May Travels, part 1: The Old Roads

Five days ago, my wife and I drove to Springfield and back to bring Daughter number 2 back from Missouri State University. We each drove a car in order to have enough trunk and back seat space to bring back all her stuff. Loading the cars was uneventful. As I got my car loaded first, the three of us agreed there was no pressing reason that I had to hang around.

So I started home early, and did something I had talked about for years, but never felt I had the freedom to do. Since I wasn't on a tight schedule, I drove the old roads. I hadn't thought about this ahead of time, so I didn't have my DeLorme's Missouri atlas along; otherwise I could have found more miles of the original alignment. As it was though, I re-created the trip along what was old Missouri 13 highway through Bolivar, Fair Play, Dunnegan, Humansville, and Collins. I also got off the "new" 13 at V highway and took the old route through Vista and Osceola.

Scan from 1958 Phillips 66 Missouri map (Central Ozarks inset)

Well, you no longer have to stop in the above mentioned towns. Since 1962, a new 16 mile stretch of Missouri 13 has been open, a diagonal cut-off from three miles south of Bolivar to one mile west of Humansville. Not only did this cut-off nine miles, the inclines are much more gradual and you don't have the limited sight distance or occasional tight curves of the original route. Also, in the last ten years or so this entire stretch has been made a divided highway; the last section to open was the Collins bypass last year.

A scan of part of the 2008 Official Missouri map, for comparison. Also notice that the stretch around Osceola has been straightened over the years.

I suppose I ought to mention that I've been fascinated with maps since I was seven years old. My mom, bless her heart, had almost no sense of direction. If my dad wasn't driving, getting lost on long trips was a distinct possibility. On one of our many trips to Taney County, mom handed me a map so I could help her while she drove.

Now, the term epiphany has been overused, and I want to resist cheapening it further here by using it to describe the simple act of handing a map to a kid. But I've got to tell you the result was anything but simple; it was like a switch was suddenly flipped on in my mind. I'm sure I'd seen maps before but had taken no notice of what they were until that moment. Somehow I comprehended that These Real Places That Are - and how to go from one to another - were displayed in pictures, words and numbers. Right before my eyes. An all-out wonder, indeed. And the fact that the houses and people weren't shown didn't bother me at all. I "got" right away that it was symbolic, though I doubt I knew that word yet. I had many miles of the real world shrunken down so I could hold it in my hand and learn it. Truly an odd feeling.

So last Wednesday, I drove from Bolivar west on Missouri 32 to Fair Play, then North on Missouri 123 through Dunnegan and Humansville. I haven't seen this scenery in 47 years, and much to my delight, there were things I saw that I remembered from way back when. True, much I didn't recognize, but once in a while I'd see an old barn or old stone farm house that gave rise to an "oh yeah" moment of recognition. Sometimes it was just the lay of the landscape, or how the intersection of 32 and 123 in Fair Play is laid out. The way the town of Dunnegan is arranged - 123 highway is elevated a bit and you drive along the edge of town. You have to glance off to the left (as you drive north) and down a bit as you drive, to notice the houses.

As I mentioned, north of Collins I turned West to drive through Vista and Osceola. There's not much left of Vista, but it never was a big town. That's kind of a tight curve combined with a hill there, so I concentrated on my driving. But I think I noticed only three houses. Maybe four. And I enjoyed seeing the town of Osceola again. Kind of a pretty area that you miss entirely if you're in a hurry and stay on "new" 13.