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'Ruskin Heights' tornado (1957)

locomusic01 said:
Next is William Straeter's photo looking S or SSE from near Blue Ridge Blvd & State Line Rd right along the KS/MO border:

87PjfTa.jpeg


The path narrowed pretty rapidly here from a little over a third of a mile to 250-300 yards around the time the photo was taken:

VWweSJZ.png


Poor quality shot taken by Lawrence Henson from his home at 12525 Grandview Rd:

WTE2OGz.jpeg


This is roughly halfway between Martin City and Hickman Mills and Henson was facing basically due W, so he likely got the shot just before the tornado started rapidly expanding and intensifying again (not that it had lost much strength anyway):

utr5DoU.png


Last one was labeled as being taken from the neighborhood of Gregory Heights in Raytown, but that doesn't seem to match up. I'm assuming it was in that general area but further SE. Haven't looked much into this one yet tbh.

WNUeKJc.jpeg


SaYydNF.png
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Seems like this thing went through several failed occlusions, happens lots with those long trackers. Also, KC native here so this thing is well known around here and I used to live in areas that it went through (years after the fact, of course) and heard some crazy stories about it from old-timers that survived it.
 
I'd love to see Hi-Res versions of the photos taken by Chuck LeMaster. He took many, but only 2-3 are available to the public. I think 2-3 years ago, the Kansas City Library (?) said they had them, but I didn't follow up on seeing if they could scan all of them in high resolution.

Update - Checked my Twitter, it was actually May of 2020, and the NWS Kansas City said to check the Franklin County (Kansas) Historical Society.
 
SGFmoTwister said:
I'd love to see Hi-Res versions of the photos taken by Chuck LeMaster. He took many, but only 2-3 are available to the public. I think 2-3 years ago, the Kansas City Library (?) said they had them, but I didn't follow up on seeing if they could scan all of them in high resolution.

Update - Checked my Twitter, it was actually May of 2020, and the NWS Kansas City said to check the Franklin County (Kansas) Historical Society.
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I haven't contacted FCHS yet but I've been told they have both tornado and damage photos besides those they've shared publicly. Hopefully their fee schedules aren't as ridiculous as some other places.
 
 
Ivanthetornadoenthusiast said:
@locomusic01 (sorry for the mention) how many damage photos do you have from the Kansas side of the tornado's path?
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Roughly two dozen quality shots, probably 50 or so altogether counting clippings from newspapers and booklets and the like. I haven't made a concerted effort to contact local libraries and historical societies and whatnot yet though, so I'm optimistic I'll be able to get more high-quality stuff when I do. Either way, I'd say it's better documented than I'd expected.

The early part of the path (from the Osage/Franklin County border to around Homewood) and the area between Spring Hill and Blue Valley are probably the most lacking right now. The lack of contemporary plat maps from some of those areas also doesn't help; makes it a lot harder not only to map out damage points but also to pin down photo locations. I'm hoping I can find some more older folks who are locals and might remember where different properties were/recognize areas where some of the pictures were taken.
 
locomusic01 said:
Roughly two dozen quality shots, probably 50 or so altogether counting clippings from newspapers and booklets and the like. I haven't made a concerted effort to contact local libraries and historical societies and whatnot yet though, so I'm optimistic I'll be able to get more high-quality stuff when I do. Either way, I'd say it's better documented than I'd expected.

The early part of the path (from the Osage/Franklin County border to around Homewood) and the area between Spring Hill and Blue Valley are probably the most lacking right now. The lack of contemporary plat maps from some of those areas also doesn't help; makes it a lot harder not only to map out damage points but also to pin down photo locations. I'm hoping I can find some more older folks who are locals and might remember where different properties were/recognize areas where some of the pictures were taken.
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I wonder when will the May 20-21, 1957 outbreak article gets released
 
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