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The first traffic fatality of 2013 for Troop G and in Douglas County occurred south of Squires early Tuesday. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said Ray B. Hicks, 32, of Ava,died when the pickup he was driving ran off Douglas County Route N, three miles south of Squires and overturned, partially ejecting the driver. Trooper…

Civil War Reenactment Tells the Story of the Battle of Clark’s Mill History tells us that on Nov. 7, 1862, between 1,200 and 1,500 well-armed Confederate combat soldiers moved into our part of south central Missouri. They carried four cannons with them, cannons that shot six-pound cannon balls. Their mission was to destroy all mills,…

The truck shown at left and a barn belonging to Ricky Jones were completely destroyed by fire last Friday night. The property is located on Girdner Road, just outside the Ava city limits. The Ava City Fire Department and Ava Rural Fire Department responded, but the barn was totally involved in fire when the first…

A crowd of about 75 people attended the town hall meeting at the Squires Community Building at noon last Friday to support their post office. Most of them went away discouraged, however, with the feeling that the meeting was only a formality and had no real purpose. Rick Belcher, manager of Postal Operations, from Springfield,…

Situated in an area southwest of Ava on the Douglas-Ozark county line is the 23 miles of Glade Top Trail. This is the only National Scenic Byway in Missouri.  The two lane gravel road that winds along the ridgetops and over the hills was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s. Depending…