the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Henry J. Childers (left) and his children Bonnie, Bernice, Elbert, and Raymond help a customer at the family’s shop in Clementine, Missouri. [Phelps County Historical Society, Elbert I Childers Collection]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-08/1.-basketville.jpg?h=052689e3&itok=c2tC-xgM "Henry J. Childers (left) and his children Bonnie, Bernice, Elbert, and Raymond help a customer at the family’s shop in Clementine, Missouri. [Phelps County Historical Society, Elbert I Childers Collection]")
Route 66 was fully paved across Missouri by 1931. Its completion provided Missourians with new opportunities…
![The Ben Bolt Theatre. [Courtesy of Danny Knouse]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Ben-Bolt-Theatre.jpg?h=c4576eea&itok=2PYOXnlz "The Ben Bolt Theatre. [Courtesy of Danny Knouse]")
The Ben Bolt Theatre was a spectacular building that stood for half a century as a notable…
![A 1911 State Highway Department map of the Boone’s Lick Road and Santa Fe Trail. [State Historical Society of Missouri Map Collection, 850 M691h 1911]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-05/1.-boones-lick-road.jpg?itok=KLOxhlwD "A 1911 State Highway Department map of the Boone’s Lick Road and Santa Fe Trail. [State Historical Society of Missouri Map Collection, 850 M691h 1911]")
The Boone’s Lick Road was the first major conduit to the trans-Mississippi West after the …
![The Cassville and Exeter’s Railway engine number 345 was purchased in 1935. [State Historical Society of Missouri Rolla Research Center, Cassville & Exeter Railway Company Records, R0421]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-06/1.-dinky.png?itok=e7Ukc-G1 "The Cassville and Exeter’s Railway engine number 345 was purchased in 1935. [State Historical Society of Missouri Rolla Research Center, Cassville & Exeter Railway Company Records, R0421]")
One of the shortest standard-gauge railway lines in the United States was built in Barry County, Missouri, by…
![Hooker Cut as it looked upon completion in 1945. This view is looking east on Route 66. [Courtesy of Missouri State Archives, Missouri Department of Transportation Collection]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-04/1.-hooker-cut.jpg?itok=dhAd3zbv "Hooker Cut as it looked upon completion in 1945. This view is looking east on Route 66. [Courtesy of Missouri State Archives, Missouri Department of Transportation Collection]")
By the middle of 1940, Europe was engulfed in war. On September 16, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation…
![The House of Lords, whose sign is visible on the left, was part of the James H. Worth block in downtown Joplin. [Courtesy of Kimberly Harper]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-04/1.-house-of-lords.jpg?h=3850e8e5&itok=A3t96Nsp "The House of Lords, whose sign is visible on the left, was part of the James H. Worth block in downtown Joplin. [Courtesy of Kimberly Harper]")
The House of Lords was a three-story brick building in Joplin that housed a saloon and restaurant, gaming…
![This steamboat once graced northern Indian Creek in McDonald County, Missouri. [Courtesy of Ric Akehurst]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-01/1.-indian-springs.jpg?itok=O0vOq6OB "This steamboat once graced northern Indian Creek in McDonald County, Missouri. [Courtesy of Ric Akehurst]")
![Jolly Mill circa 2022. [Photo by Ross Brown]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-03/1.-jolly-mill.jpg?h=7e5f5b54&itok=YZl1LG4V "Jolly Mill circa 2022. [Photo by Ross Brown]")
Jolly Mill, a grist mill and whiskey distillery, was built in the late 1840s on Capps Creek in…
![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/article_header_image/public/2023-06/1.%20Figure%208%20Roller%20Coaster%20Lakeside%20Park%20Joplin%20Museum%20Complex.JPG?h=c36628e1&itok=hcrmvx97 "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…