the State Historical Society of Missouri
Kimberly Harper is an editor at the State Historical Society of Missouri.
In the late nineteenth century, cycling became a popular American pastime. The League of American Wheelmen, a…
Articles Authored
![J. Christian Bay. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Jens Christian Bay Portraits, P0206-027598]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-09/1-J_Christian_Bay.jpg?itok=nldBRJET "J. Christian Bay. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Jens Christian Bay Portraits, P0206-027598]")
J. Christian Bay was born to Lars and Doris Christiansen Bay on October 12, 1871, in…
![Robert P. W. Boatright, standing center with his hands in his pockets, with others gathered before a footrace at an unknown location circa 1900. [Sioux City (IA) Journal, June 4, 1911]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2024-10/1.-robert-boatright_0.jpg?itok=zrdrIaZl "Robert P. W. Boatright, standing center with his hands in his pockets, with others gathered before a footrace at an unknown location circa 1900. [Sioux City (IA) Journal, June 4, 1911]")
Robert P. W. Boatright, hailed as the “dean of confidence men” by scholar David Maurer, was born in 1859 in…
Perl D. Decker was an attorney who served three terms from 1913 to 1919 as a US congressman from Jasper County,…
![The Figure 8 roller coaster at Lakeside Park, added in 1907, was a “huge reversing spiral” in which cars rushed down a half-mile curving track with “three figure eights in a descent of 50 feet.” [Courtesy of the Joplin Historical & Mineral Museum]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2023-06/1.%20Figure%208%20Roller%20Coaster%20Lakeside%20Park%20Joplin%20Museum%20Complex.JPG?itok=cxTmvBCb "The Figure 8 roller coaster at Lakeside Park, added in 1907, was a “huge reversing spiral” in which cars rushed down a half-mile curving track with “three figure eights in a descent of 50 feet.” [Courtesy of the Joplin Historical & Mineral Museum]")
“Once the most important and popular play place of the Tri-State district,” Lakeside Park in Jasper…