Historic stagecoach will journey through Ozark County this year from May 22-27
Photo courtesy Dennis Crider The Hambys’ Journey Stagecoach has made several long-range trips out West, carrying student penpals’ letters to be delivered along their multi-day routes. The next trip for the authentic 1880s stagecoach will be the Ozark Mountains Heritage Trails Journey May 22-27 in Ozark County.
Two Ozark Countians last week joined "Cowboy Rick" and "Arkansas Bev" Hamby to record another episode of the Hambys' "Just for Kids radio roundup / great moments in American history" radio show for broadcast at 9 a.m. Saturday on KKDY 102.5 FM. The program focuses on the Journey Stagecoach's upcoming May 22-27 journey through Ozark County beginning at Glade Top Trail and ending in Gainesville, traveling along sections of the Old Salt Road. Pictured, from left: Ozark County resident Robert Klineline, Bev and Rick Hamby, stagecoach driver Bill Hobbs and Ozark County Times columnist Wayne Sayles. The program will also be streamed live on kkdy.com.
The next installment of Cowboy Rick Hamby’s “Just for Kids radio roundup / Great Moments in American History” will feature Ozark Countians and others discussing the Journey Stagecoach’s upcoming Ozark Mountains Heritage Trails journey that will wind through Ozark County May 22-27. The radio program will be broadcast at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, on West Plains radio station KKDY 102.5 FM and streamed live on kkdy.com.
Ozark County residents Robert Klineline and Wayne Sayles will join Hamby and his wife, “Arkansas Bev” Hamby, in discussing the Ozark County route of the carefully planned stagecoach trip along with Bill Hobbs, who has driven the Hambys’ authentic 1880s horse-drawn stagecoach on its many journeys out West during the last 20-plus years.
In the pre-recorded session, Klineline, a retired Century Telephone lineman who is Rick Hamby’s cousin, and Sayles, who writes the Ozark Journey column for the Ozark County Times, talk with the Hambys about the highlights and history of the route the stagecoach will take from the Glade Top Trail through Longrun and other communities along the Old Salt Road, diverting to end in Gainesville.
Hobbs, who lives in the Springfield area, is also Hamby’s cousin as well as the great-great-grandson of Newberry Hobbs, who opened the first store and post office in Longrun after homesteading 160 acres there in 1884. His family was “always involved in horsemanship and wagons,” he told the Times Sunday, and he learned to drive the Journey Stagecoach years ago by riding shotgun beside Jimmy Bell, whose dad had been a Hollywood stunt man in western movies.
Hobbs said when someone asked him what the thrill is in driving the 1880s stagecoach, he jokingly answered, “Where else can you sit 12-13 feet up in the air on a 2,500-pound box of wood pulled by powerful horses and cover the United States at 4 miles per hour?”
The Ozark County Historium is helping promote the historic stagecoach trip, which will include stops along the route featuring live music, a brush arbor service and other events. Details of the journey will be published in upcoming editions of the Times.
The stagecoach, which was the first “ride” at Silver Dollar City soon after it organized near Branson in 1960, was purchased by the Herschend family – thanks to a loan by the late H. T. Harlin, the president of what is now Century Bank of the Ozarks, and a few other area bankers.
The Hambys, of Caulfield, acquired the stagecoach several years ago and since then have used it to lead “journeys” throughout Texas, New Mexico and other parts of the West, carrying penpal letters to and from schoolchildren along the way.
The Hambys also expect to have the stagecoach at this year’s Hootin an Hollarin festival.