Monday turned out to be a great experience. Lynn Tatum showed me around the Historical Society’s museum, which was honestly of higher quality than some professional museums I have visited. While there she gave me what books and publications the museum keeps on hand on the county’s history and the secessionist movement. I then had the opportunity to go to the library and Lynn gave the documents that the Society keeps on the movement. It was very useful, but unfortunately a lot of it in the form of the articles compiled by Rose Hansen, who did some research on the movement. I was still able to access the primary sources that she used as well as the memories of some people who experienced the movement first hand. I was also able to go through the microfilms of county newspapers and found some stories on the movement that no one else has seemed to use. Most other researchers have focused on national St.Louis/KC papers. Although the sources came in a form that I wasn’t totally expecting, they did give me a lot of knowledge and insight into what was going on at the local level. Hopefully Kodey finds some really useful stuff from the state archives.

I also did not make the trip to Noel to take pictures of surviving resorts and motels. The weather was awful that day and according to Lynn most of them are not longer standing. However, she did give me the name of the current owner of the Ginger Blue Inn, the successor of the Ginger Blue Resort from the 60’s. I have tried to get into contact with her. If that doesn’t work, she has published a book on the resort. No I just need to send this info Kodey’s way so we can start analyzing it.