Historic cabin at Roaring River added to National Register of Historic Places

Jul. 18—CASSVILLE, Mo. — A historic cabin inside Roaring River State Park has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation met Friday to consider a number of nominations and approved the cabin. It was built in the early 1920s when Roaring River was still a private resort, before it became a state park, and has been in the family of Joan Carter Tongier, now of Altamont, Kansas, since 1948, when her grandparents acquired it.

She said she hopes that getting it on the national register will highlight its historic significance and help ensure that it is protected.

The one-story rustic cabin is hidden much of the year behind summer foliage, but it can be seen from a park road as well as from the park's popular Devil's Kitchen Trail, which passes behind it.

Tongier, who has recorded much of the history for the nomination, said it was originally part of a series of cabins that were for guests at what was known as Roaring River Camps and Hotel, when the property was owned by Roland Bruner.

"During this time period, the rustic style of architecture, influenced by the earlier Adirondack style, was becoming popular," according to the nomination form, and it included the use of native wood and stone, porches, and open interiors with exposed rafters. Some of the few modifications that have been made include asphalt shingles over the wood shingles, some changes to the fireplace, and the adding of electricity. Pipes ran to a nearby spring to bring water to the cottage, and that remains its only source of water today.

Today, the cottage is the sole surviving remnant from that pre-park era, when there was a dam for Roaring River that created a lake in front of the cottage. The resort also included a lodge with a dining hall, a bath house, and a dancing pavilion. At one time, there were 30 cottages there.

Over the years, fires destroyed some of the buildings, including the 75-room inn, and Bruner also ran into financial problems. He sold the resort to Thomas Sayman, from St. Louis, who soon donated it to the state in 1928, kicking off Roaring River State Park, which is today Missouri's most visited state park.