'Like stepping back in time'

Well doused with tick spray, we push through brush and small trees just beginning to bud out with spring's welcome warmth.

With pileated woodpeckers swooping from tree to tree deep in the woods, a weathered concrete foundation suddenly emerges from the carpeting of dry leaves and wild undergrowth.

A massive stone fireplace, crumbling from years of rain and ice and wind, reaches into the canopy.

We make out the shape of a once bustling building — Dormitory 2 where men down on their luck found a safe haven from their financial ruin. Just a few minutes north of Springfield we are stepping into a fascinating bit of history that nature is slowly reclaiming.

"You can imagine these men gathered in front of this fireplace and dreaming of better days," said Sally Lyons McAlear, a Missouri State University researcher who has revived the story of the Springfield Federal Transient Camp in a 47-page book.

In the 1950s her family lived near the property and she remembers her older brothers often taking off on exploration trips to see what was left of the transient camp.

It's hard to imagine this place of steep hills, five abundant springs and slithering copperhead snakes once housed hundreds of itinerant men who had lost their jobs and all their worldly possessions during the financial collapse we call the Great Depression.

Under the leadership of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Springfield Transient Camp took shape, using a large old barn as the starting point for a community that would eventually develop into 19 buildings and 10 large, heated tents— including a hospital and barber shop.

The 161 acres on which the ruins of the camp sit were recently donated to MSU's Darr School of Agriculture.

Darr's director, Anson Elliott, is taking us on a tour of the land just southeast of Ritter Springs Park, and later talks about what he has planned for this place, now a Greene County Historic Site.

Historic ruins still stand

As we walk, rows of yellow daffodils springing from the ground remind us of what once was here. Beneath the base of a tall hill, water pours from West Ritter Spring into a concrete pool that once fed a 5-acre lake where transient men fished for trout that were stocked in the cool water.

Locals referred to the place not by its official name but by its nickname "transit camp."

"The men who came here were put to work for a dollar a week building these buildings, tending a large garden and even forming a baseball team that would play teams from Springfield," McAlear said. "It was a real village."

The camp included a blacksmith shop, carpentry shop, commissary, big laundry facility, a large bath house, even gravel sidewalks. Some of the transient men produced their own weekly newsletter — The Transient Journal — that documented life in the camp.

Pushing small trees aside, we find the ruins of the old hospital and learn it was built so that ambulances from Springfield could drive right in beneath it, delivering injured or ailing transient men from another homeless men's shelter in town.

"It had 29 beds and was a fully functional hospital where they even did surgeries," McAlear said.

Nearby resident Tom Persell, 82, vividly remembers visiting the Transient Camp hospital when he was about 5 years old. He tagged along with a relative and remembers seeing a doctor working on the eye of a transient man.

"He was doing something to his eyes using a metal cup over one eye that was filled with liquid," Persell recalls. "That image always stuck with me."

Persell said his parents used to go on fishing dates at the man-made lake before they married, and in later years Persell said he'd go squirrel hunting on the property with his .22.

The lake he often explored is no longer there, drained after the dam that created it gave way because of muskrats undermining it, Persell said.

"I would love to see that lake back like it was some day," he said. "The broken pieces of the dam are still there."

A bountiful garden

McAlear's research shows the transient men worked diligently to help feed themselves.

The last Transient Journal publication notes the camp's bakery supplied 650 loaves of bread daily to the camp and other similar shelters in Monett and Joplin. From their garden the men harvested "6,300 pounds of potatoes, 23,300 pounds of sweet potatoes, 12,500 tomato plants, 350 pounds of string beans , 60 pounds of sweet corn, eight bushels of onion sets and 12 pounds of beets."

The camp ultimately handled transient men from 30 states, the District of Columbia and Canada.

Federal funding eventually decreased, however, and the Springfield Federal Transient Camp was closed in 1941. For a short time it was leased by Greene County and used as the county's "poor farm" where debtors unable to pay their bills were housed.

The land fell into disuse and nature quickly began dismantling what was left of the transient camp buildings.

A generous gift of land

In 2013, a descendant of one of the original owners of the land offered to donate it to the MSU Foundation on condition that it not be developed and that it be used as an outdoor nature laboratory under the management of Darr School of Agriculture.

Elliott, the Darr School director, said he'll abide by donor Betty Jeanne Turoff's request, which included renaming the property The Woodlands.

"It's exciting to have that kind of property that close to campus," said Elliott, referring to the 15-minute drive north from the Darr Agriculture Center to reach the land. "We look at that land resource as very important for our wildlife conservation management students and for our forestry management students. Those trees out there, the family was so protective of those trees."

Working with the Missouri Department of Conservation, Elliott said the Darr school will develop plans to selectively harvest some timber — as many forestry students will eventually do after they graduate — as well as develop plans to manage the water, wildlife and grass resources on the property.

First up: Inventorying all the species of trees on the property and developing a plan to remove underbrush and wild rose bushes that took over the landscape after the 2007 ice storm broke so many tree branches that it let sunlight reach the forest floor and triggered an explosion of undergrowth.

Not a public park, but guided tours coming

Elliott acknowledged many people will be interested in seeing the historic ruins and learning the story of the transient camp. Eventually, he hopes to offer student-guided educational tours into The Woodlands, but does not see it becoming a public park with uncontrolled access for anyone. Nor will it be open to hunting.

Partly that's because it will be an outdoor classroom for Darr students. But also, he notes, the land is dotted with significant hazards, such as steep slopes, open septic pits, uncovered water cisterns, copperhead snakes and rusty barbed wire strung across the property.

There are no trails yet leading to the most scenic and historic sites, though Elliott said the Darr School recently purchased some equipment that can cut paths through brush and trees.

He hopes that by fall, some areas of The Woodlands will be safely accessible for guided tours.

"It is still very much a wilderness area," Elliott said. "Our plan is to have scheduled tours here to view the historical ruins and the springs and get a taste of the ruggedness of the Ozarks woodland. The challenge is the urgency we feel of people wanting to see it now. It truly is like stepping back in time."

Learn more about the camp

A much deeper history of the Springfield Federal Transient Camp is available in Sally Lyons McAlear's book "A Refuge in The Woodlands".

The book is also available online at: http://ag.missouristate.edu/assets/ag/A_Refuge_in_the_Woodlands_copy.pdf

Printed books also are available for $20 by calling the Darr School of Agriculture at 417-836-5638.

Darr School Director Anson Elliott said anyone interested in donating funds to help turn The Woodlands educational land into a place where educational guided tours can take place can contact him at 417-836-5638 or contact the Missouri State University Foundation at 417-836-4143.