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- W. R. Jones 1891 Speech
- Bald Knobber Song
- Cemeteries & Gravestones
- Ozark Books: Recommended Sources
- Flatboats, Keelboats & Steamboats Books
- Amazon Affiliate
- 1818: Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in Ozark County, MO
- 1836 Survey: White & Black Rivers
- 1871 Survey: James Fork to Buffalo Shoals
- 1870 Survey: Black River
- 1871 Survery: Current River, MO
- 1871 Survey: Cuivre River, MO
- 1870 Survey: Little Red River
- 1870 Survey: White River - Forsythe to Duvall’s Bluff
- 1871 Survey: Black River, MO & AR
- 1875-76 Oscillations of the White River
- 1871 Survey: Current River, MO & AR
- 1876: Improvement of White River Above Jacksonport
- 1882 Improvement: Osage River in MO & KS
- 1880 Current River: Van Buren, Mo, to Mouth in AR
- 1880 Survey: Forsyth, MO, to Buffalo Shoals, AR
- 1889 Survey: Osage River
- 1896 Survey: Mouth of Buffalo Fork (River) to Rush, AR
- Old Newspapers
- Native American Research
- White River 1824 - 1831
- Jacob Wolf, His House & Liberty, Arkansas
- 1836 Survey: White, Black & St. Francis Rivers
- Diary of an 1858 Wagon Train Journey
- 1888 Improvement of White River: Forsythe to Mississippi Riv.
- Looking Through History
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Oakland, Arkansas, now under Bull Shoals Lake in 1948.
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Cotter, Arkansas, Railroad Colorized, 1948
The U.S Army Corps of Engineers' created 1000s of photographs to document the construction phase of the Bull Shoals Dam, 1948-1952. Most of the negatives have been in storage up to 74 years. We have the opportunity to digitized and turn them into positive or Black & White photos. We are using AI software to colorize the photos, and then we are going out into the field for color correction. The photos are finished using open source software, GIMP. This short video shows the process we are taking to save the Ozarks' History for future generations.
Enjoy Your Ozarks' History.
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Many more videos to follow!
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Our Buried Past Revealed: Bull Shoals Dam Photo Restoration Project 🌿
We have been working.
We have been working over a year with an amazing cashe of Ozarks' History.
Be prepared to see the preparation for the construction of the Bull Shoals Dam from 1946 to 1952. We will preview the 74-year-old, Army Corps of Engineers negatives brought into vivid color as we uncover Ozark grave-sites & burial traditions. This video showcases a portion of his restoration project of rare, original black & white negatives.
The construction of the Bull Shoals Dam was due to the frequent and devastating floods on the White River. In August of 1915, the floodwaters of the White River reached an all-time high even higher than any prediction. The flood caused hundreds of millions of dollars in livestock and property damage. Loss of life was heavy also. In 1927 an even more destructive flood plagued the White River Valley. The United States government recognized the need for Federal action and assigned to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the task of regulating and controlling the stream-flow of the rivers.
The Corps of Engineers took thousands of pictures during the exploratory & transition phase of the Bull Shoals Dam in the White River Valley. Many of these pictures have not been viewed for over 70 years until now. Along with digital archivist, Christine Schmid, we are currently working to digitally scan the negatives and restore them to black & white images. Additionally, we are using color AI software to bring the digital images back to vivid detail and beauty in select photos.
Photos include:
A 13-mile temporary railroad from Cotter, Arkansas, to the dam site
The original & historic cemeteries surveyed & relocated from 1947 to 1949
7-mile, world-record conveyor belt from Lee Mountain to the Bull Shoals Dam site
We will discover former cemeteries containing:
• Different styles of Ozark burial customs & graves
• Centerpieces of Ozark communities
• Neglected cemeteries in the forest riddled with post oak, hickory, and
sycamore saplings & trees
• Grassy plots scattered with simple field-stones
• River bottom plots choked with river cane
• Rocky outcrops with graves piled high with stone borders
• Native stone crypts, stone houses with ledgers & tables, and stone pup tent structures
• Overgrown corners of fields shadowed by walnut trees & prairie grasses
A picture is worth a thousand words. But there are always stories behind each photo. Anderson will be telling those stories in his presentation - Our Buried Past Revealed.
Enjoy your Ozarks' History
Monday, February 28, 2022
One Spike
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Looking Through History
Grateful
Being a native of the Ozarks, the experience has never lost its fascination for me. Reminiscing about times past, and what was enacted, propels many of us to continually search our treasured past. This path has led us through many aspects of experience and research.The love for Ozarks' History will never go away, and I believe it is a foundation stone to reach out and bring in elements of American history, giving us our unique insight and understanding. Since 2008, we have enjoyed learning and sharing our heritage. At Ozarks' History, we are gearing up to expand what we offer and what we do.
Joy in the Journey
Over the years, we began our journey searching for the full set of White River maps from 1888. After making phone calls and trips in Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, we received a message in 2013 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Little Rock, Arkansas. Our elusive search snagged our goal.
knowing it was the epiphany of a long quest?
Well, this was it.
Walking into the archives of the Corps of Engineers Library, we were surrounded by shelves and crowded stacks of Annual Reports, books, and magazines. Through our peripheral, we could see engineers working on research concerning lakes & rivers of their region. We were guided to a table in a small clearing of the library, and group quickly gathered around the table; we were gazing at the object of our search. Looking around the table at new acquaintances, it felt like being transported to an inner sanctum of time. We were touching pages preserved for the future, and we had an avenue to preserve history's next stage of access.
When opening up the front cover of the maps, we were not expecting the Title Plate. It was as if the air was sucked out of the room. Those in the room gathered tightly around the table and looked at the intricate and stylish style and lettering. Looking only at the Title Page, we all knew the rest of the maps would not disappoint.
We are Expanding
Since
that time, we have been working and rendering the digital scans into
workable formats. In our next phase of expansion, we will be sharing
the
history & the maps of the White River which extends further than the
Ozarks. Not only will we be
sharing the history and stories of the White River, but we will have the
opportunity
to explore other aspects of American History on our companion website, Looking
Through History.
In this next part of our journey today, we will offer the Title Plate we had the opportunity to scan in 2013.
The rewards of our research and work over the years have come to this next phase. Now, we are offering the 1888 White River maps printed on premium, cloth canvas and stretched on a 1½ inch frame. Costs will vary with the formats & size, and it’s a great way to show friends & family the heritage we celebrate. The upcoming maps will have additional information printed on them as we have transcribed & researched specific locations such as:
- 1888 River Depth Soundings
- Location Miles from the Mouth into the Mississippi River
- Steamboat Landings
- Locations of Sunken Steamboats
- Cotton Gins, Grist & Saw Mills
- White River Ferries & Fords
- Towns & Cities
- Landowners
- Springs, Streams & Tributaries
- 1880s Construction of Wing Dams
- Islands & Boulders
- Roads, Prairies & Hollows
- Bayous, Rapids, Reaches, Soughs & Swamps
- River Banks, Bluffs, Caves, Gravel Beds & Fields
This 1888 Title Plate will be a great foundation piece to all the future 42 maps we will publish in the coming years. These maps total 505 river miles, and they display many of our favorite places on the White River in Arkansas & Missouri.
Of course, the larger the print, the greater detail is revealed.
Each order will be shipped directly to you.
Our
Looking Through History e-Store is in its final phase, and we are open this week.
What's Available?
Premium Wood
100% cotton canvas, manually stretched on a warp-resistant, 1.25”-deep wooden frame, with a wall mount attached.
12" x 8" $52
24" x 16" $158
The larger the print, the greater detail will be revealed.
We are
offering the opportunity to own these beautiful & historical prints. These
maps & prints are not only for those of us who enjoy the historical originality once treasured in the past, but these prints will be an inspiration for future generations.
Enjoy Your Ozarks History.
Friday, June 18, 2021
A Place of Significance
Baxter Bulletin Mountain Home, Arkansas Friday, July 17, 1908 · Page 1 |
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Weakly County, Tennessee. |
1860 Weakly County, Tennessee, Slave Census listing W. A. Ridgeway.
4-year-old
Female Black
2-year-old
Male Black |
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1880 U. S. Census for Sharp County, Arkansas, listing Thomas Ridgeway farm. |
1860 U. S. Slave Census for Izard County, Arkansas, listing the Samuel Jackson Mason farm. |
Lt. Colonel Samuel Jefferson Mason's Confederate record. |
1880 U. S. Census of La Crosse, Izard County, Arkansas |
Charles "Charley" Virgel Mason
Eight years later, while living in Violet Hill, Arkansas, Sam and Alice had their only child who lived to adulthood, Charles "Charley" Virgel Mason, on February 15, 1890. Charley grew up in Violet Hill, Arkansas, and he learned to read and write.
Mountain Home, Arkansas
Fri, Aug 04, 1911 · Page 3
Mountain Home, Arkansas
Fri, Jul 17, 1908 · Page 1
The following day, town ladies prepared Alice's body for burial and a procession made its way to the Walnut Hill Cemetery, and Alice was laid to rest.
Sam remained in Cotter and his son, Charley, age 18. The next year, in 1909, Sam and Charley move to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Mountain Home, Arkansas
17 Dec 1909, Fri • Page 4
Mountain Home, Arkansas
February 22, 1918 · Page 1
After Charlie served his term in the Army during World War I, he returned to Tulsa, Oklahoma. These next few years would be troubling and pivotal years for the Mason family while living in Tulsa. It was during this time the Tulsa Race Riots commenced. On May 31 to June 1, 1921, White residents attacked Black residents and destroyed homes and businesses
of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There were as many as 300 deaths in the mayhem violence.
The Mason family from Baxter County lived in the Greenwood District of Tulsa during the Race Riots. Their address: 114 N. Greenwood Street in Tulsa.
Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2017679760/.
Mountain Home, Arkansas
Fri, Aug 12, 1921 · Page 1