So basically half the red route is sitting dead, lol. That's crazy. I wonder if someone is lining up to buy it all up. Westgate could buy some of those properties. Not sure why they didn't build the waterpark, but probably has something to do with covid cost increases. Still Waters is STILL working on opening their new indoor waterpark thing, last I checked. They got a similar park opened up at their Gatlinburg resort though. Once again you have to ask why there isn't more incentive to get things moving in Branson.

Interesting. If I have my bearings right, that's the south knob of Indian ridge. That's definitely the best overlook of the natural area. Wonder if they'll build some sort of resort tower there. Definitely a challenging terrain to work with, but the views should be awesome. Hope they don't try to flatten too much.

Thanks for the photos!

I had thought that they bought up that bank property long ago, but I just checked the assessor's map and apparently its actually owned by someone else.

A long time ago I can remember them using the field behind the bank as a satellite parking lot. These days, with all the expansions they've made to the lots, I'm not sure if they really ever use off-site parking anymore. The Indian Ridge property has obviously been used a few times, but I'm curious if they'll have to use it much this season. They still have that little gravel strip lot to the south towards Indian Point that is a lot closer to the park.

So there's a former bank right next to that area that I believe HFEC now owns. Could probably pull into their driveway to get a few safe photos from the road, but I wouldn't stick around long.

Pulling into the actual driveway for the Indian ridge property would be more dicey - especially since it sounds like it is an active construction entrance right now.

There's also the water tower across the street with an access drive.

I haven't heard anything or been back since May myself, but I would hazard a guess we should be looking at the old Indian Ridge site the next time we visit. I know there's been lots of chatter about the resort eventually coming. Didn't a survey go out about it not that long ago?

I think the time has finally come. SDCFans needs a restart. Our forum software is very outdated and between it and our server we are seeing more and more issues and errors. We have already migrated the existing forum database once when we upgraded SMF versions. I think that led to some of the issues we are still experiencing.

I've been looking into various options and have been trying to decide what makes the most sense. Considering how people use the internet has changed dramatically since we started this site, it might make more sense to radically change our software to be more social media integrated and dynamic. Basic forums feel pretty dated at this point, but obviously I still like how they are more permanent and allow us to look back on conversations from a decade or more ago.

I've considered Flarum, XenForo, and MyBB as well as simply re-installing the latest version of simple machines. I think at this point the best option is probably Flarum. It's free, and the extensions would allow us to easily do everything I've been wanting to do for years with these forums. We could have photo galleries, login with your FB account, mentions, blog posts, and more.

Unfortunately it would essentially be a brand new site from the ground up. I would lock the old forums and have them available to browse on a new directory, such as sdcfans.com/forums/archive

I'm just curious how many people would still use the site if I go through the effort of restarting it. Like I said, the way people use the internet has changed dramatically since we started this site, and at this point it's hard getting people off of FB and twitter to even look at a news article. I'm grateful we still have a small active community here though, and as long as there are still a few people around I feel like it's worth it to keep things going.

Let me know what you think.

Yeah those were the good days. I can't believe the sudden collapse of the Branson hotel market. It seems like a lot of properties just reached their expiration date all at the same time and the various owners just can't or don't want to invest in them to bring them up to current standards. The "Branson Basic" style of hotel is still good enough for me, but those rooms keep getting older with the same furniture, carpet, linens, etc...

Plus there's still the issue of not being able to find enough employees anymore. Lot of those hotels scraped by using almost criminally underpaid immigrant workers for a long time. The economics definitely shift once you have to pay people a living wage based on today's prices.

Still, Branson desperately needs some new hotels, or at least some serious renovations of a few of these old properties. I wonder why capital isn't flowing into to Branson for new hotel projects right now...

There is construction near the entrance. It is where the rental tents have been since 2020. I’m guessing it is a new area for rentals.

Yeah probably something related to either stroller/power chairs or group sales. They've needed a bigger, more permanent space for awhile. Still think they just need to just go ahead and rebuild most of the entrance/ozark marketplace area...