Ozarks Country

Riverfest 2010

2010-05-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

From: Riverfest Arkansas
Miller Lite Stage

Friday, May 28th

8:00 PM - Rodney Block and the Real Music Lovers
9:45 PM - EARTH, WIND & FIRE

Saturday, May 29th

6:00 PM - Ryan Couron
7:45 PM - JIMMY WAYNE
9:30 PM - BLAKE SHELTON

Sunday, May 30th

6:30 PM - Tawanna Campbell
8:00 PM - 607
10:00 PM -LUDACRIS

Triple-S Alarm Stage

Friday, May 28th

* 6:15 PM - Whalefire
* 7:45 PM - The Hippie Holler Band
* 9:15 PM - LITTLE RIVER BAND

Saturday, May 29th

* 6:00 PM - Loveghost
* 7:45 PM - Suga City
* 9:15 PM - BELL BIV DEVOE

Sunday, May 30th

* 7:30 PM - Cedric Burnside & Lightnin' Malcolm
* 9:00 PM - The Osborne Family Fireworks
* 9:30 PM - ROBERT CRAY BAND

Bud Light Stage
Friday, May 28th - Radio Parnters

* 6:30 PM - Good Time Ramblers
* 8:00 PM - CROSS CANADIAN RAGWEED
* 9:30 PM - GARY ALLAN

Saturday, May 29th
* 6:00 PM - UNCLE KRACKER
* 7:45 PM - LUCERO
* 9:30 PM - THE BLACK CROWES

Sunday, May 30th
* 7:45 PM - Truth & Salvage Co.
* 9:00 PM - The Osborne Family Fireworks
* 9:30 PM - STEVE MILLER BAND

Riverfest 2005

2010-05-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

From: Sells Agency

FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2005

ACXIOM / MILLER LITE AMPHITHEATRE STAGE IN LITTLE ROCK
6:15 p.m. Oreo Blue
7:30 p.m. Ramona & the Soul Rhythms
9:15 p.m. B.B. King

TRIPLE-S ALARM STAGE IN LITTLE ROCK
5:15 p.m. Steve Davison
7:00 p.m. Brave Combo
9:00 p.m. Richard Thompson

BUDWEISER STAGE IN NORTH LITTLE ROCK
5:15 p.m. Lookback Marys
6:15 p.m. The Odds
7:30 p.m. Robert Randolph & the Family Band
9:30 p.m. The Wallflowers

SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2005

ACXIOM / MILLER LITE AMPHITHEATRE STAGE IN LITTLE ROCK
6:00 p.m. Sum of Us
7:45 p.m. Andy Childs
9:30 p.m. Hank Williams, Jr.

TRIPLE-S ALARM STAGE IN LITTLE ROCK
6:00 p.m. Rhonda Richmond
7:45 p.m. Jupiter Jazz
9:15 p.m. 4th Avenue Jones

BUDWEISER STAGE IN NORTH LITTLE ROCK
7:15 p.m. Seether
9:00 p.m. The Black Crowes

SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2005
ACXIOM / MILLER LITE AMPHITHEATRE STAGE IN LITTLE ROCK
2:30 p.m. You Before Me
4:00 p.m. The Afters
6:00 p.m. Trapt
8:15 p.m. Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

TRIPLE-S ALARM STAGE IN LITTLE ROCK
1:00 p.m. Ben Harris Trio
2:00 p.m. Bonerama
3:30 p.m. Free Verse
5:00 p.m. Terrence Simeon
6:30 p.m. Grease Factor
8:15 p.m. Sonny Landreth

BUDWEISER STAGE IN NORTH LITTLE ROCK
5:00 p.m. Joe Nichols
6:45 p.m. Lord Tracy
8:15 p.m. REO Speedwagon

Riverfest 2007

2010-05-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

From: The Arkansas Times

The music covers every style: headliners include revered bluesman Keb’ Mo’; ’80s rocker Pat Benatar and husband-guitarist Neil Giraldo; ’90s hitmakers Smash Mouth and Soul Asylum; country acts Montgomery Gentry, Keith Anderson and Blake Shelton; classic rock bands the Georgia Satellites and Marshall Tucker; jam-craze fave Robert Randolph and the Family Band; “American Idol” Ruben Studdard; veteran rapper LL Cool J; new hip-hop act Gym Class Heroes; new rockers the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus; and the godfather of funk, George Clinton, with his P-Funk Allstars.

Riverfest 2009

2010-05-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

From: Fox 16

Headline Acts

Willie Nelson
3 Doors Down
Heart
The B-52s
Jason Aldean
Tone Loc
Little River Band

Heads of State featuring Bobby Brown
Johnny Gill & Ralph Tresvant
Gavin Rossdale
Hinder
Buddy Guy
The Benjy Davis Project

From: The Examiner

Miller Lite Amphitheatre Stage in Little Rock

Friday, May 22nd
6:30 p.m. Frown Pow'r
8:00 p.m. The Moving Front
9:30 p.m. The B-52's

Saturday, May 23rd

6:00 p.m. RiverBilly
7:45 p.m. JAMES OTTO
9:30 p.m. JASON ALDEAN

Sunday, May 24th
8:15 p.m. HEADS OF STATE FEATURING BOBBY BROWN, JOHNNY GILL & RALPH TRESVANT

Triple-S Alarm Stagein North Little Rock

Friday, May 22nd

6:15 p.m. One Lone Car
7:45 p.m. American Princes
9:30 p.m. GAVIN ROSSDALE

Saturday, May 23rd

6:00 p.m. Velvet Kente
7:45 p.m. Patrick Sweany
9:15 p.m. BUDDY GUY

Sunday, May 24th
6:30 p.m. The Hippie Holler Band
8:15 p.m. LITTLE RIVER BAND

Bud Light Stage at the Clinton Presidential Center Park in Little Rock
Friday, May 22nd
6:30 p.m. The Salty Dogs
8:00 p.m. Brittany Quaranto
9:30 p.m. WILLIE NELSON Presented by Bad Boy Mowers

Saturday, May 23rd
5:00 p.m. BENJY DAVIS PROJECT
7:00 p.m. HINDER
9:30 p.m. HEART

Sunday, May 24th
6:00 p.m. FLYLEAF
8:15 p.m. 3 DOORS DOWN

Arkansas Music Tent in North Little Rock

Friday, May 22nd

6:30 p.m. Gina Gee
8:00 p.m. Eclipse Glasses
9:30 p.m. COOL SHOES

Saturday, May 23rd

6:00 p.m. Amy Garland Band
7:30 p.m. Chris Denny
9:30 p.m. DALE HAWKINS

Sunday, May 24th
6:30 p.m. The See
8:00 p.m. KEVIN KERBY + BATTERY
9:30 p.m. The Osborne Family Fireworks Display

Riverfest 2008

2010-05-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

From: CW Arkansas

Headline Acts

FRIDAY, MAY 23rd

Huey Lewis & the News - Acxiom/Miller Lite Stage
Paul Thorn - Acxiom/Miller Lite Stage
Shooter Jennings - Budweiser Stage (NLR)
Arrested Development - Triple S Alarm Stage

SATURDAY, MAY 24th

Miranda Lambert - Acxiom/Miller Lite Stage
Jake Owen - Acxiom/Miller Lite Stage
Saving Abel - Budweiser Stage (NLR)
Better Than Ezra - Budweiser Stage (NLR)
One Republic - Budweiser Stage (NLR)
Jonny Lang - Triple S Alarm Stage

SUNDAY, MAY 25th

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra -AcxiomMiller Lite Stage
Chaka Khan -Acxiom/Miller Lite Stage
.38 Special presented by 103.7 The Buzz - Budweiser Stage (NLR)
ZZ Top presented by Allied Technology - Budweiser Stage (NLR)
Robert Earl Keen - Triple S Alarm Stage

Riverfest 2006

2010-05-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

From Fox 16
Friday, May 26
Acxiom/Miller Lite Amphitheatre Stage
6:30 p.m. Lagniappe
7:45 p.m. Phat Phunktion
9:30 p.m. Kool & the Gang

Triple-S Alarm Stage
5:15 p.m. Nik & Sam
6:15 p.m. Capitol Offense
7:15 p.m. Hannah Blaylock & Eden's Edge
9:00 p.m. The Del McCoury Band

Budweiser Stage
5:15 p.m. Eliot Morris
6:30 p.m. Zac Brown Band
8:00 p.m. Needtobreathe
9:30 p.m. Train

USA Drug/Radio Disney Kidzone Stage
5:30 p.m. Patches the Clown
6:00 p.m. The Kazoobie Kazoo Show with Rick Hubbard
7:00 p.m. Brian Kinder's Rollicking Music Show
8:00 p.m. Monster Shop Bumpn'
9:00 p.m. Thirteen X
10:00 p.m. Shadowline

Yarnell Ice Cream Family Stage
6:00 p.m. Ms. Karen's Dance Studio
6:40 p.m. Sharon's Dance
7:20 p.m. The Boehmer Family
8:00 p.m. The Jesse White Tumblers

Saturday, May 27
Acxiom/Miller Lite Amphitheatre Stage
12:00 p.m. Watoto Children's Choir
1:30 p.m. Happy Tymes Jazz Band
3:00 p.m. The Dempseys
4:30 p.m. Famous Unknowns
6:00 p.m. Whitney Williams
6:30 p.m. RiverBilly
7:45 p.m. Rebecca Lynn Howard
9:30 p.m. Dwight Yoakam

Triple-S Alarm Stage
12:00 p.m. Rockin' Guys
1:30 p.m. Crisis!
3:00 p.m. Brothers with Different Mothers
4:30 p.m. Ted Ludwig
6:00 p.m. Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk
7:45 p.m. The Lee Boys
9:15 p.m. The Neville Brothers

Budweiser Stage
1:00 p.m. The Cosmonauts
2:30 p.m. Further Down
4:00 p.m. Starkz
6:00 p.m. Switchfoot
7:45 p.m. Spiraling
9:30 p.m. Live

Sunday, May 28
Acxiom/Miller Lite Amphitheatre Stage
6:00 p.m. Arkansas Symphony Orchestra
8:15 p.m. Lifehouse
9:30 p.m. The Osborne Family Fireworks

Triple-S Alarm Stage
6:30 p.m. Sisters Morales
8:15 p.m. Pat Green
9:30 p.m. The Osborne Family Fireworks

Budweiser Stage
6:45 p.m. The Odds
8:15 p.m. The Doobie Brothers

USA Drug/Radio Disney Kidzone Stage
6:15 p.m. Wayne Francis, Ventriloquist
7:00 p.m. Nik & Sam
8:15 p.m. Starroy

Not exactly Ozarks, but certainly Arkansas...

2010-05-30T06:53:00.001-07:00

I was trying to remember who we had seen at Riverfest in Little Rock last time we went, and really couldn't. Then I started trying to find a list of previous headliners, and couldn't find that either. So I am going to search around and any lists, I am going to repost here for posterity.

More blogs...

2010-05-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

From Shiloh Museum: Ozark funeral customs

Ozarks Trail Guide -- Mostly about Missouri Ozarks

Down in the Ozark Hills-- Personal blog

Ozarks moonshiners at Ozarks' History

Living on the Little Mulberry-- Rural life

Chinquapin

2010-05-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

Evidently, the Chinquapin is making a comeback.

From KSMU:

Once Thought Extinct, Ozark Chestnut Tree Sees Slow Revival

Written by Jennifer Moore

In the mid-1900s, the nearly 4 billion American Chestnut trees in North America were almost wiped out by the chestnut blight fungus. A smaller tree, known as the Ozark Chinquapin, or Ozark Chestnut, was thought to have become extinct as a result of that blight. But it wasn’t, and now there’s an effort sprouting up to bring that tree back. KSMU’s Jennifer Moore reports.

On Friday afternoon, conservationists and researchers from a wide swath of states—including Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas—got together to talk about how to save the Ozark Chinquapin Tree, or Ozark Chestnut. Steven Bost sees it as his mission now.

“Years ago, I had a degree in history and science, and I thought I knew everything. And I met this gentleman, who turns 91 this year…telling me about this tree that used to be here in the Ozarks,” he says.

The tree, the older man told him, produced sweet nuts that were so plentiful you could scoop them up and load them into a wagon. Each year, the people would wait for the crop like they waited for the corn to grow. Bost, who was familiar with the American Chestnut, had never heard of the Ozark Chestnut.

“I was going to prove him wrong,” Bost recalls. But it turned out there were almost no American Chestnuts west of the Mississippi River, unless they had been transplanted.

So he set out trying to find whether any Ozark Chestnut trees had survived the Chestnut blight fungus.

“I was told I was wasting my time trying to find a tree,” Bost said. But based on science and history, he knew it was rare for any such disease to kill out 100 percent of any population.

Finally, through research and networking, someone showed him his first Ozark Chestnut tree. It was in the Arkansas Ozarks. Then he began finding more, several in Missouri.

Soon, Bost was putting all of his energy into finding more. He created his own website to bring others in on the effort, and organized events like this one to raise awareness about the Ozark Chestnut tree, and to help it grow again.

Bost says this tree is like the “miracle tree,” because it can grow in dry, rocky conditions, and it produces a plentiful yield year after year. He believes it could become, once again, an economic benefit to the Ozarks, and a wonderful food for wildlife, too. He says his dream is to have the Ozark Chinquapin, or Ozark Chestnut, so bountiful again one day, that locals are singing about roasting the nuts over an open fire.

Bost has a lovely website with pictures here: http://www.ozarkchinquapin.com/

Bits of living history...

2010-05-02T15:57:00.001-07:00

Ellison white oak basket
Originally uploaded by kevin wofford

From the Joplin Globe
May 1, 2010

May 1, 2010
Silver Dollar City offers glimpse into Ozarks past

By Andy Ostmeyer Globe Metro Editor

BRANSON, Mo. — Leslie Jones told his apprentice — a young Donnie Ellison — that Ellison could never expect to become a master craftsman unless he started from the ground up.

Literally.

Jones and his wife, Gussie, had made white oak baskets in the Ozarks for years, selling for as little as a quarter the large baskets that had sometimes taken them hours to make.

Good baskets start with the tree, Jones taught Ellison.

If Ellison was ever to learn to make bushel and other sorts of baskets, he had to first find the right kinds of trees — white oak is preferred — but not just any white oak would do.

White oaks on Ozark hillsides facing north and east were needed. Trees there received less sunlight and didn’t dry out as quickly, and they also were sheltered from the wind, which means wood in them wasn’t twisted.

“Once I brought back a piece of timber and it wasn’t white oak, it was black gum. You couldn’t split it,” said Ellison. “Oh, I tried. I was just trying to prove to (Jones) that I knew what I was doing. He just sat there and laughed, and said, ‘Go ahead and split that.’ I didn’t end up with nothing.”

Ellison learned the rest of the craft, too, through trial, error and sweat.

For a while, Ellison said, “I did nothing but split logs and shape up the wood with a draw knife, and cut the strips and hand the strips to them.”

Shingle sawing

Thirty-eight years later, Ellison, now 61, is a master craftsman of his own. He has worked at Silver Dollar City all those years, and is one of 100 resident craftsmen — nine of them classified as masters — demonstrating skills that have long since become obsolete in a world where people can just run to Wal-Mart to grab what is mass produced.

These craftsmen have made Silver Dollar City, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, more than a business or an amusement park with water-soaking, teeth-rattling rides. Silver Dollar City also is a living museum, a cultural storehouse where the skills of our ancestors are on full display.

“I don’t know of any place that does log hewing besides us. Or shingle sawing. Or shingle splitting,” said Peter Herschend, one of the co-founders and co-owners of Silver Dollar City, now part of Herschend Family Entertainment.

SDC craftsmen, for example, use a 1915 J.S. Case Steam Tractor to power their Bremen Horizontal Shingle Saw, which is more than 100 years old, in order to cut cedar shingles.

At the Wilderness Road Blacksmith Shop, the smithy still pounds out iron nails, which were harder to come by before Big Box stores.

There’s a steam-powered duplicating lathe, also more than a century old, where craftsmen make everything from rolling pins to biscuit cutters.

The candlemaker still uses animal fat called tallow. That fat was boiled in large kettles over an open fire. Wicks made of linen or cotton were dipped in the tallow. And just as early Ozark basket makers learned how to select the right white oak trees, early candle makers learned to keep their tallow candles in metal boxes, lest mice eat them.

Visitors also still find lye soap — used for cleaning everything from people to dishes to clothing — made from lard and lye made from wood ash.

And there is Ellison, weaving strips of white oak together.

You’ll find just about everything but moonshine being made in Silver Dollar City today.

‘Heritage’

“The word ‘heritage’ really means something,” Herschend explained. “It is the window to see how the men and women who actually preceded us had to live.”

He emphasizes the word “had.” These skills were necessary for survival in the hardscrabble Ozarks, which even into the 1940s had few paved roads and large areas without electricity.

Herschend credits two men with making Silver Dollar City a living museum: His father, Hugo, and Peter Engler, a master woodcarver from Branson.

Herschend said his parents, Hugo and Mary, who were originally from Chicago, came to the Ozarks because they appreciated the beauty of the place and, as they got to know them, the people. Ultimately, the family ended up leasing Marvel Cave in the 1950s.

Hugo had the “genesis thought” about preserving the crafts and lifeways of the region, Herschend said, but died in 1955. In the earliest days, Silver Dollar City remained focused on the cave, and it wasn’t until a few years later that the craft theme evolved.

“We were much more in the entertainment business,” Herschend said.

‘True crafts’

But in 1963, under the direction Pete Engler, the park began holding the Missouri Festival of Ozark Craftsmen, which eventually evolved into the National Harvest Festival which Silver Dollar City now bills as the “granddaddy of all crafts festivals in America’s Heartland.”

The show brings more than 100 craftsmen to the park every fall. (It is set for Sept. 11 to Oct. 30 this year.)

One of those regular visitors over the years has been Violet Hensley, now in her 90s, who is known as the “Whittlin’ Fiddler” of Yellville, Ark. She whittled her first fiddle at the age of 15.

Herschend works to keep some of the crafts alive via an apprentice program, training the next generation in the ways of their grandparents and great-grandparents.

“It’s a hard program to maintain,” Herschend said. “People are not falling all over themselves to do it. These are physical skills.”

Ellison today is looking for an apprentice, someone willing to learn where to find the exact right white oak, and build a career out of sweat and calluses.

“There ain’t many people wanting to get into this,” he said. “It’s hard to do.”

But worth it.

“The people who are looking for true crafts, that’s what it’s all about, Silver Dollar City,” said Ellison.

Saddlebag

Visitors to Silver Dollar City also get a glimpse into the past through some authentic buildings, too, such as the Wilderness Church. The log chapel was built in 1849 near Galena and in 1955 it was dismantled, log by log. Those logs were marked with chalk and brought to the park and later painstakingly reconstructed.

There’s also an 1843 saddlebag cabin that was found near Forsyth. Opal McHaffie Parnell gave the cabin to the Herschends and solicited their promise they would preserve it.

Coolest.Thing.Ever

2010-04-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

Missouri State University has begun an Ozarks Studies minor.

Why didn't something like exist when I was an undergrad?

Not my granny's quilts...

2010-04-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England has quilts on exhibit right now. You can see such lovelies as this "bedcovering." You can even buy prints, but be warned they are a bit pricey.

Me? I just like to browse through and think about how much my grandmother would have enjoyed being able to see what those fancy people made, and then plot out how she could copy it.

Petticoat Junction Inspiration in the Ozarks?

2010-04-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

Inspiration for Petticoat Junction’s Shady Rest Hotel?

By DAVID HOLSTED davidh@harrisondaily.com

Harrison Daily Times

Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 6:09 AM

MARSHALL — There was just something strangely familiar about the house that John Lorenz had come upon in the woods. The question nagged at him as he pondered about where he might have seen it.

Then, two days later, he sprang out of bed. He finally got it.

“I woke up and told my wife we had found the Shady Rest Hotel from ‘Petticoat Junction,’” Lorenz said.

Lorenz, a retired engineer from Greenbrier, is sure that in the woods southeast of Leslie, just across the Van Buren County line, sits the model for the hotel from the popular 1960s sitcom. Not only that, he thinks the inspiration for Granny Clampett and even the town of Hooterville, both big parts of producer Paul Henning’s stable of bucolic comedy hits, came from the Heart of the Ozarks.

Lorenz was at the March 26 meeting of the Searcy County Historical Society, where he presented a fascinating program on his research into a remote hotel that once hosted railroad workers, people looking to escape the rat race and, just maybe, a young man who would create some of America’s best loved television shows.

Lorenz is an avid hiker, biker and cyclist who has an insatiable curiosity about his adopted Ozarks. He has never met an old house, cemetery or bridge that he didn’t immediately want to know more about.

“When you first meet me, I’m a little different,” Lorenz said. “You have to slow my personality down.”

So, when Lorenz came upon the old Shain Hotel while biking near the small community of Rumley a couple of years ago, he knew he just had to found out the history behind the house. Surmising that the hotel was the role model for a television show just opened up more questions.

“Who would have come here from Hollywood?” Lorenz wondered. “What’s the connection?”

Through painstaking research into county records and in talking with local old-timers, Lorenz has pieced together the story of the Shain Hotel.

A family and their hotel

William Shain, who was born in 1865 in Kentucky, built a house in about 1899 several miles from Leslie. It could have been built of wood from the nearby woods, Lorenz said, or it possibly could have been an example of a house kit that was sold by Sears, Roebuck and Company in the early 20th Century. It was remembered as a very beautiful house.

William Shain also built a saw mill as a means of making a living.

However, the Missouri and North Arkansas (M&NA) Railroad, which was being built at that time, soon provided Shain and his family with another source of revenue.

Tired railroad workers began to stay at the house at night after their labors, and William Shain got the idea of opening a hotel. The location became a flag stop on the M&NA. A few older members of Lorenz’s audience remembered when you could flag the train down at the Shain and catch a ride to Marshall or Harrison. Shain would eventually build a water tank by the tracks.

After the railroad was completed, in the first decade of the 20th Century, the Shain Hotel became a getaway destination for people living in the rowdy and boisterous boom towns that were springing up in the region. Guests would stay a day or two in the woods at Rumley to unwind.

About 1915, Lorenz went on to say, the mill burned down, taking an important source of income with it. The elder Shains went to Branson, Mo., where they died in the 1950s. They are buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Harrison.

William’s son, James, wanted to keep the hotel, but there was not enough business to support his family. James Shain married a girl named Vada, who became the love of his life. Unfortunately, Vada and an infant son were killed in a cabin fire near Dennard.

Lorenz has located the graves of Vada Shain and little George Shain in the cemetery at Dennard. His research into the Shains has made it an emotional experience.

“I can’t stand at the grave without getting a tear in my eye,” he said. “When you get close to the family and you know their history, it just gets to you.”

A heartbroken James Shain and his surviving children moved to Harrison, where he later married Jencie Lewis. However, he never lost his love for Vada, according to Lorenz.

Lorenz has managed to locate one descendant of James Shain, his granddaughter, Michelle Kennedy of Harrison. According to Lorenz, Kennedy knew next to nothing about the hotel. Because of the sadness of the family’s story, her mother, Marie Monday, never spoke of it while Kennedy was growing up.

The Shain house changed ownership several times in the intervening years and today is a private residence on private property.

Television inspiration?

Henning created not only “Petticoat Junction,” but “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Green Acres” and “The Real McCoys,” all so-called hayseed comedies.

Lorenz has also researched Henning’s history, and he is confident that the television executive was greatly influenced by his experiences in the Ozarks.

A native of Independence, Mo., Henning was a member of the Boy Scouts and made many trips to scout camps in Arkansas, including Camp Orr in Newton County. The only way to get to the Ozarks, Lorenz pointed out, was by train. It was not unreasonable to think that Henning might have seen the Shain Hotel in person.

“I believe he went past that hotel in the 1920s or 30s,” Lorenz said. “I have enough confidence to say when he developed that show, he had that hotel in mind.”

In making his pitch for the Shain Hotel’s inspiration for the Shady Rest Hotel, Lorenz noted several similarities. Both begin with the letters “sh.” Both are flag stops on three letter railroads — M&NA and C&FW (No one is sure what the letters stood for in the television railroad. Some have suggested they stand for the names of the engineer and fireman of the Hooterville Cannonball, Charlie and Floyd). Kids at the hotel swam in the water tank, as did the Bradley daughters in “Petticoat Junction.”

Lorenz went on to say that Hooterville, the hometown of Kate Bradley, Sam Drucker, Oliver and Lisa Douglas, Arnold Ziffel and the others, could have been based on Leslie. He pointed out that the depot in Hooterville was located next to Drucker’s General Store, where the train would take on supplies. Similarly, the train stopped in Leslie next to a store and lumber yard, where supplies could be obtained. Lorenz added that the Van Buren County town of Shirley represented Hooterville’s rival, Pixley. Lorenz said that Kate Bradley and her family hated to go to Pixley, because it was a “cash only” town. Even today, Lorenz joked, credit cards are not accepted in Shirley.

“The television producer had to have had something in mind,” Lorenz said, in presenting his theories.

Lorenz insisted that the Shady Rest was not the only idea Henning got from his time in the Arkansas Ozarks. As a Boy Scout, he would have hiked up and down the hills and canoed on the Buffalo River. He surely would have met Ava Barnes “Granny” Henderson.

A friendly woman, Granny lived on the Buffalo and her front yard, Lorenz said, was a favorite stopping-off point for those plying the river. It would not be a stretch to assume Henning thought of Granny Henderson when he created the character of Granny Clampett on “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

“Henning said he became very enveloped in the culture of the Ozarks,” Lorenz said.

Historical bike path proposed

According to John Lorenz, the old Shain Hotel can be part of an extensive tourist draw to north central Arkansas.

During his presentation to the Searcy County Historical Society, he described his vision for a biking/hiking trail that would follow the former route of the Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad, from Pindall to Shirley, a distance of about 80 miles.

Lorenz said he and his wife have walked almost every mile of the route. He described it as one of great natural beauty and filled with history. The Mill Creek canyon alone, he said, has steep sides and 17 bridges and creek crossings. Since it is a railroad grade, the pathway would be raised and easy to walk or bike.

As a name for the trail, Lorenz suggested the MANA (named for the railroad) Valley. He thought a sign could be placed somewhere near Pindall, welcoming tourists to the historic MANA Valley. A logical starting place, where tourists could learn about what the trail offered, would be the St. Joe depot, which is currently being renovated.

In Lorenz’s plan, each of the communities along the former rail line would have the opportunity to build on the story. It was his opinion that if the old Shain Hotel could be made a part of the tour, he might be able to get Linda Kaye Henning, who played Bobbi Jo on “Petticoat Junction,” to appear at the dedication. He also suggested that Max Baer and Donna Douglas, stars of “Beverly Hillbillies,” might also agree to appear.

Blogs about the Ozarks

2010-04-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

I've set an alert for Google to email me whenever something about the Ozarks is posted each day. I read through the alerts, but a lot of the stories are just about events that happen in the Ozarks rather than really being about the Ozarks. Here are the links to the articles that are about the Ozarks region and history.

This is an article about a cave in the Ozarks (although the blog it appears in may be eclectic).
Ozarks History-- a blog by Vincent Anderson of Gassville, AR
Seven Natural Wonders of Missouri
ASU professor discusses life on Ozark cedar glades
GreenAR by the Day

And, last but not least, a horror movie was set in the Ozarks. A review of Blood Forest explains:

The last remaining "Brave" of the Arkansas Cave Tribe, James Levi Wiley is caught in a race with destiny as Big Foot is rumored to be on the loose in the Ozark Mountains. A reporter from the United Kingdom, Virgil Williams, a drunk, is sent to Arkansas to get the scoop. As residents are mysteriously being killed, the town Sheriff is out to catch the killer as drama unfolds in the BLOOD FOREST.

Who knew?

2008-07-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

This is a review of Ozarks Folksongs, and album produced from Randolph's collected recordings.

Zen Cast?

2008-07-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

Evidently a Zen cast is like a Pod cast...
Anyway, Shiloh Museum of Ozarks History produces regular Zen Casts on Ozarks history and culture.

Vance Randolph

2008-07-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

Tribute to Vance Randolph in Bittersweet
Entry in Southern Literary Review

Still in print:
Pissing in the Snow
Ozarks Magic and Folklore
Ozarks Superstitions

Vance Randolph Bibliography

2007-12-03T17:20:00.000-08:00

Randolph, Vance. The A B C of Biology. New York: Vanguard Press, 1927. Signed: "Vance Randolph Oct. 24, 1952." Cochran and Luster 209. 574 R159a

_______. The A B C of Evolution. New York: Vanguard Press, 1926. Signed: "Vance Randolph Oct. 24, 1952." Cochran and Luster 207. 575 R159a

_______. The A B C of Physiology. New York: Vanguard Press, 1927. Cochran and Luster 210. 612 R159a

_______. The A B C of Psychology. New York: Vanguard Press, [1927]. Signed: "Vance Ran- dolph Oct. 24, 1952." Cochran and Luster 211. 150 R159a

_______. Autograph Albums in the Ozarks, with May Kennedy McCord. Offprint from The Journal of American Folklore 61 (Apr.-June 1948): 182-193. Offprint of Cochran and Luster 41. 398.8 R159au

_______. The Camp-Meeting Murders, with Nancy Clemens [pseud. Nancy Nance]. New York: The Vanguard Press, 1936. Signed: "Vance Randolph Oct. 24, 1952." Cochran and Luster 232. 813.52 R159ca

_______. Children's Rhymes from Missouri. Offprint from The Journal of American Folklore, Oct.-Dec. 1950, pp. 425-437. Signed: "Vance Randolph Oct. 24, 1952." Offprint of Cochran and Luster 51. 398.8 M973c

_______. The Devil's Pretty Daughter and Other Ozark Folk Tales, with notes by Herbert Halpert, ill. Glen Rounds. New York: Columbia University Press, 1955. Inscribed: "For Robertson Strawn, recalling several pleasant meetings. Vance Randolph." Cochran and Luster 73. 398.21 R159d

_______. Dialectal Survival in the Ozarks: Grammatical Peculiarities, with Patti Sankee. Offprint from American Speech 5.4 (Apr. 1930): 268-269. Offprint of Cochran and Luster 147. 427.97671 R159d

_______. Down in the Holler: A Gallery of Ozark Folk Speech, with George P. Wilson. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979, c1953. Reprint ed. of Cochran and Luster 152. 427.97671 R159do 1979

_______. Folktales from Arkansas. Offprint from The Journal of American Folklore 65.256 (Apr.- June 1951): 159-166. Signed: "Vance Randolph Oct. 24, 1952." Offprint of Cochran and Luster 57. 398.2 R159f

_______. From an Ozark Holler: Stories of Ozark Mountain Folks, ill. Richard A. Loederer. New York: The Vanguard Press, [1933]. Signed: "Vance Randolph Oct. 25, 1952." Cochran and Luster 228. 817.082 R159f

_______. Hedwig: A Novel. New York: The Vanguard Press, c1935. 2 copies in variant bindings; c.2 signed: "Vance Randolph Oct. 24, 1952." Cochran and Luster 230. 813.52 R159h

_______. Hot Springs and Hell and Other Folk Jests and Anecdotes from the Ozarks, ill. William Cechak. Hatboro, Pa.: Folklore Associates, 1965. Cochran and Luster 85. 817.082 R159h

_______. Missouri Folktales. Offprint from Midwest Folklore 1 (Summer 1952): 77-90. Offprint of Cochran and Luster 58. 398.2 R159m

_______. A Note on the Reliability of the Maze as a Method of Learning in the Angora Goat, with Walter S. Hunter. Offprint from The Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology 33.1 (Mar. 1926): 3-8. Signed: "Vance Randolph Oct. 24, 1952." Offprint of Cochran and Luster 203. 599.7358 R159h

_______. On the Seasonal Migration of Dione Vanillae in Kansas. Offprint from The Annals of the Entomological Society of America 20.2 (1927): 242-244. Signed: "Vance Randolph Oct. 24, 1952." Offprint of Cochran and Luster 213. 595.7890452 R159o

_______. An Ozark Anthology. Caldwell, Id.: The Caxton Printers, 1940. Signed: "Vance Ran- dolph Oct. 24, 1952." Cochran and Luster 19. 813.50822 R159o

_______. Ozark Folksongs. 4 vols. Columbia, Mo.: The State Historical Society of Missouri, 1946-1950. 782.42162 Oz1

_______. Ozark Magic and Folklore. New York: Dover Publications, 1964. 398.3 R159o 1964

_______. Ozark Mountain Folks. New York: The Vanguard Press, [1932]. Signed: "Vance Ran- dolph Oct. 24, 1952." Copy 3 in the Margaret E. Haughawout Collection inscribed: "To Margaret Haughawout, with thanks and all good wishes, Vance Randolph; also inscribed: "Margaret E. Haughawout Oct. 15, '32. Review copy from publisher at request of author." Cochran and Luster 7. 917.67 R159om

_______. Ozark Mountain Party Games, with Nancy Clemens [pseud. Nancy Nance]. Offprint from The Journal of American Folk-Lore 49.193 (July-Sept. 1936): [199]-206. Cochran and Luster 15. 793.2 R159o

_______. Ozark Mountain Riddles. Offprint from The Journal of American Folk-Lore 47 (Jan.- Mar. 1934): 6-89. Signed: "Vance Randolph Oct. 24, 1952." Cochran and Luster 12. 398.6 R159oz

_______. Ozark Outdoors: Hunting and Fishing Stories of the Ozarks, with Guy W. Von Schriltz. New York: Vanguard Press, 1934. Cochran and Luster 182. 799.09767 R159o

_______. Ozark Superstitions. New York: Columbia University Press, 1947. Cochran and Luster 39. 398.3 R159o

_______. The Ozarks: An American Survival of Primitive Society. New York: The Vanguard Press, [1931]. Cochran and Luster 6. 917.67 R159o

_______. Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales, intro. Rayna Green; annotations by Frank A. Hoffman. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, c1976. Cochran and Luster 88. 398.21 R159pi

_______. Prehistoric Inhabitants of Crawford County, Kansas, with Vernon C. Allison. Offprint from The American Anthropologist 29.3 (July-Sept. 1927): 258-261. Signed: "Vance Ran- dolph Oct. 24, 1952." Offprint of Cochran and Luster 214. 978.198 Al56p

_______. Sticks in the Knapsack and Other Ozark Folk Tales, with notes by E. W. Baughman; ill. Glen Rounds. New York: Columbia University Press, 1958. Cochran and Luster 81. 398.21 R159st

_______. The Substance of the Riddle of the University by Ernst Haeckel. New York: Vanguard Press, 1926. Cochran and Luster 206. 193 H118Dr

_______. The Talking Turtle and Other Ozark Folk Tales, with notes by Herbert Halpert; ill. Glen Rounds. New York: Columbia University Press, 1957. Copy 3 inscribed: "For my old friend Robertson Strawn, with good wishes as always, Vance Randolph." Cochran and Luster 79. 398.21 R159t

_______. We Always Lie to Strangers: Tall Tales from the Ozarks, ill. Glen Rounds. New York: Columbia University Press, 1951. Cochran and Luster 53. 817.082 R159w

_______. Who Blowed Up the Church House and Other Ozark Folk Tales, with notes by Herbert Halper; ill. Glen Rounds. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952. Cochran and Luster 61. 398.21 R159w

From: http://library.pittstate.edu/spcoll/randolph01.html

A Glance at Readin' An' Ritin' in The Ozarks

2007-08-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/periodicals/ozarkswatch/ow803l.htm

Ozarks Country

2007-08-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

The Ozarks, by virtue of being located where the midwest meets the south, host a blend of cultures and people not seen elsewhere. Through the years, much as been said about the Ozarks, but little has been collected online. My goal with this blog is to collect information on the internets and collect it here as a resource for myself, as I follow my own particular vision of Ozarks Studies.

Ozarks Country

Riverfest 2010

Riverfest 2005

Riverfest 2007

Riverfest 2009

Headline Acts

Riverfest 2008

Headline Acts

FRIDAY, MAY 23rd

SATURDAY, MAY 24th

SUNDAY, MAY 25th

Riverfest 2006

Not exactly Ozarks, but certainly Arkansas...

More blogs...

Down in the Ozark Hills-- Personal blog

Ozarks moonshiners at Ozarks' History

Living on the Little Mulberry-- Rural life

Chinquapin

Bits of living history...

Coolest.Thing.Ever

Not my granny's quilts...

Petticoat Junction Inspiration in the Ozarks?

Inspiration for Petticoat Junction’s Shady Rest Hotel?

By DAVID HOLSTED davidh@harrisondaily.com

Blogs about the Ozarks

Who knew?

Zen Cast?

Vance Randolph

Vance Randolph Bibliography

A Glance at Readin' An' Ritin' in The Ozarks

Archives

Ozarks Country