“We fear that Joplin is a naughty place; so many naughty people live there.”
—Carthage Daily Patriot, 1880
Monday’s Joplin Globe featured a story on local author Larry Wood, whose latest book about Joplin is called, Wicked City. The title came from a Springfield Times article in 1878 about our fair city.
Man, things were different back then, no? The most wicked acts in Joplin these days may be Anson Burlingame’s editorials.
In any case, being a mining town, naturally things got a little rough around here and naturally there was a need for “117 whiskey shops.” But I liked best this vision of Joplin found in a paragraph from Debby Woodin’s story in the Globe:
The Joplin Daily Herald opined in May 1880, according to Wood’s book: “We venture to assert that there is no city in the United States that allows lewd women as much latitude to pursue their sinful avocations as does Joplin.”
Now I think I see why local conservatives long for the good ol’ days.
Sadly, Larry Wood’s book doesn’t contain the answer to the intriguing question of where Joplin’s north-south route on the west side of the city—Maiden Lane—got its name. Wood thinks it was due to a horse racing park just north of 20th Street and the lane, and not a reference to women. Darn.
Wicked City is not yet available on Amazon, but five other books by Wood are available here.
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
Jim Wheeler
/ March 15, 2011I am just old enough to remember the powerful contrast between city and farm life, and that was nowhere more dramatic than in Joplin. As a boy we would come down from Kansas to visit my mother’s folks on a farm near Twin Bridges in Oklahoma. It was tradition then to go into town on Saturdays, usually to Miami but sometimes to Joplin, and I still recall the dramatic contrast between the farm and the city. Main street would be so crowded you would have to step off the sidewalk at times! The shops were all bustling and busy – going downtown was like stepping into another world, as much about entertainment as shopping.
This was of course before TV. My uncle and I would sometimes buy a Coney Island for dinner and then go to the Glory B theater in Miami and watch an oater. I would be in kid-heaven then! Gene Autry! Lash LaRue! Roy Rogers! Johnny Mack Brown! (who?)
But Joplin, that was the really big time. I recall going once to the huge public swimming pool south of town. It was like another world to this small-town kid. I think I absorbed the excitement of Joplin’s risque reputation from adult conversation without it ever being explicitly described to my young ears.
Those were the days.
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Duane Graham
/ March 15, 2011Johnny Mack Brown?
Damn. You are old, aren’t you?
Duane
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Jim Wheeler
/ March 15, 2011You betcha, Duane. You and Anson are just pups!
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hlgaskins
/ March 15, 2011“Damn. You are old, aren’t you?”
I was kind of thinking that all you guys are pretty old which makes me a little less senior like.
“The most wicked acts in Joplin these days may be Anson Burlingame’s editorials.”
It could explain where some of the wares from those “117 Whiskey Shops” went.
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Duane Graham
/ March 15, 2011HLG,
I only look old on the Internet. It tends to add ten years.
Duane
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Jim Hight
/ March 16, 2011I will second the comment on Anson Burlingame’s editorials.
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