Watson School Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Located near the foundation of the old Watson School in the Lake of
the Ozarks State Park.
Placed with permission of the Missouri Department of Natural
Resources.
This cache is NOT located along any major trails although I
followed what may have been an old road most of the way to the
cache.. The walk to the cache will take you through a very
interesting part of the park.
Please respect the natural features that you are sure to
encounter.
Turn right onto Whispering Oaks Rd. just past the trail information
cabin and then left onto Blacks Rd. and continue on to the parking
area.
Area History The information below is to the best of my
knowledge. Please let me know if I am incorrect.
This information has been compiled from Internet research,
information from a local historian, contributions from one of the
park employees, and information from a book by Victoria
Hubbell.
The foundation located near the cache is what is left of the Watson
School. Families sending their children to the Watson school lived
south of Hwy 54 & East of the Grand Glaize Bridge. Much of this
area is presently underwater or in the Lake of the Ozarks State
Park. The postal designation was usually Zebra.
Students remember the Watson school with three windows on each
side. A large oak tree stood in the clearing where the wood was
placed for the stove.
Down a path outback was 'two-holer' an outhouse with a side for
girls and another for boys. The Watson school was annexed by Osage
Beach Elementry in 1937. Some remnants of this school remained in
the Lake of the Ozarks State Park in 1997. It was originally #22
but when they reorganized the school districts in 1910. It became
part of RIII. Other information:
Place name: Watson School
Description: Located in the northern part of Osage Township. A
family name. The county history records John L.A. Watson as making
one of the earliest land entries not far away from the site. This
school is closed. (HIST. CAMDEN (1889) 295; J. Banner; Dr. R.L.
Ramsay) Source: Overlay, Fauna R. "Place Names Of Five South
Central Counties Of Missouri." M.A. thesis., University of
Missouri-Columbia, 1943. 
Additional Hints
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