My wife's grandfather loved to fish. He especially liked going to Bennett Springs State Park. It's about the nicest version of what Missouri has to offer in the way of trout fishing. On his passing about 20 years ago the family wanted to do something for Bennett Springs to honor him. He loved to sit on the bank and watch, when he himself wasn't fishing.
Their first idea was to donate a nice bench in his favorite spot so that others could enjoy watching the experience as well. However, the people that ran the park felt like they didn't want benches in the park. So my wife's family asked them what it was that they would want, since they didn't like any of their suggestions. The answer they got was a nice table. This was for the fisherman to sign their daily tag on. The family thought that this was a very nice idea. They spent several thousand dollars on this table so that it could be enjoyed by everyone at Bennett Springs.
However, after about a year the table disappeared. The family looked around and asked about its location. They found the table in another building at the park. When they asked why it was moved it was said that the table was to big for the location. The table became home to pamphlets and brochures on trout fishing and the area. It was in a building that most people didn't visit in an off the beaten path location. Here it remained for the next few of years. Since most people didn't frequent the location we didn't either.
A few years back we went to the previous location to look for the table. The table was gone and we couldn't get an answer to where the location of it was. None of the park employees were sure what happened to it. My mother-in-law was pretty upset by this. Another item that didn't help her feelings was that shortly after they bought the table and it disappeared, the park started letting people purchase benches for the park to honor family members.
After a campaign to find the table, my mother-in-law finally found the park manager. He knew exactly where the table was and offered to let her have it back. Her first response was that she wanted the park to keep it and use it. He plainly said that it wasn't something the park would ever use. So her and my father-in-law picked up the table. In the pictures you will see three cut outs where oak boxes sat to hold safety pins, string and pens. These were in pretty bad shape. I plan to have those fixed to their original state. Since the table had only been used for one year in the main public and sparingly for paperwork, someone had not been very nice to the table. This really hurt my mother-in-laws feelings.
I now have the table and plan to incorporate it into my families love of fishing. I don't get tired of looking at the hand carved fishing scene.
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