The site, devoted to creating a “home on the web for Missouri’s Parkland” was founded by a Parkland-area native now living and working the Washingon D.C. Metro Area. Some of you may already follow Nick (@nbarron) on twitter, but if you don’t, you should. Nick is a a small town boy who’s taking what he’s learned on the East Coast about marketing and building online communities to create a web-based community for the Parkland that’s the first of its kind.

People like Nick who are prepared to devote their personal resources to making small town Missouri communities stronger are the kind of people I like to surround myself with.

I couldn’t be happier that Nick and I have remained friends for more than a decade after we met in high school Spanish class. I’m thrilled to be able to support Nick’s endeavors on ParklandUSA by contributing photos and blog content to the site.

If you live in or near Missouri’s Parkland, please visit the site often for gas prices, sports updates, and, of course, insights and images from A Small Town Girl’s Guide and MilliGFunk Photography. You can read the announcement Nick posted on ParklandUSA about syndicating Small Town Girl’s Guide here.

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If you’re interested in republishing content from A Small Town Girl’s Guide through syndication, please contact me. Click on the following links for more information on hiring me as a freelance writer or as a freelance photographer. I’m also available to speak on social media strategy, blogging and marketing.

Chat Dump, photo by MilliGFunk

Chat dumps are where mining waste goes when it dies. Erm, I mean chat dumps are the huge heaps of mining waste. When we were kids, we’d call these sand mountains, and we’d beg our parents to let us play on them.

In winter, we wanted to sled down them. In summer we wanted to build sand castles on them (out of them). In spring and fall, we probably begged our parents to let us roll down them. Not once during my childhood did I ever step foot on a chat dump. I guess my parents were fans of trespassing. No sense of adventure, I tell you…

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I have no idea what you call these things, but if someone could fill me in, I’d be happy about it. I’m fairly certain that these things play an important role in the life and death of the mining waste that rests in the chat dump when it dies.

What Do You Call This? photo by MilliGFunk

So meet me halfway, dear readers. I’ve told you about chat dumps, so can any of you tell me what these monstrosities are called?

MilliGFunk's Momma, photo by MilliGFunk

Turns out my mom was a cheerleader and on the pep squad. I had NO idea! I knew my trip to the library would teach me some things, but I never guessed it’d teach me about my own mom. Small Town, Missouri is FULL of surprises lately.

I made my way to the Bonne Terre library, which was completed and presented to the community in January of 1905.

Bonne Terre Library, photo by MilliGFunk

I could easily have spent my entire afternoon in the geneology and history room, reading through the dozens of reference book on local history. For all my reading, though, I still haven’t found a concrete explanation for the bell at the First Baptist Church.

Here’s one of my favorite pictures from my trip to Bonne Terre today. This is of the Bonne Terre Depot, erected in 1909.

Bonne Terre Depot, photo by MilliGFunk

Other Bonne Terre Posts:

Memorial Tree

Marvin Chapel United Methodist Church

Bonne Terre, Missouri

Mooner’s Hollow Trail (St. Francois State Park)

St. Louis, MO, photo by smalltowngirl

SO…there’s this giant bell mounted on a brick and concrete pedestal in front of the First Baptist Church of Bonne Terre, Missouri, and I’m not sure why.

Granted the bell looks super-cool (up close, especially), but there’s no plaque or sign indicating what the significance of the bell is.

The bell has words inscribed into the side of the bell, as well as a large “No. 11″ embossed on it. Does anyone know why an older church would mount a bell this way? Any Bonne Terre folks out there who could tell me what this bell’s all about?

No. 11, photo by smalltowngirl

Bell at First Baptist, photo by smalltowngirl

Memorial Tree, photo by smalltowngirl

The holidays have passed, but I can’t resist blogging about this little memorial tree in Bonne Terre, Missouri’s Bicentennial Park. The tree was planted in memory of a specific man whose name my fingers were too cold to write down on the 10 degree day I wandered this small Missouri town. It seems as though, during the Christmas season, people from Bonne Terre place Christmas ornaments on the tree in memory of loved ones.

I enjoy the sentimentality of small town people. This little tree inspired me toward a moment of very, very cold (it was 10 degrees!) silence for those I’ve loved who are no longer here with me.  Here are a few more photos of the tree and the ornaments on and beneath it:

Audrey and Marcus Maybery, photo by smalltowngirl

Frosty, photo by smalltowngirl

In Loving Memory of Mabel Barker, photo by smalltowngirl

In Memory, photo by smalltowngirl

Marvin Chapel, photo by smalltowngirl

When I got off of US Highway 67 to drive into the town of Bonne Terre, I saw a sign for a United Methodist church five miles away in the opposite direction of the town. I took a detour to check the church out.

Marvin Chapel United Methodist Church sits on Missouri Highway 47, five miles east of Bonne Terre. I didn’t see an established date on the building, but the church didn’t look very old. The structure was simple, but the red front doors felt welcoming.

If you like Missouri church posts, check out Villa Ridge Christian Church (Villa Ridge, MO), St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church (Richwoods, MO), St. Paul Lutheran Church (Farmington, MO), Bellevue Presbyterian Church (Caledonia, MO), and another post on Bellevue.

Marvin Chapel, photo by smalltowngirl

Bonne Terre, photo by smalltowngirl

My most recent small town Missouri adventure was a freezing cold trip through Bonne Terre, Missouri. Bonne Terre is one of those old Midwestern mining towns that feels haunted to me as I walk its streets. I can so clearly imagine the time when Bonne Terre was booming and miners and railroad men spent their hard-earned money in the town’s bars, but the town simply isn’t that vibrant in 2009.

According to the sign in the picture, the first lead mining took place in what’s now Bonne Terre in the late 1790s, but the town wasn’t established until the 1880s.  Jean Baptiste Pratte opened the area’s fist “lead diggings”. In 1864, all 946 acres of lead diggings were purchased from Pratte by the New York City-backed St. Joseph Lead Company. It was the St. Joseph Company who took the initiative to build the town of Bonne Terre.

Missouri is the oldest and largest lead-producing state in the United States, and Bonne Terre sits at the heart of the largest lead-mining district in the country. While the lead-belt’s history is rich, little remains now but historic sites and huge mounds of chat that, as kids, we called sand mountains.