Last night, we made plans to go find Garber again today--Grandma was mad that I went without her again yesterday. When my grandma gets mad, a steel rod goes right down her spine, and she grows from about 4 ft 11 in to Mad-Tall. You can imagine her totin' a shotgun sometimes, depending on what she's mad about, but I've not seen her actually do so... My uncle Jim Wilson, his son Chad, and another cousin, Vernon, were sitting outside waiting for breakfast when Greg and I pulled into Grandma's this morning. After me being antsy for a while, we hauled Daddy in the Blazer with us, and Uncle Jim--Daddy's youngest sib--followed in his late-model Chrysler. I knew we wouldn't be going as far as I'd've liked to--Uncle Jim's been living in the Kansas City area an awful long time, and you just don't take some vehicles up some roads...<BG> Drove down "Church" Road again, this time with commentary from Daddy. One of the oldest houses you see is just before you hit the steep part of the hillside; it is a 2 story, with the bottom story rock, and the front-to-back slant-roofed 2nd story wood (an addition after the original was built). My great-grandfather and his 2nd wife had lived in this house in 1934, and Grandma and Grandpa had lived at the same time, in a log cabin across the road from it. Across the road from the house now is a subdivision. This same house was up for sale not long ago, and Ingrid and I had talked about it when we went gallivantin' last week. I forgot to tell you--all the buildings on the Jones place, if I'm remembering correctly--were of plank wood construction. None of them were logs. I don't know where the nearest saw mill was to Garber, but it'd be interesting finding out. Went past the trestle again, and on up the valley. There's a small creek running in the area of the Jones' Place, but Daddy and I couldn't agree on its name. Too far north to actually be Roark. It was totally dry, too. Went on past the backside of the Henning State Forest, crossed the "crick"--Roark--and come on around. By this time, we're on a narrow dirt road. What y'all may not be understanding...there were apparently 2 Garbers. The early one was closer to the Jones' Place, and the gravel road that Terri and I walked yesterday was the old road between Gretna and Garber. The second one, the one that John K. Ross ("Old Matt" from "The Shepherd of the Hills", according to local legend) plotted about 1907 was a bit farther west and north. Step by step, so you can see what I'm talking about... Go to http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/ and type in "Branson". Click on the aerial photo. The picture you'll get then will have Lake Taneycomo snaking through the right side. Off to the lower left-hand corner you'll see where "back-up" is from Table Rock Lake--the dam is not in view. In roughly the center of the picture, you'll see a valley snaking away to the upper left--that's Roark Valley. BTW, there are NO straight roads here--LOL--what those lines are, if they aren't super-imposed latitude-longitude lines, are where the powerlines for electricity run through the hills. There's a big ole' white spot in the upper 1/3 of the picture. To the right of that is Hwy 248. To the left is Roark Valley. If you click on that, you'll see it's a rock quarry. Play around some, go south, and you'll see in the Valley a long building alongside the railroad track--if you use Royal Oak Charcoal, that's where it comes from, the Keeter Charcoal Factory (I think they actually call it Royal Oak now.) There's where the town of Gretna was. Gretna Cemetery is at the north end of the factory building. If you're on the 4 km view, up the hill to the right of the Charcoal plant is Branson Meadows Factory Outlet center--it kinda looks like a wagon train circled for the night. The road running along it is called Gretna Road...4 lanes. This picture is http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=12&T=1&X=595&Y=5071&Z=15&W=2 Getting back to Garber...keep traveling, clicking on the arrows outside the picture, northwest. http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=12&T=1&X=593&Y=5073&Z=15&W=2 should get you to where the quarry is in the right center of your picture. Dewey Bald is the lower left hand corner, with a corner of Hwy 76 (the trail no one knows how old) snaking through. Sycamore Log Church Road is on the upper right, coming down and making a sharp turn to the left. The Sycamore Log Church is in that corner, if I'm not mistaken, and there are still worship services held there (they were in services this morning as we went through). Follow the road down to where it veers up again, turning right. That's the railroad trestle at the Jones place. Click on that trestle until you get to the 1 mile view. (It says Zoom on the upper left corner of the map, then what view you're on.) Now click here. I can't tell you how I got here....LOL http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=10&T=1&X=2365&Y=20303&Z=15&W=2 There is a trestle there, crossing the East Fork of Roark Creek (which goes north, I'm not even going to try to figure that out). The houses down to the right from the 2 branches junction comprise a ranch called "Peaceful Valley". Garber, the one my grandmother knew, was just to the west of the trestle. Up over the incline of the railroad, and back down... The ledge rock/shelf rock road that I took the Cavalier up back in August is at the bottom, going up over Cox Bald. You keep clicking that direction, and you won't be able to see it for the trees, hardly, but it comes out on a loop of Hwy 76. These maps are old, for that loop has been cut off, in preparation for the Ozark Mtn. Highroad. Enough geography. I gotta story to tell. Vonda