Missouri caves anticipate influx of tourists after media frenzy over spelunking tragedy

A Kentuckian explorer named Floyd Collins was trapped in a collapsing cave in 1925. His two-week rescue effort made front page news for two weeks until, sadly, the would-be rescuers confirmed his death. Just a week later, Missouri’s tourism industry hopes the tragedy will bring in flocks of amateur spelunkers — and their wallets — to Ozark caves.

Other headlines of note today included enterprising snowman architects in 1975 and a unique form of payment in 1950.

100 years ago

Feb. 25, 1925

• Missouri’s tourism industry hopes to benefit from the tragic death of a Kentucky explorer.

One million visitors are projected to arrive in the Ozarks this year, drawn in part by the region’s caves. Hotel proprietors and others in the hospitality business predict a wave of amateur spelunkers due to the media craze over a trapped caver.

Floyd Collins was trapped for two weeks in a tight, collapsing passage of Sand Cave, now part of Mammoth Cave National Park, while rescuers dug through 55 feet of earth and rock to reach him. Collins survived underground for 11 days. The saga was front-page news until his death was confirmed on Feb. 16.

The Daily Republican reported Ozark caves are “among the largest in the country” known at the time.

Poplar Bluff served 10,000 tourists last year. State highway officials estimated several hundred thousand dollars will be spent by tourists in Arkansas and Missouri in 1925.

75 years ago

Feb. 25, 1950

• Today, a Daily American Republic newsboy was paid with currency from 1899.

Carrier Eugene Garrett submitted the silver dollar certificate to the circulation department. It bears portraits of presidents Lincoln and Grant, and states the bearer is entitled to one silver dollar from the United States Treasury, promising the note is acceptable payment for dues and taxes.

“Older persons will recall this as an important statement during the ‘hard money’ days between the Civil War and the founding of the Federal Reserve system,” the DAR noted. Writers theorized the owner tucked it away for a rainy day a long, long time ago.

50 years ago

Feb. 25, 1975

• Police, highway patrolmen and sheriff’s deputies are investigating a liquor store holdup in Butler County. Webster Pell, clerk at the Kater Inn Package Liquor store, was held at gunpoint around 1:30 p.m. yesterday by a man in his late teens or early 20s. The man brought a pack of cigarettes to the counter and pulled out a handgun when prompted to pay. He escaped with $250 stuffed in his pants pockets.

Police obtained two fingerprints from one of the cash registers during the early investigation.

• Two Poplar Bluff brothers turned a dusting of snow into a front-page photo today. Thirteen-year-old Paul Reese and his step-brother Benny Brant, age 16, scraped together enough powder to build a snowman in their front year. They decorated him with their youngest brother’s cowboy hat and plastic pistol.