Editing West Plains, Missouri (section)

====West Plains Dance Hall explosion====
On April 13, 1928,<ref name="WPDQ Explosion">{{cite news| title = 37 KILLED IN MYSTERY BLAST; 22 INJURED | work = West Plains Weekly Quill | location = West Plains, Missouri | page = 1 | date = April 19, 1928 }}</ref> for reasons still unknown, a violent explosion occurred in downtown West Plains. About 60 people had gathered in the Bond Dance Hall, which was on the second floor of a building on East Main Street. The explosion was reported to be felt for miles, even in [[Pomona, Missouri|Pomona]], which is approximately ten miles from West Plains. Windows were shattered throughout the block, and cars were also warped on the street. The explosion also damaged the nearby Howell County Courthouse so badly that it was vacated and left until late 1933, when it was demolished by the [[Civil Works Administration]].<ref name="WP 1930-1970">{{cite book |title=West Plains: 1930 to 1970 |last=Aid |first=Toney |author2=Jerry Womack |year=2010|publisher=Arcadia Publishing}}</ref> Thirty-seven people were killed in the explosion, and 22 people were injured. Twenty of those killed were never positively identified, but buried in a mass grave at Oak Lawn Cemetery in the southeast part of town. They are memorialized by the Rock of Ages monument, erected on October 6, 1929.<ref name="Waymark">{{cite web|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM23KY |title=Waymark entry for memorial |access-date=2013-06-04}}</ref> The explosion has also been remembered in a folk song recorded 30 years later.<ref name="Explosion Song">{{cite web|url=http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=113 |title=The West Plains Explosion (song) |access-date=2013-06-04}}</ref>

The cause of the explosion is still a topic of controversy nearly a century after the blast. Numerous causes for the explosion have been offered, but a definitive story has never been proven to be true. The most widely accepted theory is that the explosion somehow originated from leaking gasoline in a garage owned by J. W. Wiser, which happened to be on the floor below. Because Wiser was at the garage at the time, some have speculated that the blast was intentionally caused by Wiser as a suicide attempt, which his wife reportedly refused to acknowledge. In addition, the late West Plains native Robert Neathery explained in his 1994 book, ''[[West Plains As I Knew It]]'', that a truck containing dynamite parked in the garage may have been the cause, indirectly part of a crime in which someone shot Wiser and set a fire to cover up the crime, and the dynamite exploded.<ref>{{cite book |title=West Plains as I Knew It |last=Cisco |first=Marideth |year=1994 |publisher=Yarnspinner Press |location=[[Willow Springs, Missouri]] |pages=77–83 }}</ref>

The event is fictionalized in the short novel ''The Maid's Version'' by [[Daniel Woodrell]], which is about a similar dance hall explosion in the fictional town of West Table.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smokymountainnews.com/component/k2/item/11954-a-writer-s-writer-delves-into-1929-explosion|title=A 'writer's writer' delves into 1929 explosion|first=Gary|last=Carden|website=smokymountainnews.com|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref>