Mary Rinker Herschend, “Leading Lady of Missouri Tourism.”
by Pat McGrath Avery
Publisher
Red Engine Press
River Road Press
www.redenginepress.com
417-230-5555
Mary grew up in Illinois, attended Eureka College and Ohio State University. She became a librarian and married. Her life changed drastically when her husband died leaving her with a young son.
She met Hugo and Gudrun Herschend and their young son just a few years before cancer took Gundrun’s life. Mary and Hugo married and lived with their sons, Pete and Jack, in Wilmette, Illinois.
They shared many common interest and their love of wildflowers would soon lead them to southern Missouri. In 1946, they took a trip to the Ozarks and that vacation changed their lives.
They met Miss Miriam Lynch and her sister Genevieve who owned Marvel Cave outside Branson, Missouri. They fell in love with the beautiful Ozark Mountains. In 1950 the Herschends signed a 99-year lease on the cave. Hugo wanted to develop a business but Mary was content to be a mother and housewife. Although she didn’t want to move, Hugo was adamant about building a retirement business. He continued to work in Chicago, leaving Mary and the boys to live in the Ozarks and start their business. Eight thousand people visited the cave the first year they operated it.
The family capitalized on their individual strengths, Hugo’s marketing skills, Mary’s organizational and business sense and their sons’ willingness to work and learn the business. In 1955, Hugo died of a heart attack, leaving 56-year-old Mary in charge of a lease and a new business.
She made a decision, approached a banker and convinced him to loan her money to make improvements and run the business. Every year she borrowed money during the winter and paid it back when visitors came during the summer months. Hard work and determination drove her.
Mary and her sons loved the history of the Ozarks and in 1960 opened Silver Dollar City, a small Ozark Mountain village based on life in the late 1800s. The village featured the clothing, crafts, art, food and lifestyle of the era. Silver Dollar City brought history to its visitors and created jobs. As visitors came, entertainers came and the area grew.
People loved watching the craftsmen at work, tasting the foods, listening to the music and enjoying the natural beauty of the Ozarks.
Together with Pete and Jack, she made it work and grow. They hired a group of employees who shared their vision and their hard-working lifestyle. No division of labor existed. They all pitched in and learned every aspect of running a park. Mary admitted that they never developed business plans. Each year she and the boys decided how to improve their park and then worked to make it happen. Each year attendance increased.
Mary frequently told people, “Pete runs Silver Dollar City, Jack runs Marvel Cave –
and I run the two boys.”
In 1968, the Small Business Administration named Mary as Missouri Small Businessman of the Year. In 1972, she received the Missouri Tourism Award and in 1977, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce named her as the “Leading Lady of Missouri Tourism.”
Before her death in 1983, Silver Dollar City grew to be the largest employer in the area. The Missouri House of Representatives passed a resolution stating the House “recognizes in the life and work of Mary Rinker Herschend those attribute which characterize and define a true Missouri pioneer…who helped create a wave of recreational development which greatly contributed to the rise of tourism as one of Missouri’s top industries.”
