Friday, December 2, 2022

Buffalo National River 1972-1975

 

Old newspaper clipping


    I have hundreds of photos of the Buffalo National River during its first few years, 72 through 75.  I was a naturalist in the first years Buffalo Point was a state park.  As Chief Naturalist for the state of Arkansas, I hired young men as summer naturalists for 5 state parks.  The trails you walk at Buffalo point today and the amphitheatre where programs are given are trails me and my naturalists built.  The amphitheatre is still where I laid it out and with my fellow naturalists, built log benches.  I offered the National Park Service more than 200 slides I took back in those early days and they refused them. It does indeed hurt that they will not recognize what we did there.  When I went to work for The National Park Service at Buffalo River I intended to make it a career.  Then I saw what they were all about.  Someday I will write about what I saw, even the pot and alcohol parties in park cabins put on by a park employee where Yellville kids as young as 16 were welcomed.  And two of the dumbest NPS men I have ever seen in charge of anything.  They thought the local people were in a class below them… I know… I was there!  Enjoy the photos, some are of Buffalo point as a state park, and some when it became a national park.

 

Amphitheater photos are from ‘71









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