View From The Top: Beyond peaceful vistas lie secrets of the past

Johnny Morris' passion for Native American history started when he found a single arrowhead. Since then, the founder of Bass Pro Shops has collected a few more.
(Courtesy Photo)
Johnny Morris' passion for Native American history started when he found a single arrowhead. Since then, the founder of Bass Pro Shops has collected a few more. (Courtesy Photo)

Sitting on a veranda, looking across the 462 acres that make up Branson's Top of the Rock, it's hard to imagine a more tranquil setting. The area was purchased by Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops fame in 1993 from Graham Clark, the past president of College of the Ozarks, and now boasts a 2.5-mile nature trail and cave, a Jack Nicklaus signature golf course, the first-ever part-3 four to be included in a professional championship, a natural history museum, an all-American wine cellar, a chapel, a cabin and "endless views of Table Rock Lake and the surrounding landscape," says spokeswoman Shelby Stephenson.

But Top of the Rock also includes the Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum, inspired by an arrowhead Morris discovered when he was 16 years old and walking through a freshly plowed field on a fishing expedition with his dad.

"It should be noted that one of Johnny's passions for Native Americans stems from them being our very first conservationists," Stephenson says.

Not content with wall after wall of arrowheads and spear points, Morris has also collected a saddle pad that George Washington rode on during the Revolutionary War; the American flag that was draped over Abraham Lincoln's casket during his funeral; a canon that was used at the Battle of Gettysburg; a collection of photographs of Native Americans taken by renowned photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis; and a collection of Native American "war shirts" that is considered one of the most impressive in North America -- all pieces of history that reflect what happened on this land before tourists and golfers came along.

Brooks Blevins is a professor of history at Missouri State University in Springfield and is completing the third in a series of books looking at the Ozarks from its historic past into the 21st century. His first, "A History of the Ozarks, Vol. 1: The Old Ozarks," released by University of Illinois Press in 2018, looks at the Native Americans who hunted the region and later settled there. The second, "A History of the Ozarks, Vol. 2: The Conflicted Ozarks," considers the fundamental changes in the region caused by the Civil War. And the third volume, subtitled "The Ozarkers," is coming in 2021, Blevins promises.

"In the very early 1800s, there really weren't any residents in that part of southwest Missouri," he begins. "The White River Valley and most of the Ozarks had traditionally been the territory of the Osages, but they didn't live there; they used it as hunting ground, coming down from their villages in west-central Missouri and even Kansas.

"But right around the time the War of 1812 was ending, southwest Missouri and other parts of the Ozarks became an early version of Indian Territory, a dumping ground for Eastern tribes forced west."

Of course, that caused conflict between all of those tribes -- the Delaware, the Shawnee and others from the Ohio Valley -- and the Osage, Blevins says. And as white settlers started coming in, they -- and the government -- tended to ally themselves with whoever fought the Osage, who were the most powerful Indian nation in the central United States.

Still, Blevins says, there wasn't a lot of the kind of cowboys-and-Indians conflict portrayed in 1940s and '50s television and movies. There were cowboys in the region before the Civil War, and they did drive herds of cattle west to feed the gold rush in California -- a period Blevins also talks about in "A History of the Ozarks, Vol. 1: The Old Ozarks."

Probably the most surprising historical fact Blevins recounts about the region is that for a brief time in the 1820s, "it looked like a big chunk of the White River Valley might become an autonomous Indian nation." Leaders of the Shawnees and the Cherokees in southwest Missouri and northern Arkansas pitched the idea to the U.S. government in the person of William Clark -- of Lewis and Clark fame -- who was the head Indian agent based in St. Louis, he explains. Clark liked the idea and sent the Shawnee leader Quatawapea, called John Lewis by white men, on to Washington, D.C., to talk to newly elected but not yet installed President John Quincy Adams -- who was from New England and didn't particularly care either way, Blevins says -- and his vice president, John C. Calhoun, a southerner who wouldn't support the plan.

As it turned out, Blevins says, the Shawnees living east of the Mississippi wouldn't back the idea either because they were still hanging on to their ancestral lands, not knowing, of course, what would come in the future. Still, he says, it's a little known piece of regional history that was uncovered by Professor George Lankford of Lyon College and is shared in Blevins' book.

As for the Civil War in southwest Missouri, the first 18 months were the "Hollywood Civil War," Blevins says, "with big armies marching around and fighting each other." But the second half of the war was "kind of a free-for-all with guerrillas fighting on both sides."

"By the end of the war, large chunks of the Ozarks had just been depopulated; it was just too dangerous to be in the region," he says. "It had become a really harsh, difficult place to survive."

Knowing all that history just makes visitors to Top of the Rock appreciate looking across the tranquil scene of Table Rock Lake and the rolling hills of the Missouri Ozarks even more. While there, they can enjoy three distinct dining experiences at the Osage Restaurant, a steak house; Buffalo Bar, serving classic American fare; and Arnie's Barn, honoring golfing legend Arnold Palmer and featuring modern, Mexican-inspired dishes; they can stay overnight in Jack's Cabin, a Civil War cabin created by local artisans and Amish craftsmen from original square-hewn logs that Morris found and commissioned to be re-assembled; and take an electric cart ride to the Lost Canyon Cave along a 2.5 mile nature trail.

"In the Missouri Ozark Mountains, we are blessed to host four very distinct seasons throughout the year, offering guests different experiences each time," says Stephenson. "The changing scenery, seasonal food and beverage features, and special events continue to evolve with each season."

But thanks to Blevins, visitors can go knowing "the rest of the story."

Among the historical artifacts at Top of the Rock is a canon that was used at the Battle of Gettysburg.
(Courtesy Photo)
Among the historical artifacts at Top of the Rock is a canon that was used at the Battle of Gettysburg. (Courtesy Photo)
Jack’s Cabin was re-created by local artisans and Amish craftsmen from original square-hewn logs that Morris found and commissioned to be re-assembled.
(Courtesy Photo)
Jack’s Cabin was re-created by local artisans and Amish craftsmen from original square-hewn logs that Morris found and commissioned to be re-assembled. (Courtesy Photo)
A 2.5-mile nature trail includes a visit to a cave.
(Courtesy Photo)
A 2.5-mile nature trail includes a visit to a cave. (Courtesy Photo)
A collection of Native American “war shirts” displayed at Top of the Rock is considered one of the most impressive in North America.
(Courtesy Photo)
A collection of Native American “war shirts” displayed at Top of the Rock is considered one of the most impressive in North America. (Courtesy Photo)
Top of the Rock boasts a nine-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, a practice course designed by Arnold Palmer and a Himalayan putting green designed by Tom Watson.
(Courtesy Photo)
Top of the Rock boasts a nine-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, a practice course designed by Arnold Palmer and a Himalayan putting green designed by Tom Watson. (Courtesy Photo)
When the collecting bug bit Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops fame, he was 16 years old and had just found his first arrowhead. Many of the artifacts he's accumulated since then are housed in a museum at Top of the Rock in Branson.

(Courtesy Photo)
When the collecting bug bit Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops fame, he was 16 years old and had just found his first arrowhead. Many of the artifacts he's accumulated since then are housed in a museum at Top of the Rock in Branson. (Courtesy Photo)

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