At approximately 100,000 acres, the Buffalo
National River includes 135 public land miles of Louisiana
Waterthrushes. Generously sprinkled along the river, bluffs, and
mountains: Scarlet Tanagers, American Redstarts, Cerulean Warblers;
hundreds of rare and wonderful plant and animal species, tarantulas and
timber rattlesnakes, Swainson's Warblers and cane brakes, soaring,
heart-lifting landscapes. Could easily have all been lost.
Joyous eventual victory for Waterthrush &
Company was celebrated at Compton Gardens in Bentonville Saturday. The
Compton home place was overflowing for Neil Compton's 100th birthday, Ozark Society's 50th and 40th
for the Buffalo National River.
Neil and his friends established the Ozark
Society as social network and battering ram in the crusade to stop
Buffalo dams (1962). Along the way they helped defeat a Democratic
congressman who pushed dams (Jim Trimble) and helped elect
a Republican who opposed most government, including Buffalo dams (John
Paul Hammerschmidt). They gained critical backing from an Ozark native
and popular Arkansas governor (Orval Faubus) now mainly remembered as a
segregationist. Establishment of the Buffalo
National River (1972) was natural, like paw paws and umbrella
magnolias.
Neil's oldest child Ellen Compton once lived in
this house midst feverish events associated with dam fighting. Not so
surprising, her humorous opening comment:
"Frankly, I'm tired of the Buffalo River." Then,
to appreciative laughs, she added, "Read the book." That is Neil's THE
BATTLE FOR THE BUFFALO RIVER.
In Ellen's presentation we have Neil's
grandfather who both taught and embraced science and Neil's father who
read books in his buggy while delivering mail, guided by Billy the horse
who knew the route.
As a child, his mother Ida accompanied her father
on trips into the Indian Territory, where Indian women taught her about
birds and flowers. We have little Neil atop a huge haystack on the
family farm in Benton County,
where they raised peaches, apples, and garden vegetables for market.
Neil eventually went to the UA in Fayetteville,
taking degrees in geology and zoology (1935). Ellen remembers Neil, ever
a man of science, opening explanations about bluff lines with, "Well,
during the Jurassic . . ." It was in his college
days that he made his first trips to the Buffalo. It stoked passion for
what he termed a "vast natural playground."
Following Ellen was Ken Smith, best known today
as author of the authoritative BUFFALO RIVER HANDBOOK (2004). They met
in the early 60s in the fight to protect Lost Valley. Ken had finished
an engineering degree in Fayetteville. In 1963
he was smitten during a 2-day "life changing" Ozark Society-sponsored
float on the Buffalo. Ken headed off to graduate school and Neil folded
Lost Valley into their shared vision of dam-stopping and park-creating.
Ken had a career as an engineer in the Park
Service, but as evidence in his lyrical BUFFALO RIVER COUNTRY (1967),
Lost Valley and all it signified was never far from his heart.
The finale is courtesy of Still on the Hill,
Kelly Mulhollan and Donna Stjerna, fresh from camping and what Donna
terms, "a window into the Buffalo." Window with music.
We know Neil the doctor, photographer, writer,
and dam-stopper. Once at Angler's Inn on Beaver Lake, Neil joined Kelly
and Flip Putthoff for an onstage performance! According to Kelly, Neil
learned the 'ol pickin bow from Jimmy Driftwood.
Today, Kelly plays pickin bow, with Donna on a cow jawbone. For the
chorus, the Compton Gardens crowd coon dog howls in the simple country
favorite "Stop kicking my dog around."
"People overdo," Neil once told Ken Smith. A conservative's credo: Buffalo au natural is enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment