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Discover the stories passed down over time from the people of the Ozark region. Oral history is shared through the years to provide a perspective on the landscape and people who inhabit the beautiful, culturally rich area. These oral histories show essential connections among settlers in a challenging landscape.
Written to inspire history buffs, outdoor enthusiasts, travelers, tycoons in training and students of all ages, this path-breaking collection will take readers deep into a region averse to change, tricky to know, yet brimming with American culture.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xiii
Foreword: Collecting Recollections by C. Ray Brassieur
Preface: A Wagonload of Fire
Introduction: Backwoods Interviewing
Part I: My First Ozark River Oral Histories: Headwaters-Setting Forth in Oral History
1. King of the Ozark Rivers: Ralph "Treehouse" Brown
2. Taking Care of His Creek: George Langenberg
3. Highlights of Ozark Rivers Oral History
Memoir: At Trails End Camp
Part II: Working with the U.S. Forest Service: Techniques-Beginning in Oral History
4. Palmer, Missouri: In the Valley of the Ghosts
5. Grasshopper Hollow: Fieldwork in the Ozark's Largest Fen
6. Establishing a Farm and Hunting Fox: Amel Martin
Sidebar: Alford Forest Wins New Lease on Life
Memoir: Adirondack and Ozark Ancient Forests
Part III: U.S. Geological Survey of Gravel and the River: Fieldwork-Researching Downstream and Up
7. Gardening for a Life of Abundance: Ted and Kay Berger
8. Gravelbars and a Thief at the Corn Crib: Rev. Cecil King
9. "We are losing this river...": Jack Toll
Memoir: Almost a Great Job for an Oral Historian
Part IV: Marching with the Military Again: Enlistment-Public Service Interviewing in the Ozarks
10. Hogs and Midwives: Interviews with Ft. Wood's Early Settlers
11. The Lady with the Bull Dick Cane on TV: Aileen Hatch
12. Missouri Moonshining Days: George Lane, Waynesville, MO
Sidebar: Ambrosia on the Piney
13. The Cadillac Mayor of Crocker, Missouri: Norma Lea Mihalevich
Memoir: Dancing with the Spirit of Vietnam, May 2014
Part V: Journalism into History: Deadline-Every Day a New Story
14. Two Special Parents for Special Children: The Earl Adamses
15. Bass Fishing Tournament: Basil Bacon
16. Area Inventor Looking for Business Partner: Louis Moore
Sidebar: Fine Art from White Oak Forests
17. Local Prophet Carves Wide Swath: Rev. Joseph Jeffers
18. From Birch Tree to the Battle of the Bulge and Back: Bill and Trudy Reed
19. Exposé from a Newbie Election Judge
20. A Day with the Rainbow Family: Ted Berger and Ronnie Jones
Memoir: Holding the Feather: Reflections on the Rainbow Family
Part VI: Making It as a Freelancer: Gigging-Community Culture from Diverse Angles
21. La Guignolée-Fiddling in the New Year: Kent Beaulne
22. Good Sports: A Burnham Sunday Tradition: Gini Webb Scudder
23. A Visit with Bob Holt and Venae Heier
24. View to the East: Country Folks Will Wave
25. Route 66: African American History Along the Mother Road
Sidebar: Hard Traveling in the Ozarks
26. Celebrating the Ozark Highlands Viticulture: Mary Codemo
27. Visit with an Ozark Swamp Queen: The Nature Conservancy
28. Video with Ralph "Treehouse" Brown and Others
29. Voice as Fast as a Fiddle: Dancing at a Country Music Club
30. Deliberate Lives: A Celebration of Three Missouri Masters
Memoir: Hillbillies and Black Helicopters
Part VII: Profiles, Portraits and Champions: Likeness-Capturing an Essence
31. Healing the Waters on an Ozark Frontier
32. Organic More Than a Century: Frances "Nana" Yeary
Sidebar: Is It True?
33. Visiting Moondog in Manhattan
34. Magic Quartz Near Mount Ida
35. Selling Ties in an Early Blizzard
36. A Man Who Loved Copperheads: Ken Carey
37. An Ozarker in His New Kentucky Home: George Marshall Smith
38. Clyde and the Recycled Chairs
39. Woodcarvers: Harold and Elaine Enlow
Memoir: Portrait of my Father as an Eminent Hillbilly: A Cautionary Tale
Part VIII: Ethics, Activists and Timber: Hillbilly Ethics-Truth-tellin' and Rural Rapport
40. The Sweetest Fiddler in All of Arkansas: Violet Hensley
41. This Is the Ozark Earth: A Conversation with a River Conservationist
Sidebar: Rex Harrel's Best Story
42. In Search of Commonwealth: In Memory of Doug Wixson
43. Plonked in Nowheresville: Tristen Russ
Memoir: From China's Skuzziest City-Teaching Oral History
Epilogue: Bedrock, Paradox and Petroforms
Appendix 1: A Brief Guide to Doing Oral History Interviews
Appendix 2: Oral History Projects and Related Contributions
Appendix 3: Oral and Community History Bibliography
Appendix 4: Schedule of Questions: Oral History of Land Use in the Ozarks
Notes
Index
About the author
Alex Sandy Primm has worked for 40 years interviewing people across the Ozark Mountains. He has also served as a correspondent in Vietnam, ran the Ozark Agriculture Museum, produced award-winning regional videos and taught oral history in mainland China. He lives in Springfield, Missouri.
