Let's Go Hinkin'!

(Showme, Mar. 1949).

We have a new display up at the Student Center featuring Hinkson Creek! Come check it out in the square display cases just outside of Mort's!

 

On sunny afternoons, Hinkson Creek was a popular hangout and dating destination among the students attending MU and Stephens College. Both the Showme and the Savitar regularly featured images of couples marching towards the creek, arm in arm, picnic basket in tow. This practice was known as “hinking” (or hinkin’).

Four Mizzou students "hinking" (Savitar, 1952).

According to a Showme article from March of 1953, once a young man steps foot on Hinkson’s shore, he “seems to turn into a poet, nature lover, Thoreau, and caveman, all at the same time.” 

 

(Showme: Be Prepared Issue, March 1953).

In addition to functioning as a dating hotspot, many MU students also enjoyed climbing Hinkson’s various geographic formations. Balance Rock, for example, was a huge rock formation that stood out from the side of a cliff and teetered precariously over the creek. Those brave enough to climb it were said to carve their names at the top. Eventually the laws of gravity prevailed and Balance Rock tumbled over.

The Savitar of 1919 contains photographs of soldiers, fresh off the battlefields of World War I, climbing Balance Rock and exploring other various geographic formations along Hinkson Creek (Savitar, 1919).

The 1926 Savitar yearbook pictures students participating in various activities in the Hinkson Creek area, including one student who audaciously attempts a headstand atop Balance Rock (Savitar, 1926).

This photospread comes from a LIFE magazine photo essay titled “Missouri vs. Smith: Girl student at one and a coed at other lead different lives.” The article chronicles the daily lives of students Jane Stone at the University of Missouri – Columbia and Janet Trowbridge at Smith College in Massachusetts. The pages displayed here show Jane with other Mizzou students enjoying the warm weather at Hinkson Creek and Rock Quarry Park (LIFE, May 9, 1949, Reproduction courtesy of TIME, Inc.).

 The Showme (MU’s student-run humor periodical) provides the “hinking” newcomer with a handy map (Showme, Mar. 1953).

During the 1969-70 academic year, students, faculty, and Columbia residents (in collaboration with the in the Environmental Education Organization) took the initiative to clean-up “Columbia’s debris-laden areas.” Hinkson Creek was among the areas they “facelift[ed]”  (Savitar, 1970).

Authored by Niki Eaton and Sarah Horne, PhD Students in Art History and Archaeology

To read more:

"Missouri vs. Smith," LIFE Magazine, May 9, 1949.

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