Reeds Spring is located in lower-central Stone County, in the Ozarks Region of Southwest Missouri. Reeds, as it is popularly known by the locals, has experienced a great deal of most interesting fame, as well as infamy, during its history. Starting as an excellent watering and grazing spot for Texas range cattle being driven to market just after the American Civil War (1861-1865), it has survived many twists and turns in its experiences and growth.
The Reed brothers, Texas cattlemen, used the large Y-shaped valley region as a stop-off place on their way to central Missouri markets. A million-gallon-a-day fresh water spring, plus copious grass grazing areas, assured the Reeds that their cattle would be rested, well fed and well watered before completing their long, tedious drive to the railhead yards. They stopped here so often that, around 1870, they even built a cabin where they, too, could rest without having to lie on the hard ground with their heads on saddles around an all-night campfire. Before long the outstanding spring became well known as “Reed’s Spring,” in their honor.
In the following years a small number of settlers, mostly of recent English ancestry, found this most desirable spot and began settling the valley and surrounding hills where farms could be originated and operated. In 1882, the old Reed’s cabin was removed to a spot just to the north, which would later become known as Reeds Spring Junction. Starting with that cabin, the Stultz family built their home there. The Stultz family played an important part in the history of Reeds, as they formed the first post office in later years, among other ventures. The little community that built up around the Stultz settlement was, erroneously, called Stutts for many years. Both names show up on old maps, north of Reeds, but Stultz is the correct name – now at the Reeds Spring Junction.
The Reeds area continued to grow, family by family, for the next twenty years. Then, in 1902, The Union Pacific Railroad decided to build a rail line from their main-line in east-central Arkansas to the newly forming and prosperous lead and zinc mining areas around Carthage and Joplin. They intended to beat the Missouri Pacific to these valuable shipping companies. MoPac was building their line across Missouri toward Joplin, coming from Rolla, through the Springfield area. The UP’s line would be known as the White River and Iron Mountain Railway line. The line would be very costly and tedious to build as it would have to go through many hard-rock tunnels and cross over dozens of high and long trestles built from the native forest logs. The longest tunnel was through a mountain just east of the Reeds Spring valleys. That tunnel ended up being about 2,000 feet long, drilled and blasted through solid rock.
The nearby heavily flowing Reed’s Spring provided all the water needed to feed the great boilers supplying the steam-driven rock drills as well as drinking and washing water for the large labor crews and working animals involved. Reeds Spring began growing as a rough and tumble railroad worker’s town. However, when the tunnel was completed and the rail-line opened in 1906, Reeds became prosperous as the spot where commodities were shipped to other towns and received to supply the area’s growing needs. Those years saw huge expansions of the railroad industry in America, with lines driving hard to cross the continent and connect both coasts and all the cities between. There was a vast need for countless wooden railroad cross-ties, which the Ozarks soon began supplying. For many years, day and night, there was a perpetual string of tie wagons lined up from the Reeds rail yards up the supplying roads to the tops of all the surrounding hills and mountains. It was a way for all the local families to cash-in on the nation’s growth. Soon Reeds became well known as the Crosstie Capital of America, shipping entire trainloads of crossties to be used all across the nation. As hard as it is to imagine, 500,000 hand-hewn, 8 foot long, solid oak railroad cross-ties were shipped out in 1912 alone. Soon, every reasonably straight oak tree on every hilltop, ridge-line and other accessible area for many miles around was cut and shipped. There were then thousands upon thousands of acres of barren places where once had stood virgin forests.
Just as the demand for ties began to drop off a curiously launched demand for the Ozarks’ locally grown tomatoes cropped up. Oddly enough, the great barren hilltops became the ideal spot for growing fields of tomatoes. The rocky dirt was vastly enriched with the acid from centuries of rotted oak leaves, providing the ideal nutrients for most succulent tomatoes. Soon, every spot where fresh water flowed became the site for a great tin-shed tomato canning factory. Entire families came from many miles around to spend the summer, camped beneath their wagons, planting, watering, picking, hauling and canning tomatoes to serve the rapidly growing demands of far away cities and markets. It was hot, dirty, grueling work for all the family members, but it usually created enough income for them to survive yet another winter. One record night in 1929, according to the depot manager, Guy Wampler, 96,000 cases of canned tomatoes were shipped out on the railroad.
The town of Reeds really began to grow and prosper. Quite near to the spring a nice large wooden hotel sprang up to cater to the needs of the public and traveling salesmen, known as ‘drummers’ in those days. The 20’s and 30’s also saw Reeds develop into a shipping point for all the local cattlemen. Soon, large stockyards lined the railroad and the north side of Reeds Spring. Then the demand for native cedar-wood sprang up. Farms to the north and all across America’s plains now needed countless fence-posts, and the Ozarks’ also countless cedar trees began to fill the need. Now long lines of wagons piled high with cut and trimmed cedar poles began coming down the hills to the railroad yards at Reeds. Cedar-chests and cedar lined closets, as well as countless millions of cedar pencils became popular and so the shipment of much larger cedar logs began. More thousands of acres of Ozarks forest became denuded, first of giant oaks, then of all sizes of cedar trees.
All these demands ran on into the early 1950’s, thanks to the needs created by the Second World War of the 1940’s. The last canning factory closed in Reeds Spring at that time. Most of the railroad building vastly slowed and the demand for cedar products waned. Then came the new and exciting Table Rock Lake, built and operated by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Now tourism, fishing and hunting became intensely popular and Reeds Spring was on the major highway route that brought these pleasure seeking visitors from the northern cities. Again, Reeds found a way to prosper. However, the new settlements and the rapid flowing cash much nearer to the lake’s waterfronts began to draw many of the businesses out of Reeds to grow anew in more likely, more newly settled, more traveled spots. Then came a very serious commercial blow. MoDot built a high-speed, straight and smooth, new highway connecting the major south-flowing route, to the open highway leading to the prosperous parts of the lakefront areas. This fine new highway bypassed Reeds Spring entirely, leaving behind the old, twisted and slow highway route running through town nearly abandoned.
Now Reeds Spring is slowly but surely reviving once again, being energized by residents and newcomers who believe it is still a nice, quiet and peaceful place to live and do business. It is slowly growing into a destination place, with nice dining places, antique shops, nice new subdivisions all of the district’s beautiful new schools and other such businesses. Reeds Spring may be a bit slowed down these days – but she is far from being ‘out,’ and will soon come into its prosperous ‘own’ once again.
By: Jim Barrett
If you are interested in historical photos and stories about the Ozarks area contact Jim Barrett at RT's Restaurant in Kimberling City.
