Half the Town Burned: The Great Wooldridge Fire of 2022

The presentation gives the background of Wooldridge, Missouri and it’s historic decline. The fire burned half the town in ninety minutes. I present audio recordings of the participants and some of the illustrative videos that show the intensity of the fire. This was the largest fire that some of the most seasoned first responders in the state ever saw. They navigated these challenges of unprecedented situations never seen before in the Midwest.

It also tells the stories of the dozen residents, some of which escaped minutes before fire took their homes. It tracks their lives after the fire up to the one year anniversary. The village has rebuilt some structures in the community, but most struggle after losing everything. It highlights the issue of micro-disasters in the state.

War Pigeon! Missouri’s role in the training of pigeons and pigeoneers in WWII

Neosho, Missouri found itself the home to Camp Crowder, a US Army Signal Corps replacement training center, built in 1942. In 1943, the Army Signal Pigeon Corps moved from New Jersey to Missouri and began operations. Camp Crowder became the training and breeding home to the pigeon corps. Several of the ten Signal Pigeon Companies the Army created in WWII were built and training at Camp Crowder. In 1946 the pigeons moved back to New Jersey, leaving an unusual history in the Missouri base that has long been forgotten.

The presentation covers the Pigeon Corps from 1917-1957, with an emphasis on the training program at Camp Crowder. It also covers the unusual field formation of the Signal Pigeon Company, the only Army formation capable of self-sustaining it’s own staffing due to breeding of birds. Stories of hero birds are also told. The program survived through the Korean War and was disbanded in 1957, 40 years after it’s creation.