the State Historical Society of Missouri
![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…
Dorothy Van Dyke Leake, an educator noted for her ecological work and her efforts to…
![Log City, circa 1942. [State Historical Society of Missouri, John F. Bradbury Jr. Postcard Collection, R1551]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-02/1.-log-city.jpg?h=faa43f9b&itok=BH2xWmeN "Log City, circa 1942. [State Historical Society of Missouri, John F. Bradbury Jr. Postcard Collection, R1551]")
![Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Mary Kathy Dains Photograph Collection, P0300]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Mary_Elizabeth_Mahnkey.jpg?h=fdc48845&itok=wxfN7XjG "Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Mary Kathy Dains Photograph Collection, P0300]")
Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey was a lifelong newspaper and magazine journalist, and a regional poet. Born in Boone…
![John Malang. [Floyd Calvin Shoemaker, Missouri and Missourians: Land of Contrasts and People of Achievements, 1943]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-04/1.-john-malang.jpg?h=7d0e74b9&itok=G6K7Xt8P "John Malang. [Floyd Calvin Shoemaker, Missouri and Missourians: Land of Contrasts and People of Achievements, 1943]")
John Malang, “The Father of Missouri Roads,” was born on September 9, 1866 or 1867. Sources provide…
![Curtis Fletcher Marbut, circa 1930s. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Curtis F. Marbut Papers, C3720]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-11/1.-curtis-marbut.jpg?h=7eacce50&itok=WJeNXo04 "Curtis Fletcher Marbut, circa 1930s. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Curtis F. Marbut Papers, C3720]")
Curtis Fletcher Marbut revolutionized American thinking in soil science and had an…
![May Kennedy McCord. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Vance Randolph Ozark Folksongs Collection, C3774]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-06/mkm-vance-randolph-ozark-folksongs-collection-c3774.jpg?itok=ZA29v5c3 "May Kennedy McCord. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Vance Randolph Ozark Folksongs Collection, C3774]")
May Kennedy McCord was an Ozark folklorist, writer, musician, and radio personality whose work…
Located in the southwest corner of Missouri, McDonald County borders Arkansas and Oklahoma. Situated within the…
![George Caleb Bingham’s depiction of the violence and tragedy of the Missouri-Kansas border war in his iconic painting Order No. 11. [State Historical Society of Missouri Art Collection, 1945.0003]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Bingham-Order-11.jpg?h=b1c532a8&itok=jk1r6Mou "George Caleb Bingham’s depiction of the violence and tragedy of the Missouri-Kansas border war in his iconic painting Order No. 11. [State Historical Society of Missouri Art Collection, 1945.0003]")
Civil war raged along the Kansas-Missouri border for nearly a decade in the mid-…
![Morrow’s Station. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Morrow and Skaggs Families Papers, R1520]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-01/1.-morrows-station.jpg?h=f58e211d&itok=EHHoTkhZ "Morrow’s Station. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Morrow and Skaggs Families Papers, R1520]")
In 1932, George B. Morrow, a merchant and farmer from Iberia, Missouri, purchased three and a half acres of land at…