In late March my wife Denise & I and another couple spent a week in Branson, in the Ozark Mountains of southwest Missouri. We had heard about this area for years but never got around to visit it until now. Branson has become a major entertainment center with music and comedy shows such as Andy Williams, Yakov Smirnoff, the Lennon Sisters, the Osmonds, Jim Stafford etc. Branson is almost like a smaller Las Vegas with all the shows, but with a Midwest atmosphere and without the casinos. Branson was fun, the scenery was lovely, and it was near enough that we could drive in less than a day.
Many friends were amazed that we decided to visit Branson because they know that our previous vacation was in exotic Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, and that I prefer classical music over country music. 'Classical music? Ya' mean Hank Williams SENIOR?' True, it was a bit of culture shock, but we took it all in good humor. Variety is indeed the spice of life, and Branson is very diverse in its attractions. Country music is prominent, but so are popular music, comedy, shopping etc.
It was wise to visit Branson during the last week of March because we understand that it becomes outrageously crowded in summer. Moreover, a wonderful coincidence in the form of a superbly timed early spring heat wave, gave us warm clear weather that felt almost like summer in late March. The temperature reached 75ÝF or 80ÝF almost every day. Another coincidence was that the week was peak blossom time for the many apple trees.
|
II. A Brief History of Branson.
|
Branson was founded in 1881 in southwest Missouri along the shores of the turbulent White River. Branson was incorporated in 1904 and began to welcome visitors after Harold Bell Wright published his best-selling novel The Shepherd of the Hills in 1907. The southern Ozark Mountain forest setting of the novel and the simple rural lifestyle of the characters attracted visitors to this remote area. In 1913 Ozark Beach Dam was completed and the White River became a flood-control reservoir which was renamed Lake Taneycomo. Table Rock Lake was created when Table Rock Dam was completed on the White River in 1958. These lakes provided fishing, boating and other outdoor recreational activities which attracted still more visitors. The Branson area also offered weather that is tempered by the nearby lakes which help keep it slightly cooler in summer and slightly warmer in winter.
As tourism increased, businesses were created to cater to the influx of visitors. In 1959 an outdoor pageant based on The Shepherd of the Hills opened 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) west of Branson. In 1960 Silver Dollar City opened west of Branson, a combination of an 1880s Ozark pioneer village and a modern theme park with rides, shows and crafts. Silver Dollar City hosts the National Festival of Craftsmen each autumn.
Above all Branson has become most famous for its entertainment which features country music and popular music as well as comedy and dance. These shows began modestly, as a way to entertain visitors who came primarily to enjoy the natural attractions. The Baldknobbers Jamboree began in 1959 in downtown Branson and remains the original Branson music show. (Incidentally, balds and bald knobs are the geographical names of Ozark mountain tops which contain few trees due to their rocky peaks. The name Baldknobber was used by a vigilante group which operated in the area in the late 1880s and early 1900s. This musical review adopted the name.) The Presleys' Country Jubilee opened in 1967 and was the first to establish a theater on MO-76 (Missouri Highway 76) in what would later become the West 76 Strip which extends 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) to the west of downtown Branson. The Baldknobbers Jamboree later expanded and also moved to the West 76 Strip.
The expansion and addition of attractions attracted still more visitors to Branson, which in turn generated more attractions. Roy Clark was the first celebrity to place his name on a Branson theater in 1983, and Box Car Willie was the first to establish a theater of his own and settle in Branson in 1987. Andy Williams was the first popular vocalist to build a theater in Branson in 1991 when he opened Andy Williams' Moon River Theatre. This heralded the arrival of a long line of entertainers who expanded and diversified the range of the Branson music scene, with country performers such as Mickey Gilley and Mel Tillis, comedians such as Yakov Smirnoff and Jim Stafford, pop performers such as The Platters and Bobby Vinton, big bands such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Lawrence Welk Orchestra, and diverse other performers such as phenomenal Japanese violinist Shoji Tabuchi etc. To quote Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff: 'Only in America can a Japanese and a Russian own a theater in the Ozarks.'
Branson now has a permanent population of 3706, with many more outside the city limits, and the temporary population increases phenomenally during the tourist season. The Branson area continues to grow, and travelers who have not visited in 10 or 20 years would hardly recognize it. In theory, Branson should be no different from the many other small tourist and resort towns which have sprung up across the United States. However a confluence of many natural and artificial attractions eventually caused tremendous growth in the local tourist industry. Branson provided an ideal atmosphere for entertainment and attractions in a scenic location with reasonable prices. The Osmonds may have summed up the most important attraction: 'Good clean family fun.'
Trivia: The name Ozarks is derived from early French explorers. These explorers named one of the rivers after the many bends it contained: la Rivière aux Arcs. Eventually the French term 'aux arcs' became adopted in English as 'Ozarks'. (Similarly, the French term 'Acadien' in Louisiana became adopted in English as 'Cajun'.)
|
III. En Route from Chicago, Illinois to Branson, Missouri: Interstate 55, Interstate 44 etc.
|
Sunday morning March 28 we began our long drive from suburban Chicago, Illinois to Branson, Missouri on I-55 south and I-44 west, a total distance of about 550 miles (885 kilometers). Along the way we stopped at Jumer's Château in Bloomington, Illinois for their superb Sunday brunch. Their restaurant Le Radis Rouge (The Red Radish, in French) served an excellent Sunday brunch with outstanding pastries for dessert for only $10.95 per person, an excellent value. In Illinois and Iowa the Jumer family operate 5 hotels with superb restaurants, most of which evoke the Bavarian atmosphere of their ancestral homeland in Germany. These hotels and restaurants are recognized as some of the finest in the Midwest. These include the Jumer Castle Lodges in Bettendorf, Iowa and in Peoria and Urbana, Illinois, plus the Jumer Continental Inn in Galesburg, Illinois. By contrast Jumer's Château in Bloomington, Illinois was designed in the style of an elegant French country château, and it is our personal favorite of all Jumer hotels and restaurants. Whenever we travel in or near Bloomington we try to stop at Jumer's Château for a delicious meal at Le Radis Rouge. It's almost worth a trip of its own for the American and French cuisine of high quality and interesting character in a friendly atmosphere and at moderate prices.
Next we continued on I-55 south past Springfield to the St. Louis area, and then on I-70 and I-270 west across the Mississippi River into Missouri. We have visited St. Louis many times, so instead we decided to spend a night in nearby St. Charles, Missouri. St. Charles was founded in 1769 by French Canadian colonists along the Missouri River, and it became part of the United States in 1804 after the Louisiana Purchase. We spent the evening at the Station Casino on the Missouri River near I-70. This was great fun. I lost $6.00 and Denise lost $10.00, which meant we were paupers for 5 or 10 minutes. This would be one of our favorite casinos if it were closer to our home, but we try to visit whenever we are in the area. We don't gamble much, but The Feast buffet food was very good and relatively inexpensive. However when we consider that the price of this buffet was almost exactly what we had paid for our Sunday brunch that morning, Jumer's Château in Bloomington, Illinois was still a better value. We also explored Frenchtown with its antique district. Historic Main Street in the heart of old St. Charles is a Nationally Registered Historic District with its brick streets, gas lights, antique and craft shops, quaint restaurants and nostalgic atmosphere.
Monday morning after breakfast we drove I-270 south through the western suburbs of St. Louis, and then I-44 west to Springfield, Missouri. Along the way we made a brief stop in Lebanon, Missouri at a Russell Stover candy outlet to stock up on goodies for the rest of our vacation. At Springfield we left I-44 and continued on US-65 south to Branson. US-65 is an expressway for about half of the 45 miles (72 kilometers) between Springfield and Branson. Construction is in progress to widen the rest of it from a 2-lane highway to an expressway as well. At 1 or 2 places traffic was halted while construction crews blasted through huge layers of limestone, a sedimentary rock composed of calcium carbonate. This was very impressive to watch. No wonder the United States is a superpower.
|
In Branson we lodged in a condominium at the Pointe Royale Resort and Golf Course on MO-165, just 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of MO-76. The 2-bedroom condominium was an excellent choice for 2 couples because it was less expensive than 2 hotel rooms, and the resort location off the strip was much less congested and very peaceful.
The West 76 Strip is where most shows, hotels, restaurants and other attractions are located. Traffic was heavy most of each day in late March, so we could hardly imagine the gridlock that is legendary during the height of the tourist season. Fortunately we found 3 bypasses that are roughly parallel to the West 76 Strip, marked as the Red, Blue and Yellow Routes. It paid to study the maps because these bypasses saved us considerable time and frustration before and after shows. A car is still the best way to travel because the West 76 Strip is long and hilly, and we saw no shuttles or public transport.
Branson has about 40 concert theaters, each of which host 1 to 4 different shows daily from 8 AM to midnight. The choices are staggering. One family who signed the guest book in our condo wrote that they saw 3 shows each day, morning afternoon and evening for a week! We wisely limited ourselves to only 1 show per evening for a total of 4 shows. We had hoped to try some of the breakfast shows but eventually decided it would overload our schedule.
Monday evening we enjoyed 2 hours of comedy and music at the Jim Stafford Theater. |
|
