The Old Rugged Cross project has installed more than 70 crosses at area homes, churches

Editor's note: This article was published in the Nov. 4, 2026, edition of the Ozark County Times. To subscribe to the Times, visit https://www.ozarkcountytimes.com/ozark-county-times-subscriptions

Ivan White drove a big truck for 46 years. Then, on that day in July 2025 when he stepped down from the semi's cab for the last time and retired from truck-driving, he recalled recently, "I wondered what the Lord would put me up to next."

He didn't know it at the time, he says, but God had already put him "up to" the next thing that would reinforce his faith and enable him to share it in a powerfully visual way.

It took him a little while to figure that out, though. As he moved into retirement, Ivan, now 67, knew he wasn't one to tinker in the garage, take on remodeling projects or fix things around the house. "I'm not a good mechanic," he said. "And I'm not good at plumbing work. Those kinds of thing aren't easy for me. Usually, I tear up things more than I fix them."

But he enjoys working with wood, "especially something rough," he said.

And what could be rougher than the splintery, creosote-soaked wood of an old, used, 150-pound railroad tie?

It's not something most folks would think of when considering how they might spread the Gospel. But it's what Ivan is using to share God's grace in this next chapter of his life. And he's blessed to have been joined in his work by two other faith-empowered retirees who share his passion for the project they call the Old Rugged Cross.  

'I want one!'

It started back in 2019, when Ivan was using railroad ties to build some retaining walls at the house near Gainesville that he shares with Lori, his wife of 38 years.

When he finished, he had a few left over, he said. The unused railroad ties lay in the yard a few days while Ivan wondered what he could do with them. 

Then an idea popped into his head. Ivan knew exactly Who put it there.

"I could build an old rugged cross," he told himself, thinking of the name of the beloved old hymn that begins, "On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross." 

And that's what he did. He dug a deep hole and then dragged one of the heavy, rough ties to the spot and hoisted it into place as the upright part of the cross. He cut off part of a second tie and managed to position the long portion of it on top of the upright, forming a T. Then he bolted the short part he had cut off of the second tie onto the horizontal cross beam, forming the head of the cross. 

It wasn't easy, doing it alone, but while Ivan isn't so great at fixing stuff, he's got a good head for ingeniously creating things and figuring out puzzles, especially using the rough wood he likes. He managed to get the cross put together, and when he showed it to Lori, she was pleased. That was on Oct. 16, 2019. 

When Lori's good friend Carole Long saw the cross during a visit to the Whites' house, she said something Ivan has heard a lot in the years since then, especially in the last two years. “I want one!” Carole said.

Carole offered to pay for the materials if Ivan would build the cross, but her birthday was coming up, and Lori told her, “We’ll give it to you as a birthday present.”

Knowing that Carole had “kids and grandkids all over her house,” Ivan was concerned about the stability of the heavy, bolted-together pieces of the cross. He certainly didn’t want anything to fall and injure anyone.

His friend Robert Klineline suggested he drill the inside center of the railroad-tie sections and fit them together onto long pieces of rebar. Since then, that's how all the crosses have been built – with 2-foot strips of rebar joining the three pieces.   

On Nov. 23, 2019, Ivan erected the rebar-reinforced Old Rugged Cross in the yard at Carole's house on the other side of Gainesville. Sixteen days later, on Dec. 9, another cross went up near the Pontiac-area home of Charlie and Deborah Dias, the Whites' friends at Anew Church who had learned of the project.

'Get out beyond the walls'

Ivan knows the exact date of these crosses' construction because he has meticulously recorded in a logbook every cross he has built and installed, most of them with the help of a friend or two. Each entry lists the property owner's name, where they live and the date their cross was completed. The list now has nearly 70 entries – and some of them are for the installation of three crosses, an arrangement Ivan calls "Calvary Hill." The name refers to the hill outside Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified between two thieves. The center cross is always a little taller than the other two, Ivan said. 

The Old Rugged Cross project got off to a slow start in 2019 because Ivan was still driving his truck full-time, and then covid laid him low for a while. In 2020, only three Old Rugged Crosses went up, only two in 2021. One of those was in Rogers, Arkansas, at the home of Linda Hurt, Ivan's former Gainesville High School classmate. Linda saw the cross mentioned on Ivan's Facebook page and asked him to put one at her home in Rogers, Arkansas. 

No Old Rugged Crosses were erected in 2022, but around that time, Ivan felt God telling him to "get out beyond the walls – start greeting people and telling them about Jesus," he said. Soon the project started up again, and Ivan fulfilled six more requests for Old Rugged Crosses in 2023. One of them was in Texas County, outside Cabool. Another was at the Gainesville-area home of Les and Pat Wells. 

The usual arrangement for having a cross installed is that someone contacts Ivan through the Old Rugged Cross Facebook page or by calling him at 417-989-0139. Ivan tells them the materials for the cross usually total around $100, and that cost is to be paid by the property owner. "But we try to help people out," Ivan said. "If it's in their heart to have an Old Rugged Cross, it's going to happen." 

The materials include the two railroad ties, rebar, bolts and other hardware, solar lights and concrete. "All labor is free," Ivan said, and so is the spray paint, fuel and wear-and-tear on the tools. Ivan adds that the prayers that dedicate the cross when it's finished – they're free too. 

The total cost of materials for the first crosses was about $65. But prices have risen substantially since 2019. "There for several years, the railroad ties were $9 apiece, and after covid they went to $21," Ivan said. 

He wishes he could provide the crosses totally for free, but his household budget just doesn't have room for that. He receives retirement income, and Lori owns and operates the popular Ozark County Christian Thrift Store on Main Street in Gainesville. She is another example of someone who shares God's love through the work she does, often providing clothing from the store to house fire victims and others going through hard times.

"Sometimes when I'm out with her, there'll be someone, or more than one, that come up and hug her and say, 'Thank you so much, Lori, for what you did,'" Ivan said. "I'll say, 'Who was that?' and she'll say, 'Just someone I know from the store.'" 

The Whites' son, Ivan Jr., who's disabled by health issues, helps Lori in the store. 

The Old Rugged Cross project welcomes donations to cover the cost of materials. It has also raised funds for other charitable endeavors through raffles at the last four Hootin an Hollarin festivals. This year's proceeds went to Jordan's Crossing Camp, a Christian camp for youth and children in the Protem area. Last year's raffle money went to the Gideons, which provides Bibles worldwide. The second year's raffle proceeds helped fund a trip by the local Saints of Valor youth group to visit the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. In 2023, the proceeds were divided between the Options Pregnancy program and Warriors 2US, a Hardenville-based charity that supports veterans and first responders. 

The winner of each year's raffle was awarded an Old Rugged Cross to be erected free of charge on their property. The ORC "family," the project's generous supporters, pays for those materials. 

The first raffle winner was Bill Betian, who had a craft booth at Hootin an Hollarin with his wife, Millie. In 2023, “He bought a raffle ticket and didn’t realize what it was for,” Ivan said. “He thought it was for a little Old Rugged Cross figurine sitting on the table.”

When Bill’s ticket was drawn as the winner, Ivan called the number on it – and it turned out Bill and Millie’s booth was right next door to the booth where Ivan and his helpers sold the Old Rugged Cross raffle tickets. When Bill asked Ivan, “What did I win?” Ivan pointed to pieces of railroad tie beneath the table. “That’s part of it,” he said.

The Betians’ Old Rugged Cross went up at their Theodosia-area home in October 2023. Three months ago, they had the installation expanded to a three-cross Calvary Hill arrangement. 

Kathy Nelson, winner of the second-year raffle, had bought her ticket at Lori’s thrift store; that cross was installed at her Tecumseh-area home. 

The next Old Rugged Cross went up at Chris Woodward’s home on High way 181 near Dora. But he still bought a raffle ticket at the next year’s Hootin an Hollarin. And when he won, he told Ivan, “The next person who wants one, tell them it’s a gift from Jesus.” That one was eventually installed at the men’s Ark House recovery center on Highway 5 south of Gainesville. 

It’s been interesting to see how word has spread about the project. Many people have noticed the crosses that have seemed to mysteriously appear at homes and churches around the area – and they’ve stopped and asked the property owners about them. 

Ivan loves to tell the story about two couples who were driving through Gainesville on their way up from Arkansas to Springfield. As they neared Gainesville, “They saw the crosses and said, ‘We’ve gotta find this guy,’” he said. “So they went around town asking – stopped at one of the gas stations – but no one knew it was us. Then they went across the creek and saw Jeff Dotson out in front of his church [Mission Square Church on Hillside Drive between Main Street and Highway 160 east]. They saw the Old Rugged Cross there and asked Jeff about it. He said, ‘Oh, yeah. It’s Ivan who does the crosses.’”

Both of the Arkansas couples contacted Ivan, and in February of this year, Ivan and his helpers erected two Calvary Hill arrangements for them – three crosses in each display. One Calvary Hill went up in Mountain Home, and the other is near New Beginning Cowboy Church in Midway.  

The happy hole-digger

 In building some of the first Old Rugged Crosses, Ivan was helped by his close friend and former grade-school classmate David Miller, then a Gainesville resident. A big oak tree in David’s yard had to be cut down, and David asked Ivan if he needed the wood. He did, and when he came to cut up the wood, David’s friend Les Wells was there to help. 

Ivan and Les got further acquainted at the monthly men’s prayer breakfasts held at churches around the county. “One thing led to another, and we became good friends,” Les said last week. 

In May 2023, Les’s wife Patrice told him she’d like to have one of the Old Rugged Crosses at their place. Les asked Ivan about putting one up while he and Patrice were away from home for the weekend. 

“The biggest problem I have is getting the holes dug,” Ivan told him. 

Les said that, before he and Patrice left for the weekend, he would dig the hole without Patrice knowing. The plan worked, and Patrice was delighted with the surprise awaiting her when they returned from their weekend trip. 

After that, the next time Ivan had a request for an Old Rugged Cross, he told Les, “I could use some help.”

Les, 78, happily obliged. Since then he has become the project’s most enthusiastic hole-digger. “When I get started, the others say, ‘Step back. Les is digging,’” he said, laughing. Most of the holes are dug by hand using a shovel and post-hole digger. Sometimes they also need a rock bar and sledgehammer. And a few times, in this area’s notoriously rocky countryside, they’ve hit solid rock and called in a friend who owns a generator-powered jackhammer.

A Navy veteran and retired engineer in addition to being a hole-digger, Les is also “the one who, when I look at something and see it could be done a little differently or easier, I say so,” he said.

For example, when he saw that Ivan was having a problem getting a straight cut across the railroad tie – using “a chainsaw and a table that wasn’t level” – Les suggested a better way. He convinced Ivan to get a “nice, level table” and use a different saw. They tried a beam saw, but it wasn’t efficient. Eventually Les persuaded Ivan to buy a buzzsaw. The men do that work in the carport of Ivan’s home. 

‘We can’t do one 

without being awed by it’

The other man in the usual Old Rugged Cross building crew is Roy McDonald, a friend from Anew Church and the youngest of the three at age 61. Like Ivan, Roy was an over-the-road truck driver – until he slipped on ice in February 2025 and sustained injuries that ended his driving career. 

Ivan retired a few months after Roy recovered from surgery following his accident.  “I found I had some time on my hands,” Roy said recently. They talked about the Old Rugged Cross project, and in October, Roy helped Ivan and Les install the first “Cavalry Hill” display. The first three-cross arrangement was requested by Jan Hoyt, who owns the former poultry-house property at Hardenville where scheduled Triple Treasures flea markets are held during the year. 

Roy’s faith, like Ivan’s and Les’s, is deep. Before becoming an over-the-road trucker, he pastored three different churches and served another as youth pastor while he and his wife, Sharwyn, lived in Mississippi before moving to Ozark County a few years ago. 

Roy “didn’t hardly go to church” during the early 1990s while he was dating Sharwyn, a Baptist preacher’s daughter, in Carrolton, Mississippi. “I was married in 1991, saved in 1993 and surrendered to the ministry to preach in 1995,” he said, crediting Sharwyn with helping him find his way to his current close relationship with the Lord. “She was like the annoyer,” he said with a smile. 

Today Roy serves as backup preacher for Anew Church and New Beginning Cowboy Church in Midway, and he leads a service at the Gainesville Health Care Center every fifth Wednesday. In visiting with Ivan at church and other gatherings, Roy mentioned that he and Sharwyn “had been talking about” getting an Old Rugged Cross themselves but hadn’t definitely decided yet. 

One day when Ivan was visiting the McDonalds in their home near Isabella, he casually asked, “When you and Sharwyn get ready for that cross, where would you put it?” 

Roy showed him the spot where it could go, and no more was said about it. But a short time later, when Roy and Sharwyn returned from a trip to Mississippi, “We came back, and there it was,” Roy said. Ivan and Les had installed it while they were away. 

Since then, Roy has been an active part of the Old Rugged Cross project, involved in cutting and drilling the ties and building the crosses on sites wherever they’re requested – as much as his back pain allows, that is. As he works, he “mostly thinks about how much it makes my body hurt,” he said, and that pain helps him connect with the One each cross represents. 

“We can’t do one without being awed by it and by the sacrifice Christ made for us,” he said. “Every one of them has a special meaning to us – there’s something unique, whether it’s the rocky ground or maybe one that went up really easy (there are very little of those). At the end, we get with the owners, take photos and have prayer, asking God’s blessing on the cross. It never gets old.”

One of the most impactful installations may be the unique, 20-foot-tall Old Rugged Cross at Jay and Julie Vaught’s Isabella-area home overlooking Bull Shoals Lake. Instead of railroad ties, it’s made of utility pole pieces. A friend from church brought a bucket-lift truck to help the team install the cross, which is lit with bright electric lights rather than the dimmer solar versions on most of the crosses they install. 

Jay told Ivan he envisioned the cross “like a fog light” shining out through the night. “There’s gonna be people out on that lake on foggy, rainy nights. Maybe if they look up and see that cross, they’ll say, ‘Okay. I know where I’m at.’ Or a fisherman might think, ‘I’ve been fishing too long. It’s time to go home,’” Ivan recalled Jay saying. 

Or maybe the cross on the hill will be a symbol of hope that draws someone closer to God. When completed, the team prayed with the Vaughts, asking, “Whoever looks upon this cross, bless them please,” Ivan said. 

‘The Lord and me built a platform’

Putting up an Old Rugged Cross is a multi-day project. First Ivan calls the 811 service. “It’s free, but you have to call, and they come out within three days and mark where any underground lines are,” Ivan said. “Then you have 10 working days to get the hole dug and the cross put up. If it’s longer than that, you have to call them again.” 

The groundwork starts with a hole that’s usually about 6 inches deep and 21 inches wide. Then, in the center of that hole, they dig a deeper hole, about 9 inches in diameter and 18 inches deeper. 

When the concrete is poured into the hole it settles around the bottom part of the upright beam of the cross and then, in the wider top part of the hole, the concrete spreads out to provide a collar that increases stability. The concrete is allowed to cure overnight; then the crossbeam and head of the cross are added. 

To help in adding the crossbeam and the head of the cross, “The Lord and me built a platform in the back of my truck,” Ivan said. “It’s strapped down. I back up to the cross and we stand on the platform to put the top parts on.”

The platform has worked everywhere except at Lilly Ridge Baptist Church, where the cross was to be installed behind a fence. The men couldn’t back the truck up to the hole without taking down the fence. “So we made a slide and slid it right in,” Ivan said. 

‘Then an angel showed up’

As with any public endeavor, the Old Rugged Cross project has suffered a few setbacks and challenges. For one, Roy quipped, “God could have toned down the heat a little this summer,” recalling the days when temperatures hit 100 degrees and higher.

 Another setback came when one of the crosses had to be moved before it was even completed. Ivan and Les started installing an Old Rugged Cross on the northwest corner of the Highways 160 and 5 north intersection. They dug the hole, set in the upright beam and poured the concrete then left for the night. 

“We went out the next day to finish it, and the state people were there. They said, ‘This is not going to happen. You’re gonna have to move this,’” Ivan said, referring to Missouri Department of Transportation employees. “They said it was too close to the road.”

Ivan and Les understood the issue, but they couldn’t help but feel “the devil was coming after us,” Ivan said. “After you put the base in, it’s set in solid concrete with a 20-inch diameter. It was just Les and me, two old men, and it was hot.” 

Standing there with only a shovel, they wondered how they could move that massive railroad tie and its attached concrete base. 

“And just then an angel showed up,” Ivan said.

The “angel” was Ray Grisham, who owns the property, which includes the popular Crossroads Dips & Drips ice cream and coffee shop, along with Ray’s office, a few food trucks and some of his concrete and ground-prepping equipment. 

“I seen him out on a tractor there, and I called him. I said, ‘We’ve got egg on our face. We put it too close to the road. Can you help us?’” Ivan said. 

“I’ll be right there,” Ray told him. 

Ray brought an auger attached to a skid steer and drilled a bigger hole around the cross’s concrete base. “Then he came back with a bucket [on the skid steer] and popped it out of the ground,” Ivan said. “He asked us, ‘Where do you want it?’ and we told him, and before you knew it, we had it in the ground again. That’s how quick the Lord worked on that one.”

‘What’s the point?’

Prayer is a big part of the Old Rugged Cross team’s work. In addition to the prayers that dedicate completed crosses, Ivan, Les, Roy and the property owners also pray for those who might see the crosses as they drive by. 

“There’s a lot of these crosses out on the roads. All we want is for the Lord to bless the people who look at them,” Ivan said. “If someone’s going through something hard, if they’re maybe thinking of ending their life or doing something bad, maybe they will look on this Old Rugged Cross and the Lord will touch them and help them think, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t do this.’”

He stresses that the Old Rugged Cross project is not about those who build and install the crosses but about the symbol each cross represents. He wants passers-by to see one of the crosses somewhere and be reminded of the One who offers love and forgiveness to all. And he hopes it will inspire other folks to heed the words of Hebrews 10:24 (New Living Translation) that one of the Old Rugged Cross recipients posted: “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”

Roy McDonald put it simply when someone stopped him as he walked his dog along the country road near his and Sharwyn’s home. The man asked Roy about the Old Rugged Cross back at his house. “What’s the point you’re trying to make?” the man asked.

“I’m just trying to point people to Jesus anyway I can,” Roy told him. 

“That’s the right answer,” the man said. Then he drove off. 

“This is all God’s plan,” Ivan said. “All the glory goes to our loving God, and I want Him to continue to give me the will to listen and study His Word and give me wisdom to live it.”