I was walking along a wooded ridge top trail years ago when a young fox squirrel fell from a limb above me and landed with a thud not more than ten …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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6/18/25
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Charlie Curran, the eighty-eight year old Big Piney river-guide whom I wrote about recently, made a trip over to the Osceola area of Truman Lake with a friend, to fish for catfish. He took …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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6/18/25
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I wrote this article in June of 2012. This week the dream has finally come to be a reality.We are calling it the Big Piney Nature Center and Museum.And yes, it is much like the dream expressed in …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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5/28/25
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At the end of the last column, brothers Roy Wayne and Tom Morton and I were sitting in a cave above the river praying the raging thunderstorm would end soon. I remember Chinese philosopher …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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5/21/25
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Squire Lee was an old country gentleman who lived on a sloping hillside above the river. His home was not far from the little cabin where my dad spent much of his childhood. In the river below his …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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5/21/25
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The idea of a bear season in Missouri was to make money for the Department of Conservation. It amounts to that and nothing else. There is no “wildlife management” or “For Nature and …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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5/21/25
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Both of my sisters married Arkansas country boys, and I ended up with two of the finest brothers-in-law that I could have asked for. I don’t know if I could have done a better job of …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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5/21/25
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My Dad’s birthday was this week. He died at the age of 84 in 2011. I miss him most when I am on the river, where we spent so much time together. Dad was several inches taller than me at …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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1/8/25
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Grandpa McNew and my dad bought the pool hall on Main Street in 1960. I was twelve years old at the time, and immediately dad let me start working there, doing this and that and occasionally running …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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12/25/24
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Taken from the book “The Buck and the Widow Jones” by L. Dablemont.
It was a two days before Christmas in 1939. There was a knock on the door and a boy stood outside, waiting for the …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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12/18/24
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The most perfect Christmas trees I have ever seen are found along the highway between Springfield Missouri and Branson. They are perfectly formed, many not much wider than a lampshade and five or six …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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12/11/24
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Once a fellow called me to report seeing a hen pheasant down on the Arkansas-Missouri border. I knew exactly what he had seen. I had just seen something similar… a road-runner.
About 20 …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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11/20/24
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I have yet to figure out how to get trailer lights to work. I have four different boat trailers, which I have wired up, and none of them work like any of the others. One works fine when the pickup …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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11/13/24
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The Missouri Department of Conservation may not accomplish much, but you have to hand it to them… they know how to make money. In talking with a retired MDC employee I learned more about that. …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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11/6/24
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There are two Little Piney Rivers in Missouri, one flowing into the Gasconade River near Arlington and the other flowing into the Big Piney west of Houston Missouri. Because of declining water levels …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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10/23/24
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I took a recent trip to Jefferson City to interview the new director of the Department of Conservation and it turned out to be the disappointment I expected. I was trying to get him to come to some …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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10/16/24
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In Canada next week I will take time from fishing to hunt ruffed grouse. Usually when I hunt grouse I find a few woodcock, but there are fewer each year. The odd little birds are migrators because …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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10/9/24
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Dad and I closed up the pool hall one late summer night, noting that we had only accumulated a total of 16 dollars as a result of the entire day’s business. That wasn’t a good day, but it …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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9/25/24
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As to a date for opening my Big Piney River Nature Center, a mile south of Houston, Mo. put the date of Saturday, Oct. 16 on your calendar. That day we will begin putting in the first displays and we …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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9/11/24
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Before you read this, the dove season will have opened. Dove hunting is fairly easy, and it isn’t high on my list of things to do, but I will do it anyway, because I am a grizzled old veteran …
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By Larry Dablemont, Contributing Columnist
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9/4/24
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