Ronald Reagan and Branson, Missouri

I visited the famous Branson, Missouri for the first time last week with my family.

As we drove around and observed the multitude of places to see music and other shows, with a "Strip" that is sometimes called a family-friendly version of Las Vegas, not to mention all the amusement attractions, I found myself wondering "Why Branson, MO?"

The reason I asked this is because while the town is easy to access from Kansas City with a divided 4-lane highway all the way, it's still off the beaten path. And from the south (i.e. from the Little Rock, Arkansas direction), you end up on several stretches of two-lane highway going through a lot of little towns. It's just a little town of 6,000 or so residents. So how did Branson, MO become such a famous place? I found the answer in the World's Largest Toy Museum in Branson.

As you make your way through this interesting museum full of toys (some recent, some I played with as a kid, and some that my grand-dad must have played with), you will eventually come to a little chapel-like area that has a half-hour video playing in a loop.

It tells the story of Harold Bell Wright; if you're like me, maybe you've never heard of him, or don't recall hearing of him. But he was a famous writer from the first half of the 20th Century. He wrote a book about the Ozarks called "The Shepherd of the Hills" in 1907. People began to visit the Branson area after reading the popular book, and "Branson" was born.

Being a great admirer of Ronald Reagan, I was pleased to learn of Branson's connection with the greatest president of the 20th Century. I read in "God and Ronald Reagan" about how as a boy Reagan had read Harold Bell Wright's "That Printer of Udell's" and how, based on Reagan's own statement, it seemed to play some role in Reagan's acceptance of Christianity. I had forgotten the author's name and the connection until visiting the toy museum.

There is a display near the beginning of the toy museum tour that tells this Reagan story and shows the letter Reagan wrote to Jean Wright in 1984.

I'd highly recommend Branson as a great place for family-friendly fun, and as an interesting connection for those of you who may admire Ronald Reagan as much as I do. The folks who run the World's Largest Toy Museum are some of the nicest people you'll ever run across, too.