The Longwell Museum

WWII Signal Corp Trainees....

Our St. Louis friends swooped in for supper and were gone by noon the next day. We ate too much and talked not near enough to get it all said. We dined on baked sandwiches, stuffed mushrooms, and a salad of mixed greens, peaches, blueberries, feta, and caramelized pecans. The next morning breakfast was Mexican eggs, Paula Deen grits, biscuits, bacon, and a mixed fruits bowl. Both the evening meal and breakfast on the deck had lovely tablescapes…and I forgot to take pictures! We left much unsaid, but they were anxious to head out on a Southwestern adventure. Jim has recently retired from McDonnell Douglas, and they were headed to    Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado.

After they left, we were stuffed as toads and felt the quiet too much. So we ran down to Neosho a mere twenty miles away to check out a museum that I had recently heard of. The Longwell Museum is located at Crowder, an old army base of WWII and now home to Crowder College.

A couple of months before Pearl Harbor was bombed, America was already gearing up to face war. Thus Camp Crowder was started as a training facility for Signal Corps. In the end, it was also to house POWs. All of this was quite a culture shock to the quiet Ozarkers of the time. How I wish I could have seen this area then.

                         Carrier pigeons, part of Signal Corps, trained in Camp Crowder

In 1963 parts of the peacetime Camp Crowder were turned into a small two year college. This project was promoted by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Longwell who had had successful careers with Doubleday publishing and Time, Inc. Mr. Longwell worked with the likes of Edna Ferber and Ogden Nash. So the tiny museum on campus is dedicated to the Longwells and bears their name.

                                        Painting done by WWII POW in Camp Crowder

                                          Original barracks now used for college dorms

One half of the floor space in the museum is given over to WWII memorabilia from the camp days. The other half is an art gallery with rotating exhibits of artists. Right now Steve Henton, glass artist and Tim Booyer, metal and welding artist have works on display.

After the museum, we went into Neosho for a quick gander at a couple of flea markets where we found a few treasures…but that is another story. 

              Know what this handy dandy items is? Take a guess!!!  Hint: it was sold in the PX.