Company Village

Company Village. Buffalo National River. , You might have to stretch your imagination to see it, but you are standing in the midst of what was once the Morning Star Mining Company's village. Some clues to domestic living are growing around you-lilacs, quince, and daffodils. The company owned all the buildings shown in this 1901 photograph (below right). During the 1914-1918 mining boom the scene was even more developed. Hundreds of men, Mine women, and children lived here then. Tent homes, makeshift houses, offices, stores, a post office, a courthouse, and a newly enlarged mill filled the community., Up the hill and to the right of the smelter, lived the mining engineer and his family. Directly behind you stood the Morning Star Hotel, which boarded miners and travelers. Connected with it was the home of the company's general manager. And nearby stood the company doctor's house., [Captions:] , During the mining boom the number of miners far exceeded the available housing. Families were forced to make do, living in canvas tents on wooden platforms-primitive, but home., Built about 1900 the Morning Star Hotel served travelers and miners until it burned in 1947. Ware Laffoon recalled dancing there, "Yes-sir-ee, been square dancing over here in that old [Morning Star] hotel… It had kind of a "T” on the back where the eating purposes and things was. It had a big, long front. It was a pretty good size house."