By Emery Styron
Publisher, River Hills Traveler

July is here, the heart of the summer outdoor season. If you’re going to get in those fishing, floating, hiking and camping trips, go now before it gets hotter and drier, and before the unexpected pops up to claim your summer.
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One of the many fun parts of Traveler is making connections and bringing people together. Our story on the Markham Springs Recreation Area had that effect. Alan Young of the Off Road Camping Club saw the story while visiting a relative and thought members of his group would like to know about Markham Springs. He called for permission to post the story on the club’s website. The Off Road Camping Club sounded like something Traveler readers would like to know about, so we scheduled an interview.
The results: Markham Springs Recreation Area got a boost from this new camping group, and over 140 members of the Off Road Camping Club signed up for free trial subscriptions to Traveler as a result of a post on the club’s website. A story about the club appears on Page 6.
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Brenda Shearrer of the Williamsville Area Progress Committee says the Old Tyme Festival at Markham Springs Recreation Area drew over 1,000 people June 14. She said the good attendance was due in part to Traveler’s coverage of the campground’s rebirth and promotion of the event with help from local businesses. That makes us feel good.
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A new contributor this month is Mt. Pleasant, IA, artist Dan Roberts. Dan penned the illustration for Ken Keiser’s Page 10 story of fishing with an old grouch who was really a soft touch. Dan has had cartoons published in several magazines, including the Saturday Evening Post, and in the New Breed comic strip. He has published two books of cartoon collections, The Funny Side of Hunting and Fishing and Another Funny Side of Hunting & Fishing. Ken is a veteran outdoor writer, but this may be his first time in Traveler. He writes from Olathe, KS.
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I’ve had the opportunity this spring and summer to camp at Trail of Tears, Washington, Onondaga and Lake Wappapello State Parks; the National Park Service’s Round Spring Campground and to stay in Current River guide Dale Kipp’s garage apartment. The comfort varies from place to place, but outdoor people are friendly where ever you go.
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Dale took me seven or eight miles up the Current from Van Buren, and we fished our way back down to town. He knows every hole in that stretch of river, and how to catch the big smallmouth, but apparently his sons-in-law know something about catching goggle-eye that Dale and Bob Todd don’t. Bob has more to say on that — the sons-in-law don’t — starting on Page 7.
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Jim and Donna Featherston sent a story and set of photos on July wildflowers that just knocked my eyes out. You’ll find it on Page 11.
There are so many good things in this month’s Traveler, I can’t mention them all. Just open it up and find them yourself.
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The lower Current is a little higher than normal, and just gorgeous to be out on. Folks in Eminence say the upper Jacks Fork is summer floatable for the first time in several years. Here’s hoping all our rivers, especially that big one on the eastern border of Missouri, will get into their banks for the rest of the season.
Hope to see you on the river.
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