Corn Cob Pipe Capital of the World

                                                Corn Cob Pipe Capital of the World

has been a brutal winter here in Missouri, at least for John and I who use to follow the sun with our motor home.  Certainly there has not been much sun here the past few months!    Oh well, it continues to be a joy to be able to be around our grandchildren on a fairly regular basis, so that makes up for the cold snowy days which we have had to endure. Spring has been happening here, and that is exciting.  We took a few days a couple of weeks back to visit Branson Missouri.  Saw about 4 musical shows, as well as the Shanghai  Acrobats.   We also had one day while there to do some hiking in a conservation area.  It was a good hike as spring was starting to make its appearance.

Our other spring fling took place last week in Washington Missouri, at a corn cob factory.  We read in the newspaper that this factory was celebrating its 150th anniversary with tours of the place.  Wow, it is not everyday that we can tour a pipe factory!

Missouri Meerschaum grows its own corn, and after the cobs have been shelled they are stored on the third floor of the factory, pictured above.  It is necessary for the cobs to dry for two years before they can be turned into pipes.  The Missouri Meerschaum ships out 3,000 pipes daily to every U.S. state as well as 70 countries worldwide.  And just for some clarification here, meerschaum refers to a Turkish clay, of which some of the more expensive pipes are made.  In 1869 Henry Tibbe, a woodworker discovered that it was profitable to create pipes by applying plaster to the outside of a corn cob, then turning it into a pipe after sanding the bowl when it had dried.

Our tour was quite interesting.  We were able to watch about 35 employees bore out holes in the corn

cobs, as well as plaster, plug the holes and varnish them.  Interestingly enough, the pipes are created in different sizes.  We visited the factory museum and learned that General Douglas MacArthur preferred a pipe with a deep bowl, Mark Twain liked a different style, as well as Jesse James.   There is certainly quite an art/ science to creating a corn cob pipe. 

 The last stop on our tour  was the factory gift shop  Smelling the pipe tobacco and looking at the 35 varieties of pipes I was tempted to purchase one.  Better sense took over, however, and I choose instead to buy a small magnetic pipe which I can display on my refrigerator.