14-BRANSON, MISSOURI, PART 1

We arrived in Branson the day before yesterday, grabbed a quick lunch and headed out for Silver Dollar City.

Silver Dollar City is a Theme Park built probably in the 70’s. The last time I was here was in the early 1980’s, back when those of us who lived in Kansas, didn’t really know what other theme parks such as Six Flags or Disneyland was all about.

Silver Dollar City could be described as Six Flags on…hmmm…shall we say, on OZARK MOONSHINE!!??

No, no one is drinking, but it is made to look like it has grown up straight out of the Ozark woods. The area is heavily treed with paths meandering up and down hills.

Many of the buildings which have been there for about forty years, have completely moss-covered roofs. There are lots of shops and tons of artisans, many of them demonstrating the making of their wares.

These guys were doing some outdoor cooking, sort of like an old outdoor campsite. There are a lot of antique items scattered around as well.

And just in case you forgot you were in Hillbilly territory, there was a warning on a water fountain. It reads, “McCoys ONLY, NO Hatfields.”

This artisan sold Turkey Calls (for hunting wild turkeys. I found it interesting that his last name was “Buzzard.” I guess birds of a feather really do flock together.

There are very few rides here, unlike Disneyland and those other parks that are primarily wild rides. Those that are here are again, very “Ozark-ish". One of the rides was the Flooded Mine.

Looking through the trees you can see this building (the mine) is surrounded by water. Little boats took passengers in, through and around the mine…

…ending up with a serious drop into a pool of water, getting the passengers very wet. The day we were there was only about 50 degrees. The Flooded Mine Tour didn’t get many takers.

A wood turner who used old tools…

…this man made hand crafted wagon wheels…

…and this gentleman was a blacksmith who made knives out of railroad spikes.

There were many other artisans as well, almost anything you could think of, primarily done the way it would have been done a hundred or so years ago.

There were lots of things that were primarily intended to add to the atmosphere like a working wood water wheel next to a stone well house and a split rail fence.

This tree house was not open to visitors but was really neat to look at anyway.

There was also a lot of entertainment going on all through the park. Some was inside buildings, others on the “street” where folks just gathered around to watch.

“Houdini” teases a little girl with his tricks.

The Horse Creek singers were really good.

So was the trick horse!

And of course there was lots of food…

I think this boy was trying to get the whole turkey leg in his mouth!

The next day we started our “show circuit.” They have wonderful professional and well known performers here in Branson that put on top quality shows for really reasonable prices. Nothing like Vegas prices. There are dozens of shows going on at any one time.

Last time we were here we saw the Texas Tenors who were wonderful, so this time we saw the “Three Redneck Tenors.” As hokey as that sounds, they were really good.

The first half of the show was mostly comedy along with beautiful singing. Peel away the comedy, and you found very accomplished musicians. One graduated from the Julliard School of Music and they had all sung with prominent opera companies around the world.

The second half of the show they did more serious singing, the kind that tends to make one jealous of the amazing musical talent of these three gentlemen.

Today we saw The Acrobats of China. This was a team of 25 Chinese athletes who performed amazing acrobatic feats of strength, balance and grace.