Newton-McDonald, MO-2015 McDonald County Telephone

Community Spotlight on our cities and villages

Southwest City The first settlement in Southwest City took place in 1842. By 1846, a general store was established in the Honey Creek Valley. Southwest City is the only tri-cornered part of the state on dry land. All other Missouri boundaries are established by rivers or streams. Southwest City was situated

Tiff City Located 18 miles northwest of the county seat of Pineville, Tiff City sits on the Oklahoma line on Buffalo Creek. Tiff City’s location was adjacent to Indian Territory in its early days, creating opportu- nities for retail trade with Seneca Indian neighbors. The first post office was built in 1876. By 1881,

along the Indian Territory border. It wasn’t long before the city became a social gathering place for travelers, drummers, bootleggers and land specula- tors. By 1886, the town had a population of 1,500. Today, the town has a population under 1,000, but it retains its frontier appearance of long ago.

the retail business prospered. Tiff City remains a small, close- knit community with an active retail force. Seneca Located on the Burlington Northern Railroad main line between St. Louis, MO and Tulsa, OK lies the thriving tiny city of Seneca. The city was settled around 1833 when a group of pioneers from Ohio came to the lush valley. They settled where Lost Creek and Little Lost Creek converge at the edge of Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. With a population of roughly 2,300 people, Seneca still thrives at the foothills of the

Our Villages... Jane

Jane was founded in 1854 and was dubbed White Rock Prairie by a man who estab- lished the first post office in the tiny village. The name of the vil- lage was changed several times. Names included White

Rock, Gottom and Sulphur Springs. When Thomas B. Perkins became the postmaster in 1876 he moved the post office three miles south towards the Arkansas state line and changed the name to Caverna because of caves that dotted the area. The move left White Rock Prairie without a post office until Samuel L. Ross became the postmaster of a new office in 1882. He named it for his young daughter, Jane, and this became the name of the village. Splitlog Splitlog was named for Mathias Splitlog, a wealthy Indian Chieftain and entrepreneur from Kansas City. He came to the northwest part of McDonald County in search of silver and gold. He built a rail- road to the village, but it was re-routed to Goodman a few years later. The railroad was later purchased by Arthur Stillwell and became the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad.

Ozarks in Lost Creek Valley. Seneca serves as a center for livestock, dairy, poultry and grain farm- ing. Its past is preserved in the century-old homes and buildings scattered throughout the city, including the historic one-room schoolhouse and caboose. Seneca’s home-town atmosphere is complimented by tree-lined streets, and two creeks that provide fishing opportunities as well as a duck and geese habitat. Ginger Blue Village This village started as a summer resort lodge in 1915. It was built on the banks of the Elk River and named Ginger Blue after a Native American chief who lived near the site in the 1700s. The resort became a huge success and by 1920, visitors traveled by train from Kansas City, Tulsa and Wichita to explore the nearby caves and water and sulphur wells. Ginger Blue Village was incor- porated and the local government was given the same rights as a city. Only a handful of people live in the village today, and they hope to revitalize the resort to its original grandeur.

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