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A Canoe Called "BalladHunter"

Here is "BalladHunter," a 16-foot cedar-strip design from Ted Moores called "The Prospector."  We purchased the hull half-built and spent 5 weeks finishing with maple decks, cheery thwart, and cedar mast and boom.  Yes, we converted it into a canoe-sailor for the obvious reason that there are three huge lakes on the 720-mile journey.  Easier to sit back and sail than paddle those. 

   

Big Phil in Bull Shoals Says Read "Ozark Trout Tales"

I phoned Big Phil up in Bull Shoals yesterday.  Benitia, his wife, answered.  Pardon my spelling on your name, Benitia, which might be Venetia.  Either way, I love your homemade donuts and coffee at your tackle shop, especially when you serve them before dawn on a freezing fall morning.

Jim Fortune, the riverman from Searcy who has sentenced himself to following me down the river from the dam, needed to know whether his V-bottom bass boat would get through the stretch down to Cotter.  Phil asked what kind of motor was he planning to run, and of course, I had no idea.  Then he said, "if they've got three or four generators running, it shouldn't be a problem."  The issue is, he said, is that you only get a one-day warning on what they'll be running by looking at the internet.

Realizing (again) that this Californian doesn't know his hindside from a raccoon tail, Phil recommended a book to me.  It's called "Ozark Trout Tales," and it's hard to find.  Anyone heard of it, and used it?  It's a guide to fishing the "White River System."  Most copies go for fifty bucks and up, but I found one for $20 and ordered it (used).  I think the author is Steven Wright.  Anyone know him?  He sounds like someone I should talk to.  I hope he's still around.

Anyway, thanks for the recommendation, Phil.  Oh...and incidentally, Phil says he had a party out last week and they hooked up with 44 trout...browns, rainbow, even a cutthroat.  For more about Phil, see: http://www.bullshoals.com/marmar/guide.htm.

A Walk In the Ozarks

Just Home from Lower White River

Update: I have just returned from a five-day trip to the Lower White River, a fascinating adventure that included film shooting at Arkansas Post, the Museum of the White River, Clarendon, DeWitt, Des Arc, and even the Blues Museum in Helena on the Mississippi River.

Many thanks to everyone who helped me out, especially Alex, Janice, Marlon, Raymond, Jim, Daniel, Christina, Ida, and Beth.

Arkansas Post-Bound Under a Hunter's Moon

Fall colors are electrifying today after yesterday's rain, on the 540 near Devil's Den on my way east to Arkansas Post and the White River Wildlife Refuge.  The moon is full tonight, a hunter's moon it's called...the first one 'after' the autumn equinox.  I hope you're able to see it in NWA tonight, though more thunderstorms are predicted.  It's sunny will high clouds here, the little puffs looking like backflipping hound dogs.

Purpose of this trip:  First, to catch the moon and fall colors on film and video.   Second, to visit the Arkansas Post Museum.  And third, to catch a buffalo....the 'fish,' that is.

Lastly, I hope to hook up with Jim Fortune, a long-time habitue of the Red and White and other rivers for a road trip to environs near Newport.  Lots of interesting history along those parts, says Jim.  I'm looking forward to that.

Take care everyone and I'll post some details on this adventure as I go....

A Mosey in the Ozark Cultural Center

In preparation for our three-day planned trip to the Mountain Man Gathering on October 5-7, we drove out to Mountain View and engaged in a late-afternoon walking tour of the Ozark Cultural Center.

I met  a bladesmith there, Tom, who filled me in on the goings-on, among other craftspeople and musicians.  We learned a few things about green woodworking, glass making, weaving, and hand-press printing.  

We also met some musicians and made a preliminary recording of some mountain music.  Most important perhaps, we saw inside of a few authentically constructed Ozark cabins, one of which we plan to build on our property as a garden shed and a shop.

Goldmine In Huntsville at the Madison County Historical Society

On a recent journey to the “White River Trout Capitol” town of Cotter, driving on Highway 412, we decided to check in with the public library in Huntsville, the seat of Madison Country to see what historical gems they might have in the stacks. The friendly librarian there clued me into the active genealogical society in town, which we aimed to visit.  There I met Duane, who tends the historical society, and he showed me around the collection. The society’s growing library of volumes documenting the families, stories, and cemeteries of the county made a deep impression; I hadn’t seen this sort of folk archeology being done anywhere in southern California, nor in Central America where my family had recently been living. One volume recently published we like is titled, “Pettigrew: Hardwood Capital of the World.”  Pettigrew is situated along the White River very close to its headwaters southeast of Fayetteville some twenty or thirty miles. 

Duane kindly provided us some key contacts for future interviews and showed us his method for scanning family photos.  Tragic-comically, his recent efforts in backing up the collection left something to be desired.  The moral was: if you erase the files on your desktop because you have a ‘backup’ on an external hard drive, then the hard drive is no longer a ‘backup.’ At any rate, a big thanks to Duane at the Madison County Historical Society in Huntsville!

Daytrips To the Lower (and Upper) White River

A couple of interesting day trips to the White River you might consider for a weekend when the trees change...

1.  Last week I drove out to Des Arc to see the Lower White River Museum.  The museum is small  but a great introduction to the river, and the town has a lot of history that you can learn about at the local library. The river is huge here and comes under an impressive steel bridge that's a major photo opp.  Upstream you can find easy fishing lakes and other river towns like Georgetown, which was nearly inundated by flood waters last May.  The Red River joins the White in this area and is a clear-water fishing stream this time of year--just a purdy as a spotted puppy.

2.  Yesterday, after dropping my son at his girlfriend's in Huntsville, I drove along Hwy 74 from there down to Elkins.  It was raining at first but cleared as the sun set by the time I went over the White River on a bridge into Elkins.  Wow, the light set the slow-moving waters and lush banks alflame -- I've never seen a more spectacular river view.  Photographers beware, however, the bridge has no sidewalk and the drivers here are cityfolk heading to Fayetteville late for appointments.  One false step and you'll end up like the deer carcass I saw at the foot of a piling under the bridge!  Take a good map with you and try the blue highways the head north from 74 and pass through the rolling farm estates along Richland Creek and end up in either Goshen or Lake Sequoia just east of Fayetteville.  You'll find yourself house hunting for sure.

Maiden Voyage of "BalladHunter" at Monte Ne Ruins

If you listen closely at the very end of this short clip, you can hear me drop the tackle box in the river...great start to an expedition.  

"Down But Not Out" After Joplin Tornado (video)

Three days after the Joplin tornado struck, we made a pilgrimage to the damaged downtown area.  What we witnessed changed us forever.  The outpouring of well-organized help and volunteer initiative blew us away.  This is what the town looked like then.  I heard yesterday from a women who is selling birdhouses constructed of Joplin debris (20% going to the Salvation Army), that the area you see in these pictures is almost completely cleaned up and reconstruction well underway.  

Okay, You Paddle and I'll Steer

I'm just back from Cali and itching to get back on the river.  The canoe sat under the carport motionless for almost three weeks as temperatures reached 113 degrees in the Ozarks last week!  I lifted the cover off of my new cedar-plank canoe-yacht and a swallow flew out, a stowaway seeking refuge from the sweltering sky.

Out on the coast I found more than a few interested candidates for White River day-trips, the idea being for me to sit in the rear and steer while the guest provides locomotion.  Yea, that'll work.  Anyhow, I roped in a writer-friend, a number of my parents, and brother (at least they all expressed something more than outright rejection of the notion of participatory floating on a liquid legend).

The White River at Blue Heron Campground at the 412 Bridge