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LET THE RIVER BE

A HISTORY OF THE OZARK'S BUFFALO RIVER

SOUTHWEST CULTURAL RESOURCES CENTER

SOUTHWEST REGIONAL OFFICE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2012 with funding from

LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

http://archive.org/details/letriverbeozarkOOpitc
LET THE RIVER BE

A HISTORY OF THE OZARK'S BUFFALO RIVER

DWIGHT T. PITCAITHLEY

SOUTHWEST CULTURAL RESOURCES CENTER

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
Portions of chapters II and V appeared in the

Arkansas Historical Quarterly , Autumn and

Winter, 1978. Copyright, 1978, Arkansas

Historical Association. Reprinted by

permission of the Arkansas Historical

Association.

11
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Preface vii

I. Beginnings: Prehistory and Early Exploration 1

II. "...came to arkansas. . .

:

Ante-Bellum Settlement of 19

the Watershed

III. The Civil War Years 39

IV. "...this lovely land...:" Post War Development 55

V. Lead and Zinc Mining 77

VI. "...let the River be." 95

Bibliography 111

in
ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

Buffalo River Watershed 2

Zebulon M. Pike's 1810 map of Buffaloe Fork of the White 10

River

Rafting logs on the Buffalo, 1890s 60

Saw Mill, Searcy County, ca. 1890s 61

Picnic, Diamond Cave Spring, ca. 1910 65

River baptizing near Jasper, 1934 67

Panther Creek Mine, Mill Shed, Newton County, 1916 80

Panther Creek Mine, Newton County, 1916 81

Morning Star Mine and Mill, Rush, 1904 83

IV
LIST OF TABLES

Table: Page

1. Ante-Bellum Population 26

2. Slaveholders and Slaves: 1860 42

3. Population: 1870-1980 57

PREFACE

This study began during the summer of 1974 when, as a

graduate student, I prepared an inventory of historic buildings

along the Buffalo River for the National Park Service. As I attempted to place farms and log cabins in their proper

historical context, I discovered that all previous research in

the Arkansas Ozarks was either too general or too specific.

There was no comprehensive overview that studied the settlement

and development of that particular highland valley. What started

as a summer adventure, then, evolved into a rather extensive

examination oj the Buffalo River valley that became my doctoral

dissertation.

There is something intriguing about rivers. Americans from

Henry David Thoreau to Mark Twain have been drawn to them, have

listened to them, have studied them. Rivers served as roads to

the interior of the continent during the early periods of the

nation's history and later attracted settlers and towns and

commerce and industry. The chronicles of the Shenandoah, the

Ohio, the Missouri, and the Mississippi are an integral part of

the country's historical and cultural past. Their names evoke

images of epic movements — of a romantic period. And for every

river of major import literally hundreds of tributaries echo

similar stories of exploration and settlement. For every Ohio

there was a Wabash; for every Missouri, a Platte; and for every

Rio Grande, a Pecos. The Mississippi is fed by the Arkansas

which is fed by the White which, in turn, is fed by the Buffalo.

Each played a role in the westward movement; each represents a

piece of the broad mosaic of western migration.

The story of the Buffalo is essentially one of people,

highland people for the most part, and how they and their way of

life were affected by the Ozark Plateau, by "outside" influences,

and by their relative geographical isolation. Like their

counterparts in the southern Appalachians, the inhabitants of the

Arkansas Ozarks lived close to the earth in an existence that was

distinguished by poor and limited arable soil, by an insularity

imposed by the surrounding hills, and by an independence that was

necessitated by both.

In the course of compiling a history such as this, one

regularly turns to others for assistance, advice, and

Research during the past ten years, particularly in the

field of archeology, required the text of the dissertation to be

modified significantly. See "The Buffalo River: From Settlement

to National River," Texas Tech University, 1976.

vii
encouragement. I am deeply indebted to Russell Baker and his

staff at the Arkansas History Commission and to Samuel Sizer,

former Curator of Special Collections and his staff at the

University of Arkansas. James J. Johnston shared his enthusiasm

for and his extensive knowledge of Searcy County throughout the

entire project. Generous help was provided by Daniel Wolfman and

George Sabo III of the Arkansas Archeological Survey which led to

a major revision of the archeological portion of the original

work. Kenneth Smith, whose love for the valley is uncontrollably

infectious, gave time and energy. I benefited greatly from his

earlier forays into the Buffalo's history and his experience in

the battle over the future of the river. The staff of the

Buffalo National River offered support and encouragement, and

made each visit to the river as enjoyable and profitable as

possible. I am grateful to the history faculty at Texas Tech

University who offered support and criticism in judicious

proportions, and to James W. Kitchen who administered the initial

National Park Service contract and who became both Ozark

companion and good friend. To S.V. Connor whose advice, humor,

and unerring sense of direction guided this research I owe much.

For his high standard of historical scholarship I shall be

eternally grateful. And finally, I wish to express my

appreciation to Sabette, whose patience, understanding, and

pertinent observations assisted infinitely in the preparation of

this manuscript.

vm
BEGINNINGS: PREHISTORY AND EARLY EXPLORATION

Vance Randolph, the Ozark region folklorist, once met a man

who claimed that if Newton County, Arkansas were ever "smoothed

out, it would be bigger 'n the whole state of Texas." 1 The tale

aptly illustrates not only the topographic character of Newton

County in particular but also the whole of the southernmost of

the Ozark Plateaus, the Boston Mountains. Containing possibly

the tallest waterfall between the Mississippi River and the Rocky

Mountains, this area of northwest Arkansas is a heavily forested

land of deep, sharply defined valleys. Flat-topped ridges with

vertical lime- and sandstone bluffs separate small creeks and

rivers which have, over the centuries, divided the Arkansas

highlands into a myriad of narrow valleys and hidden "hollers."

It is in western Newton County where the Boston Mountains reach

their greatest height of 2,561 and where the one hundred and

forty-eight mile long Buffalo River begins its winding, unbroken

journey.

Flowing in an easterly direction, the Buffalo leaves the

wooded cragginess of the Boston Mountains in the northeastern

quarter of Newton County and slices through the more moderate

rolling terrain of the Springfield Plateau in Searcy and the

southern portion of Marion counties before joining the White

River a few miles above Batesville, Arkansas. Its watershed

comprises 1,388 square miles (an area slightly larger than the

state of Rhode Island) , is about seventy miles in length,

averages twenty-two miles in width, and constitutes 4.8 percent

of the drainage area of the White River. The Buffalo River is

not one of Arkansas' major waterways; it has only occasionally

been used for transportation purposes and has never been

considered suitable for industrial use. It is regionally and

nationally unique because it has never been dammed, and its banks

have not been extensively developed. Its human history, however,

provides a revealing study of the intimate relationship between

people and mountains and the effect the latter can have on the

former. For more than a century after being settled, the

northwestern highlands of Arkansas hindered both transportation

and communication among the inhabitants and encouraged the

development of a distinct mountain culture: a culture that

continued well into the twentieth century to evoke its nineteenth

century origins. As recently as 1955, Vance Randolph could write

In the Ozark Mountains elderly folk still lead simple

lives, without any modern gadgets. They are attracted

to particular localities, strongly influenced by clan

and family backgrounds. The gods of the mountains are
Map drawn by Mary Lebeau
not the gods of the valleys. Hillfolk are not like

lowlanders. . .there is still plenty of time in the

backwoods, to sing ballads and tell tales.

The extent to which the Ozark mountain culture existed, however,

depended primarily upon geography. Life in the several county

seats certainly differed from life on forty acres up a secluded

"holler." The common denominator that linked both was the slower

pace of change evident throughout the region. Writing a quarter

of a century after Randolph, Milton Rafferty viewed the Ozark

phenomenon from a different perspective.

To say that the culture of the Ozarks is changing is a truism, for there is little in the world that doesn't

change. However, the rate of change and the process of

change from place to place within the Ozarks has been

variable, so that much that was still is, much that was

is gone, and the remainder, mainly imagery, never

existed.

Generalizations and stereotypes are always difficult to

substantiate under close examination. What often emerges from

such an appraisal is a range of historical realities that cannot

be aggregated into a general statement, but within which lie

individual truths that bear, to some degree, a relationship to

the stereotype. The separation of the general from the specific,

the stereotype from the individual histories of the Ozarks, is a

major theme in this work. By any measure, the fundamental

distinction between what Randolph would term hillfolk and

lowlanders begins with the highlands themselves—a series of

plateaus and valleys whose character was developed by extensive

erosion.

Originally a low inland sea beneath which had collected a thick layer of sedimentary rock, the Ozark Plateau, perhaps sixty

million years ago, uplifted to form an asymmetrical dome possibly

three to four thousand feet high. Through a series (geologists

remain divided regarding the exact number) of erosion and uplift

cycles, followed by the extensive activity of numerous streams,

the Ozarks attained their present appearance. The Ozark Plateau

is not one homogeneous geological formation, but is divided into

four distinct sections. The Missouri portion of the province is

dominated by the Salem Plateau, a relatively flat "prairie"

region which is broken only adjacent to the major streams where

the relief may be as great as 500 feet. The St. Francis

Mountains, the smallest of the Ozark regions, comprises 100

square miles of discrete hills within the Salem Plateau.

Surrounding the Salem Plateau on the north, west, and south is

the Springfield Plateau which resembles the plain-like topography

of its neighbor except for the river valleys which dip only 200

to 300 feet below the upland surface. Forming the precipitous

southern boundary of the Ozarks, the Boston Mountains are the
most rugged and spectacular of the entire area.

The geological composition of the Ozark Plateau is

principally limestone and dolomite. But while both the Salem and

Springfield plateaus consist of this material, the St. Francis

Mountains are of volcanic origin and are made up of igneous rock.

The Boston Mountain section is composed of, in addition to a limestone foundation, a thick layer of interbedded shales,

limestones, and sandstones, and a pronounced cap of Atoka

Sandstone. It was the erosion of these top two layers that

produced the conspicuous escarpment of this southern area and

explains its designation as the Boston Mountains rather than the

Boston Plateau.

The limestone which characterizes the Springfield Plateau

and the ridge slopes of the Boston Mountains contains a high

percent of chert, a flintlike quartz more durable than limestone.

Upon weathering, the limestone dissolves into fine soil particles

and is carried downward. The undissolved chert remains on top

and forms a layer of adamant debris. As a result, the Buffalo

River country became literally a land of rocks which possessed

only a small amount of arable land on the more level sandstone

uplands and in the small alluvial valleys. The rocky condition

of the soil prompted the government surveyors who first platted

the region in the early nineteenth century to note in their log

books: "Land poor stony and broken," and "Land 2nd rate soil but

too stony and broken for cultivation," and "Land most

harrassingly [sic] hilly and so rocky that it was with difficulty

I could enter my Jacob-staff at any one place, unfit for

cultivation.

9

The combination of early erosion and the more recent

extensive weathering by vigorous water courses has led, over the

geologic ages, to the formation of a rugged country dominated by

narrow valleys restricted by sheer bluffs and prominent ridges in

the Boston Mountains which give way to rolling stony "prairies"

sharply incised by rivers and streams in the Springfield Plateau.

The river valleys are circuitous and have cut deeply into the

limestone which borders them. The formation of a high

perpendicular bluff on the outside bend of a stream is common

throughout the Buffalo River country, while the inside of the

curve usually assumes the shape of a gently sloping hillock.

Although narrow, the valleys possess rich alluvial soil which,

while suitable for agricultural pursuits, is subject to the

ravages of devastating flash floods after periods of heavy

rainfall. The bluffs and ridges, which are generally too stony

and dissected to encourage agricultural production (limited areas

have been cleared in recent years for grazing) , are covered by a dense deciduous forest. The density of that wooded expanse, when

coupled with the highly irregular topography, produced a region

which could be penetrated only with great difficulty.
Prehistoric peoples first occupied the Arkansas Ozarks as

early as 12,000 years ago. Throughout the following millennia

small bands of hunters and gatherers left remnants of their

occupation in the rich flood plains, on the ridgetops and upland

plateaus, and in the recesses of innumerable bluff shelters. ^ Beginning as small family-sized units, these Ozark peoples slowly

began to communicate and trade with other local groups in everwidening circles. Use of domesticated plants gradually led to

more intensive use of the river and stream bottoms between 5,000

and 1,000 years ago. Annual base camps became more permanently

established in the valleys during the late prehistoric times, but

the bluff shelters continued to be used for habitation as well as

for specialized purposes like burials and food storage.

Technological changes about A.D. 1 - 500 include a shift from the

use of a dart hurled by an atlatl to the extensive use of the bow

and arrow. Social relationships among the autonomous groups

continued to develop until during the Mississippi Period (about

1,000 to 300 years ago) some of the Ozark dwellers were

participating in pan-regional social and ceremonial systems. *

Definitive statements about the original occupants of the

southwest Ozarks, however, cannot be made. New research

directions within the past several years have caused

archeologists to expand their view of who the prehistoric peoples

were and how they developed culturally. This recent research is

particularly important because the Arkansas Ozarks are no longer

viewed as an anomalous cultural manifestation, but as part of a broad regional pattern of cultural development found throughout

the Eastern Woodlands. These research directions were initiated

by Daniel Wolfman in 1974 and later expanded by George Sabo, et

al. in 1982 in reports originally prepared for the National Park

Service and the United States Forest Service respectively. 2

As greater research emphasis is being placed on sites other

than the bluff shelters, a more balanced picture of prehistoric

occupation is beginning to emerge. 13 Much, however, remains to

be learned. The 1982 plan for the conservation of archeological

resources in Arkansas identified numerous topics for future

research that would expand existing knowledge of prehistory in

the Arkansas Ozarks. Among the research subjects proposed by the

Arkansas archeologists were the effect of past environments on

human adaptations, the origin of plant domestication in the

Ozarks, variability in settlement-subsistence patterns through

time and across the Ozarks region, the movement of raw materials

into and out of the mountains, and the connection of the Ozarks

to cultural developments in surrounding regions. 4 Continuing

research and analysis will broaden the present picture of

prehistoric occupation and place the Ozark natives in their

proper context.

Whether these peoples were the ancestors of later historic

Indian groups who populated the area adjacent to the Arkansas
Ozarks or whether they abandoned the plateau for reasons unknown,

the only Indian tribe identified with northwest Arkansas after

1700 were the Osage who hunted throughout the western Ozarks.

Archeological research indicates, however, that the Osage never

occupied the Ozarks in any permanent fashion. 5 And, as pressure

mounted from the approaching white frontier, the Osage, in the

treaty of Fort Clark (1808) , relinquished all claim to land in

Arkansas north of the Arkansas River. 6 In spite of the treaty,

the Osage continued to use northern and western Arkansas for

hunting — a practice which led them into increasing conflict

with an immigrant Arkansas tribe, the Cherokee.

The Cherokee Indians were not indigenous to Arkansas, but

moved there when forced out of their traditional lands farther

east. The first contingent of Cherokee to Arkansas probably

arrived shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Hopewell in

1785. Through the terms of that agreement, Cherokees in

Tennessee agreed to cede to the United States certain parcels of

land. A small number of the tribe, dissatisfied with the treaty,

embarked down the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers until

they reached the mouth of the St. Francis River in Arkansas and

ascended that stream. After a residence of a few years along the

St. Francis, the Indians moved westward to a more satisfactory

location on the White. From time to time other dissidents joined

the group until by 1817 they numbered between two and three

thousand. '

Shortly after the Treaty of Hopewell, another group of

Cherokees left Tennessee and settled along the northern bank of

the Arkansas River. 8 In 1808, a delegation of discontented

Tennessee Cherokees arrived in Washington, D.C. to petition the

President to set aside lands west of the Mississippi for their

use as hunting grounds. An exploring party decided that land

between the Arkansas and the White rivers in present Arkansas

would be suitable. Some years later on July 8, 1817 Joseph

McMinn, General David Meriwether, and General Andrew Jackson

concluded a treaty with the Cherokees whereby the Indians ceded

two large tracts of land in Tennessee in exchange for a wide

strip of land between the two aforementioned rivers. The

boundary of the new tract began on the north bank of the Arkansas

at the mouth of Point Remove Creek and ran northeast to Chataunga

Mountain on the White River, thence up the White to the mouth of

the Little North Fork Creek, thence southwest on a line parallel

to the eastern border to Table Rock Bluff on the Arkansas. ' The

new Cherokee lands included the entire watershed of the Buffalo

River.

The movement of the Cherokees onto their new reserve

continued in earnest after 1817. Just over a year after the

signing of the treaty, Governor McMinn of Tennessee reported that

864 families had either already departed or were preparing to and

that that total amounted to one-half the Cherokee Nation. 20 In
1819 after the signing of yet another treaty, he observed that

six thousand Indians had left Tennessee for Arkansas. The latter

figure, however, was disputed by those Cherokees who elected to

remain east of the Mississippi. Indeed, those who opposed both

the treaty and any suggestion that they leave their homeland

protested that the number stated by McMinn was grossly

exaggerated and that a more realistic figure would be thirty-five

hundred. Moreover, roughly four times that number, they claimed,

remained east of the river. 21 Nevertheless, the Cherokees

continued to immigrate to the treaty lands in Arkansas.

The preponderance of the newcomers settled along the banks

of the Arkansas although a few made their way into the Buffalo

River area. Local legends contend that a Cherokee village,

Sequatchie, was located on the Buffalo in northern Searcy County

at the mouth of Spring Creek. 2 The village, alleged in local

tradition to be the largest town built in Arkansas by the

Cherokees, was presided over by Peter Cornstalk who married the

daughter of one of the early white settlers in the region, Robert

Adams. Sequatchie was supposedly abandoned in 1832 when its

inhabitants moved to the Indian Territory in present Oklahoma. 23

A somewhat less dramatic, although more substantial reference to

Cherokees living in the vicinity of the Buffalo River was

recorded by one of the initial land surveyors in present Searcy

County. On November 7, 1829 the surveyor noted that a village of

Cherokees was located on Bear Creek in the southwestern part of

the county. 24 That this was a permanent settlement was somewhat

substantiated by the observation by another surveyor five years

later that the settlers that he found along Bear Creek were

"cultivating the land which has been improved by the Indians." 2

Few of the tribe must have moved into the Ozarks, however, for

the main body of Indians protested fervently when the western

line of the reserve was mistakenly drawn giving them less land on

the Arkansas and more on the White. In a letter to President

James Monroe, the Arkansas Cherokees complained in 1824 that the

faulty line "deprives us of the best soil for agriculture," and

"throws most all the Cherokees from their farms and houses to

rugged and dreary mountains." 26

In any case, the Western Cherokees remained dissatisfied

with their existence in Arkansas. They believed that the land

allotted them there was less than that appropriated in the

treaties of 1817 and 1819. Furthermore, the Cherokees complained

that the Osage tribe to the west was provoking hostilities and

that the United States government was irregular in the payment

of their annuities. To resolve those grievances, the Western

Cherokees sent a delegation to Washington in the spring of 1828.

Although prohibited by tribal proclamation from negotiating any

cession or exchange of territory, the representatives of the

tribe yielded to pressure from the government and signed a treaty

on May 6, 1828 which provided for an additional exchange of land.

Through the terms of that agreement, the Western Cherokees
8

surrendered all rights to land in Arkansas and accepted as their

"permanent home" a tract of land amounting to seven million acres

in present Oklahoma. 28 Upon its return home, the Cherokee

delegation met a decidedly hostile reception. The delegates'

lives and property were threatened, the national council declared

them guilty of fraud and deception, and the treaty was declared

null and void. 29 Nevertheless, the Cherokee in Arkansas

recognized the inevitability of the situation and began to depart

their home of ten years and move onto new land to the west.

Ozark legends and folk traditions are, of course, not

limited to stories of Cherokee villages. In 1541 Hernando de

Soto marched into Arkansas and planted the seed which centuries

later grew into Ozark tales of Spanish treasure. The exact point

of his crossing of the Mississippi and the extent of his

explorations in Arkansas remain issues of speculation. Only the

latter topic, however, is relevant here. Seeking gold and glory,

De Soto began his trek in 1539 from the gulf coast of Florida,

and after exploring as far north as the headwaters of the Coosa

River near the present Georgia-Tennessee border, he crossed the

Mississippi during the spring of 1541. His route from there is

conjectural. Many historians trace his explorations to the

central portion of the state, while others believe he explored,

at least partially, the Arkansas Ozarks. One of the latter,

Henry R. Schoolcraft, even postulated that not only did De Soto

explore the highlands of Arkansas., but also claimed he traversed

the Buffalo from mouth to source. ° Others are not so bold, but

several do place him in the Ozarks. * The question of the

Spaniard's exploits in Arkansas will, perhaps, forever remain

shrouded in ambiguity and uncertainty. Certainly the only

evidence locating his expedition within the Buffalo River

watershed, other than the vague descriptive narrative of the

expedition's journals, consists of rumors and tales of Spanish

ancient dates scratched on their

.on is largely bound up in local folklore

and rarely produces tangible evidence of Spanish occupation.

f — — — — - - — ^ -~- — — -- — — — p — - gold and lost caves with

walls. 2 Such informati<

Although not conclusive proof that De Soto passed near the

Buffalo River, the contents of a bluff shelter just outside the

watershed perhaps holds a clue to the Spaniard's route. In

southern Newton County along a steep bluff lies a rockshelter

wherein is carved a Latin inscription which reads GLORIA PATRI ET

FILIO ET ESPRITUI SANCTO. Showing signs of painstaking effort,

the carving is on a large limestone boulder which faces the rear

of the shelter, well within and protected by the overhanging rock

face. 3 The shelter is in a next to inaccessible location and

not along main traveled roads.

The possibility that the inscription could date from the

sixteenth century, while interesting, is purely speculative. But

the alternatives suggest no rational explanation. If the carving

is not Spanish in origin, of necessity, it is of much more recent
derivation. After the passage of De Soto, no recorded journey

was made into the Arkansas Ozarks until the entrance of white

pioneer farmers during the 1820s and 1830s, although unknown

French couriers d'bois could certainly have penetrated the area.

The inscription is clearly of Catholic genesis. The early

American settlers, however, almost entirely consisted of

Protestants, and while Catholics appeared during the latter part

of the century, they resided in central Searcy County far from

the bluffs of southern Newton County. It is conceivable that

during the Civil War a battle-weary straggler or fugitive took

advantage of the shelter's secluded nature and chiseled the

inscription. In 1864, a Union detachment attacked and scattered

an independent company of Confederates in the valley below the

shelter. But the company consisted of local farmers, and it is

doubtful that any were sufficiently acquainted with Latin to

conceive of such a purposeful endeavor. Possibly the letters

were cut by some ephemeral traveler who temporarily sought refuge

in the dry recess. Yet the shallow cave is all but inaccessible,

and only with great difficulty would a needy wayfarer seek that

particular shelter. In addition, the road on top of the ridge

would have constituted the natural route of travel and for the

casual wanderer the most trouble-free means of crossing the

mountains. The inconvenient location of the site effectively

negates the possibility of its being accidentally found by a

resolute itinerant. The origin of the protected inscription

remains, thus, lamentably obscure — an obscurity that of itself

adds intriguingly to the possibility of its being a De Soto

remnant.

Although the Buffalo River country remained a remote and

unsettled area well into the third decade of the nineteenth

century, the name Buffalo River, or rather Buffaloe Fork of the

White River, first appeared on a topographical map in 1810. 4

This map, one of the many that resulted from the early nineteenth

century surveys of the trans-Mississippi West, appeared in

Zebulon M. Pike's final report on his explorations along the

upper Arkansas River in 1806 and 1807. While Pike was proceeding

up that river into what would later become Colorado, a detachment

of his survey party explored the lower reaches of the Arkansas.

Headed by Lieutenant James B. Wilkinson, son of the commander of

United States military forces in the Mississippi Valley, General

James Wilkinson, this small group left the Pike expedition in

present Kansas and marched down the Arkansas during the winter of

1806-1807. Upon completion of his survey, Wilkinson forwarded

his report and a map of his route to Pike. Using the Wilkinson

survey, his own maps, and several contemporary western charts,

Pike commissioned Anthony Nau to prepare the maps which appeared

in the final report. While it is unlikely that Wilkinson visited

the region of the Buffalo himself, it is apparent that he learned

of the river from settlers and travelers he encountered along the

Arkansas. However he learned of the river's name, it seems to

have been in common use by 1807, sometime before the river valley
10

n,

II II \ I !• 1 It 1 1

1 \

!• 1 1*1 Kl S

' II 7

' •'/ r/'

- 1 \ > \

i £

'

".

Zebulon M. Pike's 1810 map of Buffaloe Fork of the White River [Credit:

Library of Congress, "The First Part of Captn. Pike's Chart of the Internal

Part of Louisiana, " Plate I :G1380/.P5/1810]
11

was actually settled by Euroamericans. -*

The origin of the name doubtless stemmed from the common

occurrence of the American bison in the vicinity of the Buffalo.

Until around 1820, the animal thrived along the northern and

western portions of the Arkansas Territory. " In 1844, that

tireless Traveler of the prairies, Josiah Gregg, noted that

"within thirty years, they were abundant over much of the present

states of Missouri and Arkansas. "•*' Moreover, a sizeable

quantity of bison bones have been unearthed in the numerous bluff

shelters in the Ozarks indicating that the animal had long been

an inhabitant of northwestern Arkansas. ° Based apparently on

the shaggy beast that then roamed Arkansas, the name Buffalo

River was brought into usage by Wilkinson's survey and Pike's

map.

The early development of the Buffalo River valley, which

began two decades after the Wilkinson expedition, reflected in

many ways the larger development of western America, and, in a very real sense, typifies that westward movement because the

history of America's westward expansion is largely the story of

the exploration and settlement of the waterways of North America.

From the Monongehela and the James to the Rio Grande and the

Willamette, the growth of the United States is inextricably bound

up in its rivers. Along with the dramatic sagas associated with

these giants of western migration are countless other stories of

the quiet and undramatic peopling of the numerous rivers and

streams which served as tributaries of those better known other

highways to the interior. It was along these small streams that

the American people went about the business of permanently

settling the North American continent. The Buffalo is one of

these rivers.

Unlike many of these "roads" to the interior, however, the

Buffalo River was never used extensively as a course for

transportation. With the exception of isolated instances,

navigation of the river has been restricted to flat boats and

rafts. The Buffalo is, along most of its way, too shallow for

vessels possessing a deeper draft. In addition, the depth of the

stream varies in direct proportion to the amount of rainfall in

the watershed. The subsequent fluctuation in water level has

prohibited the establishment of any constant or dependable system

of conveyance by water. A single exception was the piloting of a steamboat some twenty-four miles up the river from its junction

with the White. The trip during the 1890s was accomplished with

no little difficulty and was never repeated. 9

The Buffalo River valley today is a forested region

decidedly rural in character and appearance. Still inhabited log

cabins, kerosene lamps, and outdoor plumbing, while rapidly

diminishing along the river, furnish scattered yet vivid

reminders of a not-so-distant past. It was in part because of
12

the river's relative remoteness and its unsuitability for

reliable commerce that it was able to retain its natural

character and become one of Arkansas's last free-flowing

waterways. Its future as a free spirit was challenged in the

1950s and 1960s, however, when the Army Corps of Engineers

revealed plans to construct two dams across it. Conservation and

wilderness preservation organizations quickly mobilized to

preserve the river. As a result, the National Park Service

studied the Buffalo and announced that it was opposed to the

impoundments and instead favored protecting the stream by placing

it under federal jurisdiction as the Buffalo National River. On

March 1, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon signed Public Law 92-

237 which provided that 95,730 fGres of land along the Buffalo be

placed under federal ownership. 40 Thus by congressional action

and presidential concurrence, the Buffalo River is destined to

remain free, unbridled, and largely unspoiled by twentieth

century development.
13

NOTES

1. Vance Randolph, We Always Lie to Strangers. Tall Tales From

the Ozarks (New York: Columbia University Press, 1951), p. 14.

2. T.C. Hopkins, Marbles and Other Limestones (Little Rock:

Brown Printing Company, 1893), p. 7; United States, Army Corps of

Engineers, Buffalo River Basin, Arkansas , White River Basin

Comprehensive Study, Missouri and Arkansas , vol. I (Little Rock:

Corps of Engineers, 1964), p. 5.

3. Vance Randolph, The Devil's Pretty Daughter and Other Ozark

Folk Tales (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), p. xiii.

4. Milton D. Rafferty, The Ozarks: Land and Life (Norman:

University of Oklahoma Press, 1980), p. 4.

5. Oscar H. Hershey, "River Valleys of the Ozark Plateau,"

American Geologist , XVI (December 1895), pp. 352-357; Oscar H.

Hershey, "Peneplains of the Ozark Highlands," American Geologist , XXVII (January 1901) , p. 41; Nevin M. Fenneman, Physiography of

Eastern United States (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938),

pp. 659-662.

6. William D. Thornbury, Regional Geomorphology of the United

States (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1965), pp. 262-270.

7. Ibid.

8. Isiah Bowman, Forest Physiography (New York: Arno Press,

Inc., 1970), pp. 452-455; Fenneman, Physiography of Eastern

United States , pp. 632-634, 656; A.H. Purdue, "Physiography of

the Boston Mountains, Arkansas," Journal of Geology , IX

(November-December 1901), p. 697.

9. G.I. Adams, Zinc and Lead Deposits of Northern Arkansas , United States Geological Survey, Professional Paper No. 24

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), p. 16; [United

States, Land Office], Original Field Notes, T16N R20W, Typescript

Copy, State Land Office, Little Rock, Book 1598-A, Bundle 181, p.

12; Ibid., T15N R22W, Book 1609, Bundle 182, p. 420; Ibid., T15N

R16W, Book 565-AB, Bundle 62, p. 10.

10. The wealth of prehistoric remains in the protected shelters

prompted Mark R. Harrington, an archeologist for the Museum of

the American Indian, to label these peoples the Ozark Bluffdwellers. The term is misleading, however, and should be

replaced with a series of sequential periods or phrases. Far

from being the anomalous cultural group described by Harrington,

the prehistoric inhabitants of the Ozarks were part of a broad
14

series of cultural patterns found throughout the Mississippi

Valley and adjacent regions. They experienced continuous change

throughout the prehistoric period and, significantly, made

extensive use of sites in addition to the bluff shelters. See L.

Mark Raab, "Expanding Prehistory in the Arkansas Ozarks," in

Arkansas Archeology in Review ed. by Neal L. Turbowitz and Marvin

D. Jeter, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 15

(Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1982), pp. 233-239;

James A. Brown, Prehistoric Southern Ozarks Marginality: A Myth

Exposed , Special Publication of the Missouri Archaeological

Society No. 6 (Columbia: Missouri Archaeological Society, 1984.)

11. George Sabo III, David B. Waddell, and John H. House, "A

Cultural Resource Overview of the Ozark - St. Francis National

Forests, Arkansas," multilith (Russellville, Arkansas: Forest

Service, 1982), pp. 48-75.

12. Daniel Wolfman, Archeological Assessment of the Buffalo

National River , Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Report No.

18 (Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1979) , originally prepared in 1974 with the title "Archeological

Inventory of the Buffalo National River,"; Sabo, et al., "A

Cultural Resource Overview," 1982.

13. George Sabo III, "The Huntsville Site (3MA22) : A Caddoan

Civic Ceremonial Center in the Arkansas Ozarks," paper presented

at the 47th annual meeting of the Society for American

Archeology, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 1982; Davis W. Stahle,

"Reports on the 1976-1977 Excavations in Northwest Arkansas by

the Fayetteville Research Station and the Arkansas Archeological

Society," in Contributions to Ozarks Prehistory , ed. by George

Sabo III, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 27

(Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1986); Michael P.

Hoffman and James Cherry, "The Watt's Farm Site (3WA6), and the

Mystery of Caddoan Culture in the Western Arkansas Ozarks," paper

presented at the 1983 Caddo Conference, Natchitoches, Louisiana,

March 1983; Gayle Fritz, "Mounds in Northwest Arkansas: A More

Positive Approach to Late Prehistory in the Ozarks," in

Contributions to Ozarks Prehistory , ed. by George Sabo III.

14. L. Mark Raab, Gayle Fritz, Daniel Wolfman, Robert H. Ray,

and George Sabo III, "The Arkansas Ozarks," in A State Plan for

the Conservation of Archeological Resources in Arkansas , ed by

Hester A. Davis, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series

No. 21 (Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1982), pp.

NW1-24.

15. Charles R. McGimsey, Indians of Arkansas , Arkansas

Archeological Survey Publications on Archeology, Popular Series

No. 1 (Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1969), p. 34;

James A. Scholtz, "A Summary of Prehistory in Northwest

Arkansas," The Arkansas Archeologist , X (1969), p. 58.
15

16. Charles J. Kappler, Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties , vol.

II (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), pp. 95-99.

17. Grant Foreman, Indians & Pioneers: The Story of the American

Southwest Before 1830 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,

1930), p. 26; Charles C. Royce, "The Cherokee Nation of Indians,"

in Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1883-'84 (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1887), p. 204.

18. Foreman, Indians & Pioneers , pp. 26-27.

19. On a contemporary map of Arkansas the eastern boundary would

start near Morrilton on the Arkansas and run to near Batesville

on the White. The western line would commence near Fort Smith

and reach the White River at the mouth of the Little North Fork

Creek, presently under the waters of Bull Shoals Lake. Kappler,

Indian Affairs , vol. II, pp. 140-142; Charles C. Royce, comp.,

Indian Land Cessions in the United States , Eighteenth Annual

Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 1896- '97, Part 2

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899), p. 721.

20. Joseph McMinn to Secretary of War, November 29, 1818,

American State Papers: Indian Affairs , vol. II (Washington:

Published by Gales and Seaton, 1834), p. 482.

21. Royce, "Cherokee Nation," p. 218.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid., pp. 141-142.

24. [United States, Land Office], Original Field Notes, T14N

R17W, Typescript Copy, State Land Office, Little Rock, Book 559A,

Bundle 62, p. 1124.

25. Ibid., T15N R16W, Book 559A, Bundle 62, p. 477.

26. The survey error was corrected the following year. Cherokee

Delegation to President James Monroe, March 3, 1824, in United

States, Indian Affairs Office, Letters Received, 1824-1881,

Cherokee Agency (West) , National Archives Microfilm Publications,

Microcopy No. 234, Roll 77, p. 2.

27. Royce, "Cherokee Nation," p. 247.

28. Kappler, Indian Affairs , vol. II, pp. 288-292.

29. Royce, "Cherokee Nation," p. 248.
16

30. Henry R. Schoolcraft, Information Respecting the History.

Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United

States ; Collected and Prepared Under the Direction of the Bureau

of Indian Affairs, Per Act of Congress of March 3d, 1847 , vol.

Ill (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Company, 1853), p. 50.

31. Theodore H. Lewis, "Route of De Soto's Expedition From

Taliepacana to Huhasene," Mississippi Historical Society

Publications , VI (1903), pp. 458-459.

32. Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas , vol. I (New

York: The Grolier Society, 1931), p. 283; Vance Randolph, The

Ozarks, An American Survival of Primitive Society (New York:

Vanguard Press, 1931), p. 288.

33. Mark R. Harrington, The Ozark Bluff-Dwellers , vol. XII of

Indian Notes and Monographs (New York: Museum of the American

Indian, Heye Foundation, 1960), pp. 143-144; Gene Waters, "An

Ozark Bluff Dwelling," Central States Archeological Journal , XIII

(October 1966) , p. 143.

34. Elliott Coues, The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike,

To Headwaters of the Mississippi River, Through Louisiana

Territory, and in New Spain, During the Years 1805-6-7 , vol. Ill

(New York: Francis P. Harper, 1895), First Part of Captain Pike's

Chart of the Internal Part of Louisiana.

35. Ibid., pp. 357-510; Zebulon M. Pike, The Journals of Zebulon

Montgomery Pike With Letters and Related Documents , ed. by Donald

Jackson, vol. I (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), pp.

459-460.

36. William T. Hornaday, "The Extermination of the American

Bison, With a Sketch of its Discovery and Life History," in

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian

Institution. Showing the Operations, Expenditures, and Condition

of the Institution for the Year ending June 30, 1887 , Part 2

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1889), pp. 278-388; J. A.

Allen, "History of the American Bison, Bison Americanus," in

Ninth Annual Report of the United States Geological and

Geographical Survey of the Territories, Embracing Colorado and

Parts of Adjacent Territories: Being a Report of Progress of the

Exploration for the year 1875 (Washington: Government Printing

Office, 1877), pp. 474, 528.

37. Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies , vol. II

(Philadelphia: Lippincott Company, 1962), p. 291.

38. Charles E. Cleland, "Faunal Remains From Bluff Shelters in

Northwest Arkansas," The Arkansas Archeologist , VI (1965), p. 47.
17

39. Duane Huddleston, "Navigation of the Buffalo River — Epic

Trip of Steamboat Dauntless , " Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , March 13, 1969; John Quincy Wolf, Life in the Leatherwoods , ed.

by John Quincy Wolf, Jr. (Memphis: Memphis State University

Press, 1974) , p. 139.

40. United States, Statutes at Large . "An Act to provide for the

establishment of the Buffalo National River in the State of

Arkansas, and for other purposes," March 1, 1972, vol. LXXXVI , p.

44; United States Army Corps of Engineers, Public Hearing,

November 18, 1964, Box 219-B2/2, Ozark Society Papers, Special

Collections Library, University of Arkansas.

19

II

"...came to arkansas. . .

:

n Ante-Bellum Settlement of the Watershed

Arkansas in the 1830s was largely a remote frontier area

whose population while rapidly expanding lagged significantly

behind that of Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee,

its four nearest neighbors. Except for the "urban" settlements

of Little Rock, Camden, and Fort Smith, the population was

scattered across the state on small subsistence farms or on

somewhat more expansive cotton plantations in the southern and

eastern counties and along the Red River in the southwest corner.

Railroads had not yet connected the capital with major commercial

centers on the Mississippi, and inland travel was limited to

roads whose condition ranged from lamentable to impassable.

River travel was relatively uncomplicated, but limited to the

Arkansas, White, St. Francis, Ouachita, and the Red. This

geographical isolation, common to most frontier areas, was felt

most keenly by those who inhabited the mountainous sections of

Arkansas.

Insulated by their environment, the settlers of the Ozarks

and, to a lesser extent of the Ouachitas, remained for decades

relatively untouched by contemporary social and cultural

movements. Their isolation led to the development of a distinct

cultural milieu. This mountain culture, as it has been labeled,

originated in the frontier experience, but was molded and shaped

by the exigencies of highland life.

In 1830 the United States was on the move. Its technology,

literature, and politics were all in a state of flux as were its

people. The westward movement, having begun on the Atlantic

seaboard during the seventeenth century, continued. By 1830

there were twenty-four states in the Union, but only two

(Louisiana and Missouri) were west of the Mississippi River. The

line of frontier settlement ebbed and flowed along the

geographical path of least resistance. In 1830 it ranged from

southwestern Alabama, north to near the Tennessee border, then

west to the Mississippi. The "cutting edge of civilization" then

traveled north to west-central Illinois where it turned back to

the east to Lake Erie. Northern Indiana and Illinois were

largely unsettled as were most of Missouri, Louisiana, and the

Arkansas Territory. There were pockets of pioneers west of that

frontier line, notably in the areas surrounding the mouth of the

Mississippi River, along the Missouri River, and in Arkansas.

In 1830 Arkansas possessed only 30,388 inhabitants, most of whom

settled along the Arkansas and White rivers. 2 Yet even those

early settlers had been preceded by the most independent of all

frontiersmen — the ubiquitous fur trapper and trader.
20

Shortly after the commencement of the nineteenth century

those hardy individuals began entering northwestern Arkansas to

exploit the large number of wild animals that then populated the

region. Bear oil as well as various peltries were the primary

goal of those early businessmen, and they were usually

successful due to the great abundance of game. Indeed, it is

reported that the present village of Oil Trough, Arkansas,

located immediately down the White River from Batesville, earned

its name because of the great quantities of bears that were

killed in its vicinity.

During an eighteen month period just prior to the beginning

of the War of 1812, a three-man hunting party which probably

camped on the upper White River, emerged, after a protracted

campaign, with "about fifty beaver and otter, and about three

hundred bear skins, and eight hundred gallons of bear's oil." 4

The men transported their cargo by canoe, possibly down the

Buffalo River, to the Mississippi and thence to New Orleans.

Unfortunately, by the time they reached New Orleans the embargo

proclaimed by President Jefferson prevented them from selling

their goods for full value. Instead of the anticipated two to

three thousand dollar profit, the three tired and frustrated

trappers disappointedly divided among themselves the sum of

thirty-six dollars.

A few such adventurers settled in northwest Arkansas, raised

a log cabin, cleared a few acres of bottomland, and lived a somewhat more sedate existence. Most, however, continued to use

the abundant game of the central-Mississippi region to further

their economic stake in life or moved on to other pursuits.

In 1819, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the New York ethnologist

mentioned earlier, explored northern Arkansas and found a scattered, sparse population. Many of the settlers were

accustomed to living close to the land and dispensed with the

niceties of more refined areas of settlement. Schoolcraft noted

that people living just north of the Buffalo River basin lived by

hunting and agriculture, although vegetable gardens were unknown.

Instead, corn and bear meat provided the main staples, but while

they grew corn for bread, for their horses, and perhaps for the

distillation of corn whiskey, it was not considered a cash crop.

In manners, morals, customs, dress, contempt of labour

and hospitality, the state of society is not

essentially different from that which exists among the

savages. Schools, religion, and learning, are alike

unknown. Hunting is the principal, the most

honourable, and the most profitable employment. To

excel in the chace [sic] procures fame, and a man's

reputation is measured by his skill as a marksman, his

agility and strength, his boldness and dexterity in

killing game, and his patient endurance and contempt of
21

the hardships of the hunter's life. They are

consequently, a hardy, brave, independent people, rude

in appearance, frank and generous, travel without

baggage, and can subsist any where in the woods, and

would form the most efficient military cores in

frontier warfare which can possibly exist.'

Conditioned by their stern, harsh, and unyielding environment,

those initial inhabitants along the upper White River formed the

advance guard of the confident, optimistic, and determined

pioneer farmer who would soon follow. By 1830 Arkansas was a part of that forward thrust of American civilization.

As previously noted, in 1830 the population of Arkansas

amounted to 30,388 while Missouri and Louisiana possessed 140,455

and 215,739 inhabitants respectively. There were a number of

reasons why Arkansas initially did not attract a large quantity

of settlers. First of all, access was difficult. The swampy

eastern border, along the Mississippi River, was impassable for

wagons during some seasons, and there were few roads leading into

east-central Arkansas from other directions. The most prominent

of these was a crude military road from Memphis through Little

Rock to Fort Smith, and another from the southeastern Missouri

boundary through Little Rock to Fulton on the Red River. Thus,

most of the early prospective immigrants to the territory came by

water: either up the Mississippi by way of Louisiana or down that

river from the Ohio. The extent upon which water transportation

was relied upon is indicated by the fact that early population

centers were located along either the Arkansas, White, or other

smaller waterways. But the migrant who traveled the Mississippi

looking for suitable farming land often found it long before he

reached the future Bear State. For the settlers who floated down

the Ohio and then the Mississippi, bountiful rich soil was

available in southern Indiana, Illinois, and especially Missouri.

Those settlers who proposed to enter the territory through New

Orleans faced added obstacles. They not only had to fight

against the unslacking current of the Mississippi, but also they

constantly were lured by the luxuriantly fertile soils of the

future states of Mississippi and Louisiana. Moreover, the

northwest portion of Arkansas labored under an additional burden.

Most of the mountain region in that area was claimed by the

Cherokee Indians who did not agree to move west into the Indian

Territory until 1828. * The Buffalo River country and the area

around it, however, suffered from a hinderance far more

intangible than the Cherokee occupation yet possibly equally

retardant to vigorous growth.

A geographical description of the American West appeared in

1828 and was eagerly read by an American public seeking pertinent

information about the remote yet promising western frontier.

Timothy Flint's A Condensed Geography and History of the Western

States or the Mississippi Valley became so widely celebrated that
22

by 1852 when Harriet Beecher Stowe published her anti-slavery

polemic Uncle Tom's Cabin , the author believed herself justified

in casually mentioning Flint's work along with Paradise Lost and

Pilgrim's Progress and assumed that her reading public was

equally familiar with all three. 2 A Condensed Geography...

informed its readers about various elements in each of the

western states and territories. It described which areas were

conducive to the growing of certain crops and which were not. It

commented upon the rivers of the area and noted the extent of

navigability of each, the condition of the soil along its banks,

and the number and nature of its tributaries. The book further

examined the climate, productions, and settlements of the western

territories

.

A quick reading of the Arkansas segment of the book would

tend to discourage all but the most determined migrant from

settling in northern Arkansas. While the state as a whole

received favorable treatment, the Buffalo River country and its

environs were the subject of generally negative, although

truthful, coverage. For instance, Flint, echoing the early land

surveyors, described the White River region in part as "broken

land, and unfit for cultivation," and he presented the high

prairies and timbered lands as "sterile." Flint further wrote of

the "rocky and sterile ridges" and of the "no inconsiderable

surface covered with mountains." While he conceded that the

valleys nestled among the precipitous hills were conducive to

growing a wide variety of crops, Flint warned that the

mountainous area had one great drawback — the frequent floods

that followed the regular seasonal thunderstorms. The streams

"have been known to rise forty feet perpendicular height, in a few hours. The standing corn and cotton is submerged; and the

hope of the year destroyed." 13 The number of potential Arkansas

migrants who were acquainted with A Condensed Geography...

cannot, of course, be determined, but one can accurately assume

that Flint's less than encouraging account would have caused a prospective settler to reconsider the alternatives.

In spite of the difficulty in reaching the Arkansas

Territory and of settling in the highland section of the region,

people did begin to settle the Buffalo River valley during the

two decades between 1820 and 1840. Before the Cherokee Indians

ceded their land between the Arkansas and the White rivers, the

first white pioneers entered the basin of the Buffalo and

established homesites. Around 1822 a Kentuckian named Robert

Adams immigrated to the Searcy County area and built a farm on

Bear Creek. 14 Three years later upper Bear Creek and the

Richland valley to the west contained scattered clearings. 15 The

upper sections of the Buffalo were settled about the same time by

emigrants primarily from Tennessee. Tennessean John Brisco

settled near Jasper (the present county seat of Newton County) on

the Little Buffalo in 1825. 16 Farther up the Buffalo, Solomon

Cecil, also from Tennessee, settled on what is now called Cecil
23

Creek near present Compton. ' Down-river from the Cecil

homestead, Mitchell and Nancy Hill began a settlement near what

would later become Mount Hersey. ° Around 1830 the mouth of the

Buffalo was settled, and a small village that would later become

Buffalo City was established. Located just north of the junction

of the White and the Buffalo, the site marked the northern limit

of deep draft navigation of the White. John Tabor and William

Moreland were the first homesteaders at the mouth of the Buffalo

and probably arrived there around 1829 or 1830. 9 Others such as

Samuel Hudson and John Campbell were to push on up-river.

Brought by his parents to northern Arkansas during the

1820s, Samuel Hudson struck out on his own in 1832 and

homesteaded on Panther Creek within five miles of the future site

of Jasper. First a farmer, later a stock-raiser, and still later

the owner and operator of a grist mill, Hudson soon became one of

the more influential inhabitants of the upper Buffalo. He is

alleged to have killed hundreds of buffalo along the river and to

have driven nine packs of hounds to death during his lifetime.

During one of his hunting adventures he discovered a limestone

cave which is now a popular tourist attraction called Diamond

Cave. Like many men of his day who outlived their wives, Hudson

married three times and fathered forty children. 20

John Campbell, another native of Tennessee, first entered

Arkansas in 1837 with his wife and relatives. He settled on Calf

Creek in Searcy and the year following his arrival was elected

county surveyor. Two years later he served as county judge. He

represented his county in the state legislature in 1842 and 1843

and again in 1852 and 1853. In 1861 he was a delegate to the

Arkansas secession convention where he was one of five who

initially voted against leaving the Union. Campbell, along with

three of the others, later reversed his vote at the request of

the convention's chairman. Following the Civil War, Campbell

again served Searcy County in the state legislature and continued

to influence local politics. 21

The people who settled on the Buffalo for the most part were

hardworking farmers who desired nothing more than to clear a few

acres, build a log dwelling, and enjoy the peace and tranquility

the valley had to offer. Perhaps most of the newcomers were not

too unlike David Barnett who

came to arkansas in 1845 with a band of his country man

- they came by the old army trail of that day - going

west - to Buffalo City - there they struck out N-W came

to a little place call Yellville there South west to

Buffalo River where the Hiway 65 Bridge is now. the

only Place crossable at that time of year. Now River

to full to cross. All stopt and camp for the winter my

father and one of the girls of the crew fell in love

and got married. . .the Settle on a track of land where
24

they campt - Built a house and Homesteaded the land - and lived most all ther lives at this place. 22

Although the topography remained a considerable obstacle to

settlement, Arkansas attracted increasingly larger numbers of

settlers once the Cherokees moved west in 1828. The territorial

census of 1833 reported a population of 40,660 — an increase of

34 percent in only three years. 3 That precipitate growth

registered in the northern areas of the territory and caused the

formation of additional counties. For some time prior to 1835

the citizens of large Izard County had clamored for a division of

that political entity. In November 1835, the territorial

legislature approved the change and formed from western Izard a

new political division initially termed Searcy County. A year

later, however, bowing to the wishes of the inhabitants of the

new county, the legislature renamed the county Marion in honor of

General Francis Marion from South Carolina. 24 Born in 1732 near

Georgetown, Marion, at the start of the American Revolution, was

a representative to the provisional congress of South Carolina

and later entered the Colonial Army where he remained for the

duration of the war. The general died at home in South Carolina

at the age of sixty-three. 25 The exact relationship between

Marion and the early settlers of northern Arkansas is unclear.

Perhaps relatives of his immigrated to the region and sought to

immortalize their ancestor. Possibly men who served under his

command during the war and later moved to Arkansas wished to show

their respect for the military leader. Perhaps it was his

reputation as the Swamp Fox. Quite possibly the settlers had

merely emigrated from Marion County, Tennessee and wished to use

a familiar name. In any case, the county was so named and the

seat of justice was established at a place later named Yellville

in honor of Archibald Yell who served as governor of Arkansas

from 1840 to 1844. 26

The second Buffalo River county was formed in December,

1838, when the southern portion of Marion was set aside and

designated Searcy County. 2 ' This, the forty-first Arkansas

county, was named after Richard Searcy, an accomplished lawyer in

the northern part of the state. A Tennessean, Searcy first went

to Arkansas in 1817 while it was still attached to Missouri and

later made his home at Batesville on the White River. He was

appointed first clerk of the Independence County courts and in

1823 became a territorial judge. Two years later political

influence caused his removal from office, and although he

attempted to regain his place on the territorial bench, his

efforts were in vain. Searcy died in Batesville in 1832 a wealthy and respected citizen. 28 A select group of commissioners

located the Searcy County seat at Lebanon, six miles west of

present Marshall, but eighteen years later it was relocated to

the more populous center of Burrowsville, which in 1867 was

renamed Marshall after John Marshall, former Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court. 29
25

By the early 1840s the headwaters region of the Buffalo

River was sufficiently populated to warrant the creation of yet

another political district. In December, 1842, Governor

Archibald Yell signed an act that detached the southeastern part

of Carroll County and formed the forty-seventh county, Newton.

The act stated that the seat of justice be established at the

house of John Bellah on the Little Buffalo River. The following

year the county seat was permanently established at the town of

Jasper, a few miles down-river from Bellah's. " Thomas

Willoughby Newton, for whom the county was named, arrived in

frontier Arkansas in 1820 at the age of seventeen. After short

careers as a mail carrier, court clerk, and clerk for the Third

Territorial Legislature in 1823, Newton served as a delegate to

the state legislature from 1844 to 1846. In December of 1846 he

was elected to the United States House of Representatives to fill

the unexpired term of an Arkansas congressman who resigned to

participate in the war with Mexico. Consequently, he became the

only Whig ever sent to Washington from Arkansas. *

The naming of the counties for Newton and Searcy, who were

both Whigs, was strangely prophetic, for both counties during the

years following the Civil War became political mavericks. In a Democratic state those two counties repeatedly voted for

Republican candidates for President and continued to do so well

into the twentieth century.

The settlement of the Buffalo River basin grew at a steady

rate. Determined farmers and hunters, primarily from Tennessee,

entered the region in ever increasing numbers. A study of the

census returns reveals that immigration into Marion, Newton, and

Searcy counties not only kept pace with the rest of the state,

but also, on occasion, surpassed it. The decade of the 1840s saw

the population of Arkansas increase by 115.1 percent: a figure

greater, although not significantly, than that of Marion (74.2

percent) and Searcy (111.4 percent). Because Newton remained a part of Carroll County until 1842, no accurate figures are

available for that county. During the following years, 1850 to

1860, Arkansas doubled its population with an increase of 107.5

percent. But both Marion and Searcy counties grew at a rate more

than 50 percent higher. The population of those counties

increased 168.3 and 166.3 percent respectively. The newest of

the three counties, Newton, had the lowest rate of increase at 93

percent. ^ That phenomenon of rapid growth must be attributed to

the fact that ante-bellum Arkansas was a part of the North

American frontier and consequently experienced the population

boom typical of such areas. It must be noted, however, that the

figures represent only a relative condition and that the

seemingly high percentages do not indicate that the Buffalo Basin

was being quickly overrun with log cabins. Indeed, the valley

remained very sparsely settled; a portion of the 1860 increase

may be actually due to an under enumeration in 1850. In 1860

Arkansas possessed 435,450 inhabitants, while the combined total
26

TABLE 1

ANTE-BELLUM POPULATION

MARION NEWTON SEARCY ARKANSAS

1840

White 1,221 933 77,174

Slave 39 3 19,935

Free Color ed 65 465

TOTAL 1,325 936 97,574

1850

White 2,053 1,701 1,950 162,189

Slave 126 47 29 47,100

Free Color ed 129 7 608

TOTAL 2,308 1,758 1,979 209,897

% Increase 74.2% 111.4% 115.1%

1860

White 5,923 3,369 5,178 324,191

Slave 261 24 93 111,115

Free Colored 8 144

TOTAL 6,192 3,393 5,271 435,450

% Increase 168.3% 93% 166.3% 107.5%
27

of the three highland counties amounted to only 14,856 —3.4

percent of the total state population and representing a density

of approximately 6.6 individuals per square mile. 3

The new arrivals to the Arkansas Ozarks originated, not

surprisingly, from contiguous areas. As immigrants sought

familiar land, Tennessee led all other states in the number of

newcomers to Arkansas. Up to 1860 an average of 50 percent of

the new arrivals to Searcy and Marion counties came from that

state. In Newton County, as well, most settlers came from

Tennessee, although after 1850 the preponderance of immigrants

arrived from Missouri. A similar change in place of origin

occurred in Marion and Searcy counties during the next decade and

continued at least for the next twenty years, as most of the new

arrivals to those two counties claimed Missouri as their former

residence. 4 When examined jointly, statistics show that

emigrants from both states, Missouri and Tennessee, contributed

over 60 percent of the new arrivals into the three county region

during the years up to 1860.

Many of the initial settlers along the Buffalo failed to

obtain legal title to the land that they had painstakingly

cleared and upon which they had erected a dwelling. Squatters

were not uncommon to the western frontier. The practice of

settling on land without benefit of ownership had been prevalent

along the fringes of the American frontier for some time. As

early as 1784, George Washington noted in his diary an incident

with squatters on his own property, and as President he spoke

against such illegal trespasses. * As the nation grew and the

population steadily increased, the settlement of land not yet

"open" for homesteading became increasingly common. The reasons

for this were several. Without question, a major cause of

squatting was that land surveys were not able to keep up with

impatient settlers. Although inadequate congressional

appropriations was the immediate cause, a more general and

serious reason stemmed from the opposition to the development of

western lands by older, more conservative areas of the East. A

corresponding reason for widespread squatting was even more

basic: Settlers on federal land avoided paying both the purchase

price for the land and the annual county and state real estate

taxes. Many of those who settled the highland frontier were an

individualistic breed who were shrewd enough to elude the

scrutiny of the local tax collectors and suspicious enough of

legal maneuvering to seek civil obscurity. 36

Regardless of the reason, squatting on the public domain was

not sanctioned by law, and many a frontier farmer found the land

he had cleared, cultivated, and improved, but to which he had no

legal title, suddenly offered for sale. Westerners, thus, at an

early date began to petition Congress demanding that the initial

settler be given certain rights regarding the purchase of the

land he occupied. The quest for "squatters' rights" won
28

increasing support in Congress, and in 1830 it passed the first

of a series of badly needed pre-emption laws. The initial act

forgave squatters and allowed them to purchase their land without

having to take their chances through competitive bidding. (This

advantage alone no doubt fostered yet additional squatting.) The

1830 law was re-enacted throughout the 1830s until in 1841

Congress passed a permanent pre-emption act. The practice of

residing upon land without statutory possession was consequently

well-established by the time the Buffalo River country was

settled.

That squatting was prevalent cannot be contested, but other

than in general terms, the exact extent of it has never been

determined. How extensive it was along the Buffalo may, perhaps,

be instructive in understanding the essence of frontier land

tenure. It has been established that the incidence of squatters

was greatest where the line of frontier settlement outdistanced

the capability of the United States government to conduct

surveys. In the Boston Mountains of northwest Arkansas, the

surveys began during the latter years of the 1820s. But even

then the work was not accomplished immediately. The initial

surveys, which took place from roughly 1829 to 1834, measured and

marked only the eastern and southern boundary lines of each

township. Once those lines were established, the interior

surveys began. This latter measuring, a much more tedious and

protracted task, was not completed until almost 1850. Many of

the initial settlers of the Buffalo region consequently were

squatters by reason of their premature entrance into the

watershed. In western Searcy County, for instance, a surveyor in

1834 found fifteen families living in one unplotted township. He

noted in his field notes, however, that most were anxious to

purchase their improved lands. °

Apparently, those eager settlers and their neighbors were

not as intent on legalizing their claims as they led the surveyor

to believe. Once the land was properly platted, there was no

rush to file the proper papers and pay up. The mountain folk

were seemingly content to forgo the bothersome and costly task of

obtaining legal title to their land. Under the provisions of the

Land Law of 1820, Congress reduced the minimum price per acre to

$1.25, and established the minimum purchase at eighty acres. The

act abolished the credit system for payment which had been

allowed since 1800. 39 Thus while smaller tracts of land were

available at a cheaper price, total payment of one hundred

dollars was required upon purchase. Few settlers along the

Buffalo, or for that matter, along the American frontier,

possessed the necessary financial resources to capitalize on the

reduced purchase requirements.

A study of fifty-five settlers known to be occupying land

within the Buffalo River watershed at the time of the original

land surveys reveals the extent to which squatting was practiced.
29

Of the total identified homesites, only fourteen were ever

legally owned by the initial occupant or by a member of his

family. Fully 74 percent of those individuals known to be living

in that area during the 1830s and 1840s failed, for one reason or

another, to secure title to their land. 40 Many, of course, moved

to other areas after only a short residence in the region, while

still others doubtless decided to purchase neighboring land other

than that which they originally occupied. Of those who did

obtain a title, most were relatively prompt in doing so. Of the

fourteen who filed for their land, one-half received legal

possession by 1850, and another five were legitimate owners

before another decade had elapsed. Interestingly enough, the

final two subjects, or their descendants, waited a considerable

length of time before filing their documents: the first obtained

his in 1870 and the second in 1900. 41

Without additional figures it is impossible to determine

whether there were more or fewer squatters per capita along the

Buffalo than in other areas. In any case, clearly there was no

sense of urgency among the peoples of the Boston Mountains to

obtain clear and official title to their lands. Perhaps they

felt secure in their isolated valleys and considered quite remote

the possibility that anyone would want their land. Or, perhaps,

they were too independent and obstinate (or shrewd) to go through

the proper legal procedures of gaining a clear title. Or,

perhaps, they were exceptionally trusting of their fellow man and

had faith that no moral person would "legally steal" the land

that another had so laboriously improved. 2 Whatever the legal

and procedural questions concerning the acquisition of land, the

overriding concern of those initial settlers was to provide

enough food for their families and to hope that a surplus would

enable them to purchase the supplies and implements they could

not manufacture themselves.

By 1860 the rugged valley contained not quite fifteen

thousand inhabitants. Scattered along the length of the one

hundred and forty-eight mile stream, they built their log homes

and tilled the fertile bottom lands. On the swift tributaries

they built grist mills and saw mills to provide fundamental

comforts for their frontier society. Towns were few and widely

scattered. The immediate area around Buffalo City probably

contained the largest concentration of inhabitants: 214. 3 The

county seats of the three counties were growing, if not thriving,

communities, and there were other centers of frontier life that

as yet were unnamed but would soon become small social and

economic nuclei complete with schools, churches, and assorted

businesses. There were an equal number of churches and schools

in 1860 with the former being simple "log Cabins that have been

built by Common labor and for the accommodation of no one sect to

the exclusion of another...." 4 Although there were around

twenty schools within the watershed, the disinterest with which

the settlers held them forced the census taker in 1850 to commend
30

that "there appears to [be] a greater degree of apathy here

[Marion County] than I nave ever witnessed in any county

whatever." 45 Indeed, the illiteracy rate among those inhabitants

twenty years of age and older ranged from 40 percent in Marion

County to 60 percent in Newton. 6

The people who inhabited the valleys and ridges of the river

basin were hardworking frontier farmers who were largely selfsufficient. Because they operated small and relatively

autonomous farms (the average in 1850 was twenty-eight improved

acres per farm) 47 and did not concentrate on a single cash crop,

they had little need for slaves. Yet in 1860 there were 378

black slaves scattered throughout the watershed and its immediate

area. Individual holdings were small with the average being 3.7

per slave owner although Orin L. Dodd, a forty-six year old

farmer from Tennessee, possessed thirty-five slaves on his Rapp's

Barren, Marion County plantation. 8

The black population within the three county region, while

it consisted largely of slaves, also contained a significant

proportion of free-blacks. Marion County possessed not only the

largest non-slave black population in the state, 21.2 percent in

1850, but also in both 1840 and 1850 it contained a greater

number of free-blacks than slaves. This concentration of

emancipated blacks seemingly consisted primarily of two extended

families from Tennessee, one of which had immigrated to the

region early in the 1830s, the other only shortly before 1850.

The unusualness of their conspicuous presence in the region was

eclipsed only by the fact that these free Negroes were not tenant

farmers but landholders. Indeed, fifteen out of the twenty

families living within the county in 1850 possessed their own

farm land, and two of them could boast of property valued at one

thousand dollars and above. 9 These black farmers were not mere

transients searching for a favorable location in which to settle,

but rather they were established members of the community, or at

least tolerated, by the hill folk of northwest Arkansas.

Apparently, however, the rising tide of racial intolerance and

sectional animosity which characterized the United States during

the decade of the 1850s finally reached the Arkansas Ozarks, for

by 1860 the blacks were gpfte. Of the 129 in 1850 only eight

remained ten years later. 50 Although Arkansas had restricted

free black immigration since 1838, little attention had

apparently been paid to the prohibitive ordinances. In 1859, the

Arkansas legislature passed a law forbidding free-blacks to

remain in the state after January 1, 1860, but effective

enforcement of the statute in the mountainous regions of the

state was probably irregular at best. 51 Whether they departed on

their own accord or were forced to leave by their neighbors,

their existence in the county for over a decade denotes an

appearance of acceptance or indulgence on the part of their

neighbors. Tolerance of that nature would not have been possible

in some of the more populated areas of the state.
31

Thus, on the eve of the Civil War, the Buffalo River valley

was populated with settlers who had arrived from adjacent states,

who often lived on land they did not own, and who operated farms

that were largely self-sufficient. Surrounded by the hills

which, perhaps, first attracted them to the region, those Ozark

pioneers reflected the rigid determination and dedication to

survival which characterized most frontier regions. But the

settlers along the Buffalo developed, in addition, apparent

satisfaction with their surroundings and a corresponding

disinclination to follow the continuing westward movement of the

American people. Although the geographical immobility of these

early settlers has as yet not been analyzed, it is postulated

that the highland dwellers constituted a much more static

frontier society than did their contemporaries who resided in

more accessible areas. The individuals who populated the valleys

and "hollers n along the Buffalo River clung to familiar customs,

practices, and habits out of necessity; a necessity imposed upon

them by the rugged character of their environment. Prior to

1860, they were able to remain aloof from the growing national

controversy, but the Civil War deeply affected the people of the

valley and altered their politics and their patterns of life for

decades thereafter.
32

NOTES

1. Charles 0. Paullin, Atlas of the Historical Geography of the

United States , ed. by John K. Wright, Carnegie Institution of

Washington Publications, No. 401 (Washington: Published Jointly

by Carnegie Institution of Washington and the American

Geographical Society of New York, 1932), plate 76-F.

2. Ibid..; United States, Census Bureau, [1970 Census],

Nineteenth Decennial Census of the United States , Census of

Population: 1970 , vol. I, Part 5, Arkansas (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1973), p. 7.

3. John Quincy Wolf, Life in the Leatherwoods , ed. by John

Quincy Wolf, Jr. (Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1974),

pp. 75, 132.

4. John Shaw, (Colonel), "Shaw's Narrative," Wisconsin State

Historical Society Collections , II (1903), p. 201.

5. Ibid., p. 202.

6. For an interesting study of the trapper as entrepreneur see

William H. Goetzmann, "The Mountain Man as Jacksonian Man,"

American Quarterly , XV (Fall 1963), pp. 402-415.

7. Henry R. Schoolcraft, Journal of a Tour into the Interior of

Missouri and Arkansaw, From Potosi, or Mine a Burton, in Missouri

Territory, in a South-West Direction, Toward the Rocky Mountains:

Performed in the years 1818 and 1819 (London: Printed for Sir

Richard Phillips and Co., 1821), p. 72.

8. Robert B. Walz, "Migration into Arkansas 1834-1889," (Ph.D.

dissertation, University of Texas, 1958), p. 295.

9. Ibid.; Everard B. Dickinson to Philo Dickinson, June 21,

1850, Dickinson Collection, J.N. Heiskell Collection, University

of Arkansas at Little Rock, Special Collections.

10. Frederick L. Paxson, History of the American Frontier 1763-

1893 (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1924), p. 299.

11. Charles J. Kappler, Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties , vol.

II (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), pp. 288-292;

Charles C. Royce, "The Cherokee Nation of Indians," in Fifth

Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the

Smithsonian Institution 1883-'84 (Washington: Government Printing

Office, 1887), pp. 247-248.
33

12. Timothy Flint, A Condensed Geography and History of the

Western States or the Mississippi Valley * introduction by Bernard

Rosenthal, vol. I (Gainsville, Florida: Scholars' Facsimiles &

Reprints, 1970), p. v.

13. Ibid., I, pp. 571-573.

14. A Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region. Comprising A

Condensed General History, A Brief Descriptive History of Each

County, and Numerous Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens

of Such Counties (Chicago: Goodspeed Brothers, 1894), p. 194.

15. Orville J. Mclnturff, Searcy County, My Dear: A History of

Searcy County, Arkansas (Marshall, Arkansas: Marshall Mountain

Wave, 1963) , p. 5.

16. Walter F. Lackey, History of Newton County, Arkansas (Point

Lookout, Missouri: S of Press, 1950), p. 56.

17. A Reminiscent History , p. 322.

18. Lackey, History of Newton County , p. 18.

19. Everard B. Dickinson to Philo Dickinson, September 22, 1848,

Dickinson Collection; Marian Burnes, "Early Days in Marion

County," Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , November 7, 1963, p.

2.

20. A Reminiscent History , p. 289; Otto E. Rayburn, Ozark

Country , (New York: Duel, Sloan & Pearce, 1941), p. 182; S.C.

Turnbo, "Stories of the Ozarks: Accounts of Pioneer Life in

Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas in the Country Adjacent

to the White River; Where the Pioneers Lived, How They Lived and

Died and Where They are Buried and Particularly the Adventures of

the First Settlers With the Wild Animals of those Regions —

Buffaloes, Bears, Deer, Wolves, Panthers, Catamounts, Wildcats,

Snakes, and Wild Turkeys," (typescript, J.N. Heiskell Collection,

University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Special Collections), IV,

p. 1132.

21. Mrs. J.N. Bromley, "Colorful Colonel Campbell: Searcy County

Pioneer Who Came to Arkansas From Tennessee and Settled on Lower

Calf Creek Played a Big Part in Civic and Political Life of His

Section," Little Rock Arkansas Gazette , August 29, 1937, Magazine

Section, p. 5; F.D. Campbell, "The Honorable Colonel Campbell and

His Descendants," (typescript, Searcy County Library, Marshall,

Arkansas) . p. 3; James J. Johnston, "Letter of John Campbell,

Unionist," Arkansas Historical Quarterly , XXIX (Summer 1970), pp.

176-177.

22. Noah Barnett to J.J. Johnston, September 6, 1973, James J.

Johnston Private Collection, Marshall, Arkansas.
34

23. Walz, "Migration," p. 296.

24. Melbourne (Arkansas) Clipper , August 11, 1877, p. 1; Fay

Hempstead, A Pictorial History of Arkansas. From Earliest Times

to the year 1890. A Full and Complete Account, Embracing the

Indian Tribes Occupying the Country; the Early French and Spanish

Explorers and Governors; the Colonial Period: the Louisiana

Purchase: the Period of the Territory, the State, the Civil War,

and the Subsequent Period. Also, an Extended History of Each

County in Order of Formation, and of the Principal Cities and

Towns: Together with Biographical Notices of Distinguished and

Prominent Citizens (St. Louis: N.D. Thompson Publishing Company,

1890) , p. 1029.

25. William D. James, A Sketch of the Life of Brig. Gen. Francis

Marion and A History of His Brigade From Its Rise in June 1780

until Disbanded in December, 1782 With Descriptions of Characters

and Scenes Not Heretofore Published, Containing Also An Appendix

With Copies of Letters Which Passed Between Several of the

Leading Characters of That Day Principally From Gen. Greene to

Gen. Marion (Marietta, Georgia: Continental Book Company, 1948)

,

pp. 15-18, 181.

26. Melbourne (Arkansas) Clipper , August 11, 1877, p. 1; Kelly

Bryant, Historical Report of the Secretary of State (Little Rock:

Kelly Bryant, 1968), p. 241.

27. Hempstead, Pictorial History , p. 1049; Dallas T. Herndon,

ed., Annals of Arkansas , vol. II (Little Rock: Historical Record

Association, 1947), p. 717.

28. Little Rock Arkansas Advocate , January 9, 1833, p. 3; John

Hallum, Biographical and Pictorial History of Arkansas (Albany:

Weed, Parsons and Company, Printers, 1887), vol. I, p. 241;

Robert Neill, "Reminiscences of Independence County,"

Publications of the Arkansas Historical Association , III (1911)

,

p. 341.

29. Hempstead, Pictorial History , p. 1049; Mclnturff, Searcy

County , pp. 10-12.

30. Hempstead, Pictorial History , p. 1073; Lackey, History of

Newton County , p. 13.

31. Margaret Ross, "Whigs Often Elected to State Legislature;

Only One, Newton, Ever Went to Congress," Little Rock Arkansas

Gazette , March 31, 1968, p. E6 ; Josiah H. Shinn, Pioneers and

Makers of Arkansas (Baltimore: Genealogical and Historical

Publishing Company, 1908), pp. 190-192.
35

32. United States, Census Bureau, [1840 Census], Sixth Census of

Enumeration of the Inhabitants of the United States as Corrected

At the Department of State, in 1840 (Washington: Printed by Blair

and Rives, 1841), p. 432; United States, Census Bureau, [1850

Census], The Seventh Census of the United States; 1850

(Washington: Robert Armstrong, Public Printer, 1853), pp. 528-

535; United States, Census Bureau, [1860 Census], Population of

the United States in 1860 (Washington: Government Printing

Office, 1864), pp. 12-17.

33. United States, Census Bureau, [1860 Census], Population. .

.

, pp. 12-17; United States, Census Bureau, [1970 Census],

Nineteenth Decennial Census of the United States, Census of

Population: 1970 , vol. I, Part 5, Arkansas (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1973), p. 7.

34. Walz, "Migration," p. 111.

35. Benjamin H. Hibbard, A History of the Public Land Policies

(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965), p. 144.

36. Marion Clawson, Uncle Sam's Acres (New York: Dodd, Mead &

Company, 1951), pp. 63-64; Walz, "Migration," p. 7.

37. Aaron M. Sakolski, Land Tenure and Land Taxation in America

(New York: Robert Schalkenback Foundation, 1957), p. 129.

38. [United States, Land Office], Original Field Notes, East and

South Boundary, T14N R18W, Book 559A, Bundle 62, p. 482.

39. United States, Statutes at Large , "An Act making further

provision for the sale of the public lands," April 24, 1820, vol.

Ill, pp. 566-567; Thomas Donaldson, The Public Domain. Its

History, With Statistics, With References to the National Domain,

Colonization, Acquirement of the Territory, the Survey,

Administration and Several Methods of Sale and Disposition of the

Public Domain of the United States, With Sketch of Legislative

History of the Land States and Territories, and References to the

Land System of the Colonies, and Also That of Several Foreign

Governments (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1884) , p.

206.

40. A check of the initial survey maps revealed a list of

individuals living within the drainage basin at the time of the

first government survey. The list was then cross-checked with

the entry records which provided the names of the original owners

and dates of the patents. Maps and entry records are located in

the Arkansas State Land Office, Little Rock, Arkansas.

41. Ibid.
36

42. Gertrude Studyvin (Compton, Arkansas) to Dwight Pitcaithley,

August 15, 1974, taped interview, Southwest Collection, Texas

Tech University.

43. United States, Census Bureau, [1850 Census], The Seventh

Census. .

.

, p. 344.

44. United States, Census Bureau, [1850 Census], Manuscript

Schedules, Social Statistics, Marion County, Arkansas, Special

Collections Library, University of Arkansas.

45. Ibid.

46. United States, Census Bureau, [1850 Census], The Seventh

Census. .

.

, p. 552.

47. United States, Census Bureau, [1850 Census], Statistical

View of the United States , Embracing Its Territory, PopulationWhite, Free Colored, and Slave-Moral and Social Condition,

Industry, Property, and Revenue: The Detailed Statistics of

Cities, Towns, and Counties, Being a Compendium of the Seventh

Census; to Which are added the Results of Every Previous Census

Beginning With 1790, in Comparative Tables, With Explanatory and

Illustrative Notes, Based Upon the Schedules and Other Official

Sources of Information (Washington: Beverly Tucker, Senate

Printer, 1854) , p. 202.

48. United States, Census Bureau, [1860 Census], Population. .

.

, pp. 15-17; Mclnturff, Searcy County , pp. 79-80; United States,

Census Bureau, [1860 Census], Agriculture of the United States in

1860: Compiled From the Original Returns of the Eighth Census

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1864) , p. 224; National

Archives Microfilm Publications, Microcopy No. 653, Population

Schedules of the Eighth Census of the United States, 1960, Roll

54 Arkansas [Slave Schedules], Volume 2, p. 44; Messick, Mary

Ann, History of Baxter County. 1873-1973 (Mountain Home: Mountain

Home Chamber of Commerce, 1973), pp. 43, 377.

49. United States, Census Bureau, [1840 Census], Sixth

Census

, p. 94; Ibid., [1850 Census], The Seventh Census... , pp. 528-535; Ibid., [1860 Census], Population , pp. 12-17;

Ibid., [1850 Census], "population Schedules of the Seventh Census

of the United States: 1850," Micro-copy No. 432, Roll 28

(Washington: National Archives, 1964), Marion County, pp. 1-47.

50. United States, Census Bureau, [1840 Census], Sixth

Census

. p. 439; Ibid., [1850 Census], The Seventh Census... , p. 535; Ibid., [1860 Census], Population. .

.

, pp. 15-18.

51. Clyde W. Cathey, "Slavery in Arkansas," Arkansas Historical

Quarterly , III (Spring 1944), pp. 72-73. See also Ira Berlin,

Slaves Without Master: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South
37

(New York: Pantheon Books, 1974), pp. 372-374; Taylor, Orville

W. , Negro Slavery in Arkansas , (Durham: Duke University Press,

1958) , pp. 256-258.

39

III

THE CIVIL WAR YEARS

The Presidential election of 1860 proved to be the most

portentous of any national referendum either before or since.

After a decade of sectional bickering over the institution of

slavery, the American people were clearly divided among the four

candidates. The Republican Party presented as its candidate the

lawyer from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, while the Democratic

Party, which had foundered on the rocks of the sectional debate,

split into northern and southern factions and nominated Stephen

A. Douglas and John C. Breckinridge respectively. Meanwhile, the

Constitutional Union Party attempted to offer a compromise

between the extreme northern and southern positions and nominated

John Bell. Because of the political divisiveness which

characterized the nation by 1860, Lincoln received only a

minority of the popular votes but managed to obtain a clear

majority of the ballots cast in the Electoral College. Thus

Abraham Lincoln became the nation's sixteenth President and was

fated to preside over its greatest crisis.

Arkansas, being a slave state and basically Democratic,

voted for the southern Democratic candidate, John C.

Breckinridge. But the state was far from unanimous in its

decision. Northwest Arkansas and scattered counties in the

northeastern and southwestern portions of the state voted for

John Bell. That division of political sentiment was typical of

the states of the upper South. Arkansas, along with Tennessee,

North Carolina, and Virginia, was never a zealous adherent of the

extreme Southern secessionist position. Although the tumultuous

events of the 1850s aided those radicals who believed only

secession would cure the vexatious problems besetting the South,

the majority of Arkansans continued to favor the preservation of

the Union. Even during the highly emotional period immediately

following the election of Lincoln, no appreciable increase in

enthusiasm for secession may be detected. Arkansas seemed

content to observe patiently the quickly developing situation and

not be rushed into any action which it might later regret.

Shortly after news of the Lincoln victory became known, the

South Carolina legislature called a convention to discuss the

question of secession. On December 20, 1860, that body

overwhelmingly adopted a resolution which dissolved "the union

now subsisting between South Carolina and other States under the

name of the United States of America...." 3 The convention cited

as causes the failure of northern states to return fugitive

slaves, the general subversion of the constitution by the nonslaveholding states, and lastly, the election of a President
40

"whose opinions and purposes are hostile to Slavery." 4

There were those in many of the other southern states who

harbored similar beliefs. Governor Henry Rector of Arkansas was

one. Believing that the election of Lincoln made impossible the

continued participation of Arkansas within the Union, Rector was

joined by Senator Robert W. Johnson and Representative Thomas C.

Hindman in calling for a convention to determine the future

course of the state. On January 12, the state legislature

approved a bill allowing the people of Arkansas to vote either

for or against the calling of the convention. The act also

contained a provision allowing for the simultaneous election of

delegates if the people voted in the affirmative. By a margin of

11,586 out of a total of 43,238 votes cast, the call for the

convention was approved. On March 4, 1861, the Arkansas congress

met at Little Rock, but after two and a half weeks could only

agree to hold an election the following August to feel the pulse

of the people and then abide by their wishes.

National events, however, would not wait for the Arkansas

state plebiscite. While the entire federal military

establishment in Texas peaceably surrendered to the Texas

Secession Convention as early as February 18, the event which

sparked the American Civil War occurred two months later with the

firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Three days later

President Lincoln issued the call for volunteers. Governor

Rector considered the President's request an insult and the

Arkansas populace seemed to agree. The secession congress was

called back into session and on May 6 the convocation passed the

ordinance of secession by a vote of sixty-five to five. Seeking

a display of unanimity, the president of the convention, David

Walker, asked the five dissenters to reverse their position and

four complied, with John Campbell of Searcy County being among

them. But Isaac Murphy, a future governor from mountainous

Madison County, stood firm. The step, nevertheless, had been

taken and Arkansas joined eight other seceded states. The

entrance of the state into the Civil War marked the beginning of

a tragic period for the northern part of Arkansas. The ensuing

conflict would change not only the complexion of the land, but

also the established relationship among the highland people.

At the time of the first census after Arkansas attained

statehood in 1836, the number of slaves residing in the highland

portion of the state roughly equalled those living in the

counties bordering the Mississippi River. But as time

progressed, the greater concentration of them tended toward the

cotton producing lowlands and away from the Ozarks. Between 1850

and 1860 the number of slaves increased in every county except

one, Newton, and the rate of growth was much greater in the

southeastern portion of the state.

In the six heaviest slave counties, the average size of the
41

slaveholding was about seventeen. But in six northwestern

counties where slaves were not numerous, the average holding was

about four. Thus while the average sized slave holding along the

Mississippi included from two to six families, a typical holding

in the highlands was limited to two to three Negroes. More

important, only 1.6 percent of the whites in northwest Arkansas

owned any slaves at all. And in the three counties of the

Buffalo Drainage a mere .7 percent of the free population were

slave owners. That factor combined with the geography of the

northwest, which was not conducive to the large-scale growing of

cotton, resulted in that area maintaining a political

indifference common to the mountainous regions of the South. The

people of Northwest Arkansas could not readily identify with the

problems encountered, whether real or imagined, by the radical

South. Many, of course, did consider themselves Southerners and

favored secession after Lincoln's call for volunteers. But a large number of Arkansas N hillfolk either were undecided in

sentiment or favored the Union cause. Those individuals began

seeking others who maintained similar sentiments.

As early as the autumn of 1861 certain mountain residents

began to join secret organizations named in different counties

the Peace Society, the Peace Organization Society, the Home

Protection Society, the Home Guard, and in one case, the Pro Bono

Publico Society. The exact nature of the various organizations

which sprang up in Searcy, Van Buren, Izard, Carroll, Fulton, and

Marion counties is still largely unclear. According to the

constitution of one of the societies, the members' sole purpose

was to "combine together for the mutual protection of themselves

their families and their property." 9 And if the depositions of

numerous former members are to be believed, most considered it

just such a protective agency and after being discovered were

willing either to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy

or to volunteer to serve in the southern army. 10 It would appear

that the organizations posed little threat to the Little Rock

government, much less to the one in Richmond and had little to

offer the Union. It is extremely possible that the individuals

concerned merely desired to remain detached from either side and

continue their existence much as they were accustomed. * Yet to

the mid-nineteenth century South, a secret organization surely

signaled pernicious political intrigue.

Accordingly, in the latter part of November, 1861, a distraught Governor Henry Rector wrote Jefferson Davis, President

of the Confederate States of America, that "a conspiracy had been

discovered in the northern part of the State against the

Confederate Government." 1 ^ The governor further remarked that

the members intended to join the Union Army when, and if, it

entered Arkansas, and that the membership was estimated as high

as 1,700. •* Although two companies of infantry were quickly

dispatched to the threatened area, local citizens loyal to the

southern cause had "suppressed" the movement by the time of their
42

TABLE 2

SLAVEHOLDERS AND SLAVES: 1860

Number

MARION

of

NEWTON

Slaveholders

SEARCY

Number

of

Slaves

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 to 14

15 to 19

20 to 29

30 to 39

30

14

5

7

3

2

1

2

5

6

3

1

1

3

1

1

2

1

1

TOTAL OF

SLAVEHOLDERS 70 11 20

TOTAL OF

SLAVES 261 24 93

SOURCE: United States, Census Bureau, [1860 Census], Agriculture

of the United States in 1860: Compiled From the Original Returns

of the Eighth Census, Under the Direction of the Secretary of the

Interior (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1864), p. 224.
43

arrival. Dozens of questionable residents were rounded up and

confined to the jails of the various counties, even though they

had not "engaged in any act of open disloyalty to our

Government." 14 In Searcy County, considered to be one of the

centers of the dissent, Colonel Samuel Leslie, commandant of the

county militia, mobilized his men and began conducting widespread

arrests of suspicious members. As the number of suspects began

to mount and the county jail at Burrowsville reached capacity,

Colonel Leslie received orders from Governor Rector, commanding

him to march his captives to Little Rock for legal disposition.

Convinced that the threat to the Confederacy was genuine and

serious, Rector swore to "arrest and imprison them or to execute

them for treason... as enemies of their country — whose peace and

safety is being endangered by their disloyalty and treasonable

acts." 15

irs, and marched them to Little Rock in six days, a distance of

proximately 100 miles. 16 There, along with other prisoners,

In compliance with his orders, Leslie restrained the

seventy-eight prisoners with logging chains, linked them in

pa:

appi

they were addressed by Rector himself who offered them the choice

of "volunteering for service in the Confederate army or going to

jail. He assured them that if they chose the latter, months

might elapse before a trial could be held and if they persisted

in their request for a trial* he was confident they would be

found guilty and be hanged. 1 ' Of the 117 recipients of Rector's

ultimatum, all but fifteen chose military service. 18 A grand

jury two months later listened to the plight of the fifteen who

preferred a trial. The panel found that no treasonable acts had

been committed, that their offense "consisted more of words and

threats than overt acts," and fully exonerated all fifteen. 19

Those who joined the Confederate army were quickly organized

into companies and sent to the theater of war on the eastern side

of the Mississippi where they participated in the battle at

Shiloh and other engagements. But those reluctant volunteers

were less than enthusiastic about their fate, and numerous

Arkansans deserted. In many instances the troops were later

dismissed or furloughed subject to recall. Most returned to

their homes and after a short visit with their families joined

Federal forces operating out of Missouri. Peace Society member

David Barnett was probably typical of many who were forced into

Confederate military service. "The first chance Father got he

ran away — came back home a few days — then west to the Federal

army and Joined them. Father Joined the 3rd Arkansas Cavilry —

served through the war — after the war was over — and he Past a

way — the Government — Place a tomb stone on his grave." 21

The precipitate action of the Arkansas Confederate

government had an unsettling effect on the northwestern part of

the state. Initially hoping they could remain reasonably

isolated from the conflict by their rough surroundings, the
44

highland dwellers quickly realized that strict nonpartisanship

would be impossible. Although the region was predominantly Union

in sentiment, there remained a large number of inhabitants with

southern sympathies. Indeed, the Confederacy retained possession

of the area for the first year and a half of the war.

Following the vigorous suppression of the various peace

societies, the northwest portion of the state was slow to become

directly involved in the conflict. Arkansas, like Missouri, was

of secondary importance to the Union, although both were

significant to the war in the West because of their geographic

location. A major objective of the Lincoln administration was to

exert northern control over the Mississippi River thereby cutting

the Confederacy in half and reducing its military

effectiveness. 2 Because both states are bordered on the east by

the river, it was imperative that they be brought under Union

domination. Early northern attempts to secure Missouri had

proved ineffective, but in December, 1861, Brigadier General

Samuel R. Curtis was appointed commander of the state's

Southwestern District. Acting with resolution, the general began

slowly pushing Confederate troops out of that portion of

Missouri. By February, 1862, the southerners had withdrawn well

into Arkansas and were regrouping for a confrontation. Curtis

followed and on March 7 the two armies met in one of the most

decisive Civil War battles west of the Mississippi. After two

days of hard fighting in area dominated by a rise called Pea

Ridge, after which the battle took its name, the Confederate

force, led by Major General Earl Van Dorn, withdrew from the fray

and headed for the Arkansas River to the south. The victory of

Curtis at Pea Ridge ensured the security of Missouri, and if it

did not establish Union control over northern Arkansas, it at

least prevented the Confederacy from using it as a staging

area. 2 -3 Two months later General Curtis extended his influence

in northern Arkansas by marching down the White River and on May

4 occupying Batesville. 24

The loss at Pea Ridge and the occupation of Batesville did

not, however, mean the forfeiture of the Buffalo River country to

the North. Both before and after the battle, individuals within

the valley formed Confederate units and enlisted at Yellville.

Indeed, Yellville was quickly becoming the principal Southern

arsenal in northern Arkansas. Concentrated there were perhaps

1,000 men guarding a large store of munitions, warehouses, and a nearby saltpeter works.

"

The Confederate loss in extreme northwest Arkansas did

announce to many loyalists that Missouri was solidly in Union

hands and furthermore served as a subtle invitation to join the

northern cause. Thus began a mass exodus of northern

sympathizers into southern Missouri. Hundreds of individuals,

some with their families, crossed over and encamped at Cassville

and Springfield. 26 Many of the refugees promptly enlisted in the
45

Federal army, while others merely sought a safe haven where they

could remain for the duration of the war. The large number of

Arkansans who moved north provoked significant logistical

problems. The feeding of such a concentration of emigrants was

undertaken by the Western Sanitary Commission, a civilian

organization established to relieve the suffering of the sick and

wounded in the Union army. The Commission provided the newcomers

with a modicum of foodstuffs and medicine when necessary, but was

unable to lend any further assistance. 27

Meanwhile in Arkansas, which was still occupied by

Confederate troops and sympathizers, a major change was in the

offing. In November, 1862, the Federal commander in Missouri

decided to confront the Confederate arsenal and troop assemblage

at Yellville. It is alleged that the raid was inspired in part

through information brought to General Curtis by James Butler

"Wild Bill" Hickok, then acting as a Union spy and later to

become the legendary gunfighter of Dodge City, Kansas. During

the subsequent attack on Yellville, the entire supply

establishment along with its munitions and the nearby saltpeter

works was destroyed. The incursion was an overwhelming success

and effectively cleared north central Arkansas of southern troop

concentrations. 28 But more important to the Buffalo River valley

and surrounding area was the fact that the fall of Yellville

meant the beginning of an extended period of lawlessness during

which neither side exerted either political or military control.

Into the resulting vacuum rushed criminal bands variously called

Jayhawkers, Bushwhackers, and Boomers who maintained a common

interest in murder, pillage, and the creation of general mayhem.

Protected by the terrain in which they operated, the outlaws

indiscriminately attacked isolated farmsteads in search of what

meager valuables they could uncover. 29

From the latter months of 1862 until the end of the war,

northwest Arkansas became the domain of lawless gangs. Comprised

of loosely organized bands of brigands of both northern and

southern persuasion, the motley groups terrorized the countryside

seeking plunder and wrecking havoc among both those who

cooperated with them and those who did not. The Jayhawkers were

either local men who decided to capitalize on the confused and

convulsed nature of the times or outlaws from Missouri and

surrounding counties who found the area conducive to their type

of banditry. Jayhawker tales within the Arkansas Ozarks are

myriad, and most illustrate the ruthless nature of the acts that

spawned them. The motivation of many of the freebooters seems to

have been either revenge or simply the acquisition of easy money.

The bitterness engendered by the action of the state government

to dispel the peace societies compelled those who were injured,

physically or mentally, to seek retribution. And for loyal

Southerners it was a chance to continue the work of ridding the

country of the Union element. Whatever the intent, the results

were usually the same.
46

The amount of damage to lives and property which occurred

during the course of the war cannot be estimated, but the

cumulative effect was to create an area in which fear,

apprehension, and anxiety governed the daily existence of the

remaining inhabitants. With most of the able-bodied adult men

participating in the conflict on both sides, the women, children,

and older citizens made prime targets for the outlaws. * By the

middle of 1864, the once peaceful valleys bore the scars of

relentless marauding.

The condition of this country is and has been pitiable

in the extreme; Confederate soldiers in nothing save

the name, robbers and jayhawkers have vied with the

Federals in plundering, devouring, and wasting the

substance of loyal Southerners, and new cruelties have

been devised to torture from unwilling lips the secret

of some hidden treasure. The entire valley is swept

bare of forage and subsistence, and there are hundreds

of families that must suffer for bread. 2

Lawless bands continued their activities throughout the war and

for several years after. Violence breeds violence, and as the

number of victims increased, so too did the number of those who

would eventually seek retribution. Isolated individual killings

continued well into the 1870s before memories faded and time

healed old wounds. 33

Although the Jayhawkers dominated the region of the Buffalo

River during the later years of the Civil War, they shared the

area with other independent units. Also operating in the Boston

Mountains were irregular military forces composed of men who had

served earlier in the war with a commissioned company and had

either been furloughed, had their former unit disbanded, or had

deserted and had returned to their home county retaining a desire

to assist in the war effort. Southern groups, authorized by the

Confederate general in charge of Arkansas, Thomas C. Hindman,

shortly after the battle of Pea Ridge, operated as semi-official

companies harassing regular forces of the Union army, attacking

when they possessed superior numbers, and in general functioning

much as guerrilla bands. 34

James Harrison Love, from Searcy County, commanded one of

those independent companies. A Mexican War veteran, Love

recruited two regular companies in his county for service in the

Confederate army. He returned to the Buffalo River country in

August, 1863, because of illness and was joined there by other

men from the area, some of whom had served with him previously.

Love and his men operated in the northwestern portion of the

county and constituted a constant and serious threat to Union

forces. Although usually numbering only a few dozen, Love's band
47

provided no little consternation to the opposition.-* 5 In May,

1864, Love and his followers joined General Sterling Price in

Batesville and participated in the latter's unsuccessful raid

into Missouri in the fall. As Price retreated back through

Arkansas, his army melted away and the effectiveness of Love's

group vanished as well as he no longer posed a threat after the

autumn of that year. "

Some of the independent companies that operated along the

Buffalo River fought for the Union side. As early as 1862 in

parts of northwestern Arkansas bands of Union sympathizers,

forced to leave their homes, fled to the hills and succeeded in

restricting the activities of Confederate units. Those "Mountain

Feds.," also functioned as guerrilla forces and were especially

strong in Newton County. 3 ' Led by James R. Vanderpool and using

Jasper as their headquarters, they attempted to suppress Southern

recruiting efforts in the county and often provided valuable

information to organized Northern forces who scouted through the

area. Vanderpool and his men proved to be such an irritant that

in May, 1863, a Confederate force, led by a former sheriff of

Newton County, John Cecil, launched a surprise raid on Jasper

hoping to capture the guerrilla leader and eliminate a source of

marked annoyance. Although some of the guerrillas were captured

in the attack, Vanderpool, having been forewarned, escaped and

continued his clandestine movements throughout the remainder of

the war. 38

Official military activity within the Buffalo River valley

consisted largely of reconnaissance expeditions and small

inconsequential skirmishes, neither of which had any substantial

effect upon the final outcome of the conflict. During the

initial two years of the war, fighting in northwest Arkansas was

relatively light. The battle of Pea Ridge was the major

encounter not only in the highland region, but also in the state,

and the Union victory there was followed by the occupation of

Batesville and later movements into the central and southern

parts of the state. Both sides tended to ignore the northwest

highlands, and although there occurred limited activity during

1863,^ the following year witnessed a marked increase in

fighting along the Buffalo River.

Because the southern forces had retreated southward, Federal

expeditions that moved through the valley confronted either the

small bands of Jayhawkers or the more serious independent

companies such as the one commanded by Captain Love. As

previously noted, scattered skirmishes characterized clashes

between the two opposing groups. The encounters, while of short

duration involving a relatively small number of combatants,

occasionally resulted in rather serious losses. During May,

1864, for example, a Confederate independent company captured a Federal supply train near the mouth of Richland Creek. Out of

the 101 men guarding the wagons, thirty-seven were killed and
48

eleven wounded: a casualty rate of 48 percent. 40 Most of the

engagements, however, resulted in many fewer losses.

An interesting facet of the war along the Buffalo was the

mining among the numerous caves for potassium nitrate or

saltpeter used in the making of gunpowder. From probably early

1862 perhaps a dozen different operations were conducted

throughout the basin. Operated under the authority of the

Confederate Niter and Mining Bureau established in April, 1862,

the niter-works throughout Arkansas produced 17,000 pounds of

niter prior to May of that year. * It is unknown what percentage

of the total was contributed by caves in northwest Arkansas, but

it is unlikely that they produced a sizeable amount due to the

comparatively small nature of their operation. Furthermore,

after the fall of Yellville in November, 1862, the transportation

risks greatly increased. Nevertheless, a number of the niterworks continued to operate after that date, and at least produced

niter until March of 1864. 2 Federal troops destroyed the mining

facilities when they were discovered, but due to the nature of

the terrain, detection was difficult.

The largest of the works was located on the upper Buffalo

about a mile south of the present town of Boxley. The operation

there consisted of fourteen permanent buildings, two steam

engines, three boilers, a large iron safe, and other assorted

mining paraphernalia. ^ Less extensive operations were conducted

in different parts of the watershed, including one a few miles

downstream from the Boxley works, one on lower Cave Creek also in

Newton County, and others along Tomahawk and Big creeks in Searcy

County. 44

By the end of the war the Buffalo River valley had become a desolate, ravaged, and forlorn area abandoned by many of its

former inhabitants. Homes had been destroyed, livestock run off

or stolen, fields neglected, and sizeable numbers of its

residents killed. Because of the quantity of marauders,

independent companies, and regular units that operated along the

Buffalo, forage there was nonexistent. As early as March, 1864,

the commander of a Federal force encamped at Yellville reported

that there was no forage available within twenty miles of the

town. 45 Jasper, Yellville, and Buffalo City had been either

totally or partially destroyed by fire, and a large number of

survivors were living in caves or other temporary shelters. 46 In

late February, 1865, several hundred families from the Buffalo

River area who had fled to southern Missouri sought permission to

raise four companies of temporary troops for protection when they

returned to the valley. Whether or not the request was granted

is not known, but the tone of the appeal reflected the

helplessness of the former inhabitants. 47 Those displaced

settlers did not return to their homes and fields until after the

war had officially ended in May, 1865, with the surrender of the

Confederate commander of northern Arkansas, Brigadier General
49

Jefferson Thompson.

°

After that date the valley began to show signs of recovery.

Homes were rebuilt, fields, long since overgrown with weeds, were

cultivated anew, and fences, both physical and mental, were

mended. Being an agricultural area, the Buffalo River region was

not burdened with many of the problems encountered by more urban

centers. But while the physical aspects of reconstruction were

quickly dispensed with, the bitterness produced during the

conflict was longer in dissipating. Nevertheless, within a few

years the area had largely recovered from the four years of

turmoil and had regained its former tranquility. The battle

became then one with the earth rather than one with old

animosities. Yet the region had changed.

The most significant difference which came over the river

valley was a profound political shift. Prior to 1860 the three

county region had voted nationally for the Democratic nominee.

After the war two of the three counties became Republican

strongholds. Beginning in 1876, if not earlier (the returns from

Newton and Searcy counties for 1864, 1868, and 1872 are missing),

both Searcy and Newton consistently returned a Republican ballot

and at times were the only counties in the state to do so.

During the period 1876 to 1944, those two counties voted for a Democratic president only twice: 1892 and 1932 for Newton, and

1884 and 1932 for Searcy. In 1912 both counties split their vote

between William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt to the extent

that the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, won both by a plurality.

Marion County, meanwhile, constituted a surprising political

aberration. Although the home of a large percentage of Arkansas'

free blacks prior to the 1860 and seriously affected by the

rigors of the war, Marion remained a Democratic stronghold, and

between 1868 and 1944 voted for a Republican candidate only once:

1892. 49

Northwest Arkansas suffered during the Civil War as did the

rest of the nation but with a marked difference: destruction was

wrought not by invading armies but by numerous and autonomous

bands of freebooters who swore allegiance to neither side — or

to both depending on the situation. The effectiveness of those

groups was heightened by the surrounding terrain. Because of the

rugged character of the land, it was difficult to search for or

punish the outlaws. But just as the character of the land

dictated that the Buffalo region would develop a subsistence

economy and that that same country would harbor numerous

fugitives and outlaws, so too would the land allow the

inhabitants of the valley to recover quickly from the devastation

and assume their former manner of existence. The Civil War

marked a hiatus in the development of the Buffalo River valley,

but following that disruption, began a period of expansion and

increased population which would find its peak a half-century

later during a mining boom which accompanied World War I.
50

NOTES

1. Dallas T. Herndon, The Arkansas Handbook 1947-1948 (Little

Rock: Arkansas History Commission, 1948), p. 131.

2. Ralph Wooster, "The Arkansas Secession Convention," Arkansas

Historical Quarterly , XII (Summer 1954), pp. 172-173.

3. Frank Moore, ed., The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American

Events. With Documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents.

Poetry, Etc. , vol. I (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1862), Documents

Section, p. 2.

4. Ibid., pp. 3-4.

5. James J. Johnston, "Letter of John Campbell, Unionist,"

Arkansas Historical Quarterly , XXIX (Summer 1970) , p. 178;

Wooster, "The Arkansas Secession Convention," pp. 174, 183.

6. Although Campbell reversed his vote, he, along with Murphy,

refused to sign "the devilish instrument." Johnston, "Letter of

John Campbell," p. 181; Wooster, "The Arkansas Secession

Convention," pp. 183-184.

7. Orville W. Taylor, Negro Slavery in Arkansas (Durham: Duke

University Press, 1958), pp. 49-50; United States, Census Bureau,

[1860 Census], Agriculture of the United States in 1860: Compiled

From the Original Returns of the Eighth Census (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1864), p. 224.

8. Ted R. Worley, "The Arkansas Peace Society of 1861: A Study

in Mountain Unionism," Journal of Southern History , XXIV

(November 1958), p. 445.

9. Ted R. Worley, ed., "Documents Relating to the Arkansas Peace

Society of 1861," Arkansas Historical Quarterly , XVII (Spring

1958), p. 87; H.M. Rector to Jefferson Davis, November 28, 1861,

in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official

Records of the Union and Confederate Armies , Series I, vol. VIII

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1883), p. 699.

10. Worley, "Documents Relating to the Arkansas Peace Society of

1861," pp. 107-111.

11. Ibid., p. 82.

12. Rector to Davis, War of the Rebellion , Series I, vol. VIII,

p. 699.
51

13. Ibid. Only 240 members, however, have been identified

through extant documents. Worley, "Documents Relating to the

Arkansas Peace Society of 1861," p. 82.

14. Solon Borland to A. Sidney Johnston, December 11, 1861, War

of the Rebellion , Series I, vol. VIII, pp. 709-710.

15. Worley, "The Arkansas Peace Society," p. 447.

16. Ibid.; Noah Barnett to J.J. Johnston, September 6, 1973,

James J. Johnston Private Collection, Marshall, Arkansas; A.W.

Bishop, Loyalty on the Frontier , (Saint Louis: R.P. Studley &

Company, 1863), pp. 128-129.

17. Bishop, Loyalty on the Frontier , p. 129.

18. Worley, "The Arkansas Peace Society," p. 450.

19. Ibid.

20. Ibid.

21. Barnett to Johnston, Johnston Collection.

22. Francis V. Greene, The Mississippi , vol. VIII in Campaigns

of the Civil War (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1882), p. 2.

23. Franz Sigel, "The Pea Ridge Campaign," in Battles and

Leaders of the Civil War , vol. I (New York: The Century Company,

1884) , p. 314.

24. Clement A. Evans, ed., Arkansas , vol. X in Confederate

Military History (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1962), p. 92.

25. Wiley Britton, The Civil War on the Border. A Narrative of

Operations in Missouri, K ansas, Arkansas and the Indian Territory

During the Years 1861-1862 Based Upon the Official Reports of the

Federal Commanders Lyon, Sigel, Sturgis, Fremont, Halleck.

Curtis, Schofield, Blunt, Herron and Totten, and of the

Confederate Commanders McCulloch, Price, Van Porn, Hindman,

Marmaduke, and Shelby (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1890), pp.

383-384.

26. Bishop, Loyalty on the Frontier , pp. 11-12; Arkansas,

Adjutant General, Report of the Adjutant General of the State of

Arkansas, For the Period of the Late Rebellion, and to November

1, 1866 , S. Misc. Doc. 53, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess., Serial 1278,

1867, p. 1; James J. Johnston, "Searcy County, Arkansas During

the Civil War," (typescript, Searcy County Library, Marshall,

Arkansas), p. 97; Georgia L. Tatum, Disloyalty in the Confederacy

(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1934), pp. 38-39
52

27. Final Report of the Western Sanitary Commission, From May

9th, 1864 to December 31. 1865 (Saint Louis: R.P. Studley & Co.,

1866) , p. 96.

28. S.C Turnbo, "Stories of the Ozarks: Accounts of Pioneer Life

in Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas in the Country

Adjacent to the White River; Where the Pioneers Lived, How They

Lived and Died and Where They are Buried and Particularly the

Adventures of the First Settlers With the Wild Animals of those

Regions Buffaloes, Bears, Deer, Wolves, Panthers, Catamounts,

Wildcats, Snakes, and Wild Turkeys," (typescript, J.N. Heiskell

Collection, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Special

Collections), I, p. 166; F.J. Herron to Samuel R. Curtis,

November 29, 1862, War of the Rebellion . Serial I, vol. XXII,

Part 1 (1888), p. 794; Richard O'Connor, Wild Bill Hickok (Garden

City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1959), p. 63.

29. Johnston, "Searcy County," pp. 46-47. While clear

distinctions between the terms is impossible, jayhawkers usually

applied to Federal irregulars and bushwhacker referred to

Confederate guerrillas. Leo E. Huff, "Guerrillas, Jayhawkers and

Bushwhackers in Northern Arkansas During the Civil War," Arkansas

Historical Quarterly . XXIV (Summer 1965), pp. 130-131.

30. Johnston, "Searcy County," pp. 46-47.

31. Ibid., p. 135; John Quincy Wolf, Life in the Leatherwoods . ed. by John Quincy Wolf, Jr. (Memphis: Memphis State University

Press, 1974), p. 5; Evans, Arkansas , p. 167; John Hallum,

Reminiscences of the Civil War (Little Rock: Tunnah and Pittard,

Printers, 1903), p. 95; Mollie E. Williams, A Thrilling Romance

of the Civil War: Forty-two Days in Search of a Missing Husband.

A Lesson of Woman's Fidelity. Fortitude and Affection (Chicago:

n.p. , 1902) , p. 15.

32. John 0. Shelby to J.F. Belton, May 31, 1864, War of the

Rebellion . Series I, vol. XXXIV, Part 1 (1891), pp. 924-925. See

also I.W. Fuller to E.D. Mason, April 1, 1864, ibid., Series I,

vol. XXXIV, Part 3, p. 8; John E. Phelps to W.S. Rosencrans,

April 29, 1864, ibid., p. 347.

33. Johnston, "Searcy County," pp. 127-128.

34. Moore, Rebellion Record , vol. V (1863), Documents Section,

p. 540.

35. Johnston, "Searcy County," p. 150. See also John B. Sanborn

to O.D. Greene, January 3, 1864, War of the Rebellion . Series I,

vol. XXII, Part 1, p. 779; C.B. Holland to J.B. Sanborn, February

17, 1864, ibid., vol. XXXIV, Part 1, p. 88; Record of Events,

January 16, 1864, ibid., p. 96; J.E. Phelps to J.B. Sanborn,

February 16, 1864, ibid., pp. 92-93; J.E. Phelps to J.B. Sanborn,
53

April 23, 1864, ibid., pp. 886-887; J.B. Sanborn to J.E. Phelps,

January 4, 1864, ibid., Part 2, pp. 21-22.

36. Johnston, "Searcy County," p. 150.

37. Arkansas, Adjutant General, Report , p. 203; Evans, Arkansas , pp. 93, 167; Wiley Britton, Memories of the Rebellion on the

Border (Chicago: Cushing, Thomas & Co., Publishers, 1882), p.

441.

38. Evans, Arkansas , p. 166.

39. War of the Rebellion , Series I, vol. XII.

40. J.O. Phelps to J.B. Sanborn, May 10, 1864, War of the

Rebellion , Series I, vol. XXXIV, Part 1, p. 909.

41. I.M. St. John to G.W. Randolph, July 31, 1862, War of the

Rebellion , Series IV, vol. II (1900), p. 29.

42. Record of Events, March 13, 1864, War of the Rebellion , Series I, vol. XXXIV, Part 1, p. 640.

43. J.W. Caldwell to F.J. Herron, January 13, 1863, War of the

Rebellion , Series I, vol. XXII, Part 1, p. 214.

44. Ibid.; J.E. Phelps to J.B. Sanborn, February 16, 1864, War

of the Rebellion , Series I, vol. XXXIV, Part 1, p. 93; Johnston,

"Searcy County," p. 55.

45. G.W. Murphy to J.B. Sanborn, March 28, 1864, War of the

Rebellion , Series I, vol. XXXIV, Part 2, p. 762.

46. James T. Smith, (Captain), "Report," Newton County

Homestead , III (April 1961), p. 26; Turnbo, "Stories of the

Ozarks," vol. I, p. 166; Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , June

28, 1939; Perry Case, "The Long Drive: A Cowboy's Own Story of

his Experiences on the Trail From Texas to Chicago," American

Heritage , XI (April 1960), p. 77.

47. J.W. Orr to Governor of Arkansas, February 21, 1865, War of

the Rebellion , Series I, vol. XLVIII, Part 1, (1896), pp. 931-

932.

48. G.M. Dodge to J. A. Rawlins, May 12, 1865, War of the

Rebellion , Series I, vol. XLVIII, Part 2, p. 419.

49. Herndon, The Arkansas Handbook , pp. 129-140.

55

IV

"...this lovely land...."

Post War Development

The years following the Civil War were prosperous ones for

northwest Arkansas in general and for the Buffalo River country

in particular. The cycle of economic good fortune which swept,

over the United States between 1865 and the beginning of the,

First World War was reflected in the optimism and relative

prosperity of the inhabitants of the Arkansas highlands.

Population increased, additional land was cleared and cultivated,

crop production expanded, and towns displayed the outward signs

of social, cultural, and economic progression. By the end of the

century, the Buffalo River valley, while still plagued with poor

transportation routes, could no longer be classified a part of

the American frontier and exuded an optimism characteristic of

developing regions.

In our section we offer many attractive inducements.

Our soil is fertile, and aided by a moist climate, is

exceedingly productive, and he who plants is sure to

reap. The climate is brilliant with sunshine, and

frequent and timely rains and a moist gulf breeze

tempers the atmosphere so the heat is never oppressive,

nor the cold severe, and the rainfall is very evenly

distributed. -1-

The near pastoral Utopia suggested here was more imagined than

real and certainly differed from Timothy Flint's appraisal of

seventy-five years earlier; nevertheless, by the time it was

written (1902) , the valley was nearing its peak in prosperity and

population. The prosperity, however, was relative, and the

population, although it had doubled since 1860, remained less

than 36, 000. 2

As the harried inhabitants of the river began rebuilding

their economy and their society after the war and the immigration

of newcomers grew apace, farms were re-established and a

diversity of crops were harvested. Thirty years after the

resumption of settlement, the average improved acreage per farm

had grown from twenty-one in 1860 to thirty-four. Buffalo River

farmers grew wheat, corn, cotton, potatoes, oats, and even some

tobacco and rice. But during the second half of the nineteenth

century, cotton inexplicably became the major crop. The 1880s

constituted the boom years in the harvesting of that fiber crop.

In 1886 the Harrison Times reported that "Cotton seems to be the

principal crop through the Buffalo Creek country and looks even

better than usual at this season." 4 The cotton gins throughout

the valley were busy processing and baling the fiber. By
56

November, 1886, the gin at Marble City, now a tourist attraction

called Dogpatcn U.S.A., had processed 200 bales and was looking

forward to a record year. But by the 1890s the region's affair

with the soil sapping plant seemed over. Diversity was needed if

the Buffalo River earth was to produce successfully enough to

sustain its growing population. In 1899 the Searcy County

newspaper, the Marshall Mountain Wave , admonished:

Everybody acknowledges that the more cotton a farmer

raises the poorer he gets. Yet it seems the poorer he

gets the more surely he is to plant cotton. Sow wheat

and oats, plant corn, potatoes and a little of

everything. ... An important corollary to the newspaper's formula for

agricultural success was to "Go to church on Sunday, have your

wife wash on Monday, take the Wave and in ten years you will be

well off."' While the efficacy of this advice may be

questionable, the move toward crop diversification was

imperative. The Buffalo bottom land could support a small family

with basic foodstuffs, but continued concentration on a single

cash crop such as cotton would have been ruinous to the economy

as well as to the land. Because of the poor condition of the

soil, falling cotton prices, and inadequate transportation

facilities, a shift to diversified farming became evident by

1900. By the turn of the century the mountain farmer along the

Buffalo raised wheat for bread and corn for feed. When his wheat

crop failed, he resorted to corn bread for sustenance and raised

some cotton to gain a little extra cash to purchase the few

essentials he could not produce on his land. Those indispensable

items included salt, coffee, sugar, soda, horseshoes, cotton and

woolen cloth, and household goods such as dishes, crocks, and

canning jars. Those products had to be imported by "careful

freighters" from Springfield. Missouri, Russellville and

Plumerville, Arkansas (both of which are on the Arkansas River)

,

or later from Eureka Springs.

Getting their surplus crops to market was also no minor

undertaking for the settlers of the narrow valley. Poor roads

continued to be their nemesis. The danger of wagons rolling off

the narrow and rough paths which served as roads was constant.

Surplus goods were usually transported by wagon to Springfield,

Missouri to be exchanged there for a few necessities. But the

Missouri merchants apparently believed they had a closed market

on the goods from the Arkansas Ozarks and, consequently, made a handsome profit at the expense of the farmers. The Buffalo

homesteaders finally decided to break with tradition and seek

markets elsewhere.

Thus on a cold January morning in 1880, around 200 wagons

congregated near the mouth of Richland Creek in Searcy County and

began a slow trek up that creek across the Boston Mountains to
TABLE 3

POPULATION: 1870 - 1980

(Percent of increase)

57

MARION NEWTON SEARCY TOTAL

1870 3,979 (-35.7) 4,374 (28.9) 5,614 (6.5) 13,967

1880 7,907 (98.7) 6,120 (39.9) 7,278 (29.6) 21,305

1890 10,390 (31.4) 9,950 (62.6) 9,664 (32.8) 30,004

1900 11,377 (9.5) 12,538 (26) 11,988 (24) 35,903

1910 10,203 (-10.3) 10,612 (-15.4) 14,825 (23.7) 35,640

1920 10,154 (-.5) 11,199 (5.5) 14,590 (-15.9) 35,943

1930 8,876 (-12.6) 10,564 (-5.7) 11,056 (-24.2) 30,496

1940 9,464 (6.6) 10,881 (3) 11,942 (8) 32,287

1950 8,609 (-9) 8,685 (-20.2) 10,424 (-12.7) 27,718

1960 6,041 (-29.8) 5,963 (-31.3) 8,124 (-22.1) 20,128

1970 7,000 (15.9) 5,844 (-2) 7,731 (-4.8) 20,575

1980 11,334 (61.9) 7,756 (32.7) 8,874 (14.4) 27,964

SOURCE: Compiled from decennial census returns as listed in the

bibliography.
58

Russellville on the Arkansas River. The wagon train arrived less

than two weeks after negotiating eighty miles of winding Ozark

roads. By the time of its arrival, the train had grown to

include 300 wagons and stretched over a distance of fourteen

miles. The caravan illustrated the marketing problems faced by

the farmers along the Buffalo, and although the event was greatly

publicized and the immediate results profited the participants, a faster route to the Arkansas was still years in the future.

Because of the time and distance involved in reaching the

Russellville markets, the settlers reverted to hauling their

produce to the nearest railhead at Springfield and later at

Eureka Springs. Joining forces several times a year, the farmers

would form a train of fifteen or more wagons to make the five- to

eight-day round trip. 11 Yet they remained far from satisfied.

The last three decades of the nineteenth century were marked

by increased agitation among the farmers of the United States who

believed themselves oppressed and persecuted by unfair railroad

rates, unjust banking regulations, and increased taxes.

Beginning in the late 1860s, farmers 1 organizations appeared

throughout the East, Midwest, and South. The first of those

agricultural associations was organized in 1867 and titled the

National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, popularly recognized

as simply the Grange. Although Granger locals appeared in

Arkansas during the early 1870s there is no evidence to indicate

that the movement had a following along the Buffalo River.

A later farm organization that was popular within the

watershed was founded in 1882 in Prairie County, Arkansas on the

lower White River. Termed the Agricultural Wheel, the

organization initially amounted to a form of debating club that

developed political and economic overtones. Additional "Wheels"

sprung up in other Arkansas counties, and the following year a state organization arose. By 1885 when the Wheel merged with

another farm order, the Brothers of Freedom, the combined

membership amounted to around 40,000 in Arkansas. Two years

later a greatly expanded Wheel counted 500,000 members in eight

states. 12 In 1889 the Wheel merged with the larger Southern

Farmers' Alliance, a regional organization with a following

throughout the South. 13

Along the Buffalo, Agricultural Wheel lodges were

established as early as 1883 and prospered for at least a decade.

Searcy County had active organizations of both the Wheel and the

Brothers of Freedom at Snowball, Marshall, Witts Springs, and

other locations. 14 Interest in the movement continued along the

Buffalo. By 1892 when the Marshall Mountain Wave commenced

publication in Searcy County, its first announcement showed the

strength of the farmers' movement. It would "be free from

absurdity and bring forward the true purposes of the Farmers

Alliance...." 15 Although the local agricultural lodges continued
59

to gain in popularity into the 1890s, it does not seem that they

constituted a fundamental motivating force in the general life of

the Buffalo River inhabitants. Even the intent of the Mountain

Wave ' s initial pronouncement became lost as interest in farming

associations dissipated.

From its inception, the Arkansas Wheel had participated in

politics, and in the state elections made an impressive

showing. 6 The various lodges within the basin, however, evinced

divergent attitudes toward politics. In Newton County, the Wheel

in 1886 won the entire county slate with only one exception. ' Nevertheless, in Marion County a meeting of the Wheel that same

year decided that "the organization in this county would take no

part in politics as a body." 18 While the various national

farmers 1 associations united in 1892 into a third political

party, it appears that after 1895 interest in Newton, Searcy, and

Marion counties turned away from farm grievances and toward the

exploitation of the mineral wealth along the river.

Indeed, it would have been unusual if the organizational

activity had continued. The prevailing concern of the various

Wheels and Alliances was to obtain more equitable treatment from

the transportation and economic facilities upon which they were

dependent. As the farms along the Buffalo were not dependent on

world market prices, the farmers' need for the agricultural

protest organizations was substantially, and almost inherently,

limited.

During the later years of the nineteenth century, the most

profitable industry along the river was lumbering. While saw

mills were common on the tributaries of the Buffalo since the

advent of the first settlers, production for "outside" use began

only during the 1870s. Representatives of the Houston, Ligett,

and Canada Cedar Company, the Consolidated Lumber Company, and

later the A.L. Hayes Stave Company, and the Eagle Pencil Company

among others, entered the region between 1875 and 1920 to

negotiate for and supervise the cutting and marketing of the

cedar, walnut, and oak trees which grew in profusion along the

bluffs and ridges of the valley. 9 Because the railroad did not

enter the valley until 1902, the river provided the early means

of transporting the logs to market. After an extended cutting

season lasting several months, the logs were dumped into the

river during flood stage, hastily organized into a raft for the

journey downstream to the White River, and eventually reached the

lumber yard at Batesville. " The largest cedar float on record

consisted of 175,000 logs and required twenty-two days to

complete.

^

The floating of the logs was a chaotic and hectic

time which provided a great deal of excitement as well as

pecuniary remuneration to the local farmers.

By 1920 most of the easily accessible cedar and walnut

stands were gone, and the industry ceased its operations. The
60

>

*-.-*". ''2.

Si

Rafting logs on the Buffalo, 1890s [Credit: Stella Mason, St. Joe, Arkansas]
61

decline of the lumber industry along the river can be attributed

to two essential factors: transportation and the lack of a

foresighted timber management policy. A constant problem was the

difficulty of transporting the logs to market. Because the river

could be used only during periods of high water, timber shipment

was at best intermittent. Although the establishment of the

railroad in 1902 allowed logs to be shipped from the more

convenient location at Gilbert, it remained a cumbersome

procedure. More important was the fact that the early logging

companies cut where it was most profitable — among the large

concentrated stands of cedar and walnut. Such indiscriminate

practices of harvesting timber, while eminently practical at the

time, deprived the lumber interests of a dependable source of

selected mature trees in succeeding years. The short-lived

lumber boom became a victim in part of its own shortsighted

policy. Thus while scattered independent lumber operations

continued, their contribution to the valley's economy remained

negligible.

Saw Mill, Searcy County, ca. 1890s [Credit: Maurice Tudor, Marshall, Arkansas]
62

Throughout the nineteenth century, poor transportation

routes continued to plague the hillfolk. Early roads followed

either the narrow benches atop the ridges or the undependable

path of the creek bottoms. The river roads were usually the most

expedient course, but a sudden spring shower often not only

prevented their use because of flooding, but also caused

extensive damage to the roads themselves. Traffic was reinstated

only after the farmers joined together and repaired the eroded

trail. 22

The laws of the state of Arkansas provided that local

residents should contribute their own time and equipment for the

upkeep of the roads. The state required all males between

eighteen and forty-five to work on the "public highways" as much

as five days a year but no more than two days at any one time. 23

Apparently some residents took the repair of their roads

seriously. In 1898, for instance, William Woodward of Searcy

County was fined ten dollars for failing to work his allotted

time. 4 In many instances, however, the road work was voluntary,

and communal effort was considered simply a part of the price of

Ozark life. Although the road problem continued well into the

twentieth century, county roads gradually improved to the point

where they were at least passable without endangering life and

limb. A continuous obstacle to normal channels of transportation

remained the river.

From earliest times, the Buffalo River could neither be

harnessed nor controlled. Heavy rains regularly sent it on a raging rampage which disrupted any type of intercourse between

the valley settlements. The periodic floods, as Timothy Flint

had warned, were not to be trifled with. A cloudburst upstream

could cause a flash flood in a relatively short time. Records of

such occurrences were not maintained until the twentieth century,

but since 1915 the Buffalo has risen from its normal level of

around four feet to heights of better than thirty-five feet at

least six times. And in August of 1915, the river crested after

an exceptional rainfall at fifth-four feet. 25 Even slight

fluctuations in the river's level often disrupted normal

communication. Dependent on ferries to cross the stream, local

residents were keenly aware that after a heavy rain, crossing the

Buffalo might be either impossible or extremely difficult.

Notices such as the following regularly graced the pages of the

county newspapers.

But on finding Sunday morning that much rain had fallen

we determined to try to recross Buffalo, before it

might become impassable; but on arriving at that stream

we found it 'booming.* Ye editor got across in a canoe; but we left Mr. Lay on the other side with the

team until it could be ferried over. 26

Until bridges were built across the river, beginning in the
63

1930s, such interruptions continued.

The periodic rises in the river, while they might disrupt

land transportation, worked to further communication by water.

Although no regular system of water transportation ever took

place on the Buffalo, the stream was used periodically for the

conveyance of goods. Flatboats and rafts constituted the

principal modes of river travel. Owing to the fluctuations in

the river's level and the large number of shoals which would be

encountered, the use of larger vessels was impossible except

under high-water conditions. With the advent of mining on the

Buffalo, barges were utilized to transport the ore to the

railhead on the White River. But only a few such trips were made

as most of the minerals were taken out by wagon. Water

transportation in the region continued to be limited to the

White. 27

Indeed, during the latter part of the nineteenth century,

the principal means of access to the eastern end of the Buffalo

River valley was by steamboat. Those vessels had been prominent

on the lower White from the early 1830s, but none ascended the

river above Batesville until 1844 when a steamer delivered a load

of freight at the mouth of the Big North Fork Creek at the

present site of Norfork, Arkansas. 28 Following the Civil War,

steamboats made regular runs from Batesville to Buffalo City

which marked the northernmost point for safe river travel, and

occasionally paddled farther up the river. 29 Most of the

steamboats which plied the upper White were modest in size and

functional in their furnishings. A typical upper White River

craft possessed a carrying capacity of one hundred bales of

cotton and measured eighteen feet in width and eighty-five in

length. ^ The range of those vessels was limited, however, to

the White.

Only once did one attempt to ascend the Buffalo for any

distance. That daring maneuver took place in 1896 when the

steamboat Dauntless , captained by William T. Warner, pushed up

the river as far as Rush Creek with a load of mining machinery.

Encountering overhanging tree limbs which snagged on the vessel's

smokestacks and shallow water which necessitated winching the

boat over numerous shoals, the Dauntless arrived at its

destination after a two-day struggle, unloaded its cargo, and

immediately began the return trip. The epic voyage of Captain

Warner and his craft marked the high point in transportation on

the Buffalo, and within a few years even the steamboat trade

along the White would be superceded by the coming of the

railroad. *

The journey of the Dauntless , however, stimulated interest

in the idea of regular packet travel on the Buffalo at least as

far as the Rush Creek mining district. Such an enterprise

required improvement of the stream's channel by the removal of
64

overhanging tree limbs and the clearing of numerous rock shoals.

Earlier interest in improving water transportation on the White

River led to the modification of the great shoals at the mouth of

the Buffalo when the Army Corps of Engineers constructed a series

of spur-dikes in 1880 which increased the water level at the

shallowest points and allowed an increase in river travel above

Buffalo City. 32

Yet prior to the 1896 trip of the Dauntless , very little

thought had been given to the improvement of the Buffalo itself.

Following that journey, the engineer officer in charge of

improvements on the upper White received orders to complete a

survey of the Buffalo from its mouth to the mouth of Rush Creek.

The survey, which occurred during December 1896, concluded that

to make the river navigable at all stages would require a system

of five locks and dams costing $750,000. Recognizing that the

commerce of the area would not justify the huge expenditure,

William Sibert, the surveyor in command, recommended an auxiliary

plan whereby the overhanging timber would be cut, and the rock

outcroppings above the general plane of the stream bed would be

removed. This more moderate alteration of the river Sibert

estimated would cost around $3,500. 3 The work was evidently

commenced and by the turn of the century, the local press could

claim that "boats can ascend the Buffalo River, on about the same

stage of water as they can the White river." 34 The anticipated

influx of vessels never occurred, however, due to the

unpredictable level of the stream. The primary course of

transportation remained the wagon roads.

Calling into question the use of "remote" and "primitive"

when describing the Arkansas Ozarks, the growth of highland

society during the second half of the nineteenth century included

the appearance of social and intellectual entities that were

enjoyed by at least a portion of the populace. Schools, debating

societies, bands, and newspapers sprung up throughout the

watershed. Although public schools probably did not appear until

after the Civil War, by 1900 such institutions had effectively

reduced the illiteracy rate to one half that recorded in 1850. 5

In addition to the schools, several towns boasted of private

academies which offered instruction in subjects ranging from

orthography to physiography to land surveying. 36

Another sign of cultural development was the organization of

town bands. As early as 1883 Yellville had obtained instruments

and had begun the establishment of its county band. Marshall

followed suit, and by the turn of the century, all three of the

county seats were being entertained regularly by their group of

local musicians. 37 The existence of debating societies,

particularly in Newton County, further challenge Ozark

stereotypes. °
65

Picnic, Diamond Cave Spring, ca. 1910 [Credit: Ardella Vaughan, Jasper,

Arkansas]

Perhaps the leading sign of economic and social growth was

the establishment of local newspapers. The Buffalo valley was

barren of a locally published paper until the decade of the 1880s

when a weekly was begun in each county. Most of the early

journals enjoyed only a brief existence before they folded or

moved to another location. By 1920 at least eighteen newspapers

had, from time to time, been published within the watershed.

Beginning in 1884 both Newton and Searcy counties produced a weekly, the Jasper American and the New Era respectively. 9 Two

years later the Mountain Echo made its appearance from Yellville

and emerged as the paper with the greatest longevity: it remains

the only paper published in the Marion County seat today. 40

Among the many transient weeklies appeared several decidedly

Republican newspapers. Ulysses Bratton founded the Marshall

Republican in 1890, and after a host of different editors tried

their hands at managing it, the paper was consolidated in 1945

with the current Marshall newspaper, the Mountain Wave . * In

1891 the Newton Herald began publishing from Jasper, and

reportedly carried as its motto "In God and the Republican Party

We Trust, Everybody Else Cash. 42 But the hillfolk along the
66

Buffalo River were not limited to reading only the local county

papers. Occasionally they subscribed to sources of information

as the Atlanta Constitution and the St. Louis Republic and Globe

Democrat .

•* It was the local papers, however, that most embodied

and reflected the views and aspirations of the farmers along the

river.

Without exception the fledgling weeklies pledged themselves

to sing the praises of the possibilities which the valley

afforded. While all advertised the virtues of Ozark life and

extolled the advantages offered, none surpassed the Mountain

Educator when in 1893 it proclaimed:

Never can there be a place more worthy of affection or

deserving of praise, than this lovely land. Her

productions are as diversified as her soil, and the

virtues of her people as pure as her pearly brooks.

Galconda's sparkling gems cannot outshine her natural

resources, nor India's coral strand present more

beauties. Well have the poets and the bards sung

praises to Grecian hills. Switzer's mountains and

Scottish shores have been the theme of many songs.

English Druids have praised their sacred graves, but

when the bard of Searcy county appears, the theme will

still be unexhausted. Let him sing her praises to the

world, for a country so rich in nature, only wants

time. 4

Along with the newspapers, various books were also

circulated among the settlers. The most common were almanacs,

Dr. Gunn's Domestic Medicine , journals such as the American

Agriculturist , and, of course, the Holv Bible . 5

Indeed, for many, few facets of frontier life were as

important as frontier religion. Soon after their arrival, the

initial settlers constructed rude structures which served both as

a place of worship and as a local meeting house. As the century

progressed, the dual purpose of the church was retained although

the character of the structures was much improved. Quite often

they assumed a multi-purpose function. The church on Cave Creek

in Newton County was "well constructed of hewn pine logs, and two

stories; the lower room was used for church and school purposes,

the upper story for a Masonic Lodge. n ^° But while religion may

have been an ever present element in frontier society,

participation in a particular sect was not. While practically

everyone considered himself a Protestant, there was very little

further distinction made along denominational lines, and few were

active in a particular church. A religious enumeration taken in

1906 revealed that fully 80 percent of the inhabitants within the

Buffalo River valley did not consider themselves a member of a specific religious denomination. In fact, only 20.3 percent in

Searcy County, 13.7 percent in Marion, and 13.2 percent of the
67

population in Newton professed any allegiance to an organized

church.

Interestingly enough, the domination of religious life by

the Methodist Church which was evident around 1860 had been

replaced by the prevalence of no particular sect by the turn of

the century. The Methodist Church retained its former influence

only in Marion County where 44 percent of the inhabitants who

declared any affiliation were Methodist; but the Baptists

constituted a close second by registering almost 40 percent of

the declared population. In Searcy County the role of the two

religions was reversed: the Baptists claimed 46.8 percent of the

church-going populace while the Methodists reported a total of 35

percent. The settlers in Newton County shunned both of those

organized religions as 43 percent announced membership in the

Disciples of Christ, with the Baptists constituting a distant

second with 16 percent. 8 The total dominance of Protestantism

was disrupted only in Searcy County where in 1906 there were

eighty Roman Catholics who formed 3 percent of the county's

church attending populace. 9

River baptizing near Jasper, 1934 [Credit: Ardella Vaughan, Jasper, Arkansas]
68

Yet the strong showing of the Methodists was not to the

satisfaction of the Arkansas state church organization. The

Ozarks posed formidable problems for the permanent establishment

of a viable and active Methodist organization. Its episcopal

polity constituted a severe handicap in the Arkansas highlands - -a hindrance not suffered by the congregationally organized sects

such as the Baptist and Church of Christ. To the individuals in

charge of establishing a Methodist following in the hills, the

initial stumbling block was the hillfolk themselves.

Characterized by "independence, self-reliance, individuality,

which often runs to accentricity [sic]," it was difficult "to

organize them, on the one hand, and make for strong

personalities, once you get hold of them, on the other hand." 50

In addition, the topography of the plateau served to harass those

who were sent to establish effective and permanent Methodist

organizations. As late as 1935 the state organization lamented

that more had not beep accomplished among the mountaineers within

the Boston Mountains. "

The very highlands which served to obstruct the Methodists,

however, provided a strong attraction to one emigrant religious

denomination. Beginning in 1920 and continuing into the early

months of 1925, the small village of Gilbert in Searcy County was

the site of an incursion of a millennialist sect from Illinois.

Organized in 1912, the Incoming Kingdom Missionary Unit was the

creation of John A. Battenfield a Christian Church minister who

believed that he had discovered the millennial prophecies of the

Bible. First expounding his theory in The Great Demonstration , published in 1912, Battenfield revealed that the millennium would

begin only after a world-wide war between Catholics and

Protestants, and that to survive the holocaust his followers must

establish faithful communities in the isolated mountainous

regions of the country and attempt to restore the true church.

After months of searching* Battenfield established one of those

communities at Gilbe

cning,

rt. 52

Gilbert had been founded around 1902 as a railroad

construction camp for the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad

which eventually ran from Joplin, Missouri to Helena, Arkansas. 53

Battenfield and his followers quickly erected a school/church

building and began the publication of a newspaper, the Kingdom

Harbinger . As the religious constituency of the community grew,

the members began to reach out to surrounding communities to warn

them of the approaching holocaust and converts were found in

Bruno, St. Joe, Witts Springs, and Maumee. The number of

colonists continued to grow for several years as the small group

attempted to increase its economic self-sufficiency. But by the

middle of 1925, the experiment had ended. The organization, held

together principally through the personality of John Battenfield,

disintegrated when the oracular pastor lost control of his flock,

abandoned the Buffalo River town, and headed east to Washington,

D.C. The circumstances behind his abrupt exit stemmed from his
69

prophecy in February 1925 that he would raise from the dead a

recently deceased member of the church. Upon his failure to

produce the predicted resurrection, the minister announced that

he had suffered a nervous breakdown. Following a short period of

rest at the home of a friend, Battenfield left for the East, and

the abandoned and disheartened followers shortly thereafter also

made their exit. 4 Without the enthusiastic motivation of its

religious mentor, the community of Gilbert was reduced to the

quiet and peaceful village it is today.

For those who lived along the Buffalo during the closing

decades of the nineteenth century, however, the peaceful and

harmonious existence was not absolute. The tranquility

associated with the pastoral life of the homesteaders regularly

was marred by intermittent acts of violence. Murders, if not

commonplace, were a periodic occurrence. When Joe Willborn

disemboweled William Jameson during a fox hunt on the Buffalo, it

was "supposed that bad women and a-too generous outpouring of

whiskey were the supreme causes." 55 In Newton County along Cave

Creek, the Smith-Nichols' feud during 1882 caused a considerable

amount of excitement, but interest lagged when the Smiths made a hasty departure and took refuge in the protection of the wooded

mountains." The following year a correspondent for the Harrison

Times complained that there had been four murders in Newton

County during the year, and no one had been apprehended. "The

murderers and thieves retreat to the mountains where they are fed

and protected by those who have little interest in or respect for

the laws of society or our country." 5 ' Indeed, the mountains had

regularly offered a haven for refugees from the law, and

northwest Arkansas constituted an excellent environment for such

seclusion. The lightly populated Buffalo River country was even

the site of refuge for one Newton County resident who claimed to

be Frank James, brother of the infamous outlaw Jesse James.

Whether the assertion was apocryphal or not, it illustrates the

secluded nature of the area surrounding the Buffalo River. 58

Disrespect for the law was reiterated in 1893 when a former

sheriff of Searcy County killed one Henry Fryar in the river

village of Woolum, a settlement noted locally for its habitual

disorderly nature. 59 A few years later in Jasper, four sticks of

explosives were detected under the jail after a grand jury failed

to indict a man suspected of killing his wife. The dynamite was

"evidently placed there with the intention of making short work"

of the accused. ^ Other crimes upon the persons and property of

the hillfolk ranged from arson to profanity to Sabbath breaking

to selling liquor to a minor and to insulting a teacher. The

last named deed caused Bob Harrington to be fined twenty-five

dollars. * In addition, there were instances of adultery. In

1882 a Newton County farmhand eloped with his employer's wife and

left the following note: "I have tooked your woman, but you ar

welcum to my last weeks wages, which I didn't draw; and I hoap

that squares things. ""^ As in most mountainous and densely
70

wooded areas in rural America during the late 1800s, a recurring

problem concerned the illegal distillation of "mountain spirits."

The history of illegal whiskey-making in the well- wooded

and watered "hollers" of the southern Appalachians is both long

and exciting; that back-woods enterprise associated with the

Ozarks is no different. The making of "moonshine" was not always

against the law. Except for the years 1791-1802 and for a few

years following the War of 1812 when a federal excise tax on

whiskey was collected, such activities were common, profitable,

and completely legal. But beginning in 1862 it became a federal

offense to distill alcohol without a federal permit. 63 Even

though the legislation had no effect in Arkansas until 1868 when

the state's representatives were readmitted to Congress, little

heed was paid the law. Hillfolk long accustomed to being

isolated and relatively insulated from the legal whims of their

urban brothers continued, without federal authorization, to

produce corn whiskey in secluded wild-cat stills.

In 1896 a Newton County resident reported that he could

stand at his front door and observe smoke from seven different

stills being operated in defiance of the law. 64 Southern Newton

and Searcy counties in particular, with their densely wooded,

almost inaccessible ravines, harbored many illicit stills.

Prosecutions were few and sentences relatively light as the

crafty mountaineers attempted to outwit the revenue agents. 65 In

addition to the illegal stills, there were a number of officially

licensed distilleries, which also operated in the narrow valleys

where there was an abundance of fresh cold water. In 1893 talk

of moving one such distillery from St. Joe to Woolum in Searcy

County prompted the local press to denounce emphatically the

enterprise as "This venimous [sic] reptile, the cyclone of

destruction to mankind." 66 Apparently the readers of the paper

heartily agreed with the opinions of the editor because in 1901

the county court at Marshall decided the town would have a brighter future if saloons were not permitted to operate within

the city limits — a decision reached almost twenty years before

national prohibition went into effect. 6 '

By the dawn of the new century, the face of the Buffalo

River country had changed considerably. The despair which

characterized the region following the Civil War had gone, and a wave of relative prosperity had settled over the valley. In 1898

Searcy County could boast of having 1,004 carriages and a surprisingly high number of pianos — thirty-four

.

6 ° Two years

later during the compilation of the twelfth census, Marshall

recorded a total of 263 inhabitants while Yellville consisted of

a bustling 578. 69

In another respect as well, the character of the country had

changed. Following the Civil War practically the entire black

population left for more promising environs. From a high of 386,
71

including both slaves and the eight remaining free Negroes in

1860, the number of blacks dropped to around sixty Freedmen ten

years later and remained at that level for the balance of the

century. ° The exodus of most of the blacks was probably due to

the absence of money to pay them wages and the small need for

tenancy on the hill country farms. Those who stayed following

their emancipation evidently had maintained favorable relations

with their owners and considered their home to be the valley of

the Buffalo. Yet even they soon became a rarity among the small

villages. By 1893 the Marshall newspaper found it newsworthy

that "A real live negro was in town last Friday night."' 1 And

four years later the same publication noted that "A colored man

passed through town Monday* which is such an usual occurrence

that it deserves mention."' 2 It is noteworthy that no evidence

survives to indicate that intolerant whites forced the exodus of

the blacks from the Buffalo River country. It would seem,

instead, that this was caused by a lack of economic opportunity.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the basin of the

Buffalo River was almost entirely inhabited by white Americanborn farmers who considered themselves members of the Protestant

faith. That homogeneity remained essentially intact even though

the region for the next twenty years experienced an intense and

chaotic period of mining activity which introduced new interests

and capital into the valley.
72

NOTES

1. Harrison (Arkansas) Times , August 23, 1902, p. 2.

2. United States, Census Bureau, [1900 Census], Twelfth Census

of the United States , Taken in the Year 1900 , vol. I, Population,

Part 1 (Washington: United States Census Office, 1901) , pp. 10-

11.

3. Ibid., vol. VI, Agriculture, Part 1, pp. 267-268.

4. Harrison (Arkansas) Times , June 19, 1886, p. 3.

5. Ibid., November 27, 1886, p. 3.

6. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , October 15, 1897, p. 2.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid., October 28, 1899, p. 2; J.C. Love to J.J. Johnston,

December 12, 1962, James J. Johnston Private Collection,

Marshall, Arkansas.

9. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , February 25, 1899, p. 2.

10. Clifton E. Hull, "Wagons South — Or the Historic Caravan of

1880," Little Rock Arkansas Gazette , April 27, 1969.

11. J.C. Love to J.J. Johnston, December 12, 1962, Johnston

Collection; Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , December 23,

1898, p. 2.

12. John D. Hicks, The Populist Revolt: A History of the

Farmer's Alliance and the Peoples Party (Lincoln: University of

Nebraska Press, 1961), pp. 111-112.

13. Ibid.

14. "Minutes of the Brothers of Freedom and Agricultural Wheel

Lodges at Pleasant Grove, Searcy County, Arkansas, 1883-1886,"

microfilm copy, Arkansas History Commission, Little Rock.

15. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , July 15, 1892, p. 1.

16. Hicks, The Populist Revolt , p. 142.

17. Harrison (Arkansas) Times , September 11, 1886, p. 2.

18. Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , August 13, 1886, p. 2.
73

19. Daniel B. Lackey, "Cutting and Floating Red Cedar Logs in

North Arkansas," Arkansas Historical Quarterly , XIX (Winter

1960), p. 361; Harrison (Arkansas) Times , August 23, 1902, p. 4;

Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , March 5, 1886, p. 1; Orville

J. Mclnturff, "Floating Timber Down the Buffalo River—1890's,"

Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , May 25, 1972, pp. 8-9;

Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , November 13, 1975, p. 9.

20. Lackey, "Cutting and Floating," pp. 365-369; Mclnturff,

"Floating Timber," p. 8.

21. Lackey, "Cutting and Floating," p. 367; J.K. Villines

(Harrison, Arkansas) to Dwight Pitcaithley, July 3, 1974, taped

interview, Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University.

22. Eva B. Henderson (Compton, Arkansas) to Dwight Pitcaithley,

July 22, 1974, taped interview, Southwest Collection, Texas Tech

University.

23. B.B. Chism, comp. , Laws of Arkansas as to Roads and

Highways. For the Use of Overseers (Little Rock: Press Printing

Company, 1891) , p. 9.

24. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , February 25, 1898, p. 2;

March 11, 1898, p. 5.

25. United States, Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo River Basin,

Arkansas, White River Basin Comprehensive Study, Missouri and

Arkansas , vol. II (Little Rock: Corps of Engineers, 1964),

figures A13-15.

26. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Educator , April 1892, p. 11;

May 1892, p. 2; Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , May 4, 1893,

p. 2; April 8, 1899, p. 5; Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , February 18, 1887, p. 2; Harrison (Arkansas) Times , February 17,

1883, p. 3.

27. United States, Army Corps of Engineers, Survey of Buffalo

Fork of White River, Arkansas , H. Doc. 207, 54th Cong., 2nd

Sess., Serial 3524, 1897, p. 4.

28. A.C. Jeffery, Historical and Biographical Sketches of the

Early Settlement of the Valley of White River Together With a

History of Izard County , ed. by Dale Hanks (Batesville, Arkansas:

Guard-Record, Inc., 1973), p. 66.

29. John Quincy Wolf, Life in the Leatherwoods , ed. by John

Quincy Wolf, Jr. (Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1974),

p. 134.

30. Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , January 6, 1887, p. 1.
74

31. By 1905 the last steamboat had abandoned the upper river

trade. Wolf, Life in the Leatherwoods , pp. 137-139; Duane

Huddleston, "Navigation of the Buffalo River — Epic Trip of

Steamboat Dauntless," Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , March

13, 1969.

32. United States, Census Bureau, [1880 Census], Reports of the

Water-Power of the United States , vol. XIII, Part 2 (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1887), p. 124.

33. United States, Army Corps of Engineers, Survey of Buffalo

Fork , pp. 2-3.

34. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , November 11, 1899, p. 3.

35. United States, Census Bureau, [1900 Census], Twelfth

Census . . . , vol. I, Population, Part 2, p. 470.

36. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , November 15, 1894, p. 1.

37. Ibid., December 15, 1892, p. 2; Harrison (Arkansas) Times , September 8, 1883, p. 2.

38. Harrison (Arkansas) Times , August 18, 1883, p. 2; Marshall

(Arkansas) Mountain Educator , March 1892, p. 6.

39. Walter F. Lackey, History of Newton County, Arkansas (Point

Lookout, Missouri: S of Press, 1950), p. 162; Orville J.

Mclnturff, Searcy County, My Dear: A History of Searcy County,

Arkansas (Marshall, Arkansas: Marshall Mountain Wave, 1963), p.

116.

40. Harrison (Arkansas) Times , March 13, 1886, p. 2.

41. Mclnturff, Searcy County, My Dear , pp. 116-117.

42. Lackey, History of Newton County , p. 163.

43. Love to Johnston, December 3, 1962, Johnston Collection.

44. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Educator , March 1893, p. 1.

45. Wolf, Life in the Leatherwoods , p. 29.

46. James T. Greenhaw to Walter Lackey, undated letter, The

Newton County Homestead . II (April 1960), p. 48. See also

Harrison (Arkansas) Times , June 19, 1886, p. 3.

47. United States, Census Bureau, Religious Bodies: 1906 , Part 1

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910), pp. 296-298.

48. Ibid.
75

49. Ibid.

50. James A. Anderson, Centennial History of Arkansas Methodism:

A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the State

of Arkansas 1815-1935 (Benton, Arkansas: L.B. White Printing Co.,

1935) , p. 510.

51. Ibid.

52. Doris E. Thompson, "History of an Ozark Utopia," Arkansas

Historical Quarterly . XIV (Winter 1955), pp. 359-364.

53. Lawrence R. Handley, "A Geography of the Missouri and North

Arkansas Railroad" (M.A. thesis, University of Arkansas, 1973),

pp. 151-154.

54. Thompson, "History of an Ozark Utopia," pp. 367, 371-373.

55. Harrison (Arkansas) Times . December 16, 1882, p. 3.

56. Ibid., October 21, 1882.

57. Ibid., July 21, 1883, p. 3.

58. See Columbus Vaughn, Lester Snow, and Sarah Snow, This Was

Frank James (Philadelphia: Dorrance & Company, 1969) .

59. The sheriff was later acquitted of the crime. Marshall

(Arkansas) Mountain Wave . January 5, 1893, p. 2.

60. Harrison (Arkansas) Times . July 7, 1900, p. 3.

61. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , March 11, 1898, p. 5;

Ibid., March 11, 1899, p. 3.

62. Harrison (Arkansas) Times . October 7, 1882, p. 3.

63. Joseph E. Dabney, Mountain Spirits: A Chronicle of Corn

Whiskey From King James 1 Ulster Plantation to America's

Appalachians and the Moonshine Life (New York: Charles Scribner's

Sons, 1974) , p. 3.

64. Walter F. Lackey, "Introduction," in Isaac Stapleton,

Moonshiners in Arkansas (n.p.: Zion's Printing and Publishing

Company, 1948) , Introduction.

65. Harrison (Arkansas) Times , February 27, 1886, p. 3.

66. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave . June 1, 1893, p. 2;

Lackey, History of Newton County , pp. 123-124.

67. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , February 9, 1901, p. 3.
76

68. Ibid., January 21, 1898, p. 3.

69. United States, Census Bureau, [1900 Census], Twelfth

Census...., vol. I, Population, Part 1, p. 439.

70. Ibid., p. 530; United States, Census Bureau, [1870 Census],

A Compendium of the Ninth Census (Washington: Government Printing

Office, 1872) , p. 27.

71. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , February 16, 1893, p. 2.

72. Ibid., November 26, 1897, p. 3.
77

LEAD AND ZINC MINING

The history of lead and zinc mining in northern Arkansas is

primarily the study of an area that possessed considerable

mineral deposits but only limited transportation facilities. In

1858 a state geologist prophesied that Arkansas was destined to

"take the lead of all Western States, in her resources of zinc

and manganese

,

n and that the state also promised to "afford

considerable lead ore." 1 The industry developed slowly

throughout the nineteenth century, but during the First World War

it appeared that the prediction would be realized. Zinc and lead

production peaked in Arkansas in 1917, and the Buffalo River

country played an important role in that production. The

prosperity was short-lived, however, and the industry quickly

declined.

While zinc was the more sought after mineral following the

turn of the century, lead had been the subject of explorations

and speculations for two hundred years. Shortly after the

beginning of the eighteenth century, while France was commencing

the settlement of the Louisiana territory, there occurred a short

fever of interest in possible wealth in the Mississippi valley.

Hungry for the kind of New World wealth that had brought riches

to Spain, Frenchmen were eagerly credulous of rumors about any

kind of ore deposits. On the presumptive basis of such unfounded

reports, the fantastic manipulator John Law, a clever Scotsman,

promulgated a scheme to reduce the French national debt while at

the same time exploiting the dreamed-of riches of Louisiana.

Law's company was given the rights to Louisiana; under its

direction Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur d 'Bienville, was

appointed the territory's governor, colonization was pushed, and

efforts were made to discover natural resources. But Law's

entire scheme — bank, bank notes, and company — based as it was

on credit and inflated paper currency, was not to last. In 1720

the highly overblown "Mississippi Bubble" burst as conservative

investors asked that their stock be redeemed in coin. The

fragile economic foundation of the enterprise began to crumble,

and as confidence gave way to doubt and then disbelief, the

highly speculative project collapsed, and Law made a hasty exit

to Belgium. But the adventure was not without its achievements.

In 1718 the strategically located city of New Orleans was

founded, and expeditions sent to the interior of Louisiana

located lead mines in what is today southern Missouri.

Suffering under the delusion that rich silver and gold mines

existed in Upper Louisiana, Law's company sent to that region a group of miners and assayers under the direction of Francis
78

Renault. Although the company ended in financial ruin, Renault

and his associates continued their search for the suspected

precious metals, and in 1724-1725 the "director-general of the

mines of Louisiana" discovered and opened in southeastern

Missouri a number of lead deposits which he expected would yield

silver ore. Although no silver appeared, Renault continued to

explore with great expectations. Throughout the century, the

mines, most of which were the open pit variety, were worked

intermittently with varying results. But it was not until 1798,

after Moses Austin petitioned for a grant of land which would

encompass the mines, that the deposits were operated with any

consistency. Austin moved his family from Virginia to Missouri

where he constructed a saw mill, flour mill, furnace, and factory

for the manufacture of both shot and sheet lead. The Virginian

prospered in southeastern Missouri and elevated the lead mining

business of the region to a permanent year-round industry. The

success of the endeavor stalled, however, during the War of 1812

and the Panic of 1819. Austin subsequently faced financial ruin

and made plans to recover his fortune by colonizing Texas —

plans which were realized only after his death by his son Stephen

F. Austin.

As the Missouri mining enterprise was declining, Henry R.

Schoolcraft led an expedition through the lead region of

Missouri, into northern Arkansas, and finally along the White

River as far as Batesville before he turned east toward the

Mississippi. In Arkansas, Schoolcraft noted the existence of a number of lead deposits in Marion County and farther east in

Lawrence County, but because of the sparse population in the

Arkansas territory at that time (1818) , none of these deposits

were being worked. Sixteen years later G. W. Featherstonhaugh,

a geologist for the United States, visited the region east of the

White River and observed that enough lead existed in southern

Missouri and northern Arkansas that "it may be relied on for

countless ages as a source of national wealth."'

The only working lead mine mentioned by Featherstonhaugh was

located on the Strawberry River in the region of north Arkansas

east of the Buffalo River. Mining ventures there must have been

operated by local settlers in the search for material for musket

balls, as no commercial mining took place in north central

Arkansas until the early 1850s when several reduction plants were

constructed in the vicinity of Lead Hill in Boone County.

During the later years of that pre-Civil War decade, the

Arkansas state legislature authorized the governor to make

arrangements for a geological survey of the state. Governor E.

N. Conway obtained the services of David Dale Owen who at the

time was supervising a similar survey for the state of Kentucky.

As State Geologist of the State of Arkansas, Owen traveled the

state during 1857 and 1858 and made a study for which he received

$1,800 for the first year's work and $2,500 for the second. 10
79

Published in Little Rock, Owen's report confirmed the existence

of large amounts of lead in the northwestern portion of the

state, particularly in the Buffalo River region where he reported

the extraction of sixty to seventy pounds of lead ore from a forty-five foot shaft near the mouth of Cave Creek. 11 Owen's

assistant, Edward T. Cox, who conducted a similar survey during

1859-1860, found an even more extensive mining operation on the

headwaters of the Buffalo in Newton County where eighteen to

twenty thousand pounds of the ore had been removed. ^

During the Civil War the increased demand for lead for

munitions stimulated activity in the area. The Cave Creek

deposits especially were worked by Confederate forces, but it was

not until the 1870s that lead mining on a large scale was

introduced into the Buffalo River basin. 3 In 1876 the Boston

Mountain Mining and Smelting Company, an organization which

originated in Illinois, operated a mine on Cave Creek for a period of two years before it sold out to the Granby Mining and

Smelting Company. Wagon teams hauled the smelted lead to

Russellville and where it was shipped to Pennsylvania. 4 Other

mines were operated throughout the 1870s with varying degrees of

success. As the decade of the 1880s began, however, interest in

lead began to decrease in direct proportion to an increased

awareness of the extent of zinc concentrations in the area.

The commercial development of zinc in northern Arkansas

first occurred in Sharp County near Calamine in 1857 and later in

1871. Although smelters had been constructed during both

periods, the activity was of short duration. 5 Then in the early

1880s John Wolfer, one of the foremost prospectors along the

Buffalo, and several of his associates located a large deposit of

zinc on Rush Creek in southern Marion County. Although denied in

later years by Wolfer, tradition maintained that the prospectors

believed that the zinc carbonate was actually silver ore. The

anxious men then allegedly had the ore assayed, and after finding

that it contained eight dollars per ton in silver, decided to

build a smelter to obtain the more easily transported silver.

They constructed a small stone smelter, but the results were

disappointing. Instead of the liquid metal they hoped to

produce, the process merely created colorful rainbows over the

blast which represented the zinc going off in fumes. Discouraged

but not ready to quit, Wolfer held onto his claim for a few years

then sold it to George W. Chase from Fayetteville who organized

the Morning Star Company in 1891 when he received the patent for

the property. The company installed a larger smelter and

additional machinery, and the well-established Morning Star Mine

eventually became one of the largest producers of zinc in

Arkansas. 6

Nevertheless, the commencement of mining activities began

very sporadically as interest in the new highland enterprise rose

and fell along with the price of zinc. During the late 1880s,
80

however, the Rush Creek district became the subject of serious

exploitation. Interest, for the time being, was centered in the

area surrounding the mouth of Rush and Clabber creeks, which were

within one half mile of one another. By 1889 two groups had

established claims: the Buffalo Zinc and Copper Company and the

Arkansas Mining and Investment Company. In early 1888 the former

association founded at the mouth of Rush Creek the town of

Exeter, complete with a two-story hotel, company stores, post

office, and houses. ' The new town was named for the secretary

of the company, Fred C. Exeter, and within a year three more

nearby towns had been laid off by the county surveyor. ° Two

hundred claims were recorded during 1887 and 1888 and the mouth

of Rush Creek was organized into the Buffalo Mining District

which adopted a seal appropriately displaying a bull buffalo. 9

In January 1888 the first ore barge was floated down the river to

Batesville. 20 By 1889 the Rush mining district had grown to

sufficient proportions that it was profitable for Isaac Snyder to

make a weekly trip from Yellville to sell goods from his meat

shop. 21 Yet the development of the 1880s was only the beginning.

Panther Creek Mine, Mill Shed, 1916 [Credit: Ardella Vaughan, Jasper,

Arkansas]
81

Panther Creek Mine, Newton County, 1916 [Credit: Ardella Vaughan, Jasper,

Arkansas]

The decade of the 1890s served to establish the foundation

for the later "boom" during World War I and to advertise the zinc

field to the nation's mining community. While interest

vacillated, it was reported in 1899 that the influx of

prospectors was so great that the surrounding agricultural region

was having difficulties in providing enough sustenance.

There is absolutely no beef in that country. I ate

salt pork from the time I went in there until I came

away — not a bite of fresh meat for anybody. Neither

are there any chickens, eggs or butter. In fact, so

many have gone there, and the facilities of the people

already settled there are so limited that the latter

have almost been eaten out of house and home by the

prospectors, immigrants and strangers. 22

While the zinc field stretched across northern Arkansas, the

center was the Buffalo basin. As a regional geologist noted,
82

"with the Buffalo Basin left out of the thing the mineral

resources of North Arkansas would be very much like the play of

Hamlet with Hamlet left out of the cast." 23 While the Rush Creek

region marked the focal point of the Buffalo River zinc mining

activity, other operations were being instituted in other areas

of the watershed along Water and Tomahawk creeks in northern

Searcy County and near the headwaters of the river close to Ponca

and Boxley. 2 ^

Although the miners in Newton and Searcy counties were

burdened with hauling the ore by means of wagons over circuitous

highland roads to the nearest railhead, most of the zinc removed

from the mines on the lower Buffalo was transported to Batesville

via ore barges. This increased activity on the river led

inevitably to the prominence of Buffalo City as the center for

supplying the Rush Creek and neighboring areas. Steamboats

arrived at regular intervals bringing merchandise, machinery,

lumber, and various incidental supplies needed in the fields. 5

The mining excitement was a boon to other industries as well.

The lumber business experienced a rise in production as it sought

to provide an endless supply of fuel for the smelters in various

parts of the region. 26

One of the problems which constantly plagued the development

of mining in the basin was transportation. By 1900 the entire

Boston Mountain area had become an island surrounded on all sides

by railroads. The inhabitants therein were forced to rely on the

rough wagon roads which crossed and recrossed its rugged

terrain. As the turn of the century approached, however, the

possibility of a railroad being built into the region engendered

considerable excitement. Rumors and hearsay filled the

newspapers as the mining establishment pinned its hopes on a more

efficient and expedient means of transporting the ore. The

expected railroad would be, according to the local journals, the

salvation of the north Arkansas zinc field. Searcy County's

Mountain Wave steadfastly maintained that "Searcy, Newton, Boone

and Marion counties contain zinc, copper and lead enough to keep

two or three railroads busy for a hundred years.

2 ° Within a year surveys were being conducted to ascertain the most practical

path for the anticipated steel rails. Although one survey

plotted a route directly through the Rush Creek district, a line

to the southwest received final approval, between 1901 and 1903

the St. Louis and North Arkansas Railroad extended its lines,

which already existed from Joplin, Missouri to Harrison,

Arkansas, through the Buffalo River valley to Leslie in

southeastern Searcy County. By 1909 the road had been continued

from Leslie to Helena, Arkansas on the Mississippi River. 2 ^

As the new tracks inched their way through the Boston

Mountains and across the river, new towns sprang up and older

ones, by-passed by the railroad, folded. Pindall in Searcy

County developed after the entrance of the road as a siding for
83

shipments of ore from the nearby Big Hurricane Mine and quickly

grew into a bustling village with five or six stores, a grist

mill, school, and hotel. Although St. Joe had been founded

around 1860, the coming of the railroad caused a new section to

be added and dubbed New Town. A few miles south, the railroad

passed the town of Duff by only a half mile, so the town

relocated to a railroad construction camp called Gilbert, which

was located directly on the Buffalo River a few miles to the

south. Named for Charles W. Gilbert, later president of the

railroad, the camp soon became a major departure point for

investors and prospectors headed for the Rush Creek area, and at

the same time became one of the major shipment locations for

Buffalo River zinc. ° A local resident later recalled that ore

wagons often lined up two abreast for almost a mile waiting to

unload. 1

— - .-» ^*.

Morning Star Mine and Mill, Rush, 1904 [Credit: National Archives, U.S.

Geological Survey, Professional Paper No. 24, Plate XXII]
84

The railroad was a tremendous boon to the long isolated

people of the Buffalo River, but the population proved to be too

sparse to enable the railroad to remain solvent. In 1906 the St.

Louis and North Arkansas Railroad Company declared bankruptcy,

and the newly organized Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad

Company assumed operations. The M. & N. A. experienced similar

problems, and six years later that company went into

receivership, under which the railroad was operated until 1918

when the federal government took control of the line. Following

the war the railroad was again managed privately but continued to

have financial and administrative difficulties. After two and a half decades of marginal returns, the railroad was finally

abandoned in 1946. 2 The building of the railroad did not

become, as expected, the panacea for the economic and

transportation ills of the region.

The simple presence of the railroad within the Arkansas zinc

and lead mining district did not lead to an immediate and everincreasing production of ore. The amount of finished zinc

produced in Arkansas in 1913 was roughly equivalent to that mined

in 1907. 33 Because the output of the Rush mills alone accounted

for approximately 50 percent of the total production of the

state, the figures for the state as a whole generally reflect the

production of the north Arkansas mining region. 34

With the beginning of World War I, the demand for zinc

revived the north Arkansas mining district and infused it with

sorely needed capital. The year between 1914 and 1915

illustrates the change. Within a matter of a few months, thirty

mines became nearly 100; production jumped from eight tons to

3,209. The value of the zinc increased over twelve-fold from

$62,016 to $795, 832. 35

With the prospect of success looming greater than ever, the

mining district of Rush became the site of an immense immigration

of prospectors and miners. Practically overnight Rush grew "from

a sleepy village of a few hundred inhabitants to a thriving

mining camp." 3 " Estimates regarding the population of the small

narrow valley reached as high as six thousand although the actual

number was probably half that. 3 ' A "New Town" of Rush sprang up

a little over a mile from the mouth of the creek, and the new

arrivals guickly erected stores, hotels, pool halls, and a theater. 35

Because wood provided the universal source of fuel for the

steam boilers of the smelters and for the heating of the homes

and stores, the need for a constant supply of cordage constituted

a singular logistics problem. An average mill consumed eight

cords of wood per day during the winter, and there were at least

seven mills operating in the Rush area during the height of the

activity. 3y The inevitable result of such an insatiable demand

for wood led to the denuding of the forest surrounding the Rush
85

Creek valley. Local farmers and woodcutters provided the bulk of

the fuel wood under contract with the mine operators and the

miners themselves for one dollar per cord plus fifteen cents per

hundred weight hauling costs. ° But hauling the wood on a

regular schedule was directly related to the condition of the

roads.

In 1916 a correspondent for the Engineering and Mining

Journal made an investigative trip to Rush and found the access

difficult at best.

To get to Rush I crossed Rush Creek 43 times and when

not in the creek was on the worst road ever, the ground

being hub-deep and frozen. A storm on the ocean was

not a circumstance to a ride in the stage. I walked

three of the 12 miles and would have been pleased to

have walked more, but the darned creek kept getting in

the way. To add to my discomfort, the temperature was

16 above and the breeze brisk. Rush is where wolves

swoop down on the farmers raising pigs. 41

A reliable source of fuel was not the only problem faced by

the miners at Rush. Aside from the hazardous working conditions

in and around the mines, the extremely crowded housing conditions

and inadequate sanitary facilities led to epidemics of typhoid

and related diseases. Fortunately for the Rush Creek miners

there existed in the immediate area a number of fresh-water

springs ftQm which a constant supply of clear water could be

obtained. 2

No sooner had the new mining camps been constructed and an

extended period of prosperity been envisioned for the entire zinc

and lead mining district, than the industry experienced a devastating and unexpected decline. After reaching peak

production of zinc in 1916 and 1917 when Arkansas refined 6,815

and 6,691 tons respectively, the industry in 1918 produced only

951 tons, and by 1924 the total had fallen to 4. The plight of

the companion lead industry was much the same. In 1917

Arkansas's lead production reached a high with 382 tons, but

three years later the total output of the state had diminished to

only 8 tons. ^

The immediate causes for the abrupt abatement of zinc and

lead production were an unusual set of circumstances that could

not have been foreseen. Initially, the high productivity through

1916 and 1917 led to a lowering of prices; at the same time

higher production costs were necessary to refine the ore. In

addition, an ever-increasing problem grew from the reduction of

the labor force through the national draft. As the involvement

of the United States in World War I increased, the demand for

young men to serve in the armed forces grew proportionately.

Consequently, the source of labor for the most physically taxing
86

of the mining jobs was reduced. The mines hired older men as

replacements in order to continue operating. The resulting loss

of efficiency led to additional production costs. 4 And finally,

the end of the war signaled an end to all price agreements and

cooperative arrangements between smelters and ore producers. The

prewar system of unrestrained competition resumed. 5

The zinc and lead mining boom along the Buffalo had run its

course. The swift decline of the industry signaled a sudden

reversal of the economy of the region. As the main source of

employment was withdrawn, the discouraged miners sought work

elsewhere and local farmers, who had supplied labor as well as

various goods and services, returned to their fields. By 1920

the end of mining manifested itself in a decline in the valley's

population. Searcy County lost 15.9 percent of its citizens

while Marion, slower to feel the pinch, lost only .5 percent.

Newton County, which had the least extensive operations,

continued to gain slightly. By 1930 the effect was glaringly

apparent. Searcy County's population from 14,590 to 11,056, a decline of almost 25 percent, and Marion County suffered a loss

of almost 13 percent. Newton County, which remained more

agriculturally than mineralogically oriented, reported a population loss of only 5.7 percent. " Although a portion of the

decrease must be attributable to postwar restlessness, clearly

the sudden closing of the mines was responsible for a large

portion of the decline. Whatever the reason for the abrupt drop

in the population, the three counties never again contained the

number of inhabitants they possessed during the decade from 1915

to 1925.

The decrease in prices during the last year of the war and

the concurrent rise in production costs doubtless brought the

mining industry of northern Arkansas to its knees. A somewhat

less tangible element, however, also played a role. In 1900

Arkansas State Geologist, John C. Branner, observed that the lead

and zinc region of Arkansas could never develop to its fullest

potential until the rough mountain roads which connected the

mines to the railroads were substantially improved. Even the

introduction of railroad service into the area, he continued,

would not measurably alleviate the situation unless the primitive

mountain roads were completely renovated. '

It would be difficult to determine the extent to which the

lack of an adequate system of all-weather roads affected the

operation of the mining industry. The decline of mining along

the river was due to many interrelated factors and while a poor

transportation system arguably affected the mining operation to a certain degree, it was not a major reason for the collapse.

Other Ozark districts consistently out-produced the northern

Arkansas fields. The southeastern Missouri mining region in

particular, with a similar topography to that around Rush, was

the largest single producer of zinc in the United States in 1914
87

and 1915 producing 38 and 36 percent of the country's total

smelter production. The northern Arkansas fields, by comparison,

produced less than 1 percent of the nation's output during the

same years. ° Clearly the success or failure of the Ozark zinc

and lead mine fields was not dependent upon a highly refined

system of highland roads.

Life along the Buffalo River quickly regained a semblance of

its former tranquility. Farmers returned to their fields,

businessmen either closed their doors or adjusted their affairs

to meet a greatly diminished demand, and the inhabitants of the

valley soon became more interested in the current price of corn

and pork than in that of lead and zinc concentrates. And the

earlier, less chaotic way of life returned. Highland life once

more became one with the seasons. The mountain folk reestablished, if indeed it had ever been abandoned, their

dependency on the soil for their principal livelihood. Survival

once again depended on the farmers' ability to eke out an

existence from the none too productive soil rather than on a pay

check from a mine bursar. The resulting high degree of selfreliance allowed the people of the Buffalo River country to

weather the decade of the 1930s without much of the wrenching

social and financial dislocation experienced by the rest of the

nation.

Throughout the Great Depression the inhabitants of the

valley and the surrounding area were able to rely on the products

of their gardens and fields to tide them over the hard times.

Indeed, the protected valleys along the Buffalo appeared to hold

the answer to the gnawing problem of surviving the growing

economic crisis. The decade of the 1920s had significantly

reduced the population of the lower valley as former miners,

farmers, and other like-minded individuals sought economic

success in more promising locations. But with the onset of

depressed times beginning in 1930, that situation for the

northwest part of Arkansas was reversed. By 1940 all three

Buffalo River counties reported population gains of between 3 and

8 percent. In addition, a concurrent increase in the number of

farms occurred. Between the turn of the century and 1920 the

number of farms had steadily increased. From 1920 to 1930 the

number declined between 7 and 13 percent. During the next

decade, however, the number of farms increased by an average of

almost 4 percent. 9

The relatively isolated life style of the residents of the

Buffalo River watershed became a sought after commodity during

the 1930s as people returned to the Arkansas Ozarks in an attempt

to elude the economic ills which beset the nation. The quest for

economic independence was realized within the watershed, for at a time when many farmers were forfeiting their lands to mortgage

and insurance companies, and either relocating or becoming tenant

farmers, land along the Buffalo was predominately owned by those
88

who actually tilled the soil. In 1940 over half the farms in

Arkansas were owned by someone other than the operator, but the

tenancy rate in the highlands was significantly lower. Newton

County reported a rate of only 27.4 percent while Searcy County

ranked highest among the three with a tenancy rate of 33.1

percent. Both counties ranked among the lowest in the state. 50

Life along the river was not, however, without its

hardships. The financial constriction felt by the country as a whole was experienced in northern Arkansas. The hillfolk

welcomed the various relief programs instituted by the federal

government. Perhaps the most serious difficulty faced by the

inhabitants was an extended drought during the first several

years of the depression. Crops either failed altogether or

matured in very poor condition. In 1930 the Marion County Fair

was cancelled because of the drought and the inferior quality of

the crops. 51 In Searcy County farmers were admonished to save

their crop seeds as they were in short supply. 2 To assist the

distressed farmers, the State Relief Commission began, in 1932,

to establish canning centers which provided a central location

for the preservation of surplus crops for later consumption. By

1935 nearly every county in Arkansas had at least one such

"canning kitchen," and Searcy County had three. Within three

years of their inception the centers had provided the facilities

for the canning of over twelve million cans of fruits,

vegetables, and meats. 53

By the mid-mark of the decade, the rainfall returned to

normal and one editor announced that "Prospects for the future

are brighter." 54 Crop diversification became a requisite for the

successful operation of a farm, and gardens helped supply an ever

greater portion of the food quota. In 1936 the Marion County

Agent projected that if a farmer owned two milk cows, a good

brood sow, thirty laying hens, and a year round garden, life in

the county would be without privation. Once the above had been

provided, the agent admonished, then it was time to plan for a cash crop to supplement the income. 55 The ability to make a living from the earth thus allowed the valley inhabitants to

survive the most oppressive of the depression years without

excessive hardships.

Once the depression ended, however, and the country began

mobilizing for World War II, the exodus from the valley resumed.

Doubtless the war itself caused the relocation of many highland

residents as young men found the slow pace of Ozark life tedious

after being exposed to more urban centers in the United States

and Europe. In addition, economic opportunities seemingly were

endless in other parts of the country as the nation geared up for

the conflict and then rode the crest of prosperity during the

affluent 1950s. The temptation of pecuniary gain elsewhere in

addition to increased association with the "outside world" was

too great for large numbers of residents. Beginning in 1940 and
89

continuing through the 1960s, the population of the Buffalo River

country declined at a considerable rate. Newton County

experienced the most serious loss, 20.2 percent during the 1940s,

while Searcy and Marion followed with 12.7 and 9. The subsequent

decade was even more draining on the rapidly decreasing

population. Losses during that period ranged from 31.3 percent

in Newton County to 22.1 percent in Searcy County. 6 Emigration

from the valley continued for several more decades, but stopped

entirely during the 1970s when all three counties recorded

population gains of from 14.4 (Searcy) to 61.9 (Marion)

percent. '

Today the area remains one of the least populated regions in

the state. Newton County, with its steep bluffs and winding

valleys, has the smallest population density in Arkansas: barely

nine people per square mile. 8 The Buffalo River country, today

as yesterday, is predominately an area of small farms. With the

exception of the twentieth century modifications such as steel

bridges, asphalt highways, and scattered modern buildings, the

landscape of the valley in many corners of the watershed has not

changed excessively since the turn of the century. The

topography of the region prevents any major changes in the land

use, and there is little to attract business and industry to an

area which possesses the lowest per capita income in the state. 9

In recent years the most significant alteration in the

area's quiet existence has been the acquisition by the federal

government of the river itself as a scenic addition to the

National Park Service. That occurrence, and the circumstances

surrounding it, was met by the residents of the valley with mixed

emotions.
90

NOTES

1. David D. Owen, First Report of a Geological Reconnoissance of

the Northern Counties of Arkansas* Made During the Years 1857 and

185 8 (Little Rock: Johnson & Yerkes, State Printers, 1858), p.

136.

2. Frederick A. Ogg, The Opening of the Mississippi. A Struggle

for Supremacy in the American Interior (New York: The Macmillan

Company, 1904) , pp. 205-213; John W. Monette, History of the

Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, by the

Three Great European Powers, Spain, France, and Great Britain,

and the Subsequent Occupation, Settlement, and Extension of Civil

Government by the United States, Until the Year 1846 , vol. I (New

York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1846), pp. 216-244.

3. Ogg, The Opening of the Mississippi , p. 208; Monette, History

of the Discovery and Settlement , p. 219.

4. Moses Austin, "Description of the Lead Mines in Upper

Louisiana," in American State Papers: Public Lands , vol. I (Washington: Published by Gales and Seaton, 1832), pp. 206-208.

5. Eugene C. Barker, The Life of Stephen F. Austin: Founder of

Texas, 1793-1836. A Chapter in the Westward Movement of the

Anglo-American People (Dallas: Cokesbury Press, 1925), pp. 8-17.

6. Henry R. Schoolcraft, A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri:

Including Some Observations on the Mineralogy, Geology,

Geography, Antiquities, Soil, Climate, Population, and

Productions of the Missouri and Arkansaw, and Other Sections of

the Western Country (New York: Charles Wiley & Co., 1819), pp.

60-61.

7. G.W. Featherstonhaugh, Report From the Secretary of War, With

a Report of the Mineralogical Investigations Made by G.W.

Featherstonhaugh , S. Doc. 153, 23rd Cong., 2nd Sess., Serial 269,

1835, p. 21.

8. G.W. Featherstonhaugh, Excursion Through the Slave States,

From Washington on the Potomac to the Frontier of Mexico: With

Sketches of Popular Manners and Geological Notices (New York:

Negro University Press, 1968), p. 88.

9. John C. Branner, The Zinc and Lead Region of North Arkansas , Vol. V of Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Arkansas for

1892 (Little Rock: Thompson Lith. and Ptg. Co., 1900), p. 65.
91

10. David Dale Owen was the son of the British social reformer

Robert Owen who established New Harmony, Indiana in 1825. Walter

B. Hendrickson, David Dale Owen: Pioneer Geologist of the Middle

West , Indiana Historical Collections, vol. XXVII (Indianapolis:

Indiana Historical Bureau, 1943), pp. 124-125.

11. Owen, First Report , p. 82.

12. Edward T. Cox, "Second Report of a Geological Reconnoissance

of a Part of the State of Arkansas, Made During the Years 1859

and I860," in Owen, First Report , p. 403.

13. Edwin T. McKnight, Zinc and Lead Deposits of Northern

Arkansas , United States Geological Survey Bulletin No. 853

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1935), pp. 3-4.

14. Branner, The Zinc and Lead Region , p. 66.

15. G.I. Adams, Zinc and Lead Deposits of Northern Arkansas , United States Geological Survey, Professional Paper No. 24

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904) , p. 14; McKnight,

Zinc and Lead , p. 4.

16. Whatever the reason for its construction, the small stone

smelter built by Wolfer still stands along Rush Creek near the

ruins of the Morning Star Mill. Robert W. Potter, "Geochemical,

Geothermetric and Petrographic Investigation of the Rush Creek

Mining District Arkansas" (M.S. thesis, University of Arkansas,

1971), p. 5; Tom Shiras, "Early Days in North Arkansas Zinc

District: Zinc Carbonate First Taken for Silver Ore and Smelter

on Morning Star Property," Engineering and Mining Journal , CX

(July 24, 1920) , p. 165.

17. "Zinc Mining in Arkansas," Engineering and Mining Journal , XLVII (May 11, 1889), p. 431; Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , March 30, 1888, p. 2.

18. Ibid.; Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , February 15,

1889, p. 2.

19. Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , July 20, 1888, p. 2;

Ibid., October 12, 1888, p. 2.

20. Ibid., January 25, 1888, p. 2.

21. Ibid., June 14, 1889, p. 2.

22. Joseph Greenwald, "North Arkansas Zinc," Marshall (Arkansas)

Mountain Wave , September 23, 1899, p. 1.

23. M.L. Mahler, "Focal Territory of North Arkansas," Marshall

(Arkansas) Mountain Wave , October 21, 1898, p. 1.
92

24. Branner, The Zinc and Lead Region , p. 147; Harrison

(Arkansas) Times , February 10, 1900, p. 3; Walter B. Stevens, The

Ozark Uplift (St. Louis: Woodward and Tiernan, 1900), pp. 51, 57.

25. Harrison (Arkansas) Times , April 14, 1900, p. 4.

26. Ibid., February 17, 1900, p. 3.

27. Lawrence R. Handley, "A Geography of the Missouri and North

Arkansas Railroad" (M.A. thesis, University of Arkansas, 1973),

p. 20.

28. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , September 23, 1898, p. 1.

29. Orville T. Gooden, The Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad

Strike (New York: Columbia University Press, 1926), pp. 17-18.

30. Handley, "A Geography," pp. 149-154.

31. Ibid., p. 154.

32. United States, Interstate Commerce Commission, "In the

Matter of Divisions of Joint Rates, Fares, and Charges on Traffic

Interchanged Between the Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad

Company and its Connections," in Interstate Commerce Commission

Reports , LXVIII (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1922),

p. 48.

33. McKnight, Zinc and Lead Deposits , p. 6.

34. J. P. Dunlop, "Arkansas," in United States Geological Survey,

Mineral Resources of the United States 1915 , Part 1 (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1917), p. 53; C.E. Siebenthal,

"Zinc," ibid., p. 892.

35. Dunlop, "Arkansas," p. 52; McKnight, Zinc and Lead Deposits , p. 6.

36. Dunlop, "Arkansas," p. 53.

37. Ray G. Medley to Ernie Deane, December 18, 1975, in Marshall

(Arkansas) Mountain Wave , December 18, 1975, p. 2.

38. Ibid.

39. "The Rush Zinc District," Engineering and Mining Journal , CI

(March 11, 1916) , p. 485.

40. Ibid.

41. Ibid.
93

42. Medley to Deane, Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , December

18, 1975, p. 2.

43. McKnight, Zinc and Lead Deposits , p. 6.

44. Otto Ruhl, "Zinc in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and

Arkansas," Engineering and Mining Journal , CVI (August 17, 1918),

pp. 302-303.

45. Otto Ruhl, "Zinc Industry of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and

Oklahoma," Engineering and Mining Journal , CVII (June 28, 1919),

p. 1170.

46. United States, Census Bureau, [1920 Census], Fourteenth

Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1920 , vol. Ill,

Population (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1922) , pp.

95-97; Ibid., [1930 Census], Fifteenth Census of the United

States: 1930 , vol. Ill, Population, Part 1 (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1932), pp. 221-225.

47. Branner, The Zinc and Lead Region , p. 248.

48. Mineral Resources of the United States 1915 , Part 1

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1917), p. 50.

49. United States, Census Bureau, [1920 Census], Fourteenth

Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1920 , vol. VI,

Agriculture, Part 2 (Washington: Government Printing Office,

1922), pp. 565-567; Ibid., [1930 Census], Fifteenth Census of the

United States: 1930 , vol. Ill, Agriculture, Part 2 (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1932), pp. 782-784.

50. United States, Census Bureau, [1940 Census], Sixteenth

Census of the United States: 1940 , vol. I, Agriculture, Part 5

(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1942), pp. 20-21.

51. Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , August 7, 1930, p. 1.

52. Marshall (Arkansas) Mountain Wave , October 19, 1934, p. 1.

53. Nancy McDonough, "Canning Kitchens: A Way of Life in the

'30's," Little Rock Arkansas Gazette , July 30, 1972.

54. Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo , June 5, 1935, p. 2.

55. Ibid., April 1, 1936, p. 2.

56. United States, Census Bureau, [1950 Census], Seventeenth

Decennial Census of the United States , vol. II. Census of

Population, Part 4, Arkansas (Washington: Government Printing

Office, 1952), pp. 4-10; Ibid., [1960 Census], Eighteenth

Decennial Census of the United States , vol. I, Census of
94

Population, Part 5, Arkansas (Washington: Government Printing

Office, 1963), pp. 5-11.

57. United States, Census Bureau, [1970 Census], Nineteenth

Decennial Census of the United States . Census of Population:

1970, vol. I, Part 5, Arkansas (Washington: Government Printing

Office, 1973), p. 7; Ibid., [1980 Census], 1980 Census of

Population , vol. I, Characteristics of the Population, Part 5,

Arkansas (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1982), p. 8.

58. Ibid.

59. Frank H. Troutman and Neva Waymon, State and County Economic

Data for Arkansas (Little Rock: University of Arkansas at Little

Rock, 1982) , p. 10.
95

VI

"...let the River be."

With a few exceptions, the Buffalo River was never

considered a navigable stream. Its flow was much too

intermittent; its channel much too shallow. The river was more

successful in providing power for numerous gristmills, although

the periodic floods first mentioned by Timothy Flint in 1828

continued to make that enterprise tentative at best. Beginning

just before the turn of the century, however, various proposals

were made to dam the river, to harness and expand its supposed

energy potential, and to enhance the possibilities of commercial

traffic on the river.

As early as 1890 a geologist for the state of Arkansas noted

that although the river contained "almost unlimited" water-power,

controlling it would be most difficult due to the recurring

floods. Six years later, the Army Corps of Engineers conducted

a survey to determine what modification of the stream would be

necessary to enable it to carry regular freight service. The

engineer in charge of the inspection concluded that the Buffalo

could be made navigable at all stages of water by constructing a

series of five locks and dams. The prohibitive expense,

estimated at $30,990 per mile, compelled the Corps to forgo the

project and recommend a less costly dredging operation.

In 1911 an Arkansas engineer suggested harnessing the stream

near the mouth of Rush Creek in southern Marion County. At what

is now termed Seven Mile Bend, W.N. Gladson proposed the

construction not only of a twenty foot dam, but also of a half

mile long tunnel through the hill around which the river wound.

An estimated 225 horsepower would be produced by the dam and

accompanying tunnel. 3 The recommended construction never took

place, and during subsequent years, as the population along the

Buffalo began to dwindle, there seems to have been little

interest in damming the river for any purpose.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, however, interest

in controlling the Buffalo increased as public works teamed up

with the development of hydroelectric power. The idea of

creating thousands of jobs while providing needed electricity and

flood control to rural areas of the country resulted in the

construction of Boulder Dam on the Colorado and later in a massive project on the Tennessee. On May 18, 1933 President

Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Tennessee Valley

Authority Act which in part authorized the government to

construct and operate a series of dams on the Tennessee River and

its tributaries. The public response to this and other acts
96

prompted Congress to endorse additional projects.

The Rivers and Harbors acts of 1935 and 1936 authorized the

"construction of certain public works on rivers and harbors for

flood control, and for other purposes" and included a number of

impoundments on the White River, but none on the Buffalo. The

following year (1937) the Drainage Basin Committee, an

independent governmental body, published its report on the White

River which proposed a dam on the lower Buffalo. Lone Rock Dam,

as it was named, was recommended for power development and for

"some benefit to flood control." 6 In addition, the committee

placed on indeterminate classification the construction of two

smaller dams on Rush and Mill creeks. Congress authorized the

Lone Rock impoundment on June 28, 1938 with the Flood Control

Act. That act placed the responsibility for the preparation of

feasibility studies with the War Department; specifically with

the Chief of Army Engineers. During the succeeding year the

Army Corps of Engineers recommended the construction of the Lone

Rock Dam one mile from the mouth of the Buffalo at a cost of

$11, 422, 000. 9

Actual construction of the dams was delayed, however, due to

the need for additional studies, cost evaluations, and, most

importantly, the beginning of World War II. Indeed, the idea was

largely forgotten until 1954 when the Corps of Engineers

recommended that not one but two dams be constructed on the

river. It suggested that Lone Rock be built three and a half

miles from the mouth, and that a second dam, Gilbert, be located

almost sixty miles upstream near the town bearing the same name.

The Corps of Engineers designed the pair to operate as a unit for

flood control and for power production. The two dams would have

the same storage capacity as the originally approved Lone Rock

Dam, but the estimated federal expenditure had risen

significantly. For Lone Rock, which would rise 230 feet above

the stream bed, the Corps estimated the cost to be $45,070,000,

while the Gilbert structure, a slightly smaller dam at 218 feet,

was projected to cost $40,910,000. The Corps at the same time

rejected a dam at Carver even farther up river in Newton County,

as well as a series of low-head dams on the lower portion of the

Buffalo. 10 In July 1956 Congress incorporated the Corps'

recommended Lone Rock and Gilbert dams into yet another Flood

Control Bill and sent it to the President for approval. 11 On

August 10, 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower vetoed H.R. 12080,

not because he opposed development of the nation's water

resources, but because he believed that sufficient care and

planning had not gone into a large number of the suggested

projects and that the states involved had not been given

sufficient opportunity to review and comment on the

recommendations

.

12

Congress persisted and in early 1957 passed the River and

Harbor and Flood Control Bill. 13 The bill included both projects
97

as they had been recommended by the Corps of Engineers in 1954.

President Eisenhower again vetoed the bill. He listed as his

major objections many of his previous arguments for disapproval,

and, in addition, objected to a number of the proposed projects

because of their apparent wastefulness and the fact that at least

three had no economic justification. 4 Senator J. William

Fulbright of Arkansas denounced the President's action as "a most

serious blow to the progress and the orderly development of the

water resources, not only in Arkansas but in all the Nation. "I 5

Arkansans, including those who lived along the river,

generally approved of the dams as a beneficial progressive

undertaking. The need for flood control seemed obvious, and

while the projected hydroelectric plants would have produced much

more power than the immediate area could absorb, their

construction was considered far more positive than negative.

Prior to the 1950s there was little or no opposition to the

placing of dams across the river. During the latter part of that

decade, however, public awareness of the beauty and grandeur the

Buffalo had to offer began to mount. 6 And opponents of plans to

dam the river began to unite and propose alternatives to

inundation.

On January 4, 1961 Arkansas' Representative from the Third

Congressional District, James W. Trimble, introduced H.R. 1839

which provided for the development of hydroelectric power and

flood control within the White River basin, which included the

Lone Rock and Gilbert dams on the Buffalo. ' Trimble's action

prompted conservationists from around the state to organize the

Arkansas Nature Conservancy, which espoused the twin goals of

acquiring the Lost Valley area on the upper Buffalo and of

creating "a national park on the upper and middle reaches of the

Buffalo River." Elected officials included S.C. Dellinger from

the University of Arkansas as President, Dr. Neil Compton from

Bentonville as Vice President, and Mrs. Laird Archer from

Fayetteville as Secretary. ° Of primary importance to these foes

of dams on the Buffalo was the support of Arkansas' congressmen.

A major step toward the preservation of the river came

during the summer of 1961 when Mrs. Archer wrote her long-time

friend Senator Fulbright about the possibility of establishing a

national park on the Buffalo. Fulbright, apparently having lost

his earlier enthusiasm for dams, quickly responded that he was

"very interested in getting the Buffalo River included in the

National Park System" and intended to obtain an "appropriation

which would finance a survey by the National Park Service of this

area."-*-' The following October a Park Service team inspected the

river and concluded that it qualified for inclusion into the

National Park System. " Thus by the end of 1961 two governmental

agencies found themselves diametrically opposed on the issue of

damming the Buffalo. The Corps of Engineers and Representative

Trimble advocated the construction of both Lone Rock and Gilbert
98

dams while the National Park Service, local conservation groups,

and Senator Fulbright were opposed. That basic alignment,

although later augmented by the addition of interest groups on

both sides, remained throughout the ten-year struggle over the

future of the Buffalo.

Local proponents of the two dams also realized that

organization was a necessity and during early 1962 formed the

Buffalo River Improvement Association (BRIA) . Made up of

business and commercial interests in Marshall, Searcy County, and

led by James Tudor, the local newspaper editor, and Gibson Walsh,

the owner of an abstract company, the BRIA argued that "spiritual

and intellectual freedom can only exist where there is economic

growth," and the dams, it asserted, would furnish the necessary

growth. 21 Shortly after the establishment of the organization,

the Marshall group published The Truth About the Buffalo River . a pamphlet which further explained its position. The small

treatise argued that the construction of Lone Rock and Gilbert

dams would result in the development of needed electrical power,

in soil and water conservation, in the encouragement of industry

and tourism, and in a corresponding higher standard of living.

The tract also considered the possibility of a national park, but

only for the area upstream from the proposed Gilbert reservoir. 22

It suggested that the Buffalo could accommodate both

propositions: a national park on the upper reaches of the river

and dams and reservoirs on the middle and lower portions of the

stream. But half a river was not enough for the opponents of the

dams.

A public hearing called by the Corps of Engineers in

Marshall on January 30, 1962 marked the first meeting between the

antagonists in the struggle and the outcome resulted

unquestionably in a victory for the local pro-dam forces. Dr.

Neil Compton who attended the meeting on behalf of preservation

interests later remarked that "we were definitely impressed by

the thorough-going efforts of the people in the Buffalo River

Improvement Association." 23 The encounter in Marshall, while a victory for the BRIA, had the more important effect of stirring

the conservation faction into greater action.

Two events during the spring of that year significantly

advanced the conservationists* cause. In April, United States

Supreme Court Justice William 0. Douglas floated the Buffalo for

several days with an entourage of dam opponents. Douglas, an

avid outdoorsman and lone-time conservationist, enthusiastically

favored preservation of the river under the protection of the

National Park Service. He strongly believed that in the near

future additional recreational facilities would increasingly be

needed. "Today, we work a 40-hour week," the Associate Justice

remarked after his float. "In the next generation it will be

down to a four-day week. The people of America will need

something besides beer and television." 24 The media coverage of
99

the visit helped to advertise the plight of the Buffalo and

solicit support from conservation-minded individuals and groups

in Arkansas and in neighboring states.

The following month preservation proponents, buoyed by the

Douglas trip and aware of the strength of the BRIA, gathered on

the campus of the University of Arkansas and on May 24

established the Ozark Society with Dr. Compton and Mrs. Laird

Archer, both from the Arkansas Nature Conservancy, as President

and Secretary. The Society pledged as its immediate objective

"the preservation of the Buffalo River and adjacent areas in

their natural state," and stated that its long term goal was the

promotion of the knowledge and enjoyment of the Ozark-Ouachita

mountain region. 25

While the Ozark Society was being formed in Fayetteville,

another anti-dam group, the Searcy County Farmers Association (a

title later changed to the Buffalo River Landowners'

Association), was being organized. That body consisted of

property owners along the river in Searcy County, many of whom

possessed land that would be inundated if the Gilbert dam were

constructed. 26 Unlike the Ozark Society, the Landowners'

Association was less than enthusiastic about the possible

inclusion of the stream into the National Park System. The

landowners were more interested in continuing as they always had

rather than opting for either of what they considered extreme

alternatives.

By early 1963 the National Park Service had evaluated its

field work and announced it was recommending that the Buffalo be

designated a National River. The damming of the river, according

to the Park Service report, would so change the character of the

Buffalo that it would no longer be of national significance as a free-flowing river. The report was emphatic: "Here lies the last

opportunity for preservation of a river typical of the Arkansas

Ozarks, and, indeed, the opportunity for preservation of a river

considered by many to be the most outstanding free-flowing stream

in the Southwest." 2 ' Thus the National Park Service entered the

fray — not as an observer with only secondary interests, but

directly, as a participant, with a vested interest in preserving

a portion of the nation's scenic beauty for future generations.

Following the official decision of the Park Service to seek

inclusion of the river into its system, the cause of the Ozark

Society and the other conservationists was greatly heightened.

Additional support emerged from the media as articles in state

and national periodicals and newspapers appeared, and interested

individuals pledged their favor if not their direct assistance. 28

In May 1964 Dr. Compton received a conservation award from

American Motors Corporation for his efforts in protecting the

Buffalo. The Buffalo River Landowners' Association could claim

365 members by the later part of that year. 29 But the permanent
100

preservation of the river was far from an accomplished reality.

Support for the dams was still vigorous, enthusiastic, and

substantial. On November 18, 1964 the second local hearing for

the two dams took place in Marshall. The Ozark Society attempted

to obtain a court restraining order to postpone the hearing on

the basis that it had been denied information by the Corps of

Engineers, but the plea was denied and the hearing was held as

scheduled. ° The gathering was similar in many respects to the

earlier one held in January of 1962. There emerged a solid

phalanx of support for the dams by the local populace, and the

pro-dam advocates again made an impressive showing. A

significance difference, nevertheless, became patently evident.

Opposition to the dam proposal had grown substantially since the

previous hearing. Two organizations, the Ozark Society and the

Buffalo River Landowners' Association, had been formed with the

explicit purpose of thwarting the impoundments, and both made

their intentions known. •* In addition, Assistant Director

Jackson E. Price represented the National Park Service and

emphatically asserted that the "Corps' announced plan is not

compatible with the Buffalo National River" proposal and that the

Park Service adamantly opposed any impoundments on the river. 2

Price and the organizations opposed to the dams were

supported by a large number of private citizens who were unable

to attend, but who sent statements to be included in the official

record of the meeting. Outstanding among those who voiced their

opinions in absentia was the Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton,

who, long acquainted with the Buffalo, implored the Corps to "let

the River be." 33 The hearing ended in a stalemate. The distance

between those for and those against the dams remained unchanged.

And Congress, keenly aware of the seemingly irreconcilable

philosophical differences between the Army Corps of Engineers and

the National Park Service and the similar division between

Fulbright and Trimble, postponed any action. 34

The month after the hearing at Marshall, the Corps of

Engineers published its comprehensive study of the Buffalo River

basin in which it recommended that the dam at Lone Rock be deauthorized, but at the same time emphasized the need for a single

large dam at the Gilbert site. The engineer in charge of the

study observed that a "multi-purpose dam and reservoir at the

Gilbert site on the Buffalo River will provide a practical and

economical means of conserving and developing the water and

related resources of the Buffalo River Basin...." 35 The

estimated initial cost of the Gilbert project would be

$55,300,000, and the Corps estimated that it would require

$380,000 annually for operating expenses. 36

During the months that followed the release of the Corps'

latest proposal, both local and national newspapers and magazines

published articles in support of the preservation of the river. 37
101

Then in the April 1965 issue of Outdoor Life appeared an article

by Hank Bradshaw which appealed directly to its readers to

support the Ozark Society in its battle with the Corps of

Engineers. ° The plea brought responses from as far away as

California and Pennsylvania; all offering to make financial

contributions, sign petitions, or write their congressmen. *

Public concern for the plight of the Buffalo was growing

apace, and the countless petitions, letters to politicians, and

editorials were beginning to bear fruit. During the summer of

1965 the Lyndon Johnson administration decided to support the

proposal to save the river, and, more important, the Governor of

Arkansas, Orval Faubus, while he had as yet made no official

statement on the issue, endorsed the national river idea in

letters to constituents. ° By December the governor's position

had solidified considerably. On December 10 Faubus sent a letter

to the Chief of the Army Engineers, William F. Cassidy, in which

he formally declared himself opposed to the Gilbert (or any other

dam on the Buffalo) and admitted he was strongly in favor of the

national river proposal. * The letter was perhaps the single

most important aid the conservationists received in the lengthy

battle to rescue the river. While the Corps of Engineers

remained convinced the dam would benefit the people of the

valley, it customarily did not recommend authorization for

projects that were opposed by the governor of the state in which

the projects were located. Thus in April, 1966 Lt. Gen. William

Cassidy withdrew his recommendation for construction of both the

Lone Rock and Gilbert dams. 2

Preservation forces had gained valuable time. But as long

as the river was not protected by the National Park Service, or

in some other manner, the possibility remained that changing

political conditions could lead to the resurrection of the

proposal to dam the river. In addition, Congressman Trimble,

following the withdrawal of the proposal by Cassidy, vowed to "do

all that I can to get it [the Gilbert dam] authorized." 43 The

upcoming election became crucially important to both sides.

The fate of the Buffalo emerged as an important issue in the

race for the Third Congressional District. The results revealed

that the tide had turned. James Trimble lost in two out of the

three Buffalo River counties and consequently lost his seat in

Congress to Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt from Harrison.

Only in Newton County did Trimble win and there only by 123

votes. 4 The defeat of Trimble was significant. He was the only

Arkansas congressman unalterably dedicated to the damming of the

river. With his removal from office, the pro-dam forces lost

much of their momentum, and positive steps toward creation of the

Buffalo National River began.

On January 30, 1967 Senator Fulbright introduced a bill that

provided for federal ownership and administration of the river.
102

Representative Hammerschmidt proposed a similar bill in the House

of Representatives five weeks later. 5 Because of a crowded

legislative calendar, however, Congress, increasingly consumed

le war in Viet Nam, took no substantive action until

During that year the Senate passed its version of the

national river bill and the House, moving more cautiously,

conducted public hearings late in October before its Subcommittee

on National Parks and Recreation. '

with th(

1971. 46

The subcommittee hearings revealed to Congress what had been

known locally since the beginning of the struggle: residents

along the Buffalo strongly opposed the taking of their land by

the federal government either for Corps of Engineers^ dams or

for preservation under the National Park Service. As the dam

proposal was shelved in favor of the park idea, a noticeable

shift in opposition occurred. The Buffalo River Landowners'

Association that had opposed the dams was located largely in

Searcy County and consisted of farmers who feared the loss of

their farms, but who lived away from the river. With the

increase in National Park Service involvement, opposition shifted

upriver to Newton County where the landowners resisted removal

from the homes which were located immediately adjacent to the

river. These long-time residents of the valley founded the

>ed

.ng of their property

Buffalo River Conservation and Recreation Council which oppos<

the taking of their property on constitutional grounds.

°

Buffalo River inhabitants traveled to Washington for the

hearings and made their sentiments known through letters. Almost

to a person they opposed the takeover of the Buffalo by the

federal government. Their contention was basic: personal rights

and county economics. A Newton County resident concisely

expressed the basis for the landowners' opposition.

The landowners along the Buffalo River in Newton

County, Arkansas do not oppose keeping the Buffalo

River in its present state. They do oppose, and

rightly so, those from outside the area and those

within the federal government telling them what must be

done with their lands. 9

In addition to their desire to retain their farms and homes, some

of which had been in the same family for over a hundred years,

the Buffalo River citizens, especially in Newton County, were

concerned that their meager tax base would be eroded further.

They had reason to be alarmed. In 1908 President Theodore

Roosevelt created the Ozark National Forest which eventually

placed 195,638 Newton County acres under the jurisdiction of the

National Forest Service. The removal from the tax rolls of land

along the Buffalo would further reduce the taxable land in Newton

County to less than 50 percent. 50 A county that already

possessed one of the lowest per capita incomes in the state could

ill afford, it was argued, to lose any more land to the
103

nontaxable federal government. Opposition to the national river

idea was so pervasive that in 1968 citizens in Newton County

voted by over 95 percent against it. *

Throughout its two days of deliberations, the subcommittee

heard the impassioned pleas of local landowners to leave the

river valley in private ownership, but it also heard equally

compelling arguments in favor of the national river proposal.

After weighing the alternatives, the subcommittee members

reported favorably on the bill and on February 7, 1972 it was

passed by the House. 2 In less than a month, President Richard

M. Nixon signed Public Law 92-237 "To provide for the

establishment of the Buffalo National River." 53 Limited in size

to 95,730 acres, the river would be preserved for future

generations under the administration of the National Park

Service.

Perhaps the outcome was inevitable. Local opposition to the

creation of the Buffalo National River was considerable and

determined, but almost entirely limited to the landowners along

the river. The conservationists who advocated federal ownership

not only wielded more influence through sheer weight of numbers,

but also could rely on the disciplined organization of a large

number of established societies which were dedicated to the

preservation of unique natural areas throughout the United

States. Those who opposed the establishment of a federally owned

river were simply outnumbered.

The land along the Buffalo River has thus come full circle.

Originally owned by the federal government and offered for sale

during the early years of the nineteenth century, it has now been

reclaimed as another addition to the National Park System. The

intervening years have brought a substantial amount of change to

the small valley, and yet in many ways it has changed very little

since the first white settler constructed a log cabin on the

river's banks. The natural beauty enjoyed for generations by the

inhabitants of the region remains intact despite the intense

mining and lumbering activities of several decades. Where

primitive wagon trails crossed the ridges, asphalt highways now

speed visitors to and through the watershed. The former

prevalence of the log cabin dwelling has been largely, although

not entirely, replaced by modern frame structures with asbestos

siding and asphalt roofs. In addition, there is an increasing

incidence of vacation style cabins and mobile homes.

In the second half of the twentieth century change

dramatically affected the built, as well as the cultural,

environment of the Buffalo River valley. The improvement of

roads, the construction of high, all-weather bridges, and the

introduction of television altered the southern Ozarks in

fundamental ways. But one can say the same about almost any

other rural area in the United States. The hillfolk studied by
104

Vance Randolph arguably existed and individually lead "simple

lives, without any modern gadgets." Whether they collectively

formed a distinct "mountain culture" or simply constituted less

progressive elements of a rural society exacerbated by a highly

contorted terrain is questionable. In the absence of superhighways and urban sprawl, the Ozarks will always appear to

change at a slower rate. And within the Ozarks the pace will

vary as it does today from Marshall to Snowball and Harrison to

Boxley.

Throughout whatever change comes to the Arkansas Ozarks, the

Buffalo River will continue as it has for a century and a half to

comfort its neighbors and enchant its visitors. Dynamic and

static, serene and violent, the river flows with a reassuring

inevitability evoking rich images of a pastoral yesterday while

holding the promise of a familiar tomorrow.
105

NOTES

1. T.C. Hopkins, Marbles and Other Limestones (Little Rock:

Brown Printing Company, 1893), p. 8.

2. United States, Army Corps of Engineers, Survey of Buffalo

Fork of White River, Arkansas , H. Doc. 207, 54th Cong., 2nd

Sess., Serial 3524, 1897, pp. 1-2.

3. W.N. Gladson, Water Power of Arkansas: A Preliminary Report

on White River and Some of its Tributaries (Fayetteville: n.p.,

1911) , p. 97.

4. David E. Lilienthal, TVA: Democracy on the March (New York:

Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1944), pp. 17-19, 38-39, 47; Wilmon

Henry Droze, High Dams and Slack Waters: TVA Rebuilds a River

(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1965), pp. 67-68.

5. United States, Statutes at Large , "An Act authorizing the

construction of certain public works on rivers and harbors for

flood control, and for other purposes," June 22, 1936, vol. XLIX,

p. 1570; Ibid., "An Act authorizing the construction, repair, and

preservation of certain public works on rivers and harbors, and

for other purposes," August 30, 1935, vol. XLIX, p. 1028.

6. United States, Drainage Basin [Joint] Committee, Reports for

the Arkansas, Upper White, and St. Francis Basins (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1937), p. 32.

7. Ibid.

8. United States, Statutes at Large , "An Act authorizing the

construction of certain public works on rivers and harbors for

flood control, and for other purposes," June 28, 1938, vol. LII,

pp. 1215-1218.

9. United States, Army Corps of Engineers, Report of the Chief

of Engineers, U.S. Army, 1939 , vol. I, Part 1 (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1939), p. 1107.

10. United States, Army Corps of Engineers, White River and

Tributaries, Missouri and Arkansas , H. Doc. 499, 83rd Cong., 2nd

Sess., Serial 11779, 1954, pp. 40-45.

11. United States, Congressional Record , 84th Cong., 2nd Sess.,

CII, Part 10, July 23, 1956, p. 14054.
106

12. Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Memorandum of Disapproval of Bill

authorizing Navigation, Shore Protection, and Flood Control

Projects," in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United

States. Dwiaht D. Eisenhower 1956: Containing the Public

Messages . Speeches, and Statements of the President January 1 to

December 31. 1956 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1958),

pp. 680-683.

13. United States, Arkansas-White-Red River Basins Inter-agency

Committee, Development of Water and Land Resources of the

Arkansas-White and Red River Basins . S. Doc. 13, 85th Cong., 1st

Sess., Serial 11994, 1957, pp. x, 60; United States,

Congressional Record . 85th Cong., 1st Sess., CIII, Part 4, March

27, 1957, pp. 4534-4535.

14. Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Veto of Bill Authorizing

Appropriations for Rivers, Harbors, and Flood Control Projects,"

in Public Papers of the Presidents ... 1958 (1959), pp. 307-310.

15. United States, Congressional Record . 85th Cong., 2nd Sess.,

CIV, Part 6, April 25, 1958, p. 7382.

16. The 1954 Army Corps of Engineers' report specifically stated

that "There are no known objections at this time to either of

these two reservoirs Lone Rock or Gilbert." United States, Army

Corps of Engineers, White River and Tributaries , p. 50.

17. United States, Congressional Record . 87th Cong., 1st Sess.,

CVII, Part 1, January 4, 1961, p. 119.

18. Arkansas Nature Conservancy, Objectives and Purposes, March

3, 1961, in File "Jan. -June 1962," Box 219-B1/2, Ozark Society

Papers, in Special Collections Library, University of Arkansas.

As a result of the Nature Conservancy's efforts, the state of

Arkansas created Lost Valley State Park in 1966. Thirty years

earlier the Arkansas legislature had created Buffalo River State

Park on the lower reaches of the river south of Yellville.

Established in March 1938, the park was initially developed by

the Civilian Conservation Corps which operated a camp there

between 1939 and 1941. Following the war, the state continued

the development of the site and administered it until 1973 when

it conveyed the property to the federal government. The National

Park Service subsequently changed the name to Buffalo Point.

19. Senator J.W. Fulbright to Neil Compton, July 8, 1961, in

File "Sen. Fulbright 1959-1966," Box 219-B1/2, Ozark Society

Papers.

20. Little Rock Arkansas Gazette . October 10, 1961, p. 1; Little

Rock Arkansas Democrat . October 15, 1961, p. 6B.
107

21. File "Ozark Society/Buffalo River Jan. -June 1962

,

n Box 219-

Bl/2, Ozark Society Papers.

22. The Truth About the Buffalo River (Marshall, Arkansas:

Buffalo River Improvement Association, 1962), p. 28.

23. Neil Compton to Jim Trimble, May 31, 1962, in File "Cong.

Trimble, 1959-1966, n Box 219-B1/2, Ozark Society Papers; File

"NPS 1963-1966, " Box 219-B2/2, Ozark Society Papers.

24. Little Rock Arkansas Gazette , April 30, 1962, p. 1.

25. Constitution of Ozark Society, in File "Ozark

Society/Buffalo River, Jan. -June, 1962," Box 219-B1/2, Ozark

Society Papers.

26. Little Rock Arkansas Gazette , May 25, 1962, p. 2.

27. United States, National Park Service, Field Investigation

Report: Suggested Buffalo National River, Arkansas (Richmond:

National Park Service, 1963), pp. 26-27.

28. Life , August 31, 1962, p. 4; National Wildlife News , November 1962, p. 6; Rogers (Arkansas) Daily News , February 16,

1963; Bill Potter, "Potting Around," Fairfield (Iowa) Ledger , March 15, 1963; Little Rock Arkansas Democrat , May 26, 1963, p.

5B; Little Rock Arkansas Gazette , June 3, 1963, p. 4A; Ray Heady,

"The Fight to Save Our Wild Rivers," National Wildlife . I (JuneJuly 1963) , pp. 27-29; Pine Bluff (Arkansas) Commercial , November

14, 1965, p. 6; Ibid., May 4, 1966.

29. Little Rock Arkansas Gazette , May 20, 1964, p. IB.

30. Ibid., November 13, 1964, p. 1.

31. File "Corps' Hearing at Marshall-1964," Box 219-B2/2, Ozark

Society Papers; Kansas City (Missouri) Star , December 13, 1964,

p. 5B.

32. File "Corps' Hearing at Marshall-1964," Box 219-B2/2, Ozark

Society Papers.

33. Ibid.

34. Little Rock Arkansas Gazette , November 18, 1964.

35. United States, Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo River Basin.

Arkansas, White River Basin Comprehensive Study, Missouri and

Arkansas , vol. I (Little Rock: Corps of Engineers, 1964), p. 1.

36. File "Corps of Engineers Review of Gilbert Project," Box

219-B2/2, Ozark Society Papers.
108

37. John Heuston, "Put in on the Buffalo: Arkansas' Accessible

River Leads to Canoeing Pleasure," Better Camping , VI (JanuaryFebruary 1965) , pp. 14-17; John Heuston, "Both Real and Intrinsic

Value of Buffalo is in Its Status as a River," Kansas City

(Missouri) Star , January 31, 1965; "Local Club Opposes River

Dam," Fort Smith (Arkansas) Southwest American , February 2, 1965;

Fort Smith (Arkansas) Southwest-Times Record , February 7, 1965,

p. 4A; Richard Starnes, "Shall Our Wild Rivers be Eternally

Dammed?" Field & Stream , LXIX (March 1965), p. 14-16, 103; Dan

Bradley, "Rivers in Crisis," American White Water , X (Spring

1965) , pp. 21-23.

38. Hank Bradshaw, "Brown Bass of the Buffalo," Outdoor Life , CXXV (April 1965), pp. 56-59, 88-90.

39. File "Ozark Society/Buffalo River, March & April 1965," Box

219-B2/2, Ozark Society Papers.

40. Pine Bluff (Arkansas) Commercial , June 13, 1965.

41. Orval Faubus to Lt. Gen. William F. Cassidy, December 10,

1965, copy, in File "Ozark Society/Buffalo River, Sept. -Dec,

1965," Box 219-B2/2, Ozark Society Papers.

42. Little Rock Arkansas Gazette , April 15, 1966.

43. Ibid., April 16, 1966.

44. Ibid., November 10, 1966.

45. United States, Congressional Record , 90th Cong., 1st Sess.,

CXIII, Part 2, January 30, 1967, p. 1875; Ibid., Part 5, March 9,

1967, p. 6189.

46. Ibid., 91st Cong., 1st Sess., CXV, Part 2, February 4, 1969,

p. 2570; Ibid., Part 7, April 17, 1969, p. 9467; Ibid., Part 18,

September 3, 1969, pp. 24086-24088; Ibid., 92nd Cong., 1st Sess.,

CXVII, Part 12, May 12, 1971, pp. 16378-16379.

47. United States, Congress, House, Committee on Interior and

Insular Affairs, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on National

Parks and Recreation of the Committee on Interior and Insular

Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress, First

Session on H.R. 9119, H.R. 8382, S. 7, Bills to Provide for the

Establishment of the Buffalo National River in the State of

Arkansas, and for Other Purposes (Washington: Government Printing

Office, 1971).

48. The Buffalo River Conservation and Recreation Council later

filed suit against the National Park Service on the grounds that

the government's practice of acquiring land through the right of

eminent domain was unconstitutional. The suit, which was later
109

modified to protest an incomplete environmental impact statement,

resulted in a court injunction that prohibited the Service from

obtaining land through condemnation. The court lifted the

injunction three years later in September 1975. Donald M.

Spalding, first superintendent of Buffalo National River

(Harrison, Arkansas) to Dwight Pitcaithley, March 12, 1976,

interview, Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University.

49. Statement of Garner Milum, Jasper, Arkansas, in United

States, Congress, House, Committee on Interior and Insular

Affairs, Hearings Before the Subcommittee... , p. 182.

50. Statement of Joe Culver, Catoosa, Oklahoma, ibid., p. 184.

51. Ibid.

52. United States, Congressional Record , 92nd Cong., 2nd Sess.,

CXVIII, Part 3, February 7, 1972, p. 2892.

53. United States, Statutes at Large , "An Act to provide for the

establishment of the Buffalo National River in the State of

Arkansas, and for other purposes," March 1, 1972, vol. LXXXVI,

pp. 44-46.

Ill

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