Visiting along the spring branch

A great many people think of Bennett Spring only as a tourist destination for fishermen and their families but the truth is that many local folks also enjoy fishing at the park as much as those who travel many miles to get here. Folks such as:

Mark Lowrance and his granddaughter, 12 year old Kirra Wynts

“I was born and raised in Lebanon and have lived here all my life,” Mark Lowrance chuckled, “and this is our thing—me and Kirra, fishing together.”

“I’ve been coming here with my grandpa since I was eight or so,” Kyrra added shyly. “When I’m not fishing, I like to sleep or play with my cats.” “She’s very active in her church, too—Community Baptist,” Lowrance continued. “They just finished a big Vacation Bible School there.”

Lowrance is retired after working in property management for years for a firm out of Columbia, Mo. “I used to fish down here three times a week,” he laughed. “I still have all my old tags, a big old stack of them. I never buy a fly. I tie all my own.

“One of my uncles worked at the trout hatchery here years ago when I was just a kid and I loved it when they would bring me down here to visit him and see the fish. Now as I’m getting older, I don’t get down here as often as I used to but we—me and Kirra still love it.”

Her bright smile said she agreed.

Gary Walden of Lebanon is also a regular fisherman at Bennett. Before he was seriously injured in an accident trying to push a truck out of a ditch when he was 27 years old, Walden was actually an employee at the Bennett Spring Trout Hatchery for three years.

“You know, back when you are that age, you think you are ten foot tall and bullet proof,” he began with a smile, “but it doesn’t always work out that way.”

Walden has been in a wheelchair since 1991 as a result of that day when the truck rolled back over him but he still enjoys fishing at Bennett Spring. “I love to fish,” he admitted quietly. “I try to come once a week on Wednesdays and visit with the fly-tying group that meets at the church here. Then I come on over here to Zone 1 and do some fishing. I only fly fish.

“Somedays I tie flies with those guys and somedays, it’s just a good place to visit with other fishermen. It’s not a club, nothing formal, just a bunch of us who like to fish.”

He concluded. “Those old timers know what they’re doing when it comes to tying flies.”

And finally, Ray Medley, a retired Mercy ICU nurse from Springfield has been fishing at Bennett Spring for 65 years. “The first time I was here, I was just two years old. I don’t remember it, of course, but I’ve seen pictures. My dad, Leroy Medley was born at Plad, which is just up the road. I’m working as a campground host right now for the month of August and I’ll be back doing that in October as well. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it this month, too,  but then I thought working at the air-conditioned check-in booth down at the big #1 campground might not be a bad place to be in the August heat.”

Ray worked as an ICU nurse for 47 years before retiring and his wife, Jane, is still working there in the hospital’s ICU.

“This is my drug,” Ray added, “my rest and relaxation, fishing here.” On this day, he was standing in the water near the rocks by the spring itself and the nearby low water bridge. “I’ll fish anywhere, in any of the fishing zones here.

“I’ve not missed a March 1 Opening Day here since I got a driver’s license at age 16,” he continued. “It was originally four of us high school friends and then college. Since then, over the years, it’s been with other grads, sons and brothers-in-law. My one son is quite the fisherman and the other, he likes to come, too but he doesn’t fish. There’s now closer to 40 of us that come every year on Opening Day. It’s become quite a tradition for our family. This is a special place to my heart.”