Memories from the Homestead: The Jim Lane Cabin, the original and replica

     Where was it? Why is it gone? It was a replica? These questions often are thrown my way anytime the topic of the Jim Lane Cabin comes up. Often, the Lane Cabin ends up in discussion on social media. Everyone thinks they have the right answer, and with all that, there's always the fuss about the cabin's 1993 destruction. Today I'm here to straighten this out. Pull up a chair and sit for a spell, everything will be okay!

     So yes, there were two cabins. Let's start with the original. Here's what I can confirm. 

    Go over here to the Woodland Hills Church on Green Mountain Drive. The former Celebration City property. To the west of the church, on the south side of the parking lot was the site of a cabin, the home of local resident Mathias Shearer and his family. I've discussed him here in the past, but here's a quick refresher.

     Mathias Shearer and his wife Emma, with their two daughters Goldie and Grace, purchased a 160-acre farm directly south of Dewey Bald, selling to the Hall family from Illinois, in 1905. Harold Bell Wright had become acquainted with Shearer during his visits, as he was a pharmacist; Wright was dealing with consumption (tuberculosis).

     With the Halls now as owners of the Shearer farm, moving into the cabin in February 1906, their young son George began his photo business just as Wright's "The Shepherd of the Hills" was released in 1907. George and others in the neighborhood all believed that Shearer was the inspiration for the Jim Lane character, so Hall went on quite the advertising campaign, claiming their cabin home was the Jim Lane Cabin in Wright's book.  

     During the years that Hall was in the photo business, he capitalized greatly, making available photos of the Jim Lane Cabin to fans who were coming to the area to see the famous sites from the book. Hall's mother, Elizabeth, sold her son’s postcard photos there at the cabin and was absolutely overwhelmed in the summer months. 

George Hall has his young sisters Ethel and Irene posing as Sammy Lane and Mandy Ford in this photo postcard made available for fans of The Shepherd of the Hills. Hall made it known that this was the Jim Lane Cabin. Everyone believed it. 

The Halls would remain in the area around Dewey Bald, later owning 880-plus acres, known as the Dewey Bald Ranch. It sold in 1948 to James Cushman, who was from Neosho.

      In December of 1920, Bud Faucett and his family were living in the "Lane" cabin and it caught fire and burned to the ground. 

     Now fast forward to the late 1930s. In October 1935, a new highway, eleven miles in length, was completed from the intersection of Main and Hwy. 65 west out of Branson. It would go all the way to Hwy. 13 south of Reeds Spring. The new road would pass around the south slope of Dewey Bald and would quickly become recognized as one of the most scenic auto roads in the state. Now motorists could drive through the heart of the Shepherd of the Hills Country and drive directly to many of the locations depicted in Wright's novel. This is our famed Highway 76 today!

     By 1939, a replica of the Jim Lane Cabin opened on the new highway. My great grandfather Lige Fullerton and others in the neighborhood assisted with the construction. Today, this would be at 3790 West 76 Country Blvd., the site of Olive Garden. Operated by Fred and Bertha Deissroth, who came to the area from Kansas City, their 80-acre property was a popular stop. Fred passed away in 1951, and Bertha died in 1964. 

The replica of the Jim Lane Cabin as seen in the early 1950s when Bertha Deissroth operated it. This building was torn down to make way for the new Olive Garden in 1993.

By the time I came along as a youngster, I still remember this replica cabin and how over time, everything began to build up around it. When Olive Garden's construction began in 1993, the cabin was destroyed. The property honestly didn't have any historical value since it was a replica capitalizing off the Jim Lane name, therefore the building was not eligible for any kind of historical designation such as the National Register of Historic Places.

     Today there are a massive amount of photos of the replica cabin that are for sale online, and even photos of the original taken by George Hall still show up once in a while, and yes, I have grabbed those for my personal collection!

     Happy trails, everyone!