Marlene Greer | Travel Buddy with Rich Irwin and Jerry Rice

Story and Photos by Marlene Greer, Correspondent

A short walk takes hikers behind a waterfall for a great view of Dogwood Creek.

Seen enough of Branson’s famous shows? All tuckered out from a day at Silver Dollar City theme park?

Then leave the glitz and thrills of Branson, Missouri, behind and go for a bike ride, take a hike or hop on a tram and enjoy the beauty of the Ozarks at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park.

Dogwood Canyon is a private wilderness refuge located south of Branson at the Arkansas state line. Visitors to the 10,000-acre park can meander along streams, ride through hollows surrounded by limestone bluffs, and get up close and personal with herds of bison, longhorn cattle and elk. And if you bring your fishing pole (or rent one), you can angle for trout in Little Indian Creek.

The park features several waterfalls, pools, springs, a healthy rainbow trout population, Native American sites and a replica of an 1800’s church. Dogwood Creek runs the length of the park, and the 3.2 miles of paved biking and hiking trails follow its path. Spanning the creek are 16 rock bridges handcrafted by local stone masons, which add to the area’s natural beauty.

We opted for the tram ride because it’s the only way to see the restricted wildlife area. Who can pass up a close encounter with a bison? And if you’ve never seen a longhorn, here’s your chance.

Visitors on the tram ride cross Dogwood Creek near a waterfall.

The open-air tram crosses Little Indian and Dogwood creeks several times as it makes its way through the canyon and back. Some of the crossings are at the base of small waterfalls created by dams or “weirs” to provide oxygen flow for the trout. In May when we were there, the water was high, making the crossings fun. Once we had to pick up our feet as water coming over the falls rushed in.

The tram ride takes about two hours and makes several stops, including the Hope Wilderness Chapel, a replica of an 1800’s Missouri church built in 2002 using native cedar, pine and oak, and Glory Hole, home to giant rainbow trout. At Glory Hole, visitors can view the trout and climb a short trail behind a waterfall.

And after beauty comes the beast – plenty of them.

Dogwood Park’s tram ride gets visitors up close to wildlife, including this longhorn.

The animals, it appears, know the routine. They head, some at a trot, toward the tram even before our driver and guide gets out and pours buckets of “lunch” first for the elk and a second time for the bison along both sides of the tram. The animals come so close you feel as if you could reach out and touch them.

A new restaurant, store and working grist mill will open in the park this fall.

So take some time away from the city and enjoy a quiet slice of Missouri’s natural scenic beauty. But beware – if you are an allergy sufferer like me, May, when the trees are in bloom, is not the time for you to visit.

Marlene Greer is a North Carolina-based freelance writer

Colorful cabins line the narrow streets at the Neshoba County Fairgrounds. Photo by Marlene Greer

By Marlene Greer, Correspondent

Take a small, narrow cabin with a front porch, paint it a wild combination of colors, leave the inside unfinished (except a bathroom), stack wall-to-wall bunk beds in every room, invite 30 of your closest family and friends, and you’re ready to celebrate Mississippi’s Giant Houseparty, aka the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia.

Every summer, county residents and their extended families gather at their fair cabins for a week of front porch cooking, eating, sitting and talking while enjoying the usual trappings of a county fair — horse racing, concerts, car shows, carnival rides, arts and crafts, and loads of food. It’s one big family reunion.

“People in our town, instead of coming home for the holidays come home for the fair,” said Philadelphia native Jo Ann Tinsley-Rounsaville. “It’s a chance to see old friends growing up and old friends made over the years. Each cabin is unique in the same way families are. But we are all tied together with love, fellowship and friendship.”

The first fair was in the summer of 1889 and lasted only a few hours. When the fair transformed into a multi-day event, people began to arrive in covered wagons and started building small cabins on the fairgrounds. The first cabins were single-story, but later grew to two and three stories.

Today, there are about 600 colorful cabins crammed next to one another on narrow lanes. Some cabins are unfinished inside with Army-style barracks and others are what locals call “up to snuff,” meaning they have all the amenities of a home.

Jo Ann Tinsley-Rounsaville (second row, second from left) and her family at their fair cabin, the “Plez-zure Palace,” named after her father, Plez, who built the cabin in 1966.

Fair cabins, Tinsley-Rounsaville explained, are a family treasure passed down the generations. Her father built a cabin at the fair in 1966, when she was 7 years old. Growing up, she and her three older brothers spent a week every summer in the cabin during the fair. Now she takes her grandchildren to the same cabin.“I’ve never missed one fair,” said Tinsley-Rounsaville. “The only way you miss a fair is if you are in the hospital or dead.”

If you want to check out these funky cabins, the tourism office plans to host a tour at this year’s fair. Or, as Kaye Rowell, tourism director for the county, advises, just walk up to anyone and say this is your first time at the fair and ask to see their cabin. “Anyone will let you in.”

The fair runs July 25-Aug.1. Admission is $15. For information, visit www.neshobacountyfair.org.

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Take refuge among waterfalls, wildlife at Dogwood Canyon outside Branson, Mo.

Mississippi muse: Families enjoy funky cabins at Neshoba County Fair