SILVER DOLLAR CITY'S HALL FOR ALL SEASONS

by Arline Chandler

Since its opening in 1960, millions of visitors have passed through Silver Dollar City's gates into a world previously known only to hearty Ozarks settlers. Inside the recreated mining village, even the wild and wet rides follow a theme focused on American Ozarks heritage. The award-winning park continues its mission to preserve Ozarks crafts and culture with the opening of Red Gold Heritage Hall. Teemed to historically reflect the Ozarks in its turn-of-the-century heyday of tomato canning and shipping, the new 25,000 square-foot opens a year-long celebration of Silver Dollar City's 40th birthday.

The tomato industry started at neighboring Reeds Spring, a near 100-year-old town built around a huge old spring normally producing a million gallons of pure water daily. The community sprang up in 1902 when the White River-Iron Mountain Railroad laid its tracks through Stone and Taney Counties. Steam powered drills carved a 2,000-foot tunnel through solid rock. Men who worked on the hole in the mountain came from afar to live in the rough-and-tumble railroad camp. Taney County farmers rode horseback, carrying eggs and garden produce to sell to the hungry workers.

Plump, meaty tomatoes grew plentiful in the county's rich soil. The tasty vegetable, known as Ozarks Red Gold, gained a reputation. By the railroad's completion in 1906, new markets opened up for local farm products. Ozarks Red Golds were shipped far and wide and played a major role in developing the colorful history of region.

Throughout the 1920s, tomato canneries sprang up to preserve the abundance of the juicy vine-ripened jewels. Hill folks prospered. According to Guy Wampler, an early-era train depot agent, one 1929 shipment of 96,000 cases of Red Golds left the Reeds Spring station.

At the peak of expansion for tomato canning and shipping, the Great Depression coincided with a severe drought to dry up the industry. With a lack of water and fodder, area cattle starved. In an effort to salvage a portion of the farmers' investment in the cattle market, many of the canneries were transformed into meat canning factories.

Architecturally similar to an old canning factory, Red Gold Heritage Hall makes room for production shows, concerts or large-scale exhibitions in every season of the park's operations. While preserving a page of Ozarks history, the 1,800-seat theatre/center expands Silver Dollar City's mission to create memories of forgotten heritage with fun and fantasy.

With barely enough time to scrape away the green goop left over from a ton of kids' fun, Festival of America, between September and late October , sweeps in with autumn's nip. Throughout the festival, delicious smells waft from the Red Gold Heritage Hall as 'Tastes of America' takes center stage. Regions show off their culinary favorites from a New England clambake to chilies of America to blue ribbon pies. Cooking instructors demonstrate preparations of specialty dishes from around the country.

Before the last crimson leaf blows away, An Old Time Christmas lights up the park from early November through the end of December. Recreated in Red Gold Heritage Hall, the village of Bethlehem features music and handmade crafts from the birthplace of Christ, Jerusalem, and throughout Israel. A stunning and sensory representation of the humble stable where the Christ Child was born is the focal point of the presentation.

Silver Dollar City's newest addition draws on the region's colorful past to enrich generations of a new century. From moments of reflection to riots of rowdiness to tantalizing tastes, the rustic, yet grand, Red Gold Heritage Hall calls on Ozarks history to create new memories.

Copyright Arline Chandler