West Plains

Thirty years before this plaque was cast, West Plains suffered its worst night. On April 13, 1928, about 60 people were at a dance in the Bond Dance Hall, on the second floor of a building on East Main Street, when an explosion destroyed it. Thirty-seven died and 22 were hurt. The cause has never been settled: the most widely accepted theory is leaking gasoline in J. W. Wiser's garage on the floor below, while others have suggested a deliberate act by Wiser or dynamite stored in a truck parked there.

What the plaque says

West Plains Judicial seat of Howell County and one of Missouri's livestock marketing centers, West Plains was founded in 1850 when a post office was opened in the home of Josephus Howell. Named for its location on the open plains west of Thomasville, the nearest town, West Plains became the seat of Howell County, organized in 1857. Tennessean Josiah Howell, first permanent settler here in 1839, and Thomas J. Howell, State legislator from Oregon County, are said to be honored by the county name. In the Civil War, West Plains and Howell County were ravaged by foraging troops and raiding bands. Confederate volunteers escaped encircling Union troops here Feb. 19, 1862, after a skirmish. West Plains was burned by raiders in 1863 and remained uninhabited until the close of the war. West Plains, resettled in 1865, had a 150 population by 1870. Growth as marketing and trade center began in 1883 with the coming of the Kansas City, Springfield, & Memphis R. R. (Frisco). West Plains College, 1890-1904, was a well known school. Today's courthouse, the fourth, dates from 1936. (See other side) West Plains (Continued from other side) City of diversified industries and trade center for a wide area of Missouri's south Ozarks, West Plains is in territory ceded by Osage tribes in 1808, and visited by Shawnee and Delaware Indians into the 1840's. North and south in the county ran an ancient Indian trail. More than 1,000 prehistoric mounds remain in the area. Howell County, now devoted to livestock, dairy, poultry, grain, and fruit farming is also an iron and lumber producer. Willow Springs, northwest, is a lumber, dairy, and poultry marketing town founded in 1880's on the railroad. Among other towns in the county is Mountain View, a post Civil War lumbering town. Part of Howell County lies in Mark Twain National Forest. Alice Cary (Farmer) Risley (1847-1939), Civil War nurse, came to West Plains, 1873. The Missouri Ladies of the G. A. R. have placed a memorial marker at her grave here in Oaklawn Cemetery. Jay L. Torrey (1852-1920), Spanish-American War Colonel who organized Wyoming cowboys into a cavalry regiment, came to Howell County, 1905, and developed noted Fruitville Farms. Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1958

Where it stands