“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.