This Year's Trip
Silver Dollar City is a well shaded theme park in Branson, Missouri. The Smith boys wait in line for lunch.
Silver Dollar City near Branson has been around now for just shy of fifty years, and I've been going there for about thirty of them. The ambience of the Ozarks all around you. Most of the park is shaded with huge trees, so the sun doesn't bake you. And the 1800s theme really sets it apart from most parks. SDC doesn't struggle to make an impression.
One of my favorite stops at SDC has always been Fire in the Hole, quite possibly the first rollercoaster I ever rode, and I love to stop in the glass blowers' shop and watch them make fine art with molten sand. Funnel cakes and salt water taffy are always on the list of must-dos.
This year's trip began at the place where it always does, Fire in the Hole. I have always loved rollercoasters, and Fire in the Hole is a safe, easy start to a day at the park. The ride was the same, up and down in the dark, musty-smoky smell, baldknobbers hanging out of windows in their longjohns, but on the last drop of the ride—train coming full tilt and miner yells "fire in the hole!"— I noticed something new. Instead of a polite sprinkling of water on my shoes at the bottom of the drop, I received a bucket full in the face and chest. My boys loved it.
Next stop was the Powder Keg. I heartily recommend this one—a coaster worthy of a few screams. As I sat in my seat next to my nine-year-old and expected the normal hitch to the top to be dropped, we shot out of the gate like a bullet from the barrel of a gun. My fifteen-year-old warned my husband to lay his head back. I had no such warning. Take note: It's a good idea. The boys rode that one at least three times. Once was good for me.
We ducked in to see the Swedish group Jeerk. They're an interesting group: Dance, rhythm, and percussion all explode on the stage. A treat for the nine-year-old who loves to do his own rendition of River Dance around the kitchen island; he now has a new step or two to try.
We did make it around to the artisans because, like I said, no trip to SDC is complete without them. As we watched him wield his blow torch, Rex Morton, a copper artist, put the eyelashes on a moon, and the demonstrating glass blower had just pulled out a glob of something that was glowing orange when we peeked in.
A stop at the taffy shop on our way out completed our day: candy corn, banana, banana strawberry, root beer float, cherry cola, and licorice flavored, by the handfuls into our bucket.
It's difficult to see it all in a day. Thirty years and I still find new things to see and do, something I hadn't noticed before.
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Vast and varied, Missouri is home to people, places, events, and topics that make the state surprising and unique. As a native Missourian with roots that run five generations deep in the Ozarks, Rebecca French Smith is passionate about Missouri. She is always looking for interesting places, people, and events to share with Missouri Life readers.
