Finding Farmington

06/03/2026

This weekend is the 48th annual Farmington Country Days, so get ready to munch on some carnival food and ride some rides, or avoid downtown completely for a few days if you are one of those! Take a minute to learn about how it started, and share some of your own favorite Country Days memories!

Country Days as we know it today was modeled after a weeklong event that was held in the summer of 1965 and 1966 called The Old Settlement Festival. It was put on by The Community Betterment Group and The Jaycees and was partially intended to encourage shopping downtown with many stores offering special deals and sidewalk sales. There was a festival ball, a parade, square dancing, antiques, rides, games, and a flower show among other attractions.

The country’s bicentennial in 1976 had the city planning a way to celebrate, and they took inspiration from The Old Settlement Days. It lasted a week and took place in Long Park. Events included tours of Long House, street dances, arts and crafts, a pet show and more. A scaled down one-day version of this event took place in 1977 and 1978.

In 1979 it became the annual Country Days as we know it today. Sponsored by the Farmington Chamber of Commerce Retail Promotions Committee, it took place the first weekend in August and was spread between Long Park and the courthouse square. The first year advertised a large auction that was raising money for the chamber to help purchase the land for the proposed industrial park. The Farmington Jaycees sponsored some events and contests including a turtle race, frog jumping contest, egg throwing competition, pie eating contest, a bike race, tug of war and a watermelon seed spitting challenge.

Over the years it has grown from fiddlers in Long Park to major country music concerts that took place at the stadium at Wilson-Rozier Park. Some of the biggest performers included The Oak Ridge Boys, GTO, Shenandoah, Patty Loveless, Diamond Rio, Aaron Tippen, Waylon Jennings (at the racetrack) Marty Stuart, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and of course, Dolly Parton who came in 1992. 6000 people attended her concert with profits going to The Presbyterian Home for Children. Dolly also surprised the Country Days goers by riding in the parade which had a crowd of 20,000 to 30,000 people.

Later years added events like hospital bed races, cow chip bingo (yes, cow chip bingo!) little miss and mister contest, talent shows, ugly vehicle contest, the moonlight bike ride, diaper derby and more. Taking a look back at the origin of this festival showed me that while it’s grown so much bigger in size over the years, a lot of the basics haven’t changed that much. And honestly, some of the rides I’m convinced haven’t changed at all!

Personally, I’ll skip the rides, but I’ll for sure be down there eating a funnel cake and doing some of the best people watching this town has to offer! Get out there and have some good old fashion fun this weekend, and enjoy these photos of some Country Days memories.

05/14/2026

I love when I can find old pictures that show what the interiors of stores and buildings looked like. It feels like a rare treat since they are harder to come across. Here is a collection of some that I’ve found. There are a few at the end that are mystery photos so take a look and let me know if you can figure them out.

04/13/2026

If you drive down Karsch Blvd today to where it intersects with Highways 00 and 32 you'll see a freshly cleared corner lot, soon to be listed for sale. It was leveled this February, but before that it would have been a familiar sight to locals: a garage type-building, a lot full of cars and maybe you caught a peek of a few tiny brick buildings behind it. This is what remained of Ozark Village.

It was built in 1948 and billed as a "tourist court" that had a cafe with a private dining room, a two-bay service station and five small brick cabins that each had two bedroom units inside. It was built for the Roberts-Lloyd Co., owned by Raymond Roberts and Ruffner Lloyd.

At the time, this was a very busy intersection connecting many of the main ways to get into and out of town, and that still holds true today. Back in the days of Ozark Village, the airport was located there, off of St. Genevieve Ave and the cabins were often used by people who flew in.

By 1953 there were five more double cottages added along with a new hotel building that housed another 10 rooms. The Phillips 66 station here was run by different people over the years, including Bill Hall who took over in 1954 before he had his own station in town near Hunt's Dairy Bar.

The Farmington Press mentioned that Eleanor Roosevelt traveled to the area in July 1960 and stayed in Cabin 13. She was here as a guest of honor and featured speaker at the Flat River Junior College for a fundraising dinner sponsored by the St. Francois County Democratic Club.

The cafe had many proprietors as well over the years, including J.W. Melton, Milton Simms, Mary and Aldo Sheets, and in 1973 The Ozark Village Cafe was run by Eddie and Herman "Cotton" Shumake. They added a Greyhound bus stop, a beauty shop, trailer court and a new kitchen addition that had a dining room and banquet hall. Eventually they changed the name to the Ozark Family Restaurant.

Around 1998 the old building was refurbished and was the home to El Tapatio for around 10 years until it was damaged badly in a storm and they built the new restaurant building behind Walmart. More recently, the corner belonged to Denny Motors, a used car dealership and Boyd Towing, until it was sold and the land cleared about two months ago.

Curious to see what the future holds for this spot!

03/25/2026

Sharing one of the early posts here for anyone that missed it the first time, nearly 3 years ago! I appreciate all the new followers since then. Thanks for all the support, shares and encouragement.

03/06/2026

Springtime means warmer days and sprouting leaves, but to me it also means it's time to dig! People who metal detect wait all winter for the ground to thaw and the daylight to start lasting a little bit longer. My little family loves to spend time digging together and it's been pretty fascinating to discover what could be hiding under our feet, just below the surface. We have been digging for years and I'll share some photos of some of my favorite finds, but don't get me wrong, it's usually a whole lot of trash, nails and can tabs. If you dig enough, though, you're bound to find something cool eventually.

Last spring and summer I noticed a lot of yards around town getting remediated for lead, and the digger in me saw it as possible history lost. Once it's scraped up and hauled away, the chance is gone, so I thought i'd put out a call for yards to detect. If you are in an older house, reach out and let us see what we can find, especially if you are scheduled for remediation. I'd love to get a chance to search around first.

Any other metal detectorists in the area? If you have found anything interesting, comment and share!

02/20/2026

The old hospital on Weber Road is being partly demolished right now and if you want to learn a bit about how it got there, we’ll have to go back to the late 1800’s and talk about how we cared for the people in the community that could not care for themselves.

In 1879 a Missouri law gave each county the responsibility to “support the poor” which led to the creation of county infirmaries or “poor farms” which would give people shelter and food in exchange for work on the farm. Our first county poor farm opened in 1881 about 6 miles southeast of town in the area of Possum Hollow Road. In 1899 a report stated that there were 29 inmates, as they called them, half men and half women, including 4 children.

By 1902, reports on the terrible conditions of the farm were making their way into the local papers and a cry for change began. Many of the witnesses to the state of things were women who visited with church groups, including the Young Ladies Society of the Presbyterian Church. The Farmington Times reported that “there has been a good deal of suffering among the inmates of the county poor farm since the recent cold spell set in, resulting in much sickness and 3 deaths last week from pneumonia.”

A grand jury was sent to visit the farm and report back their findings. The 1903 grand jury report stated that the buildings were dilapidated and the furniture and bedding was insufficient and infected with vermin and should be “consigned to the flames”. They recommended the farm be sold at once and a new place found closer to town, and that the practice of letting the lowest bidder run the farm be abolished. After this, the caretaker would be paid a salary which did help improve conditions.

In 1904 the county purchased a 21 acre tract and built the new county infirmary. This brings us to the site of the old hospital on Weber today. It started as a long brick building with a two-story section in the center, flanked by two wings used as sleeping quarters, one for men and one for women. Each wing ended with porches and large rooms that were used for a worship area and a social center for the men. The second story was used by the superintendent and his family. The farm had 100 chickens, 3 cows and a grape arbor that could yield 800 pounds a season. Just north of the building was a small cemetery with 19 graves, though only a few were from the infirmary. The cemetery is still there, though you’d never know it. It’s unmarked and there are no grave markers or stones. I have not been able to find any records of who is buried there.

By the 1950’s, national welfare services took over and lessened the need for a place like the infirmary. It was put up for auction and purchased by several local osteopathic physicians who had no hospital for their patients within 70 miles. The doctors financed this project by mortgaging their own personal property as security. After a huge remodel, Mineral Area Osteopathic Hospital opened its doors in 1952 as a 30 bed facility. The brick building was painted white and that was the entirety of the hospital until 1968 when it had a major expansion which added 55 beds. Another addition in 1972 brought a new OB department, and the old white building became the administration wing. 60 more beds were gained in 1978 by building up a second story, bringing the total beds to 177.

The name changed to Mineral Area Regional Medical Center in 1987 and it grew more over the years into the large campus that we are familiar with today. The original brick building of the infirmary was torn down in 1992 to make way for the ancillary services building that still stands, facing Weber Road. MARMC closed in 2016 and has remained empty for the last 10 years. The property was donated to The Harvest Christian Centre in 2022 and this month photos started popping up on Facebook of bulldozers and piles of rubble as much of the old hospital has been demolished. Pastor Dwight Jones has said that plans to turn the building into a behavioral health facility fell through, and it would be easier to keep the property secure and market it for future use by leveling the older parts of it.

This place was a major part of the community for such a long time. Some people worked their whole lives in those buildings. It saw life begin and end. I found many old newspaper clippings of the town celebrating the hospital as it grew and grew, photos of bricklayers and people putting up steel beams, hospital workers showing off newly built areas. I thought of all the local companies that provided labor and materials over the years and all the money spent, starting with that first small group of doctors in 1952. With that in mind, it did give me some feels when I drove by and saw it all on the ground, sorted into neat piles of scrap and debris, gone in a flash.

There is still one little blip of history left though. Out front of the main building left standing is a small section of iron fencing that used to surround the old infirmary. Originally it was a part of the county’s 3rd courthouse, built in 1886, but it was removed in 1910 during some improvements were made on the town square grounds. The infirmary was in need of fencing, so it was relocated there. It was made by the Rogers Fence Company of Springfield, Ohio and there used to be 581 feet of it. Sections of it seem to have disappeared over the years, leaving just this tiny bit of history behind. Maybe there are some more parts to it out there somewhere, if a person knew where to look 👀

01/14/2026

The recent news that the AMC movie theater in Farmington is closing inspired me to look back at all of the past theaters we’ve had. The current theater opened in 1994 under the name Maple Valley 4. It lasted over 30 years, and even though it started feeling a little outdated, it still holds a lot of memories for people here. Lots of first dates and first jobs, and so many kids who saw their very first big screen movie here. It’s sad that we won't have a theater anymore, but looking back has shown me that something always seems to come along to fill the void and meet the needs of the people.

The first moving picture show here was called Amusement Theatre and it opened in 1909 in the Sprott Building, which was at the present day 214 Package Store and faced Jefferson Street. In 1912 there was a second theater called The Monarch which was on the corner of S. Washington and Harrison, behind the present day Ozarks Federal. It had silent movies with orchestras and live shows. The owners of The Monarch bought out Amusement Theatre in 1913 and closed it, leaving The Monarch the only show in town. It was a metal building with side windows that opened in warm weather. It lasted for 15 years until a fire in 1927.

The following year that company built a new 940 seat theater across the street and called it The Ritz. It would have been behind today’s Music Makers building. It had a front entrance on W. Columbia next to the Rozier store, and a side entrance on S. Washington. It had a retractable movie screen and a large stage that was used for variety shows, square dances, club meetings and more. The movies were silent there until around 1930.

In 1960 The Ritz was modernized and the front entrance was changed when its neighboring store, P.N. Hirsch, leased more space from the theater's owners and updated the store's facade. The theater added a new marquee and a large neon arrow sign mounted to the corner of the building that pointed to the new main entrance. It was damaged and closed in 1964 after the P.N. Hirsch fire, which was one of the worst in the town's history.

People still had the Corral Drive-In which was opened in 1949 by Edwards & Plumlee. It was on current day Flat River Rd near the vet clinic. It started with a single screen and speakers for 480 cars. Capacity doubled when a second screen was added in 1974 when it was sold to Kerasotes. After it closed in 1985, people traveled to Flat River for movies until the Maple Valley 4 arrived. With its chapter coming to a close, it has been interesting to look back, but I am curious to find out where the story goes from here. Stay tuned.

12/17/2025

11/14/2025

Jon Cozean 1938 - 2025

The origin of Cozean Funeral Home started in 1865 when Thomas Lang opened a wagon manufacturing company here. Besides wagons and farm implements, they also made caskets and Lang served as an embalmer and operated a horse drawn hearse. Lang started the first full-service funeral home in the area in 1889. After his death in 1912, the family moved Lang Undertaking Co from the wagon works to the Tetley Building on Columbia St. It was sold to Henry Rinke in 1898 who operated an undertaking company in Flat River at the time. Rinke’s daughter, Elva, married Rolla Cozean and they became the new owners and changed the name to Cozean Funeral Home in 1916.

In 1930 the operation moved to a stately home on N Washington St that is no longer there and 10 years later it was moved one more time to the present day location on W Columbia. The family business expanded over the next 40 years under the direction of Charles Hugo, son of Elva and Rolla. Hugo died in 1982 which led to his son Jon taking over as the family’s 4th generation funeral home director.

Jon Cozean’s story is one of dedication and service to his community. He deeply cared about the history of this town and we were lucky to have him here to share so much of what he knew. So many times I've seen someone have a local history question where the answer was always “go ask Jon Cozean”.

He may have ended up in the family business but journalism fired him up at a young age. He started a daily newspaper in 4th grade called the Noodle Soup Scoop, eventually going weekly with The Farmington Sun which he published for 4 years. During high school he worked for The Farmington Press and Farmington News where he devoured old back issues of the newspapers in the basement which he credited as one reason he became so interested in old Farmington.

Cozean majored in journalism at Mizzou and lived in Ecuador during a graduate studies program, before joining the Marine Corps Reserves. That led him to a fellowship at George Washington University in Washington DC where he lived until the death of his father Hugo in 1982. He returned to Farmington and took over as the funeral director. Jon balanced that job along with teaching government and Latin American classes at MAC which he did for 15 years.

Jon joined the St Francois County Historical society in 1987, following in the footsteps of his mother, Zelda, who was a founding member. He was instrumental in the renovation of Long Memorial Hall in the 90’s and was involved with countless historical presentations on topics like old Farmington springhouses and bridges, schools and early area factories. He helped preserve the stories and history and helped get the information out to the people that cared about it, which is the same goal of this page, Finding Farmington. Let Jon Cozean continue to be an inspiration and let us keep digging in, learning and sharing it all.