adjacent to Shepherd of the Hills Farm, just west of the location of the tower today. When he died in 1978 0r 1979, his family bulldozed the site within weeks. Chick ran a little roadside attraction there for years. He sold his herbal medicine booklets and told the tourists stories. His exhibits were what I would call mostly junk...old farm equipment, arrowheads from the area, old time household items.
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Just west of SDC was and still is Uncle Ike's Post Office made famous in Shepherd of the Hills novel. Uncle Ike and his family lived there. The site is a National Historic site today. The decendents of Uncle Ike...in reality the Morrill family, operate a trail ride there today.
The places described above are the only ones I can think of from my early days in the late 1970s in Branson. The Shepherd of the Hills Bookstore is another place, and was located on Highway 76 just west of the Wash Gibbs Museum. It was a bookstore that specialized in books about the Ozarks.
Hope this info is helpful.
very helpfull junior, and rube you are the best thank you.
Avelanche: I'm thinking if it was not Aunt Mollie's Store, it probably was the Wash Gibbs Museum. Chick Allen ran the last of the old time tourist traps on Highway 76. I would see him daily out on the edge of the road waving at cars as they drove by. Always in overalls and a straw hat. Always visiting and telling stories to the tourists. Always visiting with old friends who stopped by. He had all that hillbilly stuff for sale, the hats, corncob pipes, and so on.
Another place that was in operation for the first few years I lived in Branson was Jesse James Confusion Hill and Museum. It was located exactly on the spot that the Veterans Museum is today, adjacent to the Methodist Church property. It also was a very busy tourist trap in the early days, say the 1950s through the mid to late 1970s. It featured a restaurant, motel (with a stallion made of fiberglass that moved back and forth, something next to the pool to grab your attention as you drove by) the museum, consisting of a bunch of odd and end junk and old time household stuff, a nice, small collection of old Model T type cars, and then, confusion hill. Confusion Hill was a maze of stairways and chain link fences that went up about three or four stories and provided a nice scenic outlook towards Lake Taneycomo and School of the Ozarks. By the time I moved to Branson in mid 1978, the confusion hill was closed because it fell into disrepair and was unsafe. I did use my SDC pass exchange program benefit to tour the old museum in the winter of 1980 with my friends Carol Meyers (a Ruby Dugan) and Terry Sanders, who had just finished his first season at SDC that year working with me at the diving bell. Carol and Terry had come over to my parents house where I still lived at the time, and they took a look at all my SDC collectables that I kept in a couple of files in a drawer...that collection has expanded to a couple of drawers of paper items that I keep in a file cabinet in my home office today.
Also along Highway 76 and in operation until about the last year was Dickens Gift Shop, located just east of the entrance to Mutton Hollow.
There was a Little Bo Peep Gift Shop, located in the vicinity of the Victorian Shop across Highway 76 from Peppercorn's Restaurant.
Those two gift shops were from the old days of Branson, as well. Last time I cruised through Branson I thought that Dickens Gift Shop was closed and was for sale. Little Bo Peep was demolished in the 1980s or 1990s and the property redeveloped.
junior that was it wash Gibbs museum, thank you so much! wow so many memory's, can you tell me exactly where he was located? i remember the place but cant remember the exact location. and as far as the cabin in the hollow it looked as if it was a private residence, and if you wasn't looking hard for it of of hwy 76 you wouldn't notice it. i was just wondering if anyone knew anything about the place.
oh duh, i re: read you first post and you did tell me exactly where it was. again thank you very much.
OK the Jesse James confusion hill museum had a stallion that moved. i don't remember that but what i do remember was one of the original music shows on the strip had a horse kinda reared back out front? or am i wrong and I'm mixed up about the location of the horse?
I posted this on another thread this week, but it is relevant here so...Enjoy!
(http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu218/rubedugans/jessejames-2.jpg)
I do remember that now that i have seen a picture. thank you rubedugan.
Don't remember any music show with a big ole horse outside it. I do remember Bob O Links Country Hoedown had a giant fiddle playin' hillbilly made out of fiberglass that was next to the business sign. That's the location next to Silver Spur Western Wear. Osmonds and Legends have worked out of that theater in recent years.
I do remember now it was out in front of the plummer family show theater it was during the 70s and 80s don't remember seeing after they widened 76 and put the center turn lane in.
I kind of skipped ahead with the reply so I'm not sure if you got your question answered Avalanche, but I remember that before the bypass (when the road would snake back and forth a lot), there was a store that sold a lot of stuff although I never stopped in there.
Back in 2006, I took the road off the bypass as far as I could and found the ruins of the old store that I remember as a kid in the 70's and 80's. Sadly, no photos of the building as it appeared back then.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skinnytie/250878087/
(more photos in the set of the abandoned store site)
wow Betta!! sorry about taking so long to respond, to be honest been wrapped up in watching the 9/11 series on the TLC channel. so exactly where is this part of 76? thank for the photos.
Quote from: Avalanche04 on August 31, 2011, 07:56:34 PM
wow Betta!! sorry about taking so long to respond, to be honest been wrapped up in watching the 9/11 series on the TLC channel. so exactly where is this part of 76? thank for the photos.
If you're going west (towards Silver Dollar City) from Branson, right before you get to the 465 interchange take the road to the right. I think it's called Old 76. If you stay on it, it dead ends, and I thought all that was back there was a couple houses and a double wide. If you go straight before the last curve to the left it goes down into Roark Valley (correct me if I'm wrong here Junior) and ends up on the back (north) side of the Henning Conservation area. I'm thinking if you keep following it it will take you back into town by the Kingsford plant and come out on Gretna road.
Quote from: Avalanche04 on August 28, 2011, 02:25:40 PM
junior that was it wash Gibbs museum, thank you so much! wow so many memory's, can you tell me exactly where he was located? i remember the place but cant remember the exact location. and as far as the cabin in the hollow it looked as if it was a private residence, and if you wasn't looking hard for it of of hwy 76 you wouldn't notice it. i was just wondering if anyone knew anything about the place.
1975 map (http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=1383.msg24575#msg24575)
I had thought we had talked about it...I just couldn't remember when/ where!
Rube, I was looking for your other Jesse James place post, and couldn't find it. Could you point me that way?
We had a discussion about Jesse James Territory a while back that can be found here:
http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=615.0 (http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=615.0)Is this it Larson?
Well I'm not quite sure since apparently the font for the url is "transparent" ;D ;D
In this thread you said you posted about this last week:
http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=1755.msg32700#msg32700 (http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=1755.msg32700#msg32700)
that's what I am looking for.
ok everyone im back, sorry i havent post much in the last couple weeks, cause i have been working 12 hours a day 6 days a week for the last 3 weeks. and thank you larson for the reply next time i get down there im going too drive old 76. i thought they tore it all out when they redone 76.
Sorry: Here is Jesse James territory:
http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=615.0 (http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=615.0)
The Confusion Hill was discussed here
http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=619.0 (http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=619.0)
Quote from: thelarsonsix on September 17, 2011, 03:28:08 PM
1975 map (http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=1383.msg24575#msg24575)
Wow.... when 76 was the only route, and it was all 2 lane with some center left turn lane. People who think traffic is bad today, just have no idea.
exactly KBCraig, i can remember in the early 80s waiting in traffic for hours, with no ac, because the car would over heat lol.
oh yea guys!! 76 hiway, 25-30 years ago.............. :P :P :P :P
No shortcuts, no yellow red blue routes.... oh man!!!!! :o :o :o
My apologies back to 'ya thelarsonsix, I've been knee-deep in Disney stuff that I have been absent from the forum for a while. Glad to help. The other posts are correct in pinpointing the location. It's easy to get to, you just have make the turn off the expanded interchange there.