Roosevelt High School - Bwana Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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FEATURE RTICLE 6 0 Se

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EWENH It is only in the last few years that we have begun really to appreciate our own Ozarks. We may well be ashamed that for many years we traveled east and west in our search of beautiful recreation grounds, but ignored the lovely one at our very door. ln many instances, it required vacationists from other states to point out to us the value of our own Ozarks. Today, however, one may observe a different attitude on the part of the people of this city. With the completion, during the last few years, of many splendid new roads leading to the southern part of the state, more and more of us are becoming acquainted with this region. Already many city workers are spending their vacations there, and many St. Louisans are now the proud owners of cottages in its beautiful, wooded hills or on the shores of its lakes and rivers. We believe that the citizens of St. Louis have only just begun to make use of this play- ground, and that in the years to come the Ozarks will become increasingly dear to each of us. OTTO VON DER AU THE OZARKS FLAMING FALL REVIEW HAT could be more beautiful than a hike through the Ozarks on a crisp October morning! On all sides the beautifully blended color, the gay red-orange of the hard maples, the bright yellow of the hickories, the flashing red of the sumac, melt into the more subdued gold, red, and green of the majestic oaks. Down into the valleys you tramp, and then up you climb through woods, pastures, and cornfields. On a high hill, you pause and look about you. To the left is a cornfield with the russet corn-shocks standing in order and huge, orange pumpkins lying all around them, while beyond, stretches the restful green of a pasture, in which cows are grazing. Close by, to the right, lies a white farm house with the smoke curling lazily from its chimney. Peace and calm reign supreme. As you resume your hiking, you enter the colorful woods. Here squirrels run chattering through the trees, busy with their fall job of storing away nuts for the winter: occasionally a nervous rabbit jumps out and scampers off through the heaps of fallen leaves. Overhead a flock of flying geese add to the beauty. When the sun is high in the heavens, you turn to go back. A song bird calls as you linger along the deserted wagon road winding downwards. The river comes into view finally, and before long, you are loafing along its banks. A bass breaks the surface of the rippling water as it jumps in pursuit of insects, a turtle, late in hibernating, pokes up its lazy head and floats along till out of sight. Once again, and all too soon, you find yourself back at the starting place. How tired but happy you feel! You have witnessed the beautiful, yearly spectacle, The Ozarks' Flaming Fall Review. ROBERT BLOEMKE Sixteen

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BVJHNH A VISIT TO MISSOURI CAVERNS ET me take you to a new world, to a beautiful, grotesque, weird, fantastic fairyland, to a world designed by nature. We enter through a rock building, down clean, wide stairs on to broad gravel paths. We are now in Sand Hill Dome. You gasp! lt's beyond your wildest dreams. lts vastness bewilders you. On one side is a huge dome, the upper part of which has separated from the lower leaving a gap of from six to twelve inches wide. Throw a rock against this dome, and you find it is hollow. You feel its surface. You say it is sand, but it is really a mixture of limestone and sand. It takes from a hundred to hundred and eighty years to form a cubic inch of this rock. At one time, perhaps a hundred million years ago, a great, roaring river ran through this cave, dissolving the limestone rock and carving huge rooms and formations, a part of which you have seen. How convenient the gravel paths are! How clever is the lighting which does not spoil nature's beauty but merely lights the way so man can see. It is the finest example of cave illumination in the worldg all of it done by reflection. There are eight miles of lead cable with four hundred and seventy- five lamps totaling one hundred fifty-six thousand, nine hundred and seven candle power. We follow the pathg keep your eyes wide open and look all about you. Oh! look! a regular pair of false teeth. Yes, you are right. The water, the Wind, the drippings from the ceiling have fashioned a set. This is not the only freak formation you will find. There are many, many more. I shall have to show you some of them, others you will discover yourself. The cave forks. We shall take the path to the right first. This is the Dining Room. Look above you at the perfect cathedral dome that has be-en caused by the swirl of the water which at one time filled the cave. There, to your right, is the service window leading from the kitchen to the dining room. How peculiar to have Rip Van Winkle sitting on a stump in a dining room! But then nature does many peculiar things. You notice that some of the rock is white with streaks of brown and veins of blue. The white is pure onyx: the brown, streaks of clayg and the blue, copper stains. ln this room you observe the first stalactite and stalagmite formations. The stalactites hang from the ceiling. The rain on the ground above seeps through, making opalescent formations, hollow and filled with water. This water, in turn, seeps through the stalactites and where it drops on the floor begins a formation called stalagmites. The stalagmites, however, are solid. The stalactites on the side of the cave are called halagtites. When a stalactite and stalagmite meet they form a cone, there is a good example of one. Thousands of years have elapsed since it was formed. We continue on our way. Now we are in a sort of passage, perhaps a bit larger than what you consider a passage, but which is small compared to the vastness of the rooms. A plain light has been focused behind a thin piece of Eighteen