Events

John Robinson, a former Missouri director of tourism, puts a different spin on the traditional road trip. Over 13 years, he drove every mile of every road on the Missouri state highway map. With an irreverent sense of humor--Robinson compares his unconventional journey to mowing a 68,000-square-mile lawn—he and his car (his only constant companion on this odyssey) discover the real America beyond the interstate. Real people. Obscure places. Forgotten facts.

You're invited to the 14th annual For the People Pow Wow on Memorial Day weekend, May 25 and 26, in Jefferson City. Enjoy food, dance, art, crafts and singing at this FREE event open to the public. Native American dancing begins at noon on Saturday, May 25 through the evening. On Sunday, the dancing will happen noon to 5 p.m. Meet dancers from Oklahoma and Missouri, including Master of Ceremonies William Branson of Columbia. 

Join Cape Girardeau Research Center Coordinator Bill Eddleman for the next installment in his genealogy series: “Crossing the Pond: Tracing Ancestors in Immigration and Naturalization Records.” Most family historians in the U. S. have ancestors who migrated from other continents. Depending on the time period of immigration and port of arrival, it can be difficult to find these ancestors and tell their immigration story. This session will summarize surviving immigration records from different time periods and where to find them.

The history of the Ozarks - its stories, culture and characters - has long been preserved through the efforts of women in media, whether in writing, radio or filmmaking, Joy Robertson, former news anchor and lifestyle host, will speak with Stella Blackmon, filmmaker, producer and editor; Greta Cross, trending topics reporter at the Springfield News-Leader; Michele Skalicky, news director at KSMU Radio; and Sha'Diya tomlin, KOLR/KRBK reporter, about their work telling the region's stories, navigating the media industry, and approaching news reporting and storytelling in an ever-changing land

To mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe during World War II, we’ll look at how a small Missouri railroad town took on the war. The story and its pictures come from the weekly Pleasant Hill Times and from letters it published from men and women serving at home and abroad. In the postwar years, a young Bill Cloud, often tagged along when his father, Tilghman Cloud, who took pictures for the family-owned newspaper.  

Registration is coming soon for the SHSMO annual meeting luncheon and My Missouri speaker featuring Peter Herschend, co-founder and co-owner of Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation. The Herschend family business started in Southwest Missouri with a hole in the ground called Marvel Cave. To give visitors more to do, Peter and brother Jack built an old Ozarks Village named Silver Dollar City. TripAdvisor and USA TODAY call it the number one theme park in America. Today, Herschend Enterprises is the nation's largest family-owned entertainment company.