Notes
Ha Ha Tonka is now a MO state park. From www.rollanet.org:
"Ha Ha Tonka State Park has a name as unique as its scenery. The park is home to multiple sinkholes, caves, springs, natural bridges, and other features associated with karst. An arm of the Lake of The Ozarks is also viewable from the park. Perhaps the park’s most famous feature is a castle ruin left after a fire. All of these features are accessible by relatively short hikes.
"In 1904, Robert Snyder, a wealthy Kansas City, MO businessman, was so impressed with the natural beauty of the location that he purchased around 2,500 acres of the land for use as a resort. Synder originally started out in St. Louis and worked in the wholesale grocery business. He later moved to Kansas City where he became involved with the wholesale grocery business, banking, land speculation, and utilities. Snyder owned the Snyder Gas Company of Kansas City and was one of the first automobile owners in that city. In his business dealings, Synder was always said to operate with honor and integrity. Construction on Hahatonka Castle started in 1905. Snyder dreamed of a resort built to resemble the finest of European castles. In order to fulfill his goals, he hired Scottish stonemasons and a European supervisor to complete the project. The entire resort consisted of a 3.5 story castle, stone stable, nine greenhouses, and an eighty foot water tower, all built of locally acquired stone and timber.
"The large spring in the chasm below the castle was originally named Gunter Spring after John Gunter, an earlier landowner from Alabama. The nearby post office was also called Gunter. When Robert Scott of Iowa surveyed the area for use as a rail route in the early 1890’s, he found the rugged topography unsuitable for railroad use but realized the natural beauty of the area. Scott, a land speculator, returned to Iowa and convinced a friend to join him in purchasing the land. He decided that Gunter wasn’t a flashy enough name for the area and was able to change the name of the local post office to Hahatonka in 1895. Scott renamed the area after reading Longfellow’s poem 'Hiawatha.' He believed or fabricated the legend that Osage Indians called the spring Hahatonka (translating to 'Laughing Waters.') An early settler in the area named Lodge claimed that Osage Indians referred to the spring and area as Hahatonka while talking with them 40 years earlier. There is little evidence to support this claim but the name has stuck. When Scott sold the land to Robert Snyder in 1904, he made a healthy profit.
"Snyder was killed in one of Missouri's first auto accidents in 1906 and his sons inherited the project. The castle was completed under their guidance in 1922. When Union Electric began to plan and construct Bagnell Dam/Lake of The Ozarks, the family sued the power company to prevent the lake from flooding a portion of their land. This lawsuit was lost and the family fortunes were exhausted by this process and the Great Depression. Resulting financial problems later forced the family to lease the castle as a hotel. Unfortunately the castle was short lived. In 1942, sparks from the chimney caught the roof on fire and the castle was completely gutted in a matter of hours. The fire also spread to the stables and carriage house that were only a few hundred feet away. Only the spectacular sandstone walls and foundation of the castle and stables remain. The nearby greenhouses fell to ruin and little is left. Two quarry locations from which building stone was acquired may be accessed via a trail near the castle."
"Robert Snyder Jr., son of the elder Snyder, was a collector of rare books and other literature. He collected tens of thousands of works on the history and culture of the Midwest and Western U.S. during his lifetime, all of which was stored at the castle. When he died in 1937, William Volker purchased the collection and donated it to the University of Kansas City (UMKC). Clarence Decker of the English Dept. made the 300 mile trip five times to retrieve all the literature. This was done just in the nick of time, as the castle burned only days after the last of the material had been moved. The collection, known as the Robert M. Snyder Collection of Americana is still a special collection present at UMKC, with some being available for viewing and photocopying. Much of the extensive collection has yet to be catalogued.
"After the fire in 1942, the area was left and neglected. In 1909, Missouri's Governor Herbert S. Hadley wanted to make the area the state's first state park but his dream wasn't carried out until 1978. When the area was converted into a state park, the Missouri Division of State Parks put spaces in the name. For this reason, the spring and the park have different punctuations in their names.
"The castle was built to overlook an enormous valley formed by a collapsed cavern from which Hahatonka Spring issues. At first glance, this canyon-like feature might not be recognized as a collapsed cave. The open end of the chasm connects to the Niangua Arm of the man-made Lake of The Ozarks, a feature not present when the castle was originally constructed. Spectacular cliff walls rise 250 feet above the valley floor and the vertical distance from top to bottom is well over 300 feet.
"Hahatonka Spring is the 11th largest spring in the Ozarks and discharges an average of 49 million gallons of water per day”
“Several caves are present in the park * * *. Island Cave is located on the island. Much of the rock on the island is pitted with spongework, a Swiss cheese type phenomena formed by the dissolving of rock in the phreatic zone (below the water table). Spongework generally forms in water filled caves and these rocks represent the wrecked remains of a once larger cave. Some wreckage from this cave is visible along the spring branch and below the small dams, especially when the Lake of The Ozarks is lowered before the spring floods.
“River Cave is another cave leftover from the once larger cave system within Ha Ha Tonka State Park. It is located in the bottom of a sinkhole and pirates a surface stream. The cave and its stream head 700 feet towards Hahatonka Spring before the passage narrows to a size no longer enterable by humans. This stream is one source for the spring. Although the cave is not long, it contains a small natural bridge and a beautiful stalagmitic column. One may also notice interesting ice formations at the entrance to the cave on cold winter days. Two other caves, Robbers’ Cave and Counterfeiters’ Cave are small shelters at the bottom of another sinkhole and represent more remains of the collapsed cavern system. Both caves acquired their names due to their use as hideouts by criminals in the 1830’s and are not open for visitation.”