It’s the kind of place where the American Pickers could have a heyday.
Considering the volume and variety of the items to choose from, the stars of the popular History Channel program would likely find several things they would want to buy.
But if Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz ever did visit Joe Richardson’s Roads End Ranch on the Big Piney River in the Ellis Prairie area of Texas County, they would probably walk away from the property’s cabin and five outbuildings with that what-might-have-been feeling.
“I ain’t selling any of it,” Richardson said.
Having lived in or near Houston all of his 84 years and being the owner of Houston Wood Treating for about the past 40, Richardson is a familiar fixture in the community. Many people who know him are also aware that he spent decades being an avid hunter and fisherman.
But unless they have visited his cabin overlooking the Big Piney, they may not realize how avid.
There is hardly a hair’s breadth of space left in any of the structure’s four small rooms that is not occupied by an item related to hunting or fishing. Every shelf, wall, table and beam in the ceiling has something hanging, sitting or leaning on it and every nook and cranny has been utilized as more room for display.
When the extensive collection more or less overflowed the cabin, Richardson began putting up outbuildings to provide more room. As the collection continued to grow, the number of outbuildings grew.
After having his eye on it for a long time as a favorite Big Piney fishing destination, Richardson finally acquired the property about 30 years ago. He began collecting at about the same time and has kept it up ever since.
Now the cabin and adjacent buildings are home to the myriad of outdoor embellishments, including everything from wooden fish, to gig forks, to restored antique oil lanterns and heavy bronze figurines.
And antlers – lots and lots of antlers.
“I just like different things,” Richardson said. “I travel around some, and when I see things in other places that I like, I just bring them here.”
His passion for the outdoors and for collecting representative items manifests in an uncanny ability to recall specific aspects of the situations in which he acquired almost every piece. Places, names, prices and even dates flow effortlessly as he tells his stories about each wooden fish trap, antique lure or hand-painted turkey call.
“But I can’t remember my neighbor’s name,” Richardson said, “or what I’m supposed to do in the afternoon.”
Besides being a collection cache, Joe’s cabin is a popular getaway for family members, His wife of 62 years, Kate, said she doesn’t really mind the collection having grown the way it has, but admits it causes her a couple of reactions.
“I get a little claustrophobic at times,” she said, “and I want to start cleaning everything.”
Due to its position on a bluff alongside the river, occupants of the cabin enjoy a classic view of the Big Piney, including a forested landscape sporting hundreds of shortleaf pines from an ambitious planting project undertaken years ago by Richardson.
But the property also includes a sizable cave, a feature not common to many private tracts but relatively common to Missouri’s limestone and dolomite Karst topography.
“There’s a lot of history in there,” Richardson said. “If those rocks could talk, they’d have a lot of stories to tell.”
Richardson has a second place on the Piney about 30 miles downstream from the Ellis Prairie cabin. That property has a more rustic cabin on it – without power or running water – and sits on a bluff above a series of switchbacks in the river.
“Most people who see it say it’s the prettiest place they’ve ever seen,” Richardson said. “You can see the river flowing in three different directions.”
While he has no desire to sell any of it off, Richardson realizes he will inevitably part with some of the stuff in his collection.
“I’ve never sold anything in my life,” he said. “But I guess I should probably think about giving some of it away or something.”
A sign attached to a cupboard door in the cabin’s kitchen reads “I’d rather be lost at the cabin than found at home.”
“You sit here and you just see trees, hills and the river and you don’t hear anything but birds,” Richardson said. “That’s what I like about living in the Ozarks.”
I just like different things. I travel around some, and when Isee things in other places that I like, I just bring themhere.”