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Jakk's Glade: The Jack Longacre Memorial
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On Russell Mountain, close to the Missouri state highpoint on Taum Sauk Mountain, there is an open glade with a view over to Taum Sauk. In this glade, there are a memorial plaque, a bench and two telephone poles with arrows pointing to the various state highpoints. Known as "Jakk's Glade," it is a memorial to Jack "Guru Jakk" Longacre, the founder of the Highpointers Club. It is altogether appropriate that the arrow atop one of the telephone poles pointing to "JAKK" is a weathervane. Jack is all around us and present at each of the 50 state highpoints. The Club made the effort to scatter a bit of Jack's ashes at each of the highpoints after his death. Wherever you are in the United States, Jack is looking down and watching over you as you climb. The Ozark Trail Association recently relocated their Russell Mountain trailhead to coincide with the trailhead leading from Highway CC out to Jakk's Glade. This will increase traffic through the Glade and, hopefully, spark some curiosity about the Club and encourage some of the Ozark Trail hikers to seek us out and join the Club. As the Club liaison for Taum Sauk, I have also taken on responsibility for maintaining the highpoint arrows. These have been made by various club members and, with age and weather, need periodic replacement. In addition, according to my latest inventory in September, 2014, there are four states whose arrows are missing or have never been made. If you look down the table below and see anything marked "poor" or "missing" in the "Condition" column, please consider making a replacement arrow. You may contact me via email and I will get in touch with you about shipping me the replacement arrow. This is purely a volunteer effort but one that we should keep up with so folks realize what the Club is all about and that we truly appreciate the work of our founder and others who have gone before us. There are very few "hard and fast" rules for making the arrows. In general, they ought to be about 6" tall and 36" to 48" long. Many are carved, some even in the shape of the states they represent. Having the name or abbreviation of the state as well as the highpoint name will make it easier for non-highpointers to identify. Many of the arrows include the highpoint elevation and distance from the Glade to the highpoint. Feel free to use your creativity but remember that this is an outdoor display so the arrows will be exposed to Missouri's unpredictable conditions. Arrows will be attached to the poles with two screws at the midpoint of the arrow, so leaving space there without disturbing your lettering or artwork would be preferable. Refer to the existing arrows for examples. The distance and bearing to each highpoint are calculated from Jakk's Glade and included in the table below in case you want to incorporate those on the arrow. When I attach arrows to the poles, I attempt to align the arrow with the initial bearing to that highpoint. All distances and bearings below were computed using the "haversine" formula as shown on the Movable Type Scripts web site. |
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