Springfield to Carthage Road

For the first several years after my wife and I moved to Joplin from Springfield, we frequently traveled Highway 96 (approximating Old Route 66) between Carthage and Halltown on our trips back to Springfield instead of taking I-44, because we lived on the north side of Joplin. I was always intrigued by the small towns one passes through on that route, several of them no more than wide places in the road and almost completely extinct. 

One might assume that at least a few of those little villages grew up as a result of being located on Old Route 66, and I think I probably assumed that myself at the time I was often traveling that way. If you make this assumption, though, you would be wrong, because almost all of the small hamlets located along Highway 96 between Carthage and Halltown predate the opening of Highway 66. 

Until this stretch of road was officially designated Highway 66 circa 1926, it was known as the Springfield-to-Carthage Road, and it dates at least as far back as the Civil War. Moreover, most of the small towns along the way date at least as far back as the turn of the 20th century.  

Located just over the Greene County line in eastern Lawrence County, Halltown got a post office in 1879, and the town was platted in 1887. It was a thriving little town in the early 1900s, and even today, it still has a population of about 170 people. In fact, it is one of the few villages along the stretch of Highway 96 from Greene County to Carthage that still has the appearance of anything more than a wide place in the road, but its business district, if you can call it that, is a ghostly shell of what it used to be.  

Traveling west from Halltown, the first little community you come to about three miles down the road is Paris Springs. It is actually not on present-day Highway 96, but it was on Old Route 66. Nowadays, you have to detour off 96 to get to it. Originally known as Johnson's Mill because it was the site of a mill on Clover Creek, the place was used for mill power even before the Civil War, but it never amounted to much as a town or village in its early days. The place was also the site of a natural spring that supposedly had healing waters, and its name was changed to Chalybeate Springs shortly after the Civil War when a mineral-water resort was established there. Later the name was changed to Paris Springs, and the place prospered for a while as a healing resort, but by the time the 1917 History of Lawrence County was written, "not much [was] left of Paris Springs." 

Just a mile and half west of Paris Springs lies the village of Spencer, and like the former place, Spencer is on the Old Route 66 road but not on Highway 96.  Spencer was a going little place at least as early as the 1880s, when it had a school, a flour mill, a post office, two churches, and two stores. Nowadays, there are still some store buildings in Spencer that date from its Route 66 days, and tourists often visit the place as a nostalgic curiosity. 

Another five miles west of Spencer is Heaton, more commonly called Heatonville. It was laid out in 1868 by Daniel Heaton and by the following year had ten residences, one store, one blacksmith shop, and a post office. Heatonville, however, "failed to reach the expectations of its sponsor," as the 1917 history says. By that year, Heatonville no longer had a post office and didn't have much else either. During the heyday of Route 66, it did serve as a bus stop, but, as far as I know, it never had much else other than the bus stop (which might have doubled as a store). Nowadays, I don't know whether there is anything at all left even to indicate exactly where Heatonville was located unless you're quite familiar with the area. 

Just a couple of miles farther west from Heatonville on Highway 96 one comes to Albatross, at 96's intersection with Highway 39. I'm not altogether sure, but I think Albatross is the only little village along this stretch of road that does not predate Route 66, because I think it actually started as a bus stop. I'm not sure whether it took Heaton's place as a bus stop or both villages had bus stops simultaneously for at least a while, even though they were very close together. 

The little village of Phelps lies about three and a half miles west of Albatross. Phelps sprang up shortly before 1880, and by that year it boasted a population of about 80 people. By 1890, it had a school, three churches, two general stores, a drugstore, a hotel, a post office, a wagon master, and three doctors. Like Heatonville, though, Phelps did not get "along very far in its endeavor to make a noise in the world," and by 1917 it was already in steep decline.

About eight miles west of Phelps, one comes to Rescue, which began around 1900, although it never really amounted to much more than a wide place in the road. The last time I was through that way, about the only thing remaining to mark the location of Rescue other than a road sign was a building that once served, I believe, as a garage or filling station. I haven't driven Highway 96 lately, though; so, as far as I know, there may not be anything there now. 

Lying another three miles west of Rescue is the little village of Plew. A post office was established at Plew in 1893 and remained in operation until 1904, but like Rescue, the place never amounted to much more than a wide place in the road during its early days. After Route 66 came in, a resort with cabins for travelers was located at Plew, but they closed after I-44 was constructed and most of the traffic bypassed Plew.

Five miles west of Plew is Avilla, in the eastern edge of Jasper County. Avilla was founded before the Civil War, and it was a going little community during the late 1800s. Even today it still has a population of about 100 people and still has the semblance of a small village, but its heyday is long gone. 

In the "old wagon days," according to a 1921 Springfield Leader article, quite a bit of through traffic passed along the Springfield to Carthage road, and the road was kept up fairly well. However, during the early 1900s, stretches of the road had been allowed to fall into disrepair, as folks were only interested in keeping up the roads that led to their own local centers of commerce. About the only attempt that was made to keep the road up was in the Halltown area. Thus, when a legislative road bill was passed in the summer of 1921 to grade and put down a new coat of gravel on the old Springfield to Carthage road, the proposal was greeted as welcome news by people living along and/or using the road on a regular basis. Cost of the project was not to exceed $6,000 per mile. 

The Leader observed at the time that the Springfield to Carthage road contained "probably the longest undeviating section of road in Southwest Missouri." From the line separating Ranges 25 and 26 (just west of Spencer) to the Jasper County line, the road was a straight shot for nineteen miles.