Lecture: A Trip to The Ozark Mountains: 1927

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A noticeable feature of the wayside both to and from Bella Vista was the numerous orchards and large vineyards. It seemed to be a fruitful year for the boughs of the apple trees were bending to the ground with ripening fruit, whle the Concord grapes in the Vineyards were either purple or purpling, and recalled to mind those lines of Byron in"Childe Harold" when he says

" Sweet is the vintage when the showering grepes In Bacchanal profusion reel to earth Purple and flashing( pushing) - "

An attraction in the Mountains about 3 1/2 miles from Winslow was what is called " The Falls ". To those of us who have seen the falls of the Yosemite, the falls of the Yellowstone, the Trenton falls of New Jersey, the beautifulcascades of Montmorenci in the Province of Quebec, Canada, the Horshoe Falls of Niagra - in a word the many magnificent falls in which this great America abounds, we call these falls in the Ozarks insignificant in the extreme; and yet, there is something about them to excite one's interest and awaken within him a certain amount of wonder and admiration. They are situated in a most desolate part of the mountains. There is not a tree, there is not a shrub of any size within some distance of the top of the falls. The ground all around is a layer of hard sandstone and conglomerate rock without any vegetation whatever, except here and there in the crevices of the rocks a stunted huckleberry bush is endeavoring to maintain an unprofitable existence. ... From the top of the Falls to where the water reaches the rocks below is a sheer fall of about I00 feet. As there had been no rain for sometime no water was running over these Falls, but in the rainy season one may reasonably assume and confidently assert that a volume of water not only great, but swiftly-moving and cascadelike in character is rushing over these Falls, there is a canon-like formation which extends for some distance into the Mountains. In this canyon the rocks are piled together in the most weirdand dire confusion Many of them were, of course, originally there, but many more had evidently fallen down from the top and sides of the Falls and thus served to render " confusion worse confounded ". Some of these rocks or stones were so symmetrical that they seemed as if shaped and formed by the hand of the stone-mason. A path led from the top to the base of the Falls, but so precipitous and dangerous was it hat after proceeding calmly a part of the way, we very prudently abandoned the attempt of reaching the base of the Falls. These Falls, as well as some smaller ones, which occur here andd there in this part of the Ozarks, are found in streams that drain the Boston Upland. This upland is capped by Winslow sandstone and conglomerate of an age which geologists call " the early Pennsylvania Age. " All these Falls are alike characterized and localized by a hard sandstone, or conglormerate layer of waht is know as the Winslow formation.

About five miles from Winslow there is a Mountain called Signal Mountain, When one first hears the name one very naturally associates the name with the fact that perhaps during the Civil War that Mountain must have been used by the Signal Corp of either the Confederate or the Federal Army as a Signal Station. And had it been so used, a better location for the purpose could not have been selected. For from the top of this Mountain, one has a most unobstructed view, not only of the nearby Mountain tops, but also of a wide stretch of country in Eastern and Western Arkansas, as well as in Eastern Oklahoma.

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But the origin of the name cannot be traced to anything of a Military nature, but rather it is Civil. For on this Mountain there stands a tree, which many years ago was used as a Signal Post by the Government Surveyors who ran lines, made measurements and secured triangulations in this part of the Ozarks.

On the way to Signal Mountain one passes by an old graveyard, which like many other old graveyards in this and other countries, is noted fro a peculiar inscription on one of its tombstones :

Here lies a man, who in his day, More than a I000 deer did slay. He was the son of a frontiersman But at last one day he was completely overcam And had to lay down his life and his gan.

This inscription has its parralel in one that is found in an old graveyard, not in the Ozarks :

Here lies Elias Queer, Killed in his 60th year. Scarce had he seen the light of day When a wagon wheel crushed his life away.

Or these which show but little respect on the part of the composer for the memory of his departed wife.

This dear little spot is the joy of my life - It raises my flowers and covers my wife.

or this,

Here lies my wife, so let her lie, She's now at rest, and so am I.

It does one much good both physically and mentally to leave behind him occasionally for a time the vexations, the cares, the trials, the troubles, the petty annoyances, the hum-drum tread-mill phase of life and amid ne w scenes and new surroundings to turn over, as it were, a fresh leaf in the book of one's life and write thereon the impressions and experiences, gained, received and acquired by a better, a wider, a more wholesome, a saner and a healthier outlook upon life.

While there are many ways in which this desired and desirable condition of both mind and body may be realized, may be made an actuality, nthere are few that are so potent, so invigorating, and so vitalizing as the conditions which bring one within the influences which emanate from the Mountains. For be those Mountains like the Ozarks, such mountains as can lay no claim to either sublimity or grandeur, or like the towering peaks of the Western Rockies, or the Sierras of California, whose summits soar upwards into the glacier-like regions of eternal ice and snow, or like those grander mountains -

"The palaces of nature whose vast walls have pinnacled in clouds their snow crests And thron'd Eternity in icy halls of cold sublimity, Where forms and falls the avalanche - the thunderbolt of snow,

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Or like that still, yet grander mountain, of whose majesty and kingship among the mountains of the earth, Byron, in language as sublime as the object he describes, has said,

"Mt.Blanc is the monarch of mountains They crowned him long ago, On a throne of ice in a robe of white With a diadem of snow."

For be they high or low, great or small, grand or sublime, or not - they all alike have power to banish care, to save from deadly apathy, to set one free, to call forth every faculty of mind and body into vigorous, ardent, earnes t and enthusiastic endeavor.

The influences of pure nature are at present so little understood, comprehended and appreciated that it is generally supposed that complete pleasure of the kind, which arises from a better acquaintance with the mountains, and more thorough knowledge of them, such pleasure permeating one's whole being, unfits the student for scientific pursuits, in which pursuits cool judgement and keen observation are absolutely necessary and absolutely indispensible.the effect is just the opposite. Instead of a dissipated condition, the mind is fertilized, stimulated, and developed to an extent which, is so materially and immeasurably benefitted by such permeating and indwelling pleasure.

There are beauties in the Mountains which cannot be realized by those who have never risen above the lowlands, for the mountains, tho the types of permanence, are yet associated with some of the feeblest, frailest and most fleeting forms of earthly existence. Then too, how attractive are the mountains in their autumn garb of rich and vaied color - the brown, the crimson, the purple, and the gold - blending with the cobalt blue of the sky, and over all the bright sunshine, impairing richness and delicacy to everything upon which, its benign influence rests in ardent and glowing benediction.

Then :

Come up into the Mountains Come up into the blue, Oh, friend, down in the valley The call is unto you!

The way is long and devious But your untiring feet May safely tread their windings And come to their retreat.

The mountains, oh,the mountains, How all the ambient air Bends low in benediction And all is bright and fair.

How gaily on their summits Sound the echoing woods' refrain, Inviting to the Mountains - Nature's eminent domain.

O, friend, down in the valleys Where man's aspirations rise, No higher than the plunging Of the water-fowl that flies,

Come up into the mountains Come up into the blue Leave weary leagues behind you, The lowland's narrow view.

The autumn's dying verdure , The graceful grasses brown'd, Come where the gifts of Nature On every hand abound.

For in the subtle spirit Of all these mighty hills, One may satisfy his loggings To be the man he wills.