Carthage, MO

TUE., MAY 9 thru FRI., MAY 12, 2023

During the 175-mile drive north from Sallisaw OK to Carthage MO it felt like we were in New England with trees blooming in their vibrant green shades. The picturesque cattle was a nice touch along with the pretty rock formations. 

We arrived in Carthage, MO at Big Red Barn RV Park (yes there is a big red barn on the property) on Tue., May 9th (2023). We were given two large homemade chocolate chip cookies upon arrival. Nice touch! Thunderstorms came thru during the night with wind and hail that caused us to bring our slides in for a short while. First time ever! A very large tree limb came down right next to the campground. Gulp. The following night more storms were predicted but supposedly not as bad. We did laundry and odds and ends during the day then that evening we had a very threatening sky with more storms rolling thru. A big tree branch came down at a site not far from us. The branch landed between the neighbor’s truck and their travel trailer. They were lucky… only scratches on their trailer. They had just pulled in a few hours before. Gary, Joe and others headed over to help cut up the limb. I called the office’s emergency number to let the owners know and they drove by shortly afterwards. Later that same night we had a beautiful sunset. Mother Nature is a fickle one. A friend recently posted a funny one on Facebook about Mother Nature “Look at the weather being all sunny and cute like it didn’t try to kill us a few hours ago!” A slight exaggeration but the storms do get your attention. 

Thursday, May 11 (2023) we took care of making some additional reservations and played SkipBo during Happy Hour with the Hannafords. On Friday, May 12 (2023) we headed to downtown Carthage, which was the site of the first full-scale battle of the Civil War. Who knew?! We visited the beautiful historic Jasper County Courthouse. It’s an absolutely gorgeous building which anchors the downtown with additional historic buildings still in use. The Romanesque Revival Courthouse was designed in 1894 by Maximillian Orlopp Jr who also designed the Dallas County Courthouse. It’s constructed of native stone quarried right in Carthage and was completed in 1895 at a cost of $100,000. Another interesting little tidbit… Carthage native Lowell Davis is a well-known nature artist. After being turned down at the age of 19 to paint a mural inside the courthouse, 20 years later he was finally commissioned to do just that. “Forged in Fire” is the result. Completed in 1976, it depicts 150 years of Carthage history (photo below).

After exploring the courthouse, we did a driving tour of some stunning historic homes on nearby streets. Impressive town considering it has a population of about 16,000.

While at the courthouse we got to chatting with a judge (who wasn’t in session dressed in t-shirt and shorts!), and he suggested we visit nearby Red Oak II. Soooo after visiting the historic downtown, the pod headed to Red Oak II. Can’t argue with a judge!

What a cool place! It’s part outdoor museum, part ghost town, and part residential neighborhood. 

Red Oak II was the brainchild of artist Lowell Davis who grew up in the “real” Red Oak, Missouri, about 18 miles from Carthage. The original Red Oak, like many other rural agricultural towns, started to fade sometime after WWII when people began to move to the cities in earnest.

After Davis had left the area for a number of years, he returned in the 1970s to find his home town had become a ghost town. In 1987 Davis was living on a farm near Carthage that was little more than an empty cornfield. His “creative inspiration” soon led him to turn his acreage into a tribute to his home town and Red Oak II was born. He began to buy homes and businesses from the original townsite and other rural ghost towns, painstakingly moving them to the new site and restoring them to their original “grandeur.” 

Referred to as the “Norman Rockwell of Rural Art,” Davis has a love for the simpler times of the past that are reflected, not only in his “new” town but also in his paintings and sculptures. Of his re-created town, he said: “Red Oak II is a combination of a painting and a sculpture, and it is just made from things that someone else threw away.” Today, each of the buildings in Red Oak II is privately owned. We loved exploring it! Everything was closed when we visited which meant we had the place to ourselves!