Profiteering left the hillsides of northern Shannon County a wasteland by the early 20th century. Lumber barons, living in distant cities, ordered the Ozark timberland clearcut before abandoning Missouri altogether when the forests were all gone. The local families inherited a scrubland for their labor, but in building Shannondale, proved that solidarity can build up people even faster than mankind can kill a forest.
“One thing that really stood out to me was the type of Christianity that was being taught,” said Jason Brasier, director of two new documentaries about Shannondale. “It was what I was taught about growing up, but what I feel isn’t at the forefront of things anymore, even though it's still there. That was something that really anchored me and drove me to want to help preserve this history so other people hear about it more.”
Brasier’s documentaries are titled “Shannondale, By Heart and By Hand" and "Shannondale, A Forest Gospel.” Both were screened Sept. 18 at Missouri S&T’s Curtis Laws Wilson Library for a State Historical Society of Missouri program. They recount Paul Wobus founded Shannondale as a mission for the United Church of Christ in the late 1920s. In doing so, he encouraged the young Rev. Vincent Bucher and his wife Ruth to lead its congregation. Nearly 60 years since the Buchers left the church, their lessons and the impact of their leadership still inspire those who knew them.
“Dad was very much social ministry, he was always intent on doing what he could to improve the lives and the opportunities for people in this area, and encouraged anyone that could to carry on their education to do so for as long as they could,” said Bucher’s daughter, Carol Marie Busher Washburn, during her filmed interview. “I think that one of the most valuable things that I learned is that people are not much different, no matter what their race, economic level, and educational level, and to see need as not a failure on the part of the person who is needy, but as a circumstance.”
Brasier’s documentaries share that during their tenure at Shannondale the Buchers led collective efforts to heal the land while opening new possibilities to exploited people.
“He tried to make his sermons fit the community,” said Norman Bucher, the Bucher’s son. “He wasn't the hellfire and damnation type, which was what we were accustomed to with the itinerant preaching at the time. He was grounded in the Bible.”
The Buchers began their efforts by building the Shannondale Chapel, one of the first established churches in northern Shannon County. Made of local stone, it still stands along Highway 19.
Beyond providing a place to gather, the Buchers also worked with the local families to bring more prosperity through teamwork. A rock crusher was purchased to collectively produce lime from limestone and spread it on local fields to increase their fertility. The Buchers even helped bring high-quality breeding animals to Shannon County to better the local livestock.
Co-ops were additionally established to provide goods and produce products that could be sold. Shannondale’s most famous product was its strawberries, but other co-ops provided local people with milk, compost, and bees for pollination and honey. The Buchers further showed how the timber cut, sawed and shipped out of the region could be used for carvings and other artisan creations.
“Bucher encouraged the people in the community to identify things they could teach others,” said Janey Fossey, whose father, Walter Prugh, helped build the Shannondale Chapel. “That was the whole idea behind the Folk School model. That they could benefit from all this combined knowledge, that everybody had to better their whole community and better themselves. I think the secret was it wasn't a charity. It was where people themselves came together to make their life better.”
In time, a craft store was built across the highway from the Shannondale Chapel to sell locally crafted products. The Buchers further organized the building of a bridge over the Barren Fork creek to provide connections to more families. One of the largest legacies the Buchers left for Shannondale is its 4,000-acre forest. The congregation planted thousands of trees to bring back the natural canopy, and today, the resource provides the church income through carbon credits.
“I believe Shannondale is holy ground,” said Jeff Fulk, Shannondale’s pastor from 1995 to 2016. “It's quiet, it's beautiful, and to me, it's a place to come apart from your normal daily activity, to come apart, and to rest with God.”
Don Love, who produced narrated both films, led the Sept. 18 discussions of the documentaries and highlighted the Shannondale congregation remains active under the leadership of Kathleen Hamilton, and its craft store still sells locally made goods. He said anyone interested in learning more about its outdoor ministries, craft camps or work groups can visit the Friends of Shannondale page on Facebook to learn more.
