On Friday we joined some of the group on the short drive to Top of the Rock near Ridgedale. This facility was developed by the owner of Bass Pro shops, Johnny Morris. We bought tickets for the Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail golf cart tour and the Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum.
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The group loaded into four golf carts and drove 2.5 miles along a path with some interesting scenery including stream crossings, waterfalls, covered bridges, and a drive-thru cave. The sound of a pump running at the bottom of the valley confirmed my suspicion that the waterfalls weren’t entirely natural. Not surprising since it had been a dry fall. But they were pretty nonetheless.
After the golf cart tour we caught a shuttle up to the Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum. It is housed in the basement of the lodge at the, ahem, top of the rock.
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I was expecting a small collection of artifacts but found instead 35,000 square feet with thousands of tastefully displayed items. The first rooms contained exhibits on a few of the more spectacular prehistoric animals that once populated the area. How about a pig that stands taller than a man and a bird that ran down and ate horses!
Next were many rooms with displays of Native American items. Stone weapons, painted pottery, bone tools, shell ornaments, beaded clothing, and more. One display described how archeologists scrambled to locate, record, and remove some of the items before they were covered by the waters of a man-made lake.
The DH wonders if the painting on the right was the inspiration for Tonto in the Lone Ranger movie remake.
I marveled at the hours of work that adept hands put into knapping arrowheads, beading cradleboards, and adorning buffalo skins with porcupine quills.
The next room featured items related to the history of the American West including Buffalo Bill Cody and Roy Rogers. They were interesting but I didn’t see how they fit in with Ozark history. Maybe if I’d had time to read more of the placards I’d have learned the connection but by this time it was getting late and I was skimming through the displays.
To be continued …
