Celebrating National Historic Districts & Places That Matter

Articles with this category will appear on the “Local History” page, meant as a one-stop-shop to view historical articles.

Ready for a History Treasure Hunt?? Test your skills and have fun with your team.

HMP celebrated Historic Preservation Month this May with a History Treasure Hunt! The hunt was inspired by Joshua Shackles book“The Explorer’s Club”

HMP Mission: To promote, educate and preserve the integrity of historic properties throughout the Murphysburg District and Joplin.

HMP Vision: To help the people who live and visit our community understand how history shapes, inspires, and informs the present. To help the District remain a historic community that is beautiful, inviting, inclusive and safe for our neighbors to live and visitors to explore.

First Place “Team Fischer”
Second Place “Team Zerkel”
Third Place “Team Box”

Winners had to check in at 11 locations to win! Our winners showed up approximately within 30 minutes of one another, taking about 3 to 3 1/2 hours to finish. Good work!!!

Want to learn about Joplin’s existing treasures and some that were lost. Take the tour on your own below.

Stay tuned for more fun events Murphysburg has coming up.

2nd Annual Murphysburg Treasure Hunt. Take the challenge!

  1. Where city fathers sleep in rows A miner’s stone keeps quiet score. He lost to history’s winning woman, Yet built the house that came before. ANSWER

2. Before the park, before the fame, The Creekside glasses filled with cheer. A German fortune found its roots,  Where mining money flowed like beer. ANSWER

 3. Two men dug down and struck a spark, That split the valley into two. Before the mansions, courts, and streets, The buried gray began to view. ANSWER

 4. A merchants home on Sergeant stands, With faith and fabric interlaced. Seek the corner fire where art looks back, And temple dreams were first embraced. ANSWER

5. The mothers road once took a bend, Where travelers stopped for food and flame. Before the clippers claimed the pumps 
A lucky leaf sold gas by name. ANSWER

6. A lawyers name, a bankers rise,
A mansion born of boomtown gain, From family halls to sacred work, Its walls have changed, but still remain. ANSWER

7. Where Joplin fought to hold the law, A stone recalls the county’s pride. A crowd once marched, the towers rose, Then smoke and fire took all inside. ANSWER

8. Not the mansion, but near its shade, A gardener kept the grounds in line. He crossed from servant into kin, And managed wealth of lead and vine. ANSWER

 9. Before the rival town was one,
An eastern founder marked his claim. Across the creek from Murphy’s dream, His spring-fed plan preserved the name. ANSWER

10. Find the city’s maker of stone and line, Who shaped the skyline, school and prayer. His final room still holds its form,  Among the gardens high in air. ANSWER

Our event was sponsored by: Thank you for your dedication to HMP’s preservation efforts.

Crystal Cave Joplin Missouri

Six miles of chartered underground passages, it is one of the most significant caves in the state according to Missouri Caves in History

Deep beneath the bustling streets of Joplin Missouri lies a hidden crown jewel. Once the subject of intense personal pride by area residents, this gone, but not forgotten, crystal-lined geode cave is now permanently flooded by the high water table in the area. 

On Saturday, July 4, 1908, the cave entrance building was completed, and the cave was opened to the public. Admission was 25 cents. Guests descended down 80 wooden steps to enjoy year round entertainment in a comfortable climate.

Carbon arc electric lights existed in the cave. The wooden dance floor in the cave was about eight feet wide, by 20 feet long. 

The 21st Annual Report of the Bureau of Mines and Mine Inspection of the State of Missouri, published in 1907,  stated that the dimensions of the cave, as measured, are 10 to 40 feet in height, 45 to 70 feet in width, and 250 feet in length.

 In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the Tri-State area of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri has seen a great deal of mining activity. A variety of minerals were mined, with the primary ores being lead and zinc. The ores in the Tri-State area were deposited in cavities that had been dissolved out of the limestone. From time to time, considerable voids would be found containing minerals such as galena and large calcite crystals.

The cave chamber is elongated from the northwest to the southeast. Being located some 80 feet beneath the city streets, the cave was like a giant geode full of large calcite crystals up to 22 inches in size! The entire surface of the cave, including the top, bottom, and all sides, were covered with closely packed calcite crystals with well formed faces!

The Honorable James Roach broke into the natural cave while digging a mine shaft in the early part of 1893, near the corner of 4th Street and Gray Avenue in Joplin.

Crystal Cave was closed by 1932, the cave entrance was blocked so vandals could not enter the closed cave. The uniquely constructed cave entrance building still remained standing.

After World War II, the remaining mines in the area shut down. Their pumps were all turned off, and the water table gradually rose. This water eventually flooded the mine level and then Crystal Cave above. The smaller mine above Crystal Cave flooded also.

The information was taken in part by the MISSOURI’S CRYSTAL CAVE Joplin’s Crown Jewel by Gary K. Soule’s article In the publication The Journal of Spelean History.

Jere & Maude Charlow House

101 S. Sergeant Avenue
circa 1908 | American Foursquare

Jere J. Charlow (1880-1947) was a Native American, born in Wyandotte, Oklahoma. He was an 1898 graduate of the Haskell Institute located in Lawrence, Kansas. The school’s current name is Haskell Indian Nations University. The school was founded in 1884 as a residential boarding school for Indigenous children.

While living in Joplin with his wife Maude Ellen Gregg Charlow (1876-?) He was a bookkeeper for Picher Lead Company and according to The Indian Leader newspaper in Lawrence, Kansas, “…receives a handsome salary and is trusted and greatly respected by all who know him.” He left Joplin to become a clerk with the United States Indian Service-Cheyenne Agency in Dewey, South Dakota. Upon his death he was a special disbursing agent for the United States Government Interior Department In Lansing, Michigan. Jere maintained his membership in the B.P.O.Elks Lodge No. 501 of Joplin and was honored at the Elks annual memorial service after his death.

On April 27, 1942—at 61 years old—Jere was obligated to register in the “Fourth Registration” of the World War II draft! Known as the “Old Man’s Draft,” it was intended to provide the government with a register of manpower between 45-64 years of age who might be eligible for national service on the home front.

Architecture

The two-story pyramidal house has a limestone foundation and wide eaves. A one-story bay window projects from the north elevation. A gabled dormer rises from the east slope of the roof.

Historic Highways…Jefferson and Route 66 in Joplin Missouri

History buffs can get their kicks on Historic Route 66 & Jefferson Highway

The Mother Road (1926-1985) that winds through Joplin. The route was revived circa 1990 and continues to run east-west on 7th Street, bordering the Murphysburg District. The north-south Jefferson Highway (1916-1926/29) has a historic route wayfinder sign at 4th Street and Moffet Avenue next to the Olivia Apartments. The Historic Murphysburg District properties are roughly on Sergeant, Moffet & Byers Avenues between 1st and 7th Streets.

Jefferson Highway

Route 66