Was that disagreement about just how small or big Marmaros actually was?
As for the history of Marmaros: some of the people I have interviewed are minimalists and others are maximalists. For example, Walker Powell told me that Marmaros “was nothin’ but a few old sheds.” He doesn't believe there was anything resembling a town there.
Frisco Jack is a maximalist. He believes it was a good sized town with homes, a general store, hotel, post office, blacksmith shop, school, pottery factory, and furniture factory. His idea of the guano mining operation is much grander than Powell’s. The only thing that I really argued with Frisco Jack about was the locations of some of the buildings and existing original photographs. I have not seen any evidence that the Marmaros General Store was at the same location as the SDC General Store. But, it could have been. Also, I still have NOT seen any photographs of any part of Marmaros. I’m still hoping that one will appear.
On the other hand, I discussed all this with Jack H. who knew and talked to Charley Sullivan back in the 1950s. Sullivan lived in Marmaros as a boy in the 1880s and is the only eyewitness to have come forward that I know of. Jack H. believes that most of the oral tradition about Marmaros is true. However, I asked him about the original foundations. He said that the only foundation that was still there in the 1950s was that of the old hotel. It had a perimeter foundation of stacked rocks. But, the majority of Ozark buildings did NOT have a foundation then. They usually had only a few flat rocks at the corners to hold up the sills.
Now, I have taken all this info and tried to find written sources for it. I have been surprised, so far, at what I have found in old newspaper articles. Most of the tradition seems to be true as far as I can tell, with a few exceptions. There was a school at Marmaros but not until the mid-1890s and this was after the rest of the town burned. Also, I have NOT found any evidence of the pottery works or the furniture factory, at least not any written sources before the 1960s. But, the research goes on.