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[Little Town of Marmaros]

Come on over and check out the new Facebook group: Little Town of Marmaros. We will be discussing the history of Marvel Cave and the Marble City/Marmaros/Notch community before it was Silver Dollar City.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/574035862790085/

Does anyone remember the SDC Outposts? I can remember seeing one along I-44 at Leasburg, MO, in the early 1980s (I think?). I believe there were two of them. If so, I do not know where the other one was. I never did stop at one, so I don't know what they looked like on the inside. Does anyone have info, history, or photos of the Outpost? If I remember right, they didn't last long. Does anyone know why? (And I apologize if this has already been covered in another thread).

I've been doing some research for a project I'm working on and I'm having trouble coming up with current statistics. I have found info on the internet but everything I have found doesn't seem right or it is old information. And I hope I'm not asking for SDC proprietary information--just tell if it is.  Does anyone know:

...1) The approximate number of visitors to SDC each year? (I believe this would be in the order of 2 million+ per year).
...2) I would like to know the total number of different visitors to SDC. 
...3) Also the total number of gate entries, which would count many people more than once as they go there multiple times per year.
...4) How many visitors come to Branson each year? (I believe this number was in the order of 5 million+ in the 1990s. Has it gone down now?)

I've been trying to get my website off the ground for quite awhile. There is not much there now but that will change. This website will be leading up to a big announcement (well its big to me) in a month or two. I will soon be kicking off a project on KickStarter.com. It will be historic, about the SDC area, and contain lots of old photographs. The details will be forthcoming. In the meantime, visit my site and leave comments. Do you have any questions about the Marble Cave Mining Company, real people from the Shepherd of the Hills novel, or the town of Marmaros? If I don't know the answer, I'll try to research it. So much of the legend and lore at SDC is connected with people and events of a hundred years ago or more. I want to tell as much of the story as possible.

http://www.moozark.com/

Oh BTW: the attached photo is me at age 4 and my little sister, in October 1963. My family stopped at a roadside souvenir shop near Reed's Spring. This was before the new highway 65 was built. We look so excited because we were on our way to a place we had just heard about called Silver Dollar City.

I am starting a new thread to talk about photos I'd like to have. I have been collecting photos and postcards from Branson area locations for many years. There are several photos from Silver Dollar City's past that I have looked for but never found. I'm not giving up on ever seeing them because I have come across photos in the past of places I had almost given up on. For example, there used to be a small sign along MO-76 that pointed out "Sammy Lanes Lookout." I looked for a photo of that for years. Then recently I came across a 1950s postcard of the sign.

If anyone has any of these "most wanted" I like to have a JPG scan in 300 to 600 dpi. The reason is that I not only want them for my collection but I am also working on future books about SDC and the Branson area.

1) One photo I'd really like to find is of the large SDC sign that stood in downtown Branson at the intersection of old US-65 and MO-76. I believe the billboard is still there but has had various ads on it over the years. The SDC sign was there in the 1960s. It was a picture of an Ozark native shown from the back side. His face was not visible. The figure was wearing a black flop hat and holding an ax over his shoulder. His arm was stretched out pointing the way to SDC. It probably had words on it but I can't remember what it said. I remember that the southbound traffic on US-65 was always backed up there. On Saturday mornings it could take as much as a half-hour to get through the intersection. That is the main reason that the MO highway department built the US-65 bypass. 

2) Any photos of "Slanting Sam the Miner's Shack." That was the first incarnation of what is now Grandfather's Mansion in the early 1960s.

3) Any photo of the "Haunted House." That was a very early attraction talked about in the first SDC souvenir booklet. I have no idea how long it was there or what happened to it.

I will be listing some others in the future as I think of them.

I've been a lurker on the SDCFans website for quite awhile but this is my first post. I've been a collector of Branson area, Silver Dollar City, Shepherd of the Hills, and Harold Bell Wright items for 20+ years. I've also been researching Branson area history for at least that long. I am currently writing a history of tourism in Branson that will probably be released in multiple volumes. Volume one will be about Marmaros, the Marble Cave Mining Company, and people who lived in the area during the 1880s-1900. The book will probably be more photos than text and I have many photos that have never been published before.

One problem I have is that I still have questions that have not been answered by my research and I seem to have exhausted my source of knowledgeable persons. So, I am going to try asking some questions on this forum and here is one of them:

I have seen several photos of a log cabin that once stood near the entrance to Marble Cave. I have seen it labeled as: the Lynch Home at Marble Cave; the Marvel Cave Lodge; the Marvel Cave Café; Marvel Cave Office; and the Tea Room/Gift Shop. It was apparently remodeled several times over the years and was used for different purposes. See photos #9-14 on Gerry Chudleigh's website at:
http://www.gchudleigh.com/marvelcavepc.htm

My main questions are: Does anyone know the exact spot where this cabin stood? I believe it may have stood where the Hospitality House is now but I'm not certain. Does anyone know when it was built? Was it one of the original buildings from the town of Marmaros that did not burn? I have read that Truman Powell built a home near the cave entrance during the time that the cave was being mined of guano. The cabin looks rather old, even in the earliest known photo. Could this cabin be the home that Powell built in the 1880s? Also, does anyone know what happened to the cabin? Was it torn down to make way for the Hospitality House? Thanks.