Ken finally had a day off that fell in line with one of my days off and he really wanted to get away. That is always the motivation for a good day trip, so I asked Ken where he wanted to go. He said he had no ideas first, then he said "I've never been to Arrow Rock, why don't we go there?"
According to the town history, Blackwater was nearly dead by the late 1980's with only a couple of functioning businesses downtown. When people of the town decided to take advantage of the traffic heading for Arrow Rock, the downtown started taking off as a nice break from the highway. When we came upon the downtown, we stopped to walk around and explore.
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Ken wandered off and found a store owner to talk to, I found this depot and got some vid of a coal unit train. I found out later that this depot was actually torn down, but then the city rebuilt it on city property. It is used for meetings and events.
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Blackwater is another picturesque village that with a little modification would make a great period setting for a movie.
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Tima is standing in the middle of the street in Blackwater.
An interesting look back on a time when you had to call the operator. There were quite a lot of switch boards. This was the system that many people used as late as the 1980's. You had to call the operator and get manually switched to a line. The operator could listen in on any line, and in any small town, you knew who you could talk to for good gossip. The museum is free and self-guided. It is housed in an old bank building complete with vault.
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The building behind the bank building has a mural with a telphone switch operator in one panel.
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Behind the telephone museum is also a 'man cage' jail cell. Ken says the one in the town he grew up in (Calvin, North Dakota) was basically a drunk tank.
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TIma and Ken are ready for Arrow Rock.
Ken says this shelter was built around 1936. The sandstone on the floor is easy to carve your name in. Generations of bored teenagers have recorded their romantic history in the floor.
Glasgow, Missouri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow,_Missouri
I wanted to come to Glasgow to see the nice little village I haven't visited since the 1990's when I did a story on the old Alton route, which was then called the Gateway Western
The bridge here that lost a section during the flood of '93 has been replaced by a new bridge.
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Brunswick, Missouri http://brunswickmo.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick,_Missouri
I mentioned before the flood of '93. On the way back, I decided to take 24 highway which is a lot like route 66 if route 66 had never been bypassed and supplanted by interstates. During the flood of '93, I observed this motel which had been inundated. It never came back and is now a ruin.
Friday, August 17, 2012 19:05:20
Talking about bypassing.... it happens on 24 too. One example is the new Missouri river bridge at Waverly, Missouri. There was a restaurant and motel on the river bluff on the Waverly side that sat at the foot of the old bridge. The buildings are still there but the businesses are long gone.
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