Category: Souvenirs

BUCKLE UP With a DAM Good Belt Buckle

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Like Hoover (Boulder) Dam, all dams and reservoirs, even small ones, can generate images that promote purposes beyond their hydrological justifications. Cultural and symbolic meanings, Dr. Arrigo, author of Imaging Hoover Dam, convincingly asserts, can be perceived in advertising, souvenirs, and a variety of artifacts that celebrate the mystique of that particular river-blockage.

We further his thesis with a group of decorated hunks of metal used to support a fellow’s jeans. Most of the iconography of these belt buckles isn’t about flood control or hydropower but perpetuates Americans’ belief in the restorative power of outdoor recreation—increasingly a selling point for dam building. Some reservoirs (lakes) are in fact popular. These unnecessarily decorated useful accoutrements, like much of the other stuff in this post, are not specifically mentioned in his book. Our explanations may not be lifted from his writing either, but we run with his ideas that dam trivia can have hidden meaning.

Hoover Dam is just such an icon. It is often used to embellish products like this Montana Silversmiths Men’s Nevada State Heritage Attitude belt buckle. This firm produces buckles for all fifty states decorated with their best-known symbols. A reference to Hoover Dam and Las Vegas appears in this one with a cowboy and hunter flanking the state seal. Many buckles have been produced featuring Hoover Dam’s iconic flank alone

Though not specifically mentioned in Imaging Hoover Dam, these decorative belt buckles embody his thesis that structures built for economic reasons have cultural significance. Thousands of smaller dams built by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers, although not as commanding as Hoover, are promoted for the outdoor recreation their backed-up waters provide.

Bonny Dam in eastern Colorado still stands but its reservoir was drained following a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that forced Nebraska and Colorado to release river water as mandated by the Republican River Compact. The dam exists but in 2011, after years of appeals, the lake behind it was drained to the chagrin of local fishermen. This buckle graphically illustrates the affection locals had for its recreational opportunity in an arid and monotonous High Plains landscape.

 

Belt buckles with anti-dam iconography are exceptional. This “Free the Snake River” buckle expresses the goal of an active movement to remove four Corps’ dams on the lower Snake River. They were built to allow barges to move more freely and to generate a minuscule amount of hydroelectricity. They block the spawning runs of several species of salmon, including Chinook. Once these fish were a vital economic resource.

In the next to last paragraph of his book, Arrigo muses over the ironic fact ephemeral images of dams may continue to freely “speak” to future generations “long after the dam is gone.” Bonny Dam has been left but its function is “gone.” In his account of dam-removals the author doesn’t dismiss the usefulness of some dams. Images of dams do not always verify their stated purpose. Builder propaganda and product advertising have no obligation to be truthful.

A solution to blocking spawning runs has been to stock reservoirs above dams with hatchery-raised fish. That program created a popular sport fishery in Lake Sakakawea but at a cost—hatchery raised fish have poor reproductive fitness. If they mix with the more genetically diverse wild population, the offspring will do poorly. More than 300 scientific studies verified that hatchery-raised trout are poorly adapted to natural environments.

Dr. Arrigo cautions readers that dam memorabilia can misrepresent reality. This belt buckle celebrating the hatchery solution to the blockage of spawning runs is an example.

This species of salmonids is big but not as gigantic as the monster on this sculptured belt buckle commemorating the popularity of stocking Chinook in the biggest North Dakota impoundment.

Not far from Tuttle Creek Lake (Reservoir) is the doing-OK town of Leonardville, Kansas, population 429. Early on a railroad came through and today it’s connected by highways. Leonardville, unlike ten other nearby small towns, supported the construction of a Corps of Engineers dam. Those other burgs would be flooded, or nearly submerged, by the Tuttle Creek flood control project. Despite strong opposition from the three thousand who would be displaced, the earthen dam was built, and the reservoir began filling in 1962.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tuttle Creek plate shows valued recreational opportunities the impoundment once offered to residents. They were benefits,recreational opportunities the impoundment once offered to residents. They were benefits, but they came at a high price.

A Kansas farmer mowed an anti-Tuttle-Creek Dam message into his field.

Water-powered mills were frontier necessities. Families gathered to convert their grain to flour and the small ponds behind the low dams were places the kids played. These low-tech mills were fondly remembered and idealized in popular culture. Artists painted them and sheet music like “Down by the Old Mill Stream” memorialized them. In a limited-edition belt buckle, Chapman, Kansas recalled an “Old Mill Dam” inactive since1903.

 

The preceding plate-style buckles evolved from Army belts of the mid-1800s. As is evident, this type of buckle affords a large space for decoration. Embellished with Western motifs, they were sported by movie cowboys and awarded to winners of rodeo events. These heavily sculpted ornaments were once exclusively male attire, having had a military origin. Construction, like building dams, was exclusively masculine.

 

DAMS AS SOUVENIR MOTIF

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Imaging Hoover Dam: The Making of a Cultural Idol was published eleven years ago but the book only came to our attention recently. Author Anthony Arrigo of course deals primarily with that gigantic plug on the Colorado River that generates electricity and diverts much of the Colorado’s flow to thirsty southern California. Our collection of dam memorabilia contains material imaging Hoover as well as dams across America, even some around the world. We have not only acquired artifacts that comport to Dr. Arrigo’s linkages to American cultural currents, but we have some whose meaning is cryptic.

Cast in pot metal, the ashtray that issues smoke from the openings in the head appears to be a knock-off of a ceramic four-eyed man (drunk?) made by Ensco. Conceivably it was offered long ago to tourists as a souvenir.

The very survival of the then-small Bureau of Reclamation hinged on the successful completion of Hoover Dam. Fortunately for them, the BOR was a publicity-savvy bureaucracy. They flooded the media with interesting images taken by their staff photographers accompanied by glowing press releases praising this symbol of American technological expertise.

One of their first official photographers was Cliff Segerblom hired in 1938. He had never used a camera before but had training as an artist. The Bureau hooked him up for instruction with Margaret Bourke-White and Ansel Adams—both had done contract work for them. Although Segerblom only worked for the BOR for several years he fulfilled their need to control the public opinion of the giant, expensive project.

As for the miniature doll house plastic toilet with a picture of Lake of the Ozarks’ Bagnell Dam, we could easily transfer this from our dam collection to our kitsch collection. Souvenirs are often obscene or scatological, failed humor assaults on good taste. They sometimes say nothing at all about their subject

He posed his wife-to-be, Jean Wines, placidly peering down at the dam to counter his earlier images of construction whose brutality may have given the impression that the dam was a dangerous place to visit. This tranquil view was reproduced in a 1941 Arizona Highways magazine and more recently on the cover of Imaging Hoover Dam.

There are some very different, but similar compositions. A sightseeing day trip to the dam and reservoir is a tradition for Las Vegas visitors. When tourism developed, the BOR lost control of the imagery that they had enjoyed during construction when photographers needed a pass to even see the dam. German art photographer and specialist in erotica, Helmut Newton, doubtlessly cared little what the BOR would have made of his view of Hoover Dam. We have not found out if this were an assignment from Vogue, Vanity Fair, or even Playboy. Las Vegas was a go-to resource for curvaceous females who would disrobe on request. We speculate he may have brought a showgirl in a thong to add pictorial interest to the scene of this great engineering accomplishment.

Contrasting Segerblom’s demure Mormon fiancée with a Vegas showgirl is a rather dramatic illustration of Arrigo’s thesis that Hoover Dam doesn’t have a single picture—its image is a mix of often very different views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General view,” photo by Cliff Segerblom (left). Hoover Dam Overlook, Helmut Newton (right).

 

 

IS THIS THE MOST HIDEOUS SOUVENIR EVER?

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Truman Dam is in the Ozarks, barely. The upper reaches of the reservoir are in prairie country, which have created a very shallow ugly body of water. This is a scene near Clinton, Missouri. Click to enlarge.

Truman Dam is in the Ozarks, barely. The upper reaches of the reservoir are in prairie country, which have created a very shallow ugly body of water. This is a scene near Clinton, Missouri. Click to enlarge.

As the old saying goes – ugly lake, ugly souvenirs. The Harry S. Truman Dam, built by the Army Corps of Engineers on the Osage River, is one of the least economically justified, most ecologically destructive of many useless federal public works projects. It created a banal, windswept, turbid reservoir.

Truman Lake is decent crappie fishing, but it destroyed the most productive spawning grounds in the world of the giant, valuable paddlefish. Now Missouri’s sports paddlefishery must depend on expensive hatchery-raised stockings. This was a tragedy, doubly so as a lawsuit by the Environmental Defense Fund and others predicted these problems. Nevertheless the town fathers of Warsaw, Clinton and Osceola railed against the lawsuit. After several years of litigation, a federal judge refused to stop or modify the dam. The project has been a mixed blessing and former supporters have expressed their disappointment.

In the history of tourist memorabilia, is there anything as god-awful as this Truman Lake souvenir? The color combination splashed on this indifferent, awkward hunk of driftwood exceeds the Fauvist assault on traditional tonality.

Souvenirs encompass a wide variety of artistic merit. On the high end are Canaletto paintings of Venice’s Grand Canal and Van Gogh landscapes of southern France. On the low end, there are displeasing artifacts that are redeemed by the nostalgic, sentimental, or vague way they recall the place visited. In that sense, the unholy Truman Lake rootwad does resonate with the unsightly reservoir it commemorates. It is, we reluctantly admit, a successful if ugly souvenir.

Forest products are put to many trivial and crass uses, but the spirit of dead trees calls out for vengeance for this souvenir of Truman Lake.

Forest products are put to many trivial and crass uses, but the spirit of dead trees calls out for vengeance for this souvenir of Truman Lake.

Thinking perhaps it was prejudicial to have photographed the Truman Dam root abomination on our concrete driveway, I took it inside our garage-studio and shot it on gradated seamless paper. If anything it turned out to be even more deficient of esthetic value. Then it struck me. Perhaps I was unfairly maligning the crude $5 artifact merely because it said “Truman Lake.” Outside our suburban duplex, the low autumnal sun kissed our oil-stained driveway with golden rays. So on a mottled, tobacco colored background I flipped the thing over so the offending identification could not be seen.

Thinking perhaps it was prejudicial to have photographed the Truman Dam root abomination on our concrete driveway, I took it inside our garage-studio and shot it on gradated seamless paper. If anything it turned out to be even more deficient of esthetic value. Then it struck me. Perhaps I was unfairly maligning the crude $5 artifact merely because it said “Truman Lake.” Outside our suburban duplex, the low autumnal sun kissed our oil-stained driveway with golden rays. So on a mottled, tobacco colored background I flipped the thing over so the offending identification could not be seen.

Might this reveal the souvenir to be an adventurous piece of outsider art by an unknown Ozarks faux Fauve? Nah.

Might this reveal the souvenir to be an adventurous piece of outsider art by an unknown Ozarks faux Fauve? Nah.

Click for more information on Damming the Osage. The tone of this book is more objective than this bit of souvenir sarcasm. We sell the $35, all color, 304 page book for $25 postage paid.

Click on the book cover for more information on Damming the Osage.
The tone of this book is more objective than this bit of souvenir sarcasm. We sell the $35, all color, 304 page book for $25 postage paid.

 

THE BASKET KING: A ROADSIDE SOUVENIR ENTERPRISE FROM THE PAST

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The Basket’s King’s long emporium is on the south side of highway 54, about 10 miles west of Camdenton, Missouri. This is a road traveled by many Lake of the Ozarks tourists. (click to enlarge)

The Basket’s King’s long emporium is on the south side of highway 54, about 10 miles west of Camdenton, Missouri. This is a road traveled by many Lake of the Ozarks tourists. (click to enlarge)

Delmar D. Davis has been purveying souvenirs to Lake of the Ozarks tourists since 1947. His long, crowded gift shop features white oak baskets made locally. This is a dying craft according to Davis as labor costs make them non-competitive with imports. His store is filled with graniteware, cookbooks, wooden decoupage plaques of wolves and eagles, Frankoma pottery, and out-of-date hillbilly calendars. This combination of authentic folk baskets and tasteless novelties may seem incongruous, but we’ve encountered it before in our survey of American rusticity.

Although Davis’s current stock of locally made hickory baskets is extensive, he told us there were few makers left these days. His crafters can make more money at a job. His prices are reasonable, and don’t include a folk-craft premium though they are authentic old time type Ozark type baskets.

It is a bit disconcerting to find jokey hillbilly, made in Taiwan, novelties just across the aisle from classic pioneer crafts, and we have a high tolerance for such incongruities. It’s a central tenet of our HYPERCOMMON theory that as America’s popular culture evolved without the constraints of high culture it gleefully mixes kitsch and things with esthetic merit indiscriminately.

We bought this attractive small hickory basket for less than $20. (click to enlarge)

We bought this attractive small hickory basket for less than $20. (click to enlarge)

Originally souvenirs were artifacts made by exotic peoples brought back by explorers. In the early days of tourism most souvenirs were items made to sell, but had some resemblance to local craft traditions. Global trade opened the door to the importation of low cost trinkets made in developing countries. Purveyors of locally made souvenirs, like the Basket King, are rare these days. Art and demonstration crafts are still produced here and there in vacationland but they carry a prohibitive price for the souvenir trade, and do not always have a heritage tie-in.

 

Delmar D. Davis, a sailor in World War II and pioneer souvenir seller in the Lake of the Ozarks area, is an engaging personality. Notice to documentary filmmakers – the Basket King would make a great subject.

Delmar D. Davis, a sailor in World War II and pioneer souvenir seller in the Lake of the Ozarks area, is an engaging personality. Notice to documentary filmmakers – the Basket King would make a great subject.

Davis’s billboards are distinctive. If you don’t catch all the writing as you speed down the highway, don’t worry. Another one will soon come in view

Davis’s billboards are distinctive. If you don’t catch all the writing as you speed down the highway, don’t worry. Another one will soon come in view

Of course, Davis Baskets has a “your face here” cutout painted plywood hillbilly. In fact, there are several. Lake of the Ozarks never promoted its indigenous population as much as Branson. But hillbillies weren’t completely unknown as a theme either, especially in the 1950s.

Of course, Davis Baskets has a “your face here” cutout painted plywood hillbilly. In fact, there are several. Lake of the Ozarks never promoted its indigenous population as much as Branson. But hillbillies weren’t completely unknown as a theme either, especially in the 1950s.

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