WEBVTT - Ep. 243: Ozarkian Martyr - Eva “Granny” Henderson 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:08.920 She put a face on it that nobody else could 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:10.680 put a face on. If they were going to do 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:14.720 that to a little old woman who never did anything 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.760 to hurt anybody, who only help people. You know, if 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:19.959 they would do that to her, they'd just do it 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.880 to anybody. And in our culture, the one thing you 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:28.040 don't do is trample around on older folks. That's a 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.200 real good way to get a really bad reputation. 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.120 Today we'll learn the personal story of a true Ozark 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:37.960 legend as we listen to bits and pieces of a 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:42.680 historic interview with Ava Barnes Henderson from nineteen seventy four, 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:46.559 who was one of the last private landowner holdouts in 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:50.680 the ninety five thousand acre Buffalo National River in Arkansas. 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:55.080 She didn't want to sell. It's a fascinating biopiece as 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.320 we continue to explore this American doctrine of utilitarian conservation, 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.720 the greatest good for the greatest number, and the injustice 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.640 of it at times. On the last episode, we learned 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.080 about the political state of America and how it informed 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.720 the battle for the Buffalo River and the Ozarks between 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:17.759 the pro damn pro park and pro leave us Alone landowners. Today, 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:22.080 we'll hear words like communism, martyrdom, and displacement, which are 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.000 unexpected themes in a conversation about a beautiful stretch of 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:29.880 Pristine river. But we're telling a side of this story 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.199 that's rarely told. And hang around till the dead gum 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.160 plot twist at the end, when we'll learn there are 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:40.959 people trying to redesignate the rivers standing with the National Park. 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.800 It's very complicated, folks, and I really doubt that you're 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:45.880 gonna want to miss this one. 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.640 She lived three months after they moved out of it. 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:51.600 Moved her out for three months. 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.040 Yes, she did. She'd died at eighty seven. She spent 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:56.080 one night in her new house that they built her, 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:59.160 and then my brother Howard took her to his house, 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:01.280 which was just a the field from him where she 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:05.320 was where they built her house. She lived three months. 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:07.200 What do you make of that? 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:09.679 I make it they took her life away from her. 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:14.280 The Ava Barnes Henderson interview credits that we're about to 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:19.919 hear go to Texas Tech University's Southwest Collections Special Collections 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:33.160 Library courtesy of Jane Kilgore. My name is Klay Nukem, 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.760 and this is the Bear Grease Podcast where we'll explore 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:41.560 things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.360 and where we'll tell the story of Americans who lived 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:50.400 their lives close to the land. Presented by FHF gear, 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:55.600 American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear as designed 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.400 to be as rugged as the place as we explore. 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.399 You were born around here? Where were you born? 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.280 I was born right down this river about and the 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.360 Lord and just below Prood. 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:20.240 When was that eighteen nine to eighteen ninety two? Then 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:21.720 you moved your parents moved up here. 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.960 Yeah. My daddy home stood a depth there booth. Well 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:27.320 it joins Gertie. 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:28.800 Out there, Oh yeah, by Compton. 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.280 Yeah, and I was just fourteen months old. My dad died, 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.119 of course, I don't remember your brother. 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:34.519 Yeah. 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:36.560 What were your parents' names? 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:40.119 My mother was a Buchanan, that's right. 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.560 Yeah, you see now your mother was the great. 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.280 Niece niece of President Buchanan. 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:48.360 Yeah, yeah, the great. 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:57.280 My dear bear, Grease, brothers and sisters. You have just 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:02.280 been granted access behind culture Vail, into the very heart 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:07.400 of the Ozarks, the place that few get to hear. See. 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.400 That was the voice of Eva Henderson, known to her 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:16.000 community as Ev and Since her global debut in National 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.800 Geographic in March nineteen seventy seven, she's been known to 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:25.400 the world as Granny Henderson. She would become an Ozarkian legend. 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.960 The incredible portraits of her on her Newton County, Arkansas 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.960 farm with her cattle, hogs, and chickens and dogs, taken 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:37.440 when she was eighty five years old, would become iconic 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:43.000 emblems of standing against government intrusion, self sufficiency, and the 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:48.279 gritty backwoods way of life on the Buffalo River. This 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:52.400 interview took place on July twenty second, nineteen seventy four. 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.919 And like Memphis is proud of Elvis and Illinois is 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:02.280 proud of Abe Lincoln, in Arkansas, we're proud of Grannie 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:06.280 Henderson in a way she was a martyr. 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:09.559 Would be a great great niece. 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.400 Did you keep up with the presidents in your youth 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:15.360 and through your life? 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:16.880 Well, I used to. 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:22.120 Yeah. Did you have a favorite. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:26.080 Well, I don't know. We all sawt pretty well. Roosevelt. 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.039 Yeah, oh, did you do you remember Teddy Roosevelt. 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.240 That's what I'm talking about, That's the what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:34.360 he must have been quite a guy. 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:39.080 Yeah, I find it interesting that Grannie Henderson's favorite president 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.600 was Teddy Roosevelt, one of the core authors of the 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:47.760 doctrine of utilitarian conservation, The greatest good for the greatest number. 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:50.680 Here's more from Ev Henderson. 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:53.240 And you married to Henderson? 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:55.440 Yeah, yeah, Henderson. 0:05:57.520 --> 0:05:59.440 Where'd you live after you married? Down here? 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.960 Well? Yeah, my mother bought this place, oh, when I 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:10.360 was thirteen. Yeah, so my husband up to for the 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.600 scene about two years after we were married. You down 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:15.240 this place? 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:20.480 The Henderson Farm, bisected by the Buffalo River, was one 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:24.200 hundred and sixty seven acres just upriver from what they 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.479 call the Goat Bluff, which is on an inside bend 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:32.159 as the river sweep south, carved from ancient sandstone and 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:36.080 limestone towering three hundred and fifty feet above the water. 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.240 The park and most outsiders call it the Big Bluff. 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:44.239 EV's mother, Ira, bought the land in nineteen oh five. 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:48.200 Ev married Frank Henderson when she was sixteen and nineteen 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.080 oh nine, and they moved on to the land two 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.719 years later and built a house around nineteen thirteen. She 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:58.200 would live there until the spring of nineteen seventy nine. 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:01.640 I was thrilled when I learned that there was actual 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.880 audio of Granny Henderson, and aside from the roosters, the 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:10.920 quality is pretty good. The interviewer is Dwight Pitt Kathley, 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.960 a respected historian for the National Park Service, and the 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:19.280 interview is an hour and fifteen minutes long. It's truly fascinating, 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:24.800 and in the Ozarks we don't apologize for roosters making 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:30.880 incredible rackets. The interview continues and directly you can hear 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.960 the rumble of a motor getting closer and closer, and 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:40.120 there's an impromptu visitor that shows up, Yes. 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:47.320 Visitors, Yeah, Robbie, Yeah, how you do? And just sitting here, 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:48.520 how you all right? 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:56.400 It's EV's granddaughter, twenty nine year old Jane Kilgore, Hiller's brother. 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.760 His wife is coming down here. I'm going down Upsuckholm 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.480 camp through two whore they get some water. 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.560 She's asked her grandmother where a spring is to get water. 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:09.880 It was a Sunday afternoon and there's a group of 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:13.400 them going camping. Granny gets fired up as she gives 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:18.400 instructions to the spring. You can hear her voice change, no, I. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:22.480 Can you or that spring is over there? I grand 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.080 mama hunted for that. Well, I'll tell you, Jane, you 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.880 go right over that before you know, Honey, at that 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.000 second forward you go right down the edge of the 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.800 creek on the far side, and you can't keep them 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:34.880 finding well. 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.079 And when heard all up now that creek, mate, and 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:38.839 I never could find it too, Hillard, I said, and 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:39.559 I forgot what it. 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:43.240 Springs say, Well, it's plenty when you want to hunt Ford, 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:44.640 I'm the with you old day. 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:49.000 A while will. The improptu moment ends with Granny offering 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.439 to help find the spring after the interview. The reason 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.160 the National Park historian was interviewing her was that on 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.280 March first, nineteen seventy two, the government had authorized the 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:04.720 formation of the Buffalo National River, known as America's first 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.840 National River. The land her family had owned since nineteen 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:12.800 oh five was quickly en route to being owned by 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:18.359 the United States government by whatever means necessary. Eva Henderson 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:22.800 would be the last private holdout in the whole ninety 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:27.200 five thousand acre National Park. That's why National Geographic came. 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.280 Her husband, Frank worked in the logwoods, and Ev worked 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.560 on the farm. They essentially were subsistence farmers, living not 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.679 much different than the first white pioneers who came to 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.640 this region in the eighteen thirties. They never had running water, electricity, 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.719 or a phone. Frank bought his first truck in the 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:51.720 nineteen fifties, but he died in nineteen fifty six. Ev 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:55.439 never learned to drive a car and remained on her 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:58.800 remote farm as a widow for twenty three years until 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.360 nineteen seventy nine, but she would be close to family 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.600 just down the river. EV's only daughter, Arby, lived with 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:10.360 her husband and children. One of those children was Jane Kilgore. 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.720 She's the one who asked about the spring. She was 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:18.080 twenty nine years old in that audio clip. Today Jane 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:22.960 Kilgore is seventy six, and I'd like to introduce you 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:30.600 to her my whole life. Have heard about your grandmother. 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:33.800 So what year were you born? 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:36.320 I was born in forty eight, born down there at 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:37.360 Malwahome Place Town. 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:39.680 Yeah, yep. How long did you live there? 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.960 Till I was thirteen? You'll have figure that's the difference there. Yeah, 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:45.760 we moved to come to a point when was thirteen. 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:46.840 The park brought us up. 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:47.040 Two. 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.560 Now did y'all move because the park bought your land? Yes? 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:56.199 Jane has invited me into her home. She lives high 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.280 on the mountain now above the river, on what some 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.600 say is the prettiest farm in Newton County. Her home 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.880 is tidy and comfortable and full of pictures of family. 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:08.920 She made a coconut cream pie when she heard that 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:13.160 I was coming by. About a dozen whitetail racks, four 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.080 of which her shoulder mounted adorned the walls of her 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.319 living room. The big eight point in the center her 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.240 late husband, Hillard killed, but the other three shoulder mountain 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:28.079 bucks or Jane's. I'm trying to pry from her everything 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.720 I can about her life on the river and her grandmother. 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:38.600 I asked her what her childhood was like. She answered quickly, wonderful. 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.800 No electricity, We had running water, and we spend a 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:43.960 lot of time with grandma, me and my sister. 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.360 Did How far did she live from you? 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:48.520 Probably half a mile? You don't where that big flat 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:50.320 rock he is just down the creek from that? 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.280 Yeah, I mean you knew your grandmother? 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.280 Well, oh, yes, yes, my grandpa Frank. Here was her 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:01.520 husband's name, Frank Henderson. I helped him pick his tobacco patch. 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:05.040 He chewed tobacco, and we'd have picked the worms off 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:06.600 of it, and then I'd help him twist it. When 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.760 we cut it off, we twisted it and then hung 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:13.600 in the barn. And I remember that so well. Yeah, 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:15.000 he gave me a little heap for calf. 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:16.840 What was your grandmother like? 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.880 Very tough woman. There'll never be another woman as tough 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:22.800 as she was. I'm just not saying that because she's 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:23.280 my grandma. 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:23.760 She was. 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.719 She lived three months after they moved out of it. 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:29.720 Moved her out three months. 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.000 Yes, she did. She died at eighty seven. She lived 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.960 three months. She spent one night in her new house 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.000 that they built her, and then my brother Howard took 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:40.280 her to his house, which was just up the field 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:42.760 from him where she was when they built her house. 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:44.880 She lived three months. 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:46.960 What do you make of that? 0:12:47.440 --> 0:13:01.160 I make it. They took her life away from her. 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.880 I said earlier that Granny was a martyr, and that's 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:10.000 really the way that we view her. The river nationalized 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.319 in seventy two, but she was able to hold out 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.360 into the spring of seventy nine when she sold to 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.679 the park. They had built her modern house and as 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:21.560 the crow flies, it was only two point eight miles away, 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.920 and she spent one night in her new house and 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.480 told her son that she couldn't do it, so she 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:31.880 moved in with him, and within three months, on July tenth, 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:38.560 nineteen seventy nine, Grannie Henderson passed away. I asked Jane 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.520 how she was able to stay there seven years after 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.000 the area was designated a national park. 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:48.120 She had her lawyer and she thought it as long 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.480 as she could. They I think they were pretty lenient 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:55.079 with her, I mean in a way, but then they 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.600 were people over them too say, and she didn't talk 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:00.959 about too much. She just said, I will leave. We're 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:05.120 gonna get ready. Well they know you won't, you know, 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.240 but she did. She thought, I think that's reached him 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.719 so long. They in a way felt sorry for her 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:13.319 and didn't want to do it. But there were people 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.080 in Washington, d C. Giving them a limited amount of 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:17.360 time to do what they had to do. 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:17.680 You know. 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.280 I don't know all about the how the government worked 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:22.720 that in that way, but I think that had a 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:25.200 lot to do with it. She kept telling them she 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.800 wasn't going. She told them she wasn't leaving, and she 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.960 run one off that came down when talk to her 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:33.120 more that she didn't recognize him because it was a 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:35.640 different one than what had been there before, and she said, 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.920 you might as well hit the trail. That's what she stuted. Oh, 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:42.480 by here's something. Oh she was something else. 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.280 Grannie was not a wealthy woman, but you know, many 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.720 people like her saved every penny they ever made. I 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.480 suspect that's how she could afford a local lawyer to 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:56.800 fight against the behemoth of the National Park Service. Many 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:01.120 sold right away, but not Grannie Henderson. I suspected did 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:04.800 buy her some time. But that's about it. I asked 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.320 Jane about the house the park built her. 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:14.760 Yeah, they built her a house with electric running water, worshiper, dryer, 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:18.240 bath inside bathroom. She never knew nothing about stuff like that. 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:20.320 She didn't even know how to start a worship driyer. 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.240 She works in the creek on the rubboard. 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:23.880 Yeah. 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.240 Yeah, I feel like they just I feel like she 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.680 would have lived a lot longer. She was eighty seven, 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.280 and I always held it against them because how much 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:36.320 lower would she have lived? And she would have lived 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.600 a happy life. She might have lived to be a hundred, 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:40.880 I don't know, and she would she would have lived 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.120 longer than she did, Yes, but no, Grandma was a 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:47.320 she was a tough woman. I wish I would have 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.440 paid more attention because we were just me and Rosie 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.400 played the creek most of the time if we wasn't working. 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:57.200 She had a lot of old Indian remedies for like 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:01.680 snake bites, bee stings, whatever, you know, just being kids, 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.760 we didn't pay a lot of attention to her. Yeah, 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.160 I know of three times she got copperheadbit and she 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:09.440 never even went to the doctor. Is that right, that's right, 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:10.880 that's absolutely right. 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:11.480 Yes. 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:14.560 And forgetting seed ticks and stuff on her, she would 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.880 tie kerosene ragar and her ankles and she'd never get 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:21.200 any text her checkers on her. I don't know what 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:23.560 she did for the snake bites. I remember she told 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:25.960 me one time that she mixed up turpe tine and 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:30.240 sugar and stove soot for a cut. Now, that would 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:32.880 stop the bleeding. But as far as the sneak bates, 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:33.880 I don't know what she does. 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:34.520 But I know of. 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.200 Three times she got compreheaded bedow and she killed them 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:39.760 and throwed them in with the hogs and they ate them. 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.240 I remember. 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:43.760 Oh, yeah, I'll never forget my grandma. 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.880 That's a pretty gangster move to feed the copperhead. That 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.440 just bit you to the hogs and then whip up 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:54.280 an herbal remedy, avoiding the lines that the er. If 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:56.880 you want to get Clay Nucomb's attention, tell me how 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:00.520 many times you've been bitten by venomous snakes, unless you're 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.040 just fooling around like Brent was when he got bit. 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:05.679 But the number of times you've been bit is a 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:10.119 direct correlation to your exposure to gritty close to the 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.199 land living. And if Granny was out of her bed, 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:23.320 she was in some serious snake country. As I sit 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:26.480 with my back to these four big ozark bucks on 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:30.760 the wall, Jane pulls out the March nineteen seventy seven 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:35.200 issue of National Geographic. I'm flipping through the pages looking 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:40.360 at the incredible images of Granny on her farm. Tell 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:43.840 me about when National Geographic came and did that peace 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:44.240 on her. 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:46.760 I didn't know anything about that until I got that 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:49.480 through the mail. I didn't know anything about him. Even 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.160 you know, she had lots of company that she didn't 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:54.760 say too much about it to anybody. 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:59.240 So she was in National Geographic, which in the seventies was, yeah, 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.800 probably even bigger than it is today. I mean a magazine, 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:07.399 a premiere print magazine. She was a national geographic and 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:09.440 never told it. Just didn't think it was that big 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:09.800 a deal. 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:10.480 Right. 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.280 No, But when they first started coming down and talking 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:16.800 to her about where she lived, I guess it's some 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:17.560 part people out. 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:18.080 She said. 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.760 There were some strange people come down here, and she said, 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:22.800 I answered some of their questions, and some of them 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:27.199 I told there wasn't another business. But I thought that 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:28.480 was such a god. Have you saw this? 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:28.760 Oh? 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:29.800 I have? I have? 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.639 Yeah, I had it hunted for that wall ago and 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.120 I had in a toad in my closet. 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:39.680 That is probably that's the really famous picture of her 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:40.120 right there. 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.439 It is she's something. She was something else. Yeah, tough. 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.919 She was ever a bit four foot seven and she 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.280 would get up on top of a five gallon bucket 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.399 and drive a wooden post with a sledge hammer. They 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:55.680 didn't have tea posts back then. 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:57.800 She was tough. 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.040 She carried the water from and she had her some 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:03.240 big tubs down there. But the fance she carried water 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:07.560 from Buffalo, carried the water at Turkey Hoose in that tib. 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.320 Did she always wear the camouflage. 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:12.200 Old, yes, oh yes. 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:14.360 On time we ever seen her with that is when 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:15.360 she's getting ready to go to bed. 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.639 She wore that specific canfula yes, yes, sir, Do you 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:20.240 still have that? 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:21.560 No? 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:23.720 The sad thing of it is is when I go 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.760 back down to her home place, all the windows are out, 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:29.800 the riffs falling in. The purservice was supposed to have 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.360 kept that up as a historical side. It's pitiful. 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:35.239 I wonder why they're not keeping it up. 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:35.760 I don't know. 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:41.040 Grannie Henderson always wore an old school camo patterned bonnet, 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.520 and that ended kind of on a downer note. You see, 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:48.880 Grannie's house is still standing. It's a several mile hike 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.600 or mule ride down there, but it's just a matter 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:55.000 of time before the earth reclaims it. I do know 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:57.639 that the park has done some work on it since 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:01.280 she left, but the family isn't too happy about it. 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:03.919 And I do know that there's currently a group called 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.440 the Buffalo River Partners trying to raise money to help 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:12.639 restore Grannie's house. And since we started researching for this podcast, 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:17.240 the park has publicly stated new interest in maintaining the 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:21.399 historic structures, but some say it's a day late and 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.520 a dollar short. I visited Grannie's old home place many 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.640 times as we hear this emotional story of Granny giving 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.520 up her land, It's important to understand that the park 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:36.240 did give every landowner the right of a life of state, 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.280 which means they could live there until they died, and 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.240 upon the death of the deed holder, the land would 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.080 go into the possession of the park. It was kind 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:49.160 of confusing when I learned that, because I'd have thought 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.600 she would have taken them up on that deal. But 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.840 for where she lived, the life of States had heavy 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:59.280 restrictions on livestock and land use that she couldn't tolerate. 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:03.199 And as I understand it, after a long battle and 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:05.880 her being the last one on the river, all her 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.840 neighbors and family had moved away, the family thought it 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:14.160 was best that she should sell and move. She'd held 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:17.600 out for so long. But even with this option of 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.280 the life estate, it didn't soften the sting of the cold, 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.439 stiff arm of the government. To an unbiased observer, it 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.320 might be easy to say, well, that's fair. If they 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:30.280 want to make a park for our nation to enjoy, 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:32.400 at least they gave the option for folks to live 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.720 there until they died. Then it's their choice. Well, it 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:39.040 wasn't their choice, and the other option would have been 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:42.560 the government never coming to buy your land. In the 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:46.160 upper part of the Buffalo River watershed sits the small 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.760 community of Boxley, and in nineteen seventy two it contained 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:54.280 twenty seven occupied homes and approximately eighty people. And in 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:59.440 the original National Park Service survey documentation in nineteen sixty one, 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:04.920 they know Boxley and suggested a private use zone, stating, quote, 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:09.920 areas possessing high agricultural values, such as those around Boxley 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:14.960 and along Richland Creek, might be protected by acquiring partial 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:19.399 rights or scenic easements only end of quote. Boxley was 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:24.359 also along a prominent roadway into the park, and so 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:28.840 Boxley was given kind of a special unique deal. But 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:32.240 Granny's Place was truly in the backwoods and wasn't in 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:35.280 a private use zone. They would follow through with this 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:38.280 in the nineteen seventy two legislation, and it meant that 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:41.920 the land at Boxley could remain in private ownership quote 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:44.719 except for the rights purchased by the government to prevent 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:48.880