Here it is. The final post from my three months in Branson, Missouri. It’s funny. Nearly every place I visit, I end up feeling like I didn’t do nearly as much as I could have or that I’ll have much to say. And, inevitably, it takes more posts than I imagine to fully cover my experience.

Recently, I studied some Pinterest pins as I’ve been teaching myself strategies for using the platform. I followed a pin titled “59 Free Things to Do in Branson.” I read the person’s blog post and, at the end, I wasn’t convinced she’d even been there. Each of her 59 things had a one or two sentence description, something easily lifted from the place’s website. I knew she was writing for the Pinterest pin, the SEO and probably not for actual readers.

It’s interesting the different approaches people take to sharing their adventures and experiences. Anyway, I thought about that a lot as my original two post idea for Branson turned into three posts. And, then, last week turned into four posts.

Overall, today are the things I did that cost money but that were my favorite. Two are outside the “tickets, timeshares and tourist-priced attractions” I’ve talked about in the previous posts. So crowds shouldn’t be as insane at the two places, even if you go during high season.

College of the Ozarks in Branson

The motto of College of the Ozarks is Hard Work University. You’ll see students working at every location throughout the campus in lieu of paying tuition. In fact, their website says debt is discouraged and no federal or state loans are made to students.

In addition to walking the beautiful campus, there are multiple stops you can make in places where students are hard at work. Visit the:

• Fruitcake and Jelly Kitchen where students bake 25,000 fruitcakes and cook 30,000 jellies, preserves and apple butter each year. The apple butter is fantastic.
• Stained Glass and Candle Shop. The candles smell great but I don’t use candles in my RV. Just don’t want to assume the fire risk.
• Edwards Water-Powered Grist Mill, a replica of an 1800s-era grist mill where students grind whole grain meal and flour for visitors to purchase and for use at the Keeter Center restaurant.
• Hoge Greenhouse. They sell starter plants in the spring and the greens they grow are also used at the Keeter Center restaurant.
• Gaetz Tractor Museum.
• Patriots Park where, in addition to Veteran’s Grove with its 150 sugar maple trees and the World War II Flag Plaza, you find memorials to:
  • Missouri Vietnam Veterans
  • Missouri Gold Star Families
  • Korean War
  • Lest We Forget 9/11

Two Things I Did on Campus

On the campus, I visited the Ralph Foster Museum (entry fee $8). The most notable item in the museum is the car used during the opening credits of the Beverly Hillbillies television show. The man who wrote and produced it, Paul Henning, was from the area. That was fun to see. Though, unfortunately, the car is very poorly lit so, in my opinion, visitors really don’t get the full “wow” that they could. I learned Henning also inspired the “country cousin” shows Green Acres and Petticoat Junction.

But my favorite item in the museum was a time clock (called a dial time recorder) used by Budweiser for employees to punch in and out from 1888. Or that’s when the contraption was patented. I’m not positive when it was in use. I had to walk all the way around it and read the information card to understand how it worked.

The Keeter Center for a meal is another stop at College of the Ozarks. It’s worth the splurge. Though not really a splurge as the prices were quite reasonable. Students in the culinary program do a fantastic job at everything from waiting tables to creating beautiful and delicious food.

On-site they cultivate their own pork products and grow their own vegetables to use in the dishes they create. In the Keeter Center you’ll also find a gift shop that sells the various products if you don’t have time to stop at all the separate shops. You’ll also find the College Creamery where ice cream is made fresh daily with cream from the on-site dairy (which you can also visit).

Birthday Adventure

I celebrated my birthday while I was in Branson which coincided with the anniversary of this blog. I decided to make the day an adventure day. But, with the heat and humidity, it needed to be an inside adventure.

I chose the Butterfly Palace: A Rain Forest Adventure.

It was amazing (overpriced, in my opinion, but still really cool). The thing you are really paying for is a visit into the butterfly aviary where you see up to 60 species of butterflies, with about 2,000 flying around at any one time.

Ironically, in order for the butterflies to thrive, the atmosphere is rain forest. So, while I wanted an inside adventure, I still ended up in heat and humidity in the aviary.

They get daily shipments from South America of the butterflies in their pre-butterfly state. They make sure the little guys are safe until they are born. Most live two to three weeks.

They offer fake porous flowers attached to a little tube of orange Gatorade water.

I learned a lot about butterflies by watching the two educational films they show throughout the day. The one I loved followed the annual migration of the monarch butterflies. It was fascinating.

The film was in 3D which, in my opinion, didn’t add much. The information and their annual journey alone were amazing. Did you know it takes four generations of butterflies to make the trip one way? The other film (not 3D) is how the Butterfly Palace gets its butterflies.

In Addition to the Butterflies

To justify the entry cost, they added a maze of mirrors, a banyan forest and a room with amphibians (called the rain forest education center). The banyan forest is bungee cords that stretch from the floor to the ceiling and you walk through. Lame. Kids might like it.

Looking at the amphibians was okay. I made a lizard friend. All the other ones don’t move or acknowledge you. But this one lizard, when I got to his terrarium, walked from the back to the front of the glass and kept moving his head to look at me. I asked if it was feeding time because I thought maybe that’s why he was interested in me but it wasn’t. He was just a social friendly guy, I guess.

Finally, the mirror maze. It was weird and fun. I bammed my face into a mirror twice thinking I’d found the path. Embarrassing, but I was the only one in there so no one saw. And funny. I hadn’t ever been in one before and found it a little unnerving. But—good news—I found my way out. I didn’t get lost in there forever or sustain a concussion in the mirror maze.

The Path of the Monarch Butterfly

So, one reason the Butterfly Palace is relevant to Branson and not just a random high-priced attraction is because the Branson area falls along the path the monarch butterflies take during their annual migration.

Many many places I visited had little gardens planted specifically to feed the butterflies en route. The gardens are called Monarch Waystations. They plant milkweed and other nectar flowers to help sustain them along their 3,000 mile journey.

Mother of Kewpies and Bonniebrook Home (near Branson)

I saved the best for last. Visiting the house, gardens and museum of Rose O’Neill, aka the Mother of Kewpies, was my favorite Branson adventure. Hands down.

Born in 1874, Rose O’Neill entered a drawing contest when she was 13. Her work was so good, she was accused of cheating or tracing. The judges spent a great deal of time looking through art books at the local library trying to find the picture she traced. They found a one similar (which is now at the house for you to see). But, ultimately, asked her to draw another picture while they watched.

It was immediately clear she was not a cheat. Instead, she was one talented girl. At the age of 19, she moved to New York and started work as an illustrator. She used the name O’Neill as publishers didn’t want their magazine and book buyers to know the work was done by a woman.

She grew up very poor in Nebraska but after she left for New York, the rest of her family moved to Walnut Shade, Missouri (nine miles north of Branson).  When Rose visited, she fell in love with the place. She named the stream that ran through the property Bonniebrook.

Rose Becomes Famous

Her success as an illustrator brought in a good living and soon she was supporting her entire family (her parents and five siblings). As the money came in, the family built their Bonniebrook home in three phases, beginning in 1898.  During the third phase (1906-1908), Bonniebrook had the distinguishing of becoming the first house in the entire county with an indoor bathroom with running water. Though electric didn’t arrive until the 1940s.

In 1909, while seeking solace at Bonniebrook following her second divorce, she said the idea for Kewpies came to her in a dream. The Kewpies are “cousins to fairies” and meant to spread goodwill where ever the go.

The Kewpies would take Rose to new heights as they soon were used from everything from magazine covers to short stories (which Rose herself wrote) to advertising. Soon Rose traveled to Germany to meet with a manufacturer about turning Kewpies into dolls.  

Rose Becomes Obscure

But by the 1930s, the popularity of Kewpies and Rose’s work had fallen out of favor. Rose was the first illustrator to earn a million dollars and she did so in just a few short years. But supporting her family left her without any savings. She lost houses she’d purchased in Italy, Greenwich Village (New York) and Connecticut.

She was, once again, poor. Rose died in 1944 and is buried on the property along with several members of her family.

In January 1947, Bonniebrook burned to the ground when her mentally challenged brother put a large log on the fire to keep six kittens he cared for warm. He then left to have dinner at a neighbor’s house. The log was large and wasn’t all the way in the fireplace. And the house burned.

Over the years, the land became so overgrown finding the family cemetery was a challenge.

Reviving Bonniebrook

But in 1975, the Bonniebrook Historical Society was born. Money was raised. Bonniebrook was rebuilt and furnished back to its heyday, piecing together old photo and original building plans.

So, what’s a visit like? You can actually visit their gift shop and walk the lovely gardens (including the family cemetery and a fairy garden and, yes, a butterfly waystation) for free. But, if you go, you must take the $8 tour. The value for the money is unsurpassed by anything else you can do in Branson.

Our tour guide, the current board president and 22-year volunteer, Sharon, spent 90 minutes with us, relaying the entire story of Rose O’Neill and her art. For your entry fee, you get access to the art gallery filled with Rose O’Neill art, original Kewpie dolls, a timeline of her life as well as a tour of the Bonniebrook Home.

There is so much more to her story than I can fit into a single post. If you get to the area, you must visit Booniebrook for yourself. You won’t be sorry.

Leaving Branson

I hope you have enjoyed the four posts about Branson. I don’t imagine I’ll be back because I wasn’t a big fan. But, even so, I found many fun and interesting things to do and see.

Links to the Other Branson Posts:

• Branson: Tickets, Timeshares and Tourist-Priced Attractions
• 5 Free Things to Do in Branson
• Shows, ‘Shine and Shopping in Branson Missouri

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• Honest Outfitters Single Camping Single Camping Hammock
• AP Products: Slim Shade Your Door Window

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