Press-run booklets produced by regional authors. Each contains little-known bits of Ozark history and folklore. Collection by Mark Kumming.

Mark Kumming, Collector of Ozarkiana

By Curtis Copeland, The Society of Ozarkian Hillcrofters

In the world of the Internet and social media, Mark Kumming is known for his knowledge of Ozarks history and memorabilia. He regularly posts photos of his Ozarks book collection, images of Silver Dollar City and Branson, and answers questions about the people and places of the Ozarks.

Mark’s interest in regional and local history began at an early age.

“My dad would carry my brother and I, later our sister, all around St. Louis in the family van in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He took us to all kinds of museums and historic sites, primarily to keep us occupied on a day off from school or during summer vacation from school.”

Mark’s father later went to work for aerospace firm McDonnell-Douglas. As a result, the young boy met many astronauts, including Gus Grissom and Neal Armstrong.

“Once, on a day off from school, my dad took me in the family car to a warehouse in the St. Louis area, so he could pick up some parts for Skylab and take them to another location to deliver them. When he came out a few minutes later he had a little Ziploc bag with some electronic circuits in it…part of Skylab! I got to hold that bag in my hands and take a good look at it…something that soon would go up into space! That was a big deal for a little kid, and I remember it well.”

In 1973, Mark’s father wanted his children to experience life in the country. The family moved to Perryville, Missouri, to a small farm on an Ozarks ridge just above the Mississippi River bottom lands.

Relocating to the southeast Missouri Ozarks reinforced his interest in the Ozarks’ culture and history.

Book cover by M. E. Oliver, Ozarks artist.

“I was about 11 years old. That summer, a local publisher printed The Perryville Advertiser (a little magazine with a bunch of ads in it). The publication featured several articles about local history and folklore, lost treasure legends, historic spots, church history, settlement history, and so on. It was something I ate up! I loved the legends and local history stories. It was the first piece of regional material that I kept. I still have it today.”

But it was not only the history of the local museums and history sites that influenced Mark.  He began to appreciate the natural features special to the Ozarks region.

“My brother and I explored the Ozarks woods around our farm. We had a natural spring that bubbled up in our pasture, and we followed it through the woods down to a much larger creek that eventually dumped into the Mississippi. Along that stream there were caves, limestone water falls, and all sorts of cool things for little early teenaged boys to explore. That left a big impression on me, too.”

In the mid-1970’s, Mark’s parents divorced. His mother and stepfather both worked for a large healthcare company which transferred the newly formed family to Branson.

In 1968 or ’69, Mark had visited Branson for the first time on vacation right after the Beverly Hillibllies episodes aired on TV. They spent several days in Branson, attending Silver Dollar City, the Baldknobbers’ Jamboree, and other sights; all of which made a great impression on you Mark.

In 1978 — after his mother and stepfather had been transferred — Mark found himself in Branson once again, this time as a resident. He was thrilled to be living in the town that brought him so much joy as a young boy.

Part of Mark’s collection of Ozark tourism promotional material and post cards.

“We lived for the first two weeks in the Branson Inn, while mom and stepdad looked for a house. Then, I got a job at the age of 15 at Silver Dollar City in the foods department, working at the Vineyard (now the Wagon Works Restaurant.) We were enrolled in Branson schools in the fall. Life was good! Of course, now with the Silver Dollar City “pass exchange program” a benefit which let employees of the park into Branson attractions at no charge, I had the ability to go to all the music shows, attractions, just about everywhere in town for free! It was fantastic!”

Mark began his memorabilia collection the same year and many are now thankful he chose to save every pamphlet, trinket or other tourist item that others during the late ’70s and early ’80s considered unimportant, even trash!

I kept everything my employers gave me at Silver Dollar City. …I am proud of saving from the  dumpsters several small pieces salvaged from the float trip and diving bell attractions when they were torn out and updated with the American Plunge and the Lost River.”

These early jobs gave Mark the chance to participate in the “Ozarks-themed” tourist industry he loved.  He also made a lot of friends in the “golden age” of early Silver Dollar City and Shepherd of the Hills attractions.

“I got a job as the concessions manager at Hee Haw Theater in 1981 (it was a showcase for the Hee Haw TV stars). I transferred to the attractions department at SDC in 1979 and worked at Jim Owens Float Trip Ride, Rube Dugan’s Diving Bell, Flooded Mine, Fire in the Hole, Grandfather’s Mansion, Tree Top House (Huck Finn’s Hideaway), the One Mule Swing, and did ad-lib street entertainment and was involved in one of the street feud skits regularly in the 1980 season.

“I graduated from Branson High School in 1980 and began attending College of the Ozarks. In 1981, I was second lead man at the Diving Bell.”

The 1981 crew of Rube Dugan’s Diving Bell (a former attraction at Silver Dollar City). Mark is in the upper-left corner. He played the role of “Junior Dugan” at the attraction.

In 1984, college took Mark away from his friends and favorite places of Branson.  He went to Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau to study mass communications and business. During this time at SEMO University, he was classmates with a man who went on to a big career in TV and film, Cedric the Entertainer. They had mass communications classes together and were friends at the time.

Later in 1984, Mark began his 20-year career in radio, working as a disc jockey, announcer, news reporter and news director at radio stations in the Missouri Boothheel towns of Cape Girardeau, Dexter, and Kennett, Missouri.

In 1990 Mark moved to Forrest City, Arkansas, to continue radio, and it was there he met and married his wife, Janette. He became an instant husband and stepfather. In less than three years their oldest daughter had her first child, and he was a grandpa for the first time. Mark and Janette have two daughters and 10 grandkids.

During Mark’s 20 years in radio, he met many celebrities and politicians, including Barbara Bush, Bill Clinton, Academy Award-winning actress Mary Steenburgen, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Jesse Jackson, John Grisham, Ricky Phelps (of the Kentucky Headhunters), and Mike Huckabee.

He received the Distinguished Service Award from the journalism department of the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, and was a stringer for the Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock) and The Commercial Appeal (Memphis). He also regularly contributed news to the Arkansas Associated Press Broadcasters Association, the Arkansas Radio Network, the Brownfield Ag Network, and the Learfield Data News Service.

Because of his radio career, Mark’s collecting of Ozarkiana and memorabilia came to a standstill. The family  vacationed in Branson only a couple of times over those years years.

“I still was interested in local and regional history, and as a news reporter, I did many stories on local and regional history topics, festivals, and so on. [But] all that stuff was Mississippi Delta Region material, not Ozarks material.”

In 2003, Janette had an opportunity to move to northwest Arkansas and double her salary. She had “a great career working in medical offices doing billing, Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance contracts,” and so they moved to Rogers.

Unfortunately Mark’s radio career had ended, and he went into construction work for some time, and then worked as a clerk in an emergency room Springdale hospital for nine years.

“My, how my eyes were opened! This was much different work than entertaining in Branson or being a radio broadcaster.”

When that job ended, Mark became a clerk in a government contractors firm in Rogers for four years. In 2017, he became a substitute teacher in the Pea Ridge School District. Mark and his Janette moved to Pea Ridge in 2007. In January of 2018, the Pea Ridge Community Library made Mark their children’s storyteller.

He also has done freelance writing on Ozarks topics since 2010.

“No money in it, but I have had about 150 articles published in regional magazines and newspapers. I am regular contributing writer for THE MISSOURI CHIGGER magazine published at Lowry City, MO.”

Photo of Bill Clinton presidential material collected by Mark when he was a broadcast journalist for an east Arkansas radio station.

Mark’s collection began to make its online appearance in 2011 when he joined a website for fans of Silver Dollar City (www.sdcfans.com).

“I made over 2,000 posts on that site and began a Flickr account to post SDC and Hee Haw Theater photos. I found that all that stuff I had saved for over 30 years from my youth at SDC and Hee Haw was now interesting to someone other than myself! A younger generation who had only heard about this stuff was amazed when I started posting scans of my collection online, and they marveled at the stories of old-time Branson and SDC of the 1970s and early 1980s.”

In 2013, Janette bought him a computer tablet and his son-in-law signed him up for a Facebook account.

“Over time I discovered the Facebook group pages I now contribute to. Now I administer the Hee Haw Theater Facebook page in honor of the people who worked at the theater with me. SDCFans.com began a Facebook page, and the administrator asked me to be a co-administrator with him, so I do some work there. I am very pleased to be able to share my knowledge about Ozarks topics with folks on those group sites.”

Mark is also an active member of the Society of Ozarkian Hillcrofters.

Mark’s sharing of his collection is not just in cyberspace. He was amazed when editor-in-chief Joshua Heston invited him to the State of the Ozarks Festival in 2017 at Hollister, where he had a booth with items from his collection. He felt honored to be a part of the festival and could visit with people directly about his collection of Ozarks memorabilia.

“Regarding the rarest piece I have, it is a copy of M.E. Oliver’s Strange Scenes in the Ozark  (a handmade book limited to a printing of 400 copies). I’m very pleased to have that. I have tons of brochures, postcards, and many other pieces of paper goods that promoted or told of aspects of Ozarks.”

Mark has some advice for those interested in being collectors themselves: “Seek out the small, cheaply made booklets that Ozarks natives made and peddled to tourists in the 1950s through the 1980s. These little books contain many gems of Ozarks history, little tidbits that the bigger books by the university presses don’t discuss. Some of those books include one by Silver Dollar City’s first Marshal, one by a miller at Sullivan’s Mill. Also, books written by the eccentric ‘Coin’ Harvey at Rogers, Arkansas, who founded the Monte Ne Resort in the 1920s, and books by a Bentonville, Arkansas, resident J. Dickson Black (who did several books on northwest Arkansas history).”

Mark met many old timers along his collecting journeys, including Walker Powell (from Silver Dollar City) and Phillip Steele (Ozarks author).

“I was a coworker with many good people who worked at SDC, the Branson music shows, Shepherd of the Hills play…gosh, I worked or was friends with many good folks from Shepherd. There are many stories I could tell if time permitted.”

Mark has had some 150 freelance stories published in regional periodicals and has self-published a poetry collection titled Reflections on the Battle of Pea Ridge in Poetry and Photographs (available on Amazon).

“I have seen the printed proof of the little book, and I’m proud of it, although I do not expect a little book of Ozarks poetry to sell more than a handful of copies,” he chuckles.

Cover of Mark’s book of poetry, available on Amazon.

Mark is continuing a new career in education as well.  Although he is substitute teaching in Pea Ridge Schools, he hopes to be able this summer to begin to study and obtain a teacher’s license, and teach full time in Pea Ridge Schools.  “It will be a long, hard process for me, but hopefully it will be a career until I am eligible to retire at age 68.”

Mark Kumming’s lifelong interest in the Ozarks, and his collection of Ozarks memorabilia, has become something much more than the hobby of an individual.  It has become an important historic record of the region and a source of education for this and future generations.  The excitement  Mark has for Ozarks history and culture, and his willingness to share the collection, creates interest in the Ozarks essential for the preservation of our unique regional culture.

Mark Kumming in his Ozarks library.