Granddaughter remembers L.O. Trigg, newspaper man and explorer of Illinois Ozarks
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Lindolph Oscar Trigg -- better known as L.O. Trigg -- was the most vocal proponent of the creation of the Shawnee National Forest back in the early 1930s and the most prolific chronicler of the forest's beauty.
Being passionate about the eastern hills of Southern Illinois -- which he called the Illinois Ozarks -- and being a newspaper man -- as owner of the "Ozark News," "Creal Springs News," "Thompsonville Tribune" a short-lived weekly in Galatia and founder of the Eldorado "Daily Journal" -- meant he wrote and photographed extensively in the region.
Trigg's photographs, slides, reports on his annual Ozark Tours expeditions and his meticulously kept notebooks or "Road Logs" are in collections of both the Saline County Historical Society and in the garage of his granddaughter, Janet Davis, of Eldorado.
Also in Davis' collection is her grandfather's business card. The card indicates his interests. Printed on them was "Editor Eldorado Daily Journal, L.O. Trigg, Salesman for the Illinois Ozarks, but NOT in the real estate business, Eldorado, Ill."
On the back of the cards was a map of Southern Illinois with a line separating Gallatin, Saline, the tip of Williamson, Johnson, Massac, Hardin and Pope counties from the rest of the region. These counties contained what he called "The OZARKS of our state." The card pointed out Trigg's intent was "Advertising its lure, history, scenery and romance."
Eric Johnson, Janet Bixler and Charles Hammond have been working to scan images of Trigg's photographs and his publications at the historical society digitally to preserve the information. They are planning next to preserve the many boxes of materials in Davis' garage.
Davis is glad her grandfather's passions are being preserved.
Trigg died in 1949 while planning his Ozark Tour for the following July. It would have been the 20th annual Ozark Tour traveling from Battery Rock on the Ohio River to Devil's Backbone on the Mississippi River, according to a 1996 edition of the "Daily Journal." Instead it was a memorial service that involved wreaths cast into the water and the route of roads taken became the Trigg Memorial Trail, the route that inspired John O'Dell to pursue the completion of the River to River Trail hiking and equestrian route.
"He didn't like being confined to the Journal office. He didn't want to run a paper. He wanted to be on a trail," Davis said.
Trigg's grew up in Ozark in Johnson County and started the "Ozark News" at the age of 22. He discontinued it as he bought and sold newspapers in Creal Springs, Thompsonville, Galatia and finally Eldorado. He occassionally revived the "Ozark News" to promote the Illinois Ozarks. While his home was on Forest Street in Eldorado as he operated the "Daily Journal," his heart was in Leamington near the present-day High Knob Recreation Area on the farm he called Resthaven.
Davis remembers her grandfather's sense of humor and his politics.
"I laughed at the fact his outhouse there -- he was a staunch Republican -- he named his outhouse The Franklin House because of FDR," Davis said.
His son, Kenneth Robert Trigg, was a newspaper man through and through with little interest the outdoors. While K.R. Trigg ran the Eldorado newspaper, L.O. Trigg was free to explore rock formations, photograph the scenery, take copious notes and contribute editorial material to the newspaper when he desired.
By the time Davis was 7 years old, Trigg had the reputation through his Ozark Tours as being the authority figure of the region. The tours lasted three days and included landmarks Trigg thought people should see. Usually consisting of 20 men who were either friends or politicians to convince of the region's attributes, the men slept on cots during the heat of July.
Group photos show the men fishing at the old dam at Golconda, exploring Bell Smith Springs, Jackson Hollow, Garden of the Gods which then was known as Anvil Rock, "The sinkhole at the Wye," at Civilian Conservation Corps camps, Benzon's Fluorspar "desert," eating at the Fairy Cliff Restaurant in the cave and numerous other locations. In some of the photos are women in white dresses, preparing food in pots over campfires.
"I remember going down to Resthaven to the farm. It was one of the stop offs. The women there went ahead of them and set up the food camps," Davis said.
Davis loved the trips to Resthaven. She liked being in the company of her grandfather, the men and her Grandma Inez. Trigg's first wife, Lillie, died when Davis' father was 15. He then married Inez Wiggins who Davis referred to as her Grandma Inez.
"I went with her to the campsite where they cooked the food. I liked being there. I was a Tom boy," Davis said.
She does not believe Grandma Inez shared her husband's love for the outdoors, but supported his interest.
"She went. She was always part of the food group," Davis said.
The tour was to showcase the region. There was no charge and Trigg did not benefit financially.
"To me it was more a pleasure to him. He enjoyed getting together with all those men," she said.
At the time of the first tour in 1931 the Shawnee National Forest was in the planning stages and Trigg was trying to build local support for it. That first trip took the explorers to Dixon Springs. At the time there were only three state parks, Giant City, Fort Massac and Cave-In-Rock. But the group stayed all night at the Dixon Springs CCC camp before it became a park. The first trip of 20 men began July 27, 1931, and ended July 29. Davis has a photo album of that first tour.
"They traveled on a flatbed truck," Davis said.
The memory of all the men sitting at the edge of the flatbed truck with their feet dangling over the edge still causes her to laugh. The women's food truck traveled ahead of the flatbed truck.
One year Governor Dwight Green traveled on the Ozark Tour.
Trigg was always dressed for influence whether meeting the governor or dipping into a sinkhole -- or taking the governor into a sinkhole.
"He always dressed up every day, always in a suit, tie and hat. He was always meticulous about his dress. We kidded him. He always wore long underwear year-round. We said, 'Aren't you hot?'" Davis said.
"He was a fun guy."
Davis said Trigg was always taking photographs.
"He always had a camera around his neck and on a strap. There was a whole trunk full in Mom and Dad's basement. No, two trunks. You've never seen so many pictures. Sometimes he was good at putting information on the back and sometimes he wasn't," Davis said.
She remembers the Resthaven house as being a large room with a fireplace as the only heat source.
"I got a cot in front of the fireplace. It was cold," she said.
Often, the early photographs Trigg took showed a young forest. The many photos of Stoneface show few trees. Views from Buzzard's Point show High Knob without any trees blocking the view.
Through the 1930s to the end of Trigg's life in 1949 -- the latter photos of Trigg show him with a white goatee, fedora hat, suit and walking staff -- the U.S. Forest Service was buying up land that had been logged, burned and farmed to the point of erosion.
Eventually, the Forest Service bought Resthaven which Davis said she would not recognize now.
"When Grandaddy died he left the paper and the farm to Daddy, his two sisters and his second wife. He left the house, farm and paper to all of them. In the last few years Daddy decided he wanted to buy out his two sisters because he wanted the paper," Davis said.
The family arranged for the farm to go to Trigg's first wife Inez. Inez and her brother raised cattle on it. That decision marked the end of Davis' visits to Resthaven.
"It was huge, hilly ground and they put cattle on it. Daddy was pretty upset, but it was hers and she could do what she wanted with it," Davis said.
The house was removed.
"Daddy couldn't stand to go down there any more. It was precious to all of us," she said.
Inez eventually sold the farm to the government and it was surrounded with a chain link fence, Davis said.
Davis remembers taking long hikes from the farm down to a spring-fed creek where the family cooked out.
"The kids and I fixed little wooden boats and would dam it up," she said.
The kids were her cousins, Ann Erwood, Jacquie Cook and Carol Lynn Cook, daughters of her father's two sisters. Davis is the last surviving cousin.
Trigg liked having his granddaughters' company out on the farm, whether it was all four, two, three or only one. Davis, the youngest, believes she went the most.
The girls found the temperature always cool by the creek under the bluff. Other visits to Resthaven found the family traveling to High Knob Recreation Area for picnics with an expansive view.
On the way to Resthaven the family stopped at the Leamington General Store for supplies.
"Everybody knew Grandaddy. He was well-known all over. Everywhere we stopped. He was a people person and I was a lot like him," Davis said.
Trigg started a successful paper in the Eldorado "Daily Journal" and his son carried its success. The newspaper actually was founded on a gamble Trigg took in 1919 and lost.
"He thought the county seat was going to be Eldorado instead of Harrisburg. I always teased him about that. 'Grandaddy, you picked the wrong town,'" Davis said.
K.R. Trigg sold the newspaper to American Publishing Company in 1976. The printing press needed a costly upgrade.
"He decided to sell in 1976. His health got very bad and he died from a stroke. He decided to sell and get out while the getting was good. Bob Ellis ran it after that. It about killed him to do it, but it was going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it and he decided he didn't want to invest it that late in life," Davis said.
Davis' first job was wrapping newspapers to be mailed out at a wage of $.50 an hour. After that she worked nine years as an advertising representative and with another woman at the front desk, greeting customers, answering the telephone and proofreading.
"I enjoyed that very much, working with Daddy," she said.
Bill Serrells, Charles Hines, a man who ran the press, Noal Mathis who put the type together and Davis' first husband who K.R. Trigg sent to journalism school to run type all worked together, but Davis' father as editor and owner provided most of the editorial content. Several people wrote sports through the years.
Though Davis said neither she nor her father shared her grandfather's enthusiasm for the outdoors, she does see a bit of her grandfather's curiosity for the natural world in her children, Dirk Tierney of Atlanta, Ga., Josh Davis of Florida, Beth Tierney of Eldorado and Bob Tierney of Mount Vernon.
She said Christmas she and Dirk were going through boxes of her grandfather's photos and writings and honoring the man who promoted the Illinois Ozarks as a tourism destination of the Midwest.
Some of her favorite artifacts are Triggs notebooks he called his "Road Logs" that were dated on the cover. She has boxes and stacks of the logs.
"He kept them day by day and hour by hour. There were a lot in the top of the Journal office when they sold it and I saved them," Davis said.
"He'd tell when he went to eat, when he went to the store, his daily routine. It was amazing what he had written down."
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DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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