"energizing" rural space: the representation of countryside culture as an economic...
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This article was downloaded by: [University of California, San Diego]On: 14 September 2014, At: 17:53Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK
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"Energizing" Rural Space: TheRepresentation of CountrysideCulture as an EconomicDevelopment StrategyJohnathan Bascom aa Calvin College , Grand Rapids, MI, 49546Published online: 28 Jul 2009.
To cite this article: Johnathan Bascom (2001) "Energizing" Rural Space: TheRepresentation of Countryside Culture as an Economic Development Strategy, Journalof Cultural Geography, 19:1, 53-73, DOI: 10.1080/08873630109478297
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Journal of Cultural Geography fall/Winter 2001 • 19(l):53-73
"Energizing" Rural Space: The Representation of Countryside Culture as an Economic
Development Strategy
Johnathan Bascom
Rural America is in trouble. It is losing jobs, it is losing people; it is losing its identity—W. Folk and T. Lyson'
We live in a culture in which everything that starts out original turns into a theme park. —T. Gitlin2
ABSTRACT. The last three decades have witnessed substantial changes in the role of rural spaces amid the restructuring of advanced capitalist economies and in the way that they are approached as a focus of inquiry. The significance of the "rural" is shifting from a production orientation (e.g., agriculture) to a consumption-oriented role (i.e., the symbolic value of a rural identity by which to market a particular place to inhabitants, investors, visitors, and funding sources). "Rurality" has become a dominant theme, characterized by its central concern with the construction and representation of appealing countryside identities. Strategic representations of rurality are most commonly achieved by valorizing the cultural and historical resources of a particular place and time. This paper examines the processes of "energizing" rural space in this manner by way of a site of a booming entertainment complex founded on Ozark themes in Branson, Missouri. A series of five assertions provide structure for the analysis.
INTRODUCTION
The last three decades have witnessed substantial changes in the role of rural space amid the restructuring of advanced capitalist economies, and in the way that rural spaces are approached as a focus of inquiry. Broadly speaking, rural space is seen from three different vantage points. In the late 1970s, largely empirical work on agricultural production, land use change, and rural communi ties gave way to rural-based "locality s tudies ." The predominant
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focus was on economic restructuring as capital, labor, and the state made adjustments amid crises of accumulation, both within agriculture as well as industry. But the political economy focus of the 1980s, in turn, shifted to post-structuralist perspectives. "Rurality" became a dominant theme in the 1990s, characterized by a central concern with the construction and representation of appealing countryside identities. This emphasis shift has opened the door much wider for the application of mainstream social theory to research in the rural sphere (Marsden, Lowe, and Whatmore 1990).
The changes in perspective and approach are not academic ones; they mirror different rounds of crisis, constraint, and capital investment. That "rural restructuring" was a touchstone in the rural literature of 1980s was a direct reflection of the diminishing significance of agriculture and the search for new alternatives (Bluestone and Harrison 1990). Many had hoped that new capital investments, principally in the form of industrial branch plants, might bring a new windfall to rural localities (Hage 1979). What rural America needed, industry had seemed to offer—jobs and the promise of higher incomes. But among more than 2,200 nonmet-ropolitan counties in the United States, the number specializing in manufacturing fell from 630 in 1979 to 580 in 1986, and, still further, to 506 in 1989 (Radin et al. 1996). By 1990, it had become evident that shifting manufacturing to nonmetropolitan areas was not up to the task of rural revitalization, providing but a short-term reprieve for a relatively few counties at the very best (Bloom-quist 1988; Falk and Lyson 1988; Amin and Robbins 1990).
In the face of troubled times, policymakers began clearing the way for more flexible governance of rural areas. Planners began searching for distinct territorial identities that could be readily presented to inhabitants, investors, visitors, and federal funding sources. And economic development funds shifted in focus, away from sector investments and into territorial ones (Ray and Lowe 1997). The new, rural modus operandi is a consumption-oriented role for space rather than a production orientation. Unlike productionist strategies of the past, the leading strategies are firmly representational; the "marking off" of space to animate and "sell" a place to individual consumers and corporate investors. Hence, the theme of identity as a means of survival in rural America has become a salient issue as never before (Fitchen 1991). Strategic representations of rurality are most commonly achieved by valorizing the local resources and culture of a particular place and time (Ray and Lowe 1997). This paper examines the processes of "energizing"
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rural space in this manner by way of Branson, Missouri—site of a booming entertainment complex founded around Ozark cultural themes and now the new mecca of country western music.
MANUFACTURING RURALITY
Most observers are agreed that rural America is in trouble. But why? There are three primary reasons: "It [rural America] is losing jobs; it is losing people; it is losing its identity" (Falk and Lyson cited in Marsden, Lowe, and Whatmore 1990, 9). Jobs are generally thought to be the most important of the three; yet having the right identity is more critical than ever. "At a time when the search for Real Life is becoming a marketing tool" (Gibbs 1997, 44), the selling of the rural image and idyll has become a prominent strategy for economic development. The Walt Disney Corporation provides a powerful example.
Swamps and farmland just four years ago, the town of Celebration, Florida, was officially dedicated on the 68th birthday of Mickey Mouse (November 18, 1996). Located not far from The Magical Kingdom, the 4800-acre town is envisaged as an ongoing community rather than another tourist site for which the Disney Company is so famous (Gibson 1993). "From the street," as one visitor observes, "Celebration looks like it was designed by Norman Rockwell. It is a family-friendly throwback to an earlier and simpler era" (Anthes 1997, 56). The town's goal is to recapture "the grace and innocence of 19th-century living . . . " and couple it with the technological advances of the 21st century (Lewis 1997, 51). Residents can choose from six styles of homes adapted to recreate and improve upon the styles found in small towns throughout America—Classical, Coastal, Colonial, Revival, French, Mediterranean, and Victorian. These homes, together with carefully designed municipal buildings, give Celebration the nostalgic feel of small town America circa 1900. Yet the entire town is "wired" together with advanced fiber optics for data, voice, and cable TV.3 And Disney has already begun to replicate the Celebration concept outside Washington, DC. Contractors are carving up cornfields rather than swamps to create another "dream" town, replete with sidewalks, gazebos, town squares, and the transplanted totems of an easier age (Gibbs 1997). The goal is to model itself ". . . after the best of small-town America, offering homes with front porches, near parks and golf courses, and suffused with neighborly ambiance" (Hot Type 1997).' In the absence of a "deep" history, the success of a place like Celebration rests heavily upon appropriating rurality as
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a salient and persuasive source of meaning. Imbued as they are with symbolism, part of the appeal of Celebration and its successors is that they are very "subjective, flexible spaces" (Lash and Urry 1994). Their reflexive identity taps a cultural asset of the past—the health and vigor of the rural community—and wraps it together with the technology of the future. Such places are a site of subjective reconstruction, a "new" community differentiated from others by its distinctive identity.
Disney's projects, however, are the exception rather than the rule. To manufacture rurality from scratch demands a great deal of capital. It is much easier to restore an evocative Main Street and (re)present it to the public (Gibbs 1997). Such is the new economic development strategy in small towns and rural areas across America. Since 1982, most nonmetropolitan population growth has occurred in counties that specialize in recreational activities and retirement. Recreation activities constitute the economic base for an estimated 15-20% of all nonmetropolitan counties in the United States.5 The leading site of rural economic growth in the United States is found in southern Missouri.
"BRANSON, MO Pop. 3,706," the city limit signs read.6 But what was once a sleepy little town tucked back in the Ozark hills now boasts annual sales of 630 million dollars in goods and services (and 900 million dollars more outside the city limits). More than six million visitors came in 1998, making Branson the second most popular vacation destination for motorists in America. (Only Orlando, Florida, including Celebration, attracts more.) No wonder so many other small towns aspire to be like Branson. The case illustration of Branson constitutes a site par excellence of a place where cultural and historical resources are appropriated for rural development. And the scale of its success brings to the surface issues involving the representation of rural places that might not be as visible under lesser conditions.
Beginning with Sauer (1920), the Ozark region has been the focus of work by a number of cultural geographers (Wilson 1972; Gerlach 1974; Rafferty 1983; Carney 1990). This body of literature has focused on the folk culture that is endogenous to the Ozark region. The focus of the present study is to examine the way in which old cultural resources, appropriated in the past, are coupled together with newly created ones as an economic development strategy. Thus, the purpose of the remainder of this paper is to elucidate the representation of rurality associated with Branson,
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including paradoxes and contradictions that surround it. A series of assertions provides structure for the analysis.
RURAL PLACES HOLD SPECIAL ATTRACTION AMID INTENSIFYING TIME-SPACE COMPRESSION
One chief consequence of the postmodern condition is what Shortridge (1996, 10) calls "neolocalism"—"a deliberate seeking out of regional lore and local attachment by residents (new and old) as a delayed reaction to the destruction in modern America of traditional bonds to community and family." If new forms of transport spelled "the death of place," cyberspace is prompting its resurgence. Examples abound: a globe replete with new expressions of nationalism and cultural identity (e.g., Quebec, Bosnia, Eritrea, and the former Soviet Union); small towns and villages "mining" their history for tourists and denizens alike; and deepening identification with the natural landscape reflected in ecotourism and a burgeoning environmental movement (Bascom 1998, 2-3).
The rise in consciousness of "regional cultures" as things to be valued and protected for political or sociopsychological ends is a direct manifestation of a growing space-place paradox (Ray and Lowe 1997). David Harvey summarizes that paradox as one by which:
The more global interrelations become, the more internationalized our dinner ingredients and our money flows, and the more spatial barriers disintegrate, so more rather than less of the world's population clings to place and neighborhood or to nation, region, ethnic grouping, or religious belief as specific marks of identity. Such a quest for visible and tangible marks of identity is readily understandable in the midst of fierce time-space compression" (emphasis added) (1990, 427).
Renewed interest and identification with rural areas are one consequence of intensified pace and change.
Time magazine's cover story, "The Backbone of America," emphasizes that "The deep nostalgia for rural life . . . has grown more powerful as the pace of change picks up" (Gibbs 1997, 44). The rural place represents a quieter, gentler space, a welcome reprieve from the pace and complexities of the contemporary life.
Figure 1 identifies principal source cities for Branson tourists according to rank. The image of an unspoiled, real rural place has proven very durable, especially in view of the fact that Branson is the most popular tour destination for bus tours in the United States; more than 10,000 arrive each year (Lotarmire 1998). Shrewd advertising is an important reason for Branson's appeal. However,
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Fig. 1. Principal market areas for Branson (ranked by total visitors per year). Source: Adapted from Silver Dollar City, Inc. 1998. Branson, Missouri Area Map.
the rural image is more easily maintained because Branson is largely viewed with a "tourist gaze" (Urry 1990). Most visitors come for but a few days; the average overnight stay is only three nights and four days (Shifflet 1997). Such brief stays necessitate the
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tourist gaze, wherein Branson is a place that is constantly "experienced" rather than understood.
HISTORIC ISOLATION CAN BE ADVANTAGEOUS WHEN (RE)PRESENTING RURAL AREAS FOR CONSUMPTION
During the last decade, it has become common for "relegated" rural areas to be rediscovered as a place of opportunity. As Mars-den et al. (1993, 2) note, "Crises of accumulation in capitalist societies necessitate . . . 'a reassessment of resources and spaces once considered unproductive or marginal. For a number of reasons, some rural areas once thought of as quintessential backwaters of economic activity have come to be seen as investment frontiers." This is precisely the case for Branson.
Since the late nineteenth century, the Ozark region, like Ap-palachia, has been the brunt of jokes, stories, and characters that have entertained middle class, urban America (Hanna 1996). Located on the edge of the Ozarks, Branson was famous "mostly for moonshine and calf-brained hillbillies"; clearly not the stuff (or so it seemed) upon which to base economic development (Utopia, Missouri 1995, 25). For decades, the Ozarks were referenced as an economic backwater region, characterized by the "hill and holler" topography, karst features (caves, springs, and sinkholes), and a rich folk culture (Carney 1990). The common representation was a disparaging one; economically poor, culturally-backwards mountain "folk" inhabiting an isolated area of the country. Persistent marks of poverty still can be seen along secondary roads and smaller backways around Branson—battered and worn mobile homes, shacks in need of paint, rusting cars, piles of discarded furniture, weed-infested vegetable gardens, and makeshift "For Sale" signs. (Paradox of note: Poverty landscapes can serve as quaint backdrop to help maintain the sense of rurality.) Today, however, what was once an "inferior" region has been transformed into a "fresh" region.
Long seen as one of the last bastions of progress, the Ozark area was readily available as a frontier for new investment. The Ozarks had been largely portrayed as part of a largely static space, a region largely "left behind" without a history (Hanna 1996). But the old isolation, once considered the region's bane, now is being reconstituted as its blessing. Like the highlands of Scotland, once noted for marginaiity and dependency, the Ozarks are now feted and projected as an arena of cultural and physical vitality (Burnett and Nuttall 1997). In the case of Branson, its old rural roots offer
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50,000
40.000
1982 , 9 8 4 1986 , 9 8 8
Restaurant Seats Theatre Seats
Sleeping Accommodations
1996
Fig. 2. Total number of sleeping accommodations, theatre seats, and restaurant seats in Branson, 1982-1996. Source: The City of Branson. 1996. The Branson Report. (November) 11:7.
the promise and possibility of relating to the unhurried, happy-go-lucky lifestyle of the hillbilly, a way of life far removed from the complexities of the outside world.
The rustic appeal of the Ozark Mountains has substantial symbolic value. The fact that Branson's city limit sign reads in diminutive fashion—"Pop. 3,706"—helps to reinforce the sense of rural. Its small size notwithstanding, the Branson area opened the 1998 season with no less than 53 theaters, 75 variety shows (many twice daily, six days a week), and 30,000 restaurant seats (Fig. 2). Branson brags as having more theater seats than Broadway (Lomartire 1998). And Branson is not finished yet. Factory outlets and superstores are "the next layer on the cake" (Utopia, Missouri 1995). Town officials hope to triple the shopping space. Clearly, the "rural" qualities of Branson hold sufficient symbolic significance and ideological power to constitute a place of substantial consumption.
THE CONSUMPTION POTENTIAL OF A RURAL LOCALITY IS LARGELY ASSOCIATED WITH ITS "AUTHENTICITY"
The Branson area has a distinctive physiographic appeal; after all, "The Ozarks are a homely set of hills, covered with dogwood and hickory . . . " (Utopia, Missouri 1995, 25). But attached to these hills is a deeper resource—cultural authenticity. The mention of hillbillies (or "baldknobbers" as they are known in Branson) brings to mind barefoot, lanky country "hicks" standing beside ram-
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Fig. 3. The hillbilly Mountain Dew logo of the 1960s. Source: Logo patch from private collection of John Minges.
shackle outhouses, wearing overalls, sporting toothy-grins, and clutching corncob pipes and jugs of moonshine.7 It is a quaint portrayal, popularized by hillbilly scenes featured in the irrepressible advertisements for Mountain Dew soda during the 1960s and 1970s (Fig. 3).s Yet, increasingly, it is this very kind of cultural resource that is employed as the foundation of development strategies in rural areas (Jakle 1994; Squire 1993; Ray 1997). Authentic elements—an ethnic cuisine, local history, long-standing traditions, retrieved folklore, local mythology, or a town hero—are tapped to generate a clear-cut advantage over other places competing for visitors. The particularity of such elements is critical to authenticate and thereby, to energize a space for consumption.
There are three mainstays to the cultural authenticity around which Branson's economic development is anchored. The Shepherd of the Hills is the centerpiece of the rural "iconography" associated with Branson (Cosgrove and Daniels 1988). In 1907, five years before Branson was incorporated, a book by that title was first published. In it, Harold Bell Wright, an ailing minister who had come to Branson to recuperate from illness, told in fictional form a dramatic tale of the place and its people. By 1918, his book had sold two million copies, and become the third most read book in the world. Ozark Mountain Country would not be what it is today, if it were not for the folklore inspired and spread across the nation by this book. In 1960, The Shepherd of the Hills debuted at an open-air theater built on the site that inspired the book; early tourists were seated in 435 lawn chairs. Performances still begin at dusk,
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Fig. 4. The lead actors in The Shepherd of the Hills stage play. Source: The Shepherd of the Hills Entertainment Group. Branson.
and the play now ranks as the longest running outdoors drama in the United States (Fig. 4).
Significant to our theme of rural representation is the genre of The Shepherd of the Hills' book and the corresponding play. Both are written and performed as an "Arcadian" story. Sixteen times between World War I and the Depression, books of this genre appeared on the national lists of bestsellers. Its characteristic features—for which The Shepherd of the Hills is the preeminent example—are as follows:
Arcadian Adventures generally featured a protagonist suffering from some moral uncertainty and placed him in a rural setting. There he became involved in a crisis, which mirrored his own personal one. The protagonist's plight centered around choosing between the contrived values of the city (wealth, acclaim, and material possessions) and wholesome country values which were represented to be true love, honesty, hard work, and spiritual fulfillment. The protagonist inevitably
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made the only moral choice, rejecting the artificiality of urban existence (Myers-Phinney 1989).
The book and play are both suffused with a melodramatic flavor that portrays the good and real in direct juxtaposition with all things bad. The book opens, for example, with this:
In the hills of life there are two trails. One lies along the higher sunlit fields where those who journey see afar, and the light lingers even when the sun is down; and one leads to the lower ground, where those who travel, as they go, look always over their shoulders with eyes of dread, and gloomy shadows gather long before the day is done.
This, my story, is the story of a man who took the trail that leads to the lower ground, and of a woman, and how she found her way to the higher sunlit fields.
In the story, it all happened in the Ozark Mountains, many miles from what we of the city call civilization. In life it has all happened many, many times before, in many, many places. The two trails lead afar. The story, so very old, is still in the telling (Wright 1907, 1).
Branson's original variety show provides another stock of cultural resource. In 1959, The Baldknobbers first opened in downtown Branson.1' Forty years later, the "original" show is still comprised of vintage "Ozark" mountain humor, music, and folklore. In 1967, the Presleys opened the first theater on what has now become Country Music Boulevard. Their first theater was only 250 seats, but expanded over the years to include 2,001 seats by 1981. That The Baldknobbers and Presley's Mountain jubilee rely on a local, homegrown cast and a considerable amount of humor and audience participation adds to the sense of authenticity associated with Branson (Fig. 5).
Silver Dollar City, the area's third mainstay, opened in 1960, as an added attraction to those waiting for tours of nearby Marvel Cave. The theme park was established around the concept of an 1890s Ozark village, with many "old world attractions" (e.g., blacksmiths, candle-making, glass-blowing, and wood-carving). In 1968, five episodes of the popular television program, "The Beverly Hillbillies," were filmed in Silver Dollar City. Gate numbers grew by 50% in the following year (Utopia, Missouri 1995). Twelve rides, 60 shops, and 12 restaurants now generate more than 310 million dollars in annual sales.
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Fig. 5. Stage scene from Branson's second variety show, The Presley's Mountain Music Jubilee. Source: Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau. Branson.
COUNTRY MUSIC AFFORDS AN IMPORTANT SENSE OF RURALITY ASSOCIATED WITH PLACE
In the early 1980s, several national performers chose to discontinue road tours and park their shows in Branson.1" Roy Clark (of the television show "Hee-Haw") was the first. By 1990, the town featured 16 shows. Yet torrid growth lay ahead. On December 9, 1991, in a remark made, half-jokingly, on national television, the program 60 Minutes, referred to Branson as the country music capital of the universe. On that influential show, Mel Tillis was credited with the mobilizing phrase: "The last one leaving Nashville for Branson, please turn out the lights" (Kopfer 1997, 55). The media attention paid great dividends. Tourist numbers leaped from 3.4 million to 4.4 million in 1992, and, commercial investment skyrocketed.
Highway 76, running east to west through Branson, is now known locally as Country Music Boulevard (Fig. 6). Along it, dozens of theater billboards read like a country music's Who's Who. Charley Pride, Glen Campbell, Roy Clark, Mel Tillis, Moe Bandy, Boxcar Willie, Mickey Gilley, Barbara Fairchild, Jim Stafford, and the Oak Ridge Boys hosted the 1996 season. Kenny Rogers, Loretta
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Fig. 6. View looking west down Highway 76, Country Music Boulevard. Source: Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau. Branson.
Lynn, Randy Travis, Tanya Tucker, and Vince Gill made special guest appearances." These billboard names strengthen the rural mythology of Branson. That middle-aged and older stars sing the old favorites "dusts off" warm memories of the past and adds the power of nostalgic embellishment to the place named Branson. Nostalgia is what country music delivers best. And its subjective experience and imaginative expression can energize the rurality of a place in a variety of ways.
Country music is built on archetypal elements that lend credence to the rural (i.e., the mention of the West and South, the places both real and imagined, references to home, trains, and animals, and the use of numerous religious symbols). Woods and Gritzner (1990, 234) emphasize that, "One of the most significant symbolic expressions of unconscious content found in the lyrics of country music is the dichotomization of space and time into distinct psychic realms: the one sacred and the other profane; one rural and the other urban; one temporal and the other beyond time, eternal or transcendent." In this sense, Branson benefits from the constant separation of these two worlds by its performers. As seen in the song lyrics of two Branson performers, Marty Robbins and
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Charley Pride, country music tends to differentiate the urban and rural worlds from each other and to moralize the character of each respectively.
The city streets are friendless and cold, I've walked them mile after mile, I'm a country boy a' singing the blues, the blues country style. Nobody stops to tell me hello, not even one friendly smile. I'm a country boy alone with the blues, the blues country style. —The Blues Country Style (Robbins)
What happened to my vision of a mansion on a hill, and the fame and fortune I came here to win? I've got nothin' but the roaches, runnin' 'cross my windowsill and I wish I was a country boy again.
—On the Southbound (Pride)
Country music thus constitutes a key discursive site for ruraiity. Its power lies in its convenient idealization of country place as one with a sense of relatedness or connectedness to such things as heritage, the land, family and home, and occupation in sharp juxtaposition to the city as a place of fragmentation and alienation (Woods and Gritzner 1990). Its power also rests in the nostalgic bridge it provides to Paradise; a temporary satisfaction of a deep longing for an "intact world," a "harmonious world," that never actually exists in the external world and thereby, provides psychological compensation for the threatened, fragmented world (Jacoby cited in Woods and Gritzner 1990, 237). Branson capitalizes on this kind of conception by coupling country music with a picturesque setting. "You'll love country music in the country" is one of its marketing slogans (Carney 1994, 29).
RURAL REPRESENTATIONS OWE MUCH TO SUBJECTIVE RECONSTRUCTION OF A SAFE, CLASS DOMAIN
With increasing levels of mobility and new uses of the countryside, ".. . the significance of the 'rural' has come to be associated less with belonging to a particular place and more with the varying levels of opportunity that rural areas afford" (Mormont cited in Marsden et al. 1993, 9). Significantly, a visit to Branson represents a host of opportunities associated with the countryside. The fact that visitors only come and go keeps the rural myth alive. As Mark Twain, one of the patron saints of ruraiity, once put it, "There is
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always hope as long as you are moving." Hence, the rural becomes less fixed to a particular place and more the product of an active set of representations based on the nostalgic past and a fantasy future.
The flexible ambiguity of nostalgic past and fantasy future is particularly valuable for consumption. In this case, for example, it allows one to select the "Branson experience" that a given visitor wants. A more robust and malleable sense of perspective is all the better. It is in this sense that the term "post- rural ," first introduced by Murdoch and Pratt (1993, 25-6), becomes relevant as a means by which to highlight " the reflexive development of ' the rural ' . . . this is not to suggest that we have a definitive ' rural experience' tucked away somewhere; the point is there is not one but there are many" (emphasis added).
Much of Branson's success is built on the possibility of touching in some manner the perceived bedrock of rural Americana. Many otherwise troublesome contradictions are bypassed by demarcating its rural character from all the "o the r" urban "else-wheres ." Branson is portrayed and sought out for the fact that it represents a place where things perceived good are polarized together as a binary opposite of those that are considered bad. In large measure, its attraction lies in the composite sum of many binary opposites, as a place pure rather than polluted, free rather than fettered, and authentic rather than artificial (Dixon, Bascom, and Zonn 2000).
In their book, Reconstituting Rurality, Murdoch and Marsden (1994, 232) underscore that:
The rural domain is reassuring to the middle class. It is a place where gender and ethnic identities can be anchored in "traditional" ways, far (but not far enough?) from the fragmented, "mixed-up" city. Within the rural domain identities are fixed, making it a white, English, family-oriented, middle-class space; a space, moreover, that is imbued with its own mythical history, whidi selects and deploys particular, nativistic notions of what it is to belong to the national culture.
Branson represents a "depository of safe space" for middle class Americans where residents are constantly striving to maintain the small town family atmosphere, the trust, and the friendliness of the Ozarks. Branson's performers constantly call attention to this depository of safe space. Andy Williams jokes with his audience that Branson is " . . . so packed [with tourists in Branson] . . .
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there's too much traffic for a drive-by anything. The closest thing we have to a gang is The Lennon Sisters" (Lomartire 1998, HI). Another performer tells his crowd "Wherever I go, people want to know what Branson is like. I just tell them to think of Andy (Griffith) and apple pie! Its a wholesome small town, that just also happens to attract 5 million people each year" (Klofper 1997, 60).
In a piece entitled "Utopia, Missouri, A Perfect American Town" The Economist (1995, 25) perhaps summarized the construction of Branson's safe, class domain best:
In a corner of America is a town where everything is wholesome and clean and clear. There is no crime, no crack, and no inner-city blight. Almost everyone is white, speaks English, and shares the same values of God, family and country. Almost everyone who wants a job has one, and wealth is piling up on every side almost as high as the mountains. The schools are good, the country is pretty, and there are plenty of shops and shows. The past is revered, as it should be, and the future is looked forward to.
That town is Branson, Missouri . . .
But Branson is, in fact, about the geography of exclusion (Sib-ley 1995). There is little room for the rural other, most notably the non-Caucasian person. Almost everyone in Branson is white; the 1990 Census reported there were only two black residents in Branson and only 14 more in the surrounding county of 25,561 people. And the majority of Branson's residents are excluded from the wealth in a town where a hard-working headliner can make a three-million-dollar profit a year (Lomartire 1998). For all the wealth generated in Branson, the 1993 per capita income for Taney County of $17,566 dollars in 1993 compared to $16,133 for non-metropolitan counties in the United States as a whole.
CONCLUSION
This paper has examined the process of energizing space in rural areas for consumption purposes. Five assertions provided structure for the analysis: (1) rural places hold special attraction amid intensifying time-space compression; (2) historic isolation can be advantageous when (re)presenting rural areas for consumption; (3) the consumption potential of a rural locality is largely dependent on its "authenticity"; (4) country music affords an important sense of rurality associated with place; (5) rural representations owe much to subjective reconstruction of a safe, class domain.
In conclusion, the case of Branson illustrates the importance
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of selective appropriation and (re)presentation of cultural history to provide continuity with the past. Clearly the right identity can provide a powerful locus for consumption. As such, Branson is a consumption frontier where rural space—both physical and symbolic—is being commercialized at a feverish pace. Land prices now exceed $300,000 per acre.
Although Branson's success is so new and so breathtaking that it is hard to find anyone who disapproves of it, the durability of its image is being tested. Dramatic changes on the landscape already belie the representation of rurality associated with Branson. All along the economic backbone of Branson—known variously as Country Music Boulevard, Highway 76, or "The Strip"—are stark juxtapositions of past and present. On one side of the road is Andy Williams' upscale theater and on the other is Hound Dawg Holler, selling greasy barbecue.
Part of the early charm of Branson was the sheer difficulty of getting there, but a new two-lane highway with an alternating third passing lane has been completed into Branson from nearby Springfield.12 Blasting crews and earthmoving equipment shortened and straightened the 70-mile route to 40 miles. Another 37 million dollars has been spent to accommodate massive traffic congestion in Branson during the tourist season. Eleven miles of five-lane highways, through the limestone hills, now encircle Branson. In keeping with patriotic fervor, the three alternate routes are designated as "the red, the white, and the blue" bypasses. Promotional material boasts that with all the new additional roads, one can be any place in Branson in about 10 minutes. Yet huge swaths have been cut through the celebrated hills and woods. Therein lies one of the paradoxes of energizing space for the purpose of consumption: the celebrated facade of a timeless and tranquil landscape has been literally leveled and removed to invite more people to the rural experience.
NOTES
1. Falk and Lyson 1989, 1. 2. Cited in US Neivs and World Report 1997, 22. 3. AT&T has chosen Celebration as a "living laboratory." Three hun
dred families have been equipped with technology packages—PCs, fax machines, telephones, cellular phones, and pagers—so that AT&T can monitor use to develop a profile of consumer wants and needs, and thereby shape the next generation of technology.
4. Celebration already has its critics: "When a government runs
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news stations, creates communities, defines friends and neighbors, controls architecture and rewrites history, it's called totalitarianism. When Disney corporation does it, it's called Celebration" (Benjamin Barber cited in Hot Type, 1997).
5. Based on data from the early 1980s, there were 285 nonmetro-politan counties with significant concentration of recreational activity (Be-ale 1997). Significant growth can be anticipated since then given the growth of theme parks and gambling sites. Unfortunately, however, a more recent figure is not available as yet.
6. The town of Branson was established in 1903, conceived as an industrial city in the Ozarks that would produce trainloads of logs, lumber, and manufactured goods. Branson incorporated in 1912 with 1,200 residents. During the 1920s, Branson and the Ozarks enjoyed a brief economic infusion on the heels of the economic boom of the roaring twenties. In 1909, Jewell Myers, once secretary of the Missouri state Board of Agriculture had called the Ozarks "The New Switzerland of health, beauty and happiness . . . the playground of the Southwest" (Myers-Phinney 1989). The idea was put in writing in 1919 when thirteen counties in the vicinity of Branson organized the Ozark Playgrounds Association. Their aim was to encourage tourism in the area, and publicize the Ozarks. They were, in fact, one of the first with a strategy to help bring more tourists to the area, including a slogan "The Land of a Million Smiles" that remains popular in some quarters today, although the Ozark Playgrounds Association was disbanded in 1979.
7. The word "hillbilly," has been used in American print since April of 1900, when the Nero York journal reported that "a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammelled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him" (Green 1965, 204). By the 1950s, the pejorative image of an Ozark hillbilly was firmly established in the public's mind's eye, despite the fact that the original expression of speech was that of "hill friend" or "hill comrade" (Green 1965).
8. It is worth noting that the "Dew" commercials always have played on the theme of freedom and independence; first mischievous hillbillies, and now, mischievous adolescents pressing the limits through quiet challenge and confrontation.
9. The show aimed to attract people who came to fish or to boat on three large lakes in the area: Table Rock, Taneycomo, and Bull Shoals. The completion of Table Rock Dam on the White River turned Lake Taneycomo below into a cold water lake, which made it ideal for trout fishing, while Table Rock Lake, above the dam, was ideal for bass fishing and various forms of water recreation. The White River, as it exists today, is half river and half a string of lakes. Taking its water from 11,000 square miles of Ozark wilderness the river winds 700 miles to its mouth at the Mississippi River.
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10. Carney (1994) suggests four factors associated with the dramatic influx of veteran country music talent into Branson. They include: (1) the opportunity to perform on a regular basis and in a permanent location, thereby eliminating the one-night stands commonly experienced by entertainers; (2) seasoned performers preference to appear before a live, attentive audience in a smoke and tobacco free venue where shows conclude before midnight; (3) the easy living, laid back lifestyle of Ozarkians; and (4) that fact that Branson represents a real investment opportunity for many old-line performers.
11. Other shows by non-country stars include Anita Bryant, the Osmond Brothers, and the Lawrence Welk Show with the Lennons.
12. The author remembers all too well the twisting, narrow roads that characterized travel into the Ozarks during the 1960s.
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