That building behind the guy in the beginning was a restaurant bar called Steinys Inn. Times Beach by the 1950s was Country people. Taverns and Churches. The 1960s Chrysler Corp came in at Fenton. Times Beach had people from Arkansas Kentucky and Indiana and the Missouri Bootheel move their families in to work at Chrysler. They just stayed in the area.
I grew up in Devil's Elbow as well. The story I heard from the old-timers growing up was that the loggers named it Devil's Elbow because so many loggers lost their lives there from drowning while clearing logjams.
I have a friend who grew up in the Rosati area, these days, St James has an active winemaking culture as it's a few miles from Rosati. There are vineyards all over the area. One of the catholic churches in the area hosts an annual pasta dinner night and the food is astoundingly good.
My senior year in high school was 1960=61. I rode a school bus west on highway 66 to Eureka High School and crossed the old bridge shown in the video. I remember Steiny's Inn. Times Beach was a rather poor area, but people would go out there in the summer to boat and swim in the Merrimac River. The river would flood with some regularity, swamping much of the town. It was sad when they had to destroy Times Beach, perhaps without needing to do it.
I like how some of those little towns and communities are still hanging in there even though they have dwindled in business and population. I always liked that part of Missouri. Seems so peaceful. I remember my grandparents lived not too far from where you were filming. Ellis Prairie was where they lived at. Not much info on Ellis Prairie on the internet though. I would like to take some time and head down that way myself. Like always John, great video and keep em coming!!
I agree - I appreciate the effort these people in small communities make to keep their towns cool and interesting to visit! Appreciate the comment and for always watching!
@@TravelwithaWiseguy Are you going to do a summer road trip this year like you did with Route 66 or that other highway running north to south along the rocky mountains? (I don't remember the name of it but Idaho was the Kansas of it). I don't get to do a whole lot of traveling so I enjoy videos such as yours or the national park videos I mentioned earlier to see places that way.
I grew up not too far from that covered bridge in Goldman. I am 49 years old and I can remember my parents driving across that bridge and letting me honk the horn. The Big building to the right of the firehouse used to be the Goldman store I think it's a house now
As a child, in the 60's or 70's, we used to stop in Times Beach. They had the best burgers at this little old stand right off the highway. Scares me to think about that now. We've gone through Devil's Elbow quite a few times when we did not feel like driving the interstate. And even though I'm from Rolla, just a few miles down the road, I had never been to Arlington. Lots of road construction is happening on interstate 44 at the present time, and I decided to take the side roads. I took a wrong turn and ended up in Arlington and turned around right where you're standing. I could be mistaken, but my husband and I along with another couple, stopped at Rosati and had fantastic wine tasting and ended up buying lots of wine. I may have a glass of wine for Christmas, so it sat in my fridge for quite some time
I grew up in another close by town that was also contaminated by Dioxin, just down the river. Same guy was responsible for both locations. Castlewood was a resort town. There's still pieces of the steps in Castlewood State Park leading to the river.
@1981sbp there was most definitely dioxin in Castlewood. Google it. It wasn't widespread like Times Beach but definitely there. I can't link but there's numerous articles. I grew up there from 1976-1993. The dioxin was early 80's. I still remember the guys in Hazmat suits on New Ballwin rd where it went over the creek. My grandparents also lived there, and my uncle still lives down there. Some families were offered money to relocate during cleanup. The steps have nothing to do with the dioxin. I only mentioned them in reference to Castlewood being a river resort town.
@@nikkilt9818wow, wow , had a cousin who lived in Baldwin, I grew up in twin Oaks. I can remember many times seeing people in hazmat suits over that way, never knew why. Is it mean if I say most of STL is a super fund site.
Hello. Another fun video. I know this doesn't really have much relevance to this video but I posted a link in one of your water tower videos there is a town in Nebraska that has a water tower that looks like an alien space ship. Also there is another water tower in a town not far from where I live now, Adair, Iowa, that has a water tower painted all yellow with a smiley face on it
Howdy! I'm a student in Rolla and rock climb at Devil's Elbow, randomly saw your another vid on missouri from ya and thought that you might have seen good old d'elbow.
Seems like you could make a nice bike trail from old Route 66. It would cross or come near the Katy Trail (rail to trail) at some point near Times Beach.
I worked traveling jobs at resorts out west for years and because of it became a history buff for Route 66 and The L&C trail. I never considered Missouri to be much sginificance to the west, very wrongly I will add on my part, as Missouri was a if not the major gateway to the west. I learned this and many other incorrect notions I had when I took a break from Yellowstone and visited my sister in Desoto. I was just on the verge of extreme boredom when I heard sacajawea's husband was buried in DeSoto, MO. I tried but could not find it, but I also believe this is not well known anymore. You should go down to Desoto and see if you can locate it. I actually have a vision of it in the woods and am not sure if that is because of the spot I saw in Desoto that I was lead to or if it is just a deep psychic premonition on my part. It is near the center of town if I am not mistaken.
The individual who was responsible for the demise of Times Beach resided in Rosati. He did the same thing to that town. While you were there you may had seen large metal storage units setting in a fenced in area across the tracks. That is where items that could absorb dioxin was placed to be incinerated later on. He passed away several months ago.
I was born in Times Beach, MO in November 1981. My parents were part of the class action lawsuit. It's destroyed our lives. From cancer to srrokes to mental health issues to developmental issuesd, it's been a generational curse.
Where you were standing at Times Beach, was that an old piece of road, Route 66 road? I thought at first it was a parking lot but it looked like it might have been an old stretch of road running into an out of order bridge.
The story of Times Beach explains this. Basically a cheap way of keeping gravel road dust down was spraying used oil on the roads, it's cheaper than asphalt and much cheaper than paving. In this part of the world it's often confused for tar gravel or chip & oil roads. The company that was contracted with Times Beach for this spraying got some oil waste product that contained a super deadly amount of dioxin that they didn't tell him about. So the entire small town had all of the roadways sprayed with so much dioxin laced waste oil product the community had to be abandoned and it became a superfund site.
I remember times Beach as a kid. It was not the only place that was reported to have been contaminated by the method of spreading oil over the gravel roads to cut down the dust and helps with solidify the road bed . This guy must have went all over the general area. It's like a bad plot of a bad TV show from that time. They mix in toxic chemicals with the oil and then drive around spraying them use oil on the gravel road which in itself you have to question Garrett I don't think it's allowed at all anymore. He was coman practice. Just to give you an idea of how large an area where you could find spots of contamination look up Troy Missouri north of i-70. Not to narrow it down too much but somewhere around the Troy Moscow Mills area and visible on the west side of highway 61 there's a sign advertising a complete liquidation sale of the property. There was a sign or least was another one announcing they're going to build a church on this sight. Also back in the day they were constructing a showcase horse arena and stables. That was all torn down and I believe a lot of dirt was removed. I
It looks like at about the 7:08 mark in Arlington there might be a historic cabin? Is there anything to that? Is there some kind of marker for it? Is it part of the John's Cabin complex? something else? It looked out of place
It does look like one of those cabins, but it’s a few miles from John’s Cabins. Maybe from the same time period though 🤷🏼♂️ there wasn’t any marker. Looked like it was on private property.
@@travis303 I appreciate you asking! Not at the moment, except if you ever shop online at Amazon you can check out the description of one of my videos to see how I can get a small commission on it. At the moment, I'm not too worried about it - maybe if I ever go full time with it! :)
@@TravelwithaWiseguy You know, for some reason I can't see you doing this strictly full time. I imagine you have the type of job that you absolutely love. Most coaches tend to do that for the love of the sport, the love of kids and the love of teaching.
When I first moved to Missouri in 1984, I worked for a delivery service out of St. Louis. I remember driving out on I-44 past Times Beach. The letters had been removed from the sign at that exit. But, you could still read the name in the faded paint. I wish I had taken a picture of that.
What's up wiseguy I like your videos but I got a question why don't you interview the people of those small towns just to here how do they feel being alone I just can't imagine living in a isolated town middle of nowhere it takes a special kinda people.
Thank you for watching! To answer your question, most of these small towns aren’t used to visitors so I never want to feel like a bother. I try to be pretty incognito when exploring. I have had conversations with people from towns before but haven’t recorded it out of respect for their privacy. Most are very nice but don’t want to be on camera.
@@TravelwithaWiseguy and living in rural Missouri myself (in fact you had a travelogue right through my area) I can say that crime (usually traced back to drugs and the need for money to buy drugs) is a serious issue here. my cousin's place was burglarized three times during Oct 2022 and the Sheriff caught the fellow (and his girlfriend) on the third time. Yes, it was all about needing money for drugs. And because the jail was full, that fellow walked with a $1 bond .... yes, $1 bond. I really enjoy your videos, but would not want my house or area to be included for exactly this reason. This issue also explains the two Belgian Malinois dogs in our fenced yard .... the same dogs who snuggle with the family like a poodle, but go bonkers when they see a stranger, eyes bulging as their blood pressure sky rockets and they try their best to get at the stranger.
@@TravelwithaWiseguy The Elbow is about 1 mile from the Elbow Inn at the lookout and the railroad bridge when your headed towards St. Robert on the old RTE 66.
That building behind the guy in the beginning was a restaurant bar called Steinys Inn. Times Beach by the 1950s was Country people. Taverns and Churches. The 1960s Chrysler Corp came in at Fenton. Times Beach had people from Arkansas Kentucky and Indiana and the Missouri Bootheel move their families in to work at Chrysler. They just stayed in the area.
that blue lighted bridge was a nice touch. thank you for all the work, and then sharing.
I was lucky I went there during the holiday season! Pretty cool display!
Devil's Elbow got its name from the bend in the river. When the loggers floated their l9gs down the river they always got jammed up at the bend.
What an interesting story of how it got its name!
I used to live in Devils Elbow.
Very small community.
Yes, I've hear the name originated when, after many, many logjams, a worker said "Only the devil himself could've put an elbow this sharp in a river."
I grew up in Devil's Elbow as well. The story I heard from the old-timers growing up was that the loggers named it Devil's Elbow because so many loggers lost their lives there from drowning while clearing logjams.
Very pretty lights and interesting story about the dioxin. TFS
Live about 5miles from Rosati! 4M has awesome grapes!!!
During WWII German POW's were used to harvest grapes in Rosati.
The German POW's were held at Fort Leonard Wood.
Fascinating! Such an interesting area to visit! Thanks for the info!
I have a friend who grew up in the Rosati area, these days, St James has an active winemaking culture as it's a few miles from Rosati. There are vineyards all over the area. One of the catholic churches in the area hosts an annual pasta dinner night and the food is astoundingly good.
Nice! I would love to check one of those nights out and try the food! It’s definitely a beautiful area!
Grew up 10 minutes from Rosati. We partied there all the time.
My senior year in high school was 1960=61. I rode a school bus west on highway 66 to Eureka High School and crossed the old bridge shown in the video. I remember Steiny's Inn. Times Beach was a rather poor area, but people would go out there in the summer to boat and swim in the Merrimac River. The river would flood with some regularity, swamping much of the town. It was sad when they had to destroy Times Beach, perhaps without needing to do it.
Awesome video!
*Love your channel!*
Thank you very much! Fun to find people with similar appreciation for these types of videos!
🐝🌻 how fun to travel around the country side
It’s definitely a lot of fun!
Thank you!
Thank You for that Wonderful sled ride across the bridge to grandma's house.
It was fun - thanks!
I like how some of those little towns and communities are still hanging in there even though they have dwindled in business and population. I always liked that part of Missouri. Seems so peaceful. I remember my grandparents lived not too far from where you were filming. Ellis Prairie was where they lived at. Not much info on Ellis Prairie on the internet though. I would like to take some time and head down that way myself. Like always John, great video and keep em coming!!
I agree - I appreciate the effort these people in small communities make to keep their towns cool and interesting to visit! Appreciate the comment and for always watching!
Oh, that bridge all lit up is so pretty! So neat. Thanks for showing
Yeah I was lucky to go through there during Christmas. I don’t think it’s lit up like that all year.
@@TravelwithaWiseguy Are you going to do a summer road trip this year like you did with Route 66 or that other highway running north to south along the rocky mountains? (I don't remember the name of it but Idaho was the Kansas of it). I don't get to do a whole lot of traveling so I enjoy videos such as yours or the national park videos I mentioned earlier to see places that way.
@@travis303 Yes - I am planning to do The Oregon Trail this summer and make some videos of it in August or September. Looking forward to it!
@@TravelwithaWiseguy As am I!
I grew up not too far from that covered bridge in Goldman. I am 49 years old and I can remember my parents driving across that bridge and letting me honk the horn. The Big building to the right of the firehouse used to be the Goldman store I think it's a house now
That’s awesome! Everything in Goldman looked very modern except the bridge. Thanks for the message and for watching!
Interesting area.B ridge with blue lights was neat. That added touch which took alot patience.
That was a nice touch and really made it a fun place to visit!
love the bridge at devils elbow awesome
It’s a very cool bridge!
As always, love your content!
Thank you!
I remember Geraldo and 20/20 about Times Beach, back in the 80s...
Another nicely done job!
Thank you! Some beautiful little towns to visit. Glad I was able to see the bridge lights at Devil’s Elbow!
As a child, in the 60's or 70's, we used to stop in Times Beach. They had the best burgers at this little old stand right off the highway. Scares me to think about that now. We've gone through Devil's Elbow quite a few times when we did not feel like driving the interstate. And even though I'm from Rolla, just a few miles down the road, I had never been to Arlington. Lots of road construction is happening on interstate 44 at the present time, and I decided to take the side roads. I took a wrong turn and ended up in Arlington and turned around right where you're standing. I could be mistaken, but my husband and I along with another couple, stopped at Rosati and had fantastic wine tasting and ended up buying lots of wine. I may have a glass of wine for Christmas, so it sat in my fridge for quite some time
Sounds like a fun trip! Glad you were able to find Arlington! All those towns are very unique and interesting!
Pretty cool video I'm heard of a couple of these places before.
I grew up in another close by town that was also contaminated by Dioxin, just down the river. Same guy was responsible for both locations. Castlewood was a resort town. There's still pieces of the steps in Castlewood State Park leading to the river.
Interesting! I didn’t know about Castlewood!
There was never any dioxin contamination in Castlewood,Mo., . The steps were deserted long before the dioxin event in Times Beach.
@1981sbp there was most definitely dioxin in Castlewood. Google it. It wasn't widespread like Times Beach but definitely there. I can't link but there's numerous articles.
I grew up there from 1976-1993. The dioxin was early 80's. I still remember the guys in Hazmat suits on New Ballwin rd where it went over the creek. My grandparents also lived there, and my uncle still lives down there.
Some families were offered money to relocate during cleanup.
The steps have nothing to do with the dioxin. I only mentioned them in reference to Castlewood being a river resort town.
@@nikkilt9818wow, wow , had a cousin who lived in Baldwin, I grew up in twin Oaks.
I can remember many times seeing people in hazmat suits over that way, never knew why.
Is it mean if I say most of STL is a super fund site.
Hello. Another fun video. I know this doesn't really have much relevance to this video but I posted a link in one of your water tower videos there is a town in Nebraska that has a water tower that looks like an alien space ship. Also there is another water tower in a town not far from where I live now, Adair, Iowa, that has a water tower painted all yellow with a smiley face on it
I love unusual water towers. Definitely will have to try and find that one! I’m going through Nebraska for a bit in July.
Roseti Christmas lights for a nice addition to the video thank you
Yes I got lucky for sure! Thanks! 😊
Highway 44 in Rolla has the devil's elbow too
Howdy! I'm a student in Rolla and rock climb at Devil's Elbow, randomly saw your another vid on missouri from ya and thought that you might have seen good old d'elbow.
Awesome! I loved Devil’s Elbow!
Seems like you could make a nice bike trail from old Route 66. It would cross or come near the Katy Trail (rail to trail) at some point near Times Beach.
I used to live in times Beach
I worked traveling jobs at resorts out west for years and because of it became a history buff for Route 66 and The L&C trail. I never considered Missouri to be much sginificance to the west, very wrongly I will add on my part, as Missouri was a if not the major gateway to the west. I learned this and many other incorrect notions I had when I took a break from Yellowstone and visited my sister in Desoto. I was just on the verge of extreme boredom when I heard sacajawea's husband was buried in DeSoto, MO. I tried but could not find it, but I also believe this is not well known anymore. You should go down to Desoto and see if you can locate it. I actually have a vision of it in the woods and am not sure if that is because of the spot I saw in Desoto that I was lead to or if it is just a deep psychic premonition on my part. It is near the center of town if I am not mistaken.
I'd love to metal detect some of those properties.
I'm not sure on Devil's Elbow but I think the idea was that it was kind of a dangerous area for river traffic so they named it that.
The individual who was responsible for the demise of Times Beach resided in Rosati. He did the same thing to that town. While you were there you may had seen large metal storage units setting in a fenced in area across the tracks. That is where items that could absorb dioxin was placed to be incinerated later on. He passed away several months ago.
I was born in Times Beach, MO in November 1981. My parents were part of the class action lawsuit. It's destroyed our lives. From cancer to srrokes to mental health issues to developmental issuesd, it's been a generational curse.
So sorry to hear! :(
I live about 6 miles from Rosati in Cuba
Beautiful area!
Where you were standing at Times Beach, was that an old piece of road, Route 66 road? I thought at first it was a parking lot but it looked like it might have been an old stretch of road running into an out of order bridge.
Yes I believe that was the original RT66 across the bridge.
The dioxin warning sign, I wonder how driving slow will help limit your exposure to dioxin.
😂
By traveling slowly your vehicle would kick up less dust thus decreasing your chances of getting the dust on your car.
The story of Times Beach explains this. Basically a cheap way of keeping gravel road dust down was spraying used oil on the roads, it's cheaper than asphalt and much cheaper than paving. In this part of the world it's often confused for tar gravel or chip & oil roads. The company that was contracted with Times Beach for this spraying got some oil waste product that contained a super deadly amount of dioxin that they didn't tell him about. So the entire small town had all of the roadways sprayed with so much dioxin laced waste oil product the community had to be abandoned and it became a superfund site.
is little piney creek next to the ghost town?
Yes it is!
I remember times Beach as a kid. It was not the only place that was reported to have been contaminated by the method of spreading oil over the gravel roads to cut down the dust and helps with solidify the road bed . This guy must have went all over the general area. It's like a bad plot of a bad TV show from that time. They mix in toxic chemicals with the oil and then drive around spraying them use oil on the gravel road which in itself you have to question Garrett I don't think it's allowed at all anymore. He was coman practice. Just to give you an idea of how large an area where you could find spots of contamination look up Troy Missouri north of i-70. Not to narrow it down too much but somewhere around the Troy Moscow Mills area and visible on the west side of highway 61 there's a sign advertising a complete liquidation sale of the property. There was a sign or least was another one announcing they're going to build a church on this sight. Also back in the day they were constructing a showcase horse arena and stables. That was all torn down and I believe a lot of dirt was removed. I
It looks like at about the 7:08 mark in Arlington there might be a historic cabin? Is there anything to that? Is there some kind of marker for it? Is it part of the John's Cabin complex? something else? It looked out of place
It does look like one of those cabins, but it’s a few miles from John’s Cabins. Maybe from the same time period though 🤷🏼♂️ there wasn’t any marker. Looked like it was on private property.
@@TravelwithaWiseguy Is there a way to contribute to your channel?
@@travis303 I appreciate you asking! Not at the moment, except if you ever shop online at Amazon you can check out the description of one of my videos to see how I can get a small commission on it. At the moment, I'm not too worried about it - maybe if I ever go full time with it! :)
@@TravelwithaWiseguy You know, for some reason I can't see you doing this strictly full time. I imagine you have the type of job that you absolutely love. Most coaches tend to do that for the love of the sport, the love of kids and the love of teaching.
I live in northern Missouri..I know of several old towns population 0 to 4
When I first moved to Missouri in 1984, I worked for a delivery service out of St. Louis. I remember driving out on I-44 past Times Beach. The letters had been removed from the sign at that exit. But, you could still read the name in the faded paint. I wish I had taken a picture of that.
Would’ve been a neat photo!
Hickory Missouri
What's up wiseguy I like your videos but I got a question why don't you interview the people of those small towns just to here how do they feel being alone I just can't imagine living in a isolated town middle of nowhere it takes a special kinda people.
Thank you for watching! To answer your question, most of these small towns aren’t used to visitors so I never want to feel like a bother. I try to be pretty incognito when exploring. I have had conversations with people from towns before but haven’t recorded it out of respect for their privacy. Most are very nice but don’t want to be on camera.
@@TravelwithaWiseguy and living in rural Missouri myself (in fact you had a travelogue right through my area) I can say that crime (usually traced back to drugs and the need for money to buy drugs) is a serious issue here. my cousin's place was burglarized three times during Oct 2022 and the Sheriff caught the fellow (and his girlfriend) on the third time. Yes, it was all about needing money for drugs. And because the jail was full, that fellow walked with a $1 bond .... yes, $1 bond. I really enjoy your videos, but would not want my house or area to be included for exactly this reason. This issue also explains the two Belgian Malinois dogs in our fenced yard .... the same dogs who snuggle with the family like a poodle, but go bonkers when they see a stranger, eyes bulging as their blood pressure sky rockets and they try their best to get at the stranger.
I’m from Devils Elbow. You got the history completely WRONG, and you were not even close to the actual Devils Elbow.
Hi! So tell me what was wrong and where the actual Devils Elbow was?
@@TravelwithaWiseguy The Elbow is about 1 mile from the Elbow Inn at the lookout and the railroad bridge when your headed towards St. Robert on the old RTE 66.
You didn't mention they used to fog for mosquitoes there in the 60s and that was not exactly a legitimate fogging stuff it was poisonous
Where did the dioxin come from?
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Beach,_Missouri