Driving into Arrow Rock is like entering an intriguing time warp. Elegant
Greek revival and Georgian homes, vestiges of the days when the state was part
of the Old South, are set on wide, tree-shaded lawns along the few streets in
this mid-Missouri town. Humble log buildings, put up well over a century ago
by pioneers, dwell peacefully among the grander structures. The Old Tavern,
which played host to hundreds of travelers headed west along the Santa Fe,
Oregon and California Trails, as well as the nearby antique courthouse, gun
shop, blacksmith shop and schoolhouse all have been restored to their early
19th Century appearance.
There are no stoplights in town, no service stations, no fast-food
restaurants and most definitely no shopping malls, we were told on a recent
visit by Mary Ann Turley, whose husband, Harold, “was a Bingham — frontier
artist George Caleb Bingham, his ancestor, lived in Arrow Rock,” she said.
Turley is one of the 70 year-round residents of this antique town. She, like
others in the quaint community, don 19th Century clothes and introduce
visitors to their town as it appeared years ago, when it was a center of
political power and high society. The people who lived here “were certainly
not hillbillies,” she says.
Turley, who leads tours, many of them school groups, plays the role of Aunt
Nanny — Nanny Toole, an “outgoing woman beloved by children” — who came here
in 1831 after her marriage to John P. Sites. On a recent occasion Turley,
standing in the doorway of the Sites home, coffee cup in hand, awaited a group
of 3rd graders from a nearby town. Next door, she pointed out, is Sites Gun
Shop, also restored, that was built in 1850 and served the community into the
20th Century.
Three Missouri governors came from Arrow Rock — Meredith Marmaduke and his
son John Sappington Marmaduke and Claiborne Fox Jackson, governor of the state
when Missouri tried to secede from the Union just before the Civil War. Dr.
John Sappington also lived here — he came up with a way to mass market
quinine pills for treating malaria, a scourge of the frontier.
Arrow Rock was propelled into prominence when it became the head of the
Santa Fe Trail. In 1821, St. Louis trader William Becknell, moving a step
ahead of the law, had established what would become an enormously lucrative
trade with Mexico. Within short order a rawboned frontier town, home to 1,000
wagon train outfitters, blacksmiths, innkeepers and newspapermen, sprang up on
the south bank of the Missouri River.
Today it’s hard to imagine the town “bustling.” The streets are so quiet,
in fact, that a pair of local dogs, Sundance and Blackie (who seemed to arrive
just ahead of us at every stop we made, yet serenely ignored the frenzied
barking of our three dogs from the motor home only feet away) relaxed without
fear where elsewhere they would have been quickly run over.
Visitors to town today can watch frontier-attired townspeople demonstrate
rug and lace making, candle dipping, weaving, quilting, blacksmithing and
other life skills from the days when Arrow Rock was young.
Long before the town came into being, early 18th Century French explorers
traveling up the Missouri were the first white men to see the “arrow rock.”
They saw local Indians gathering flint from the high limestone river bluffs
for spear tips, knives and bird points (often called arrowheads), and named
the site Pierre a Fleche — in English, Arrow Rock.
In 1804, after the land had become part of the United States through the
Louisiana Purchase, and Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery came past
on their famous expedition, Clark noted in his journal that the “arrow rock”
bluffs would make a “handsome spot for a town.”
In 1811 a ferry was set up across the Missouri — charging 12 cents for a
passenger, double that if he was riding a horse — and traders could more
easily continue traveling west. The following year, a trading post was opened
to serve local Indians. But once traders traveling the Santa Fe Trail began
departing from here (the trail originally began across the river at Franklin,
now long since washed away by the Big Muddy) and steamboats reached the town,
Arrow Rock began to flourish.
The town was platted in 1829 as New Philadelphia, but the name stuck for
only four years. Then residents legally changed the name back to the
descriptive one it had been given more than a century earlier.
Arrow Rock served for one year as county seat of Saline County, so named
for the saline springs where the sons of Daniel Boone and others established
salt works (and thus the area was dubbed “Boone’s Lick Country”). In 1839 the
county seat was moved to Marshall, a dozen miles west.
Forty years after Arrow Rock’s founding, the town’s power and prestige came
to an end. The Civil War freed the labor force — slaves who had toiled in the
fields tending tobacco and hemp crops — and the town’s Southern sympathies
resulted in its being bypassed after the war by the railroad and all major
highways. No bridges were built here. Arrow Rock was a town suspended in its
antebellum state. Twice it was devastated by fire, and by the turn of the
century, it had been reduced to a backwater village of decaying buildings.
But the town had residents with vision who understood the importance of
preserving their history. Restoration began in 1913, when the Daughters of the
American Revolution took an interest in The Old Tavern, now the centerpiece of
town but at the time so dilapidated it was slated to be torn down. In 1923,
the state bought the old building, and two years later, after extensive
renovation, it looked like it had in 1834 and was again serving family-style
meals as it did to travelers on the Santa Fe Trail.
Townspeople hoped to continue restoration by buying other original
buildings, but money wasn’t available at the time, says Turley, whose
husband’s family had donated land for the town a century earlier. The
Depression and then World War II put a halt to restoration, but “by the late
1950s we knew something major had to be done. If our town disappeared, our
history would go with it.”
She and others formed Friends of Arrow Rock, a group with now more than
1,000 members from all over the country. They held an auction in 1960 and,
with the $1,960 in proceeds, bought the Old Courthouse. The tiny building,
logs covered with walnut clapboard, was restored to its prime and now is open
to visitors.
For 17 years auctions were held to raise money for restoration, and a
succession of buildings bear the results, among these the IOOF Lodge Hall,
built in 1868 and rented to the Saline County Herald, the town’s first
newspaper. Now the building houses the Pioneer Press Museum, where Cordell
Tindall, a reporter and editor for the Missouri Ruralist for 40 years,
demonstrates early presses to visitors.
One of Friends of Arrow Rock’s best efforts was the creation of the Lyceum.
In 1961, two local couples bought the then-vacant Baptist Church and decided
it was the perfect place to start a repertory company. The Lyceum, now one of
the town’s main attractions, has earned a national reputation for quality
productions and auditions nationally. Attendance now averages 35,000 a year.
To mark its 40th year, the Lyceum has scheduled its longest season to date,
running from June 2 through Oct. 22. Patrons were asked to vote for the shows
they’ve enjoyed most over the years, and the favorites are being performed
this season. Among them: “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Cabaret,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Performances take place Wednesday through
Saturday evenings, with matinees Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
(For information and reservations, call the box office at 660-837-3311.)
Another must-see, in a 169-acre park just south of town, is the $1.2
million visitors center, which opened in 1991to “interpret” the historic town,
the trails west and Boone’s Lick Country. In addition to its many exhibits,
the center offers walking tours of the town that visit 11 restored buildings
— the Bingham House, Sappington Museum and a Victorian home, among others.
The National Park Service designated Arrow Rock a National Historic
Landmark in 1963, and the state followed with a historic site designation in
1976.
Corinne Jackson and her sister Buena Stolberg, former president of the
Historic Arrow Rock Council, moved here permanently in the 1970s from St.
Louis, where they both had taught school.
“We came out here after retiring to help preserve this unique town we’d
visited many times,” Jackson said. “History is what the town has to sell, so
we’re doing all we can to maintain it in its authenticity.”
But, as her sister noted, “This is a living community, not a museum, so we
must make some concessions to the 20th Century — we wouldn’t want to live
without running water or electricity. But we want to preserve what’s left of
an era that has passed from the American scene, to keep it alive. We’re proud
to have been part of this, and like most others in town, we welcome visitors.
We want to share what we have.”
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
Arrow Rock lies a little more than halfway between St. Louis and Kansas
City. From Chicago take Interstate Highway 55 to St. Louis, then Interstate
Highway 70 west to Missouri Highway 41, near Boonville. Drive 13 miles north
to the town.
BED-AND-BREAKFASTS
There are seven in town, most in renovated homes. For information on
Borgman’s, Cedar Grove, Down/Over, Kusgen Farms, Miss Nelle’s, The Keeping
House and Westward Trails, contact the Arrow Rock Area Merchants Association
(see phone and Web site below).
DINING
Only one restaurant, Grandma D’s Cafe, is open year-round. The Old Tavern
is open on weekends from spring through December, and on theater dates. The
Old Schoolhouse Cafe serves breakfast and lunch on weekdays and Saturdays from
Memorial Day through Labor Day. Ye Old Ice Cream Shoppe serves sandwiches,
soups and salads full-time from April through October, and on weekends the
rest of the year. The Country Store offers snacks and sandwiches. Evergreen
Restaurant is open on theater dates and every Friday and Saturday night.
SHOPS
The town has six antique shops with an intriguing diversity of items for
sale. The shops include Arrow Rock Craft Shop, with items made by local
artisans; The Country Store (once owned by Jackson and Stolberg) where
crystal, educational toys and games, and books are sold; and the House of Mary
B for handmade items such as baskets and dolls.
HISTORIC SITES
The state historic site, museum and park (all handicapped accessible) are
open daily from March through November. Call for winter opening dates at
660-837-3330. The park includes a campground, with sites available on a
first-come basis; fees are $6 for primitive sites, $12 with electrical hookup;
senior and handicapped rates are offered.
INFORMATION
Arrow Rock Area Merchants Association, 660-846-3031; www.arrowrock.org.
P.S.
