Invincible - June 2011

june 2011 AtUrbanMagazine.com

invincible

lifestyle

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

entertainment

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

16 20

The Mayor of Bluegrass Now Hear This

people

MANAGING EDITOR

Catherine Frederick

Dinner Move Over Monet Hosting Bugs The Green Goodbye

22 26 28

Double Miracle City in a Box Log Cabin Legacy

taste

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF PRESIDENT

7 8 12 14

32 34 37

Bratburgers Untapped Urban Rita

destination

@INSIDE

38 42 46

Zipping Through the Ozarks Finding the Cache Braving Richland Creek

Marla Cantrell Randi (Mills) Bomar Marla Cantrell Marcus Coker Catherine Frederick Laura Hobbs Jim Martin Tonya McCoy Todd Whetsine Marcus Coker

DESIGNER

Jeromy Price

WEB GURU

David Jamell

PUBLISHER

Read Chair Publishing, LLC

Advertising and Distribution Information

Catherine Frederick at 479 / 782 / 1500 Catherine@AtUrbanMagazine.com Editorial or Artwork Information

Marla Cantrell at 479 / 831 / 9116 Marla@AtUrbanMagazine.com Š2011 Read Chair Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

The opinions contained in @Urban are exclusively those of the writers and do not represent those of Read Chair Publishing, LLC. as a whole or its affiliates. Any correspondence to @Urban or Read Chair Publishing, LLC., including photography becomes the property of Read Chair Publishing, LLC. @Urban reserves the right to edit content and images.

@LETTER FROM CATHERINE

I

just love this photo of my dad. And yes, I’ve seen that look more than once. This photo was from his Army days. Then he joined the Air Force and the National Guard followed. My dad has never shied away from hard work, even if it meant digging in a ditch under the blistering sun. As a child, I remember him coming home from the base, tall and strong, drenched with dirt and sweat. He always told me he worked hard so one day I wouldn’t have to.

That comment has become quite ironic. It’s because of my dad and the lessons he taught me that I work so hard today. He’s the man behind my fierce independence, and perhaps my stubbornness. He also taught me to be creative (It all started with mud pies), use my imagination (I am an only child) and fostered a love of reading (Oh my, how I love to read). In my dad’s words, “If you learn to read, you can do anything.”

I’ve never had to wonder what my dad was thinking or what his opinion might be. His word is his bond and he’d never back down from a fight. He has the biggest, strongest hands of any man I’ve ever known, yet with my son, he’s a gentle giant. Theirs is a bond never to be broken - they are best friends- and I cherish it.

I think he’s invincible. That’s one of the reasons we picked the word for our cover. We thought it summed up how many of us see our fathers. It also sums up how we see the people and places we discovered this month. You’ll meet Barry Thomas, the former Razorback who played under Lou Holtz, then left to follow his dream of becoming an artist. We’ll introduce you to Butch Whitlow, an amazing man who tells his story of physical endurance, bone-chilling pain, and the miracle that brought him back from the brink for a second chance at life.

We’re also taking you high up in the trees in an adventure called Locoropes. We’ll take you through backcountry to one of Arkansas’ most beautiful waterways, send you into the woods hunting for treasure, and take you all the way to Haiti to show you the compassion of some of your very own neighbors.

Not enough? What about a mayor who plays bluegrass?

And it wouldn’t be @Urban if we didn’t give you an incredible recipe (the cover image is the only hint we’re giving), a drink recipe for the dry days of summer, and a beer tour, where the craft of brewing takes top billing.

So sit back, start turning the pages, and get ready for your June dose of @Urban! Don’t you just love summer?

On July 23, @Urban is hosting our first ever music event, “Red, White, and Bluegrass” at Second Street Live. The tickets are free, but limited to around 250! Want to move to the top of the invite list? Then sign up for @Urban’s weekly newsletter, The Mix, and you’ll be the first to know!

@LIFESTYLE

If you drink wine with me I might cry. Don’t be put off.

It won’t last long.

I prefer a Merlot, a Shiraz, lightly chilled, Served on an empty stomach.

It thaws me quicker that way.

I marvel at the fleeting softness, How it feels to have my armor Set aside by an unseen host.

I may tear up, blush, or just kneel quietly Before the battered gate of my own heart.

If I praise the pain, If I worship the beautiful lion As he tears me in pieces, don’t worry.

If I look up at you, wide-eyed, With a hunger for more, please, Don’t get up to leave. It’s temporary.

The waiter is on his way.

The bread and meat will soak up All this spilled softness, Will end it gently, Like waking swallows dreams.

@lines Randi (Mills) Bomar

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@LIFESTYLE

L

ittle Rock artist Barry Thomas is a rugged man, driving

Both his father and grandfather influenced the man Barry is

By the time he graduated from Catholic High in Little Rock, he’d

cattle, sailing boats, biking across high mountains. When

today. He’s makes a good living as an artist, thanks in part to the

reconciled the two things that made him happy. He enrolled at

the former Razorback defensive end rises from his chair and

diligence he saw in his father and he stays grounded because

the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, put on Razorback red,

stands before the tall window at Carnall Hall in Fayetteville, the

his grandfather showed him the best part of life has nothing to

and played defensive end for Lou Holtz, during the glory days.

sun splinters around him. He is wearing a wide leather bracelet

do with money.

on his left wrist. His jacket is brown. It looks as if there are still football pads beneath it. There aren’t. It’s all Barry.

“I just love learning. Doesn’t matter what. Take fly fishing,” he says. “You study the ecology and then

He walks across the worn slats of the wooden floor, and runs his

you cast your fly. When you study the ecology, the

broad hand across the thick black paint on a door that’s well over

temperature of the water, the drift of the current, what’s

a hundred years old. “I have extreme curiosity and a photographic

hatching right now, like mayflies, say. When you figure

memory,” he says. “That can be a blessing or a curse. I see an

that out, an opportunity presents itself so much better

oak tree, and then I see every oak tree I’ve ever seen. I remember

than if you just crank your bait out there and hope you

everything. It’s how I got by when I was a kid. Back then, I’d look at a

catch a fish. Well, landing a fish in itself has no reward.

book and the words would just jump off the page. I couldn’t follow it. My mother gave me a recorder to help me study. ..I got to be about

“As a kid, that’s the kind of thing that helped me

forty and all of a sudden reading wasn’t a struggle anymore.”

connect with nature and get away from the world’s left-brain thinking. I’d meditate, draw energy from it.

But even when the words on a page wavered, Barry read. “I read

I didn’t really know all that as a kid, what exactly was

Thoreau, Emerson. I grew up on a horse ranch. My family had

happening, but that’s why I became an artist.

five boys, one girl. I was in the middle. My grandfather was a half-blooded Indian and he’d take us in the woods. We’d stay

“Sometimes I’d draw all night. Even now I only sleep

for days. And I’d study nature. He knew the names of the trees,

three or four hours. I drew my cowboy boots, hats, stuff

why a deer appeared at a certain time of the day. He made his

from my mom’s fashion magazines. It’s all the same:

own bamboo rods and he made fishing lures.

line, distance, form.

“My dad was the opposite. He was a self-made man who believed

“There was a time when I lived at home and I was this big old

“I was a junior when Coach Holtz was leaving and I sat down

you went to college, you got the good job. He was task driven.

jock,” he says, “and I’d have my friends come over. I had all

with him and he helped me draft a letter that got me into one

the barry thomas story

My grandfather was happy in a tiny little house. He taught me

these sketches and paintings and I had them inside my closet

of the best art schools in the world. I was already an art major,

@story Marla Cantrell @images CHACH Co.

to be in harmony with nature. I started understanding that as a

– I’d turned it into a little studio, with a lock on the door. When

but I took mostly academic classes in the morning and practiced

kid.” Barry stops, rubs his beard. “You know,” he says, and then

I read about Emily Dickinson and how she hid her poems in a

with the team in the afternoon. So I had the art history down,

delivers this profound line. “The direction you’re facing has a lot

drawer, I thought, Man, that’s who I am. I didn’t want the guys to

but not many painting classes.”

to do with your destination.

know this other side of me.”

BarryThomasArt.com

move over monet

9

@LIFESTYLE

across Oklahoma, Colorado, out west. I take pictures. I write about it. Art will come from that. Maybe a year down the road, but it comes.

“I’m careful with my life. I don’t watch news much. I don’t read many newspapers.” Barry crosses his left ankle across his right knee, and leans forward in his chair. “You should read Winston That school was the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

Churchill’s ‘Painting as a Pastime.’ He got it. You fill your mind

There he studied hard. Some days he painted outdoors with

with negativity, you have to find an outlet for it. Why would I

the ocean as a backdrop. For a while he found it hard to sell his

want that negativity to become the community of who I am?

paintings, not because there were no customers but because “I’m at peace when I paint. I know a lot of men live a life of ‘I

he’d invested so much in them he couldn’t let them go.

want, I need, I won.’ But are they happy? I don’t think so. So I His style is often compared to impressionists like Monet. “I only

run from that. I do take care of my business, of course. You have

study the masters,” he says. He paints mostly with yellow, blue

to. But I live in the cerebral part of life where real happiness is.

and red. Never black or brown. “I studied the rods and cones of the eye and the way they’re attached to your brain and how all

“I feel like the greatest painting hasn’t been painted yet. Why

that’s connected to the lifts and changes in your blood pressure.

can’t I do it?” he asks, not the least bit incredulous. “My father

And so when you look at something there’s a reason your eyes

was a top surgeon and he grew up on a dirt floor in Batesville,

are drawn to that. It’s physics, science, psychology. That value

Arkansas. And he had to say, I’m going to do better than the

changes your emotion.

doctors before me. And I’m going to do better than the painters before me.”

“You don’t understand the truth of a person until you stand right in front of them and stare them in the face. You see their integrity.

And just then, the spark that stayed with him through every

I capture that and paint that as a color. You use integrity as an

football game he played, both at Catholic High and under Lou

adjective and work with boldness and softness and rhythm. You

Holtz, flashes in the sedate room. “I live a big life,” he says. “I

have to understand a person’s rhythm.

know this doesn’t last forever. I want to go out blazing,” he says, and his eyes light with the possibility. “I don’t want to be the guy who just walks through the door.”

Barry can discuss art (and philosophy) until the sun sets and then rises again. He talks about music. He plays guitar, but not well. “Music is in the sisterhood with painting. I’m shitty at it,” he says, and then laughs. “Doesn’t matter. I still play.” And writing. “I write all the time. I go on cattle drives, 300 cows,

10

@LIFESTYLE

dozen pests a day. Pesticides will kill these warriors, so be wary.

They love low-growing plants such as oregano, alfalfa, thyme and low grasses.

Hoverflies

hosting bugs

Often mistaken for wasps, Hoverflies have black-and-yellow striped bodies but don’t sting. As their name implies, they like to hover over flowers as they drink the nectar. They’re excellent pollinators. It’s not the adults who do the work, it’s the larvae.

The larvae are small brown or green maggots that hatch from eggs, eating up to 500 pests before they mature. The adults must have pollen to reproduce, so ensure your garden contains flowering plants such as daisies, fennel, mint, sunflowers, or dill from spring to the first frost in the fall.

the great eight

@story Catherine Frederick

I

am not a bug lover. I am a bug smasher. Creepy crawly, ugly little creatures are not my friends. Or so I thought. I did a little research and it turns out, instead of rolling over them with my shoe, I need to roll out the welcome wagon, at least to a few.

Like it or not, we are dependent on insects to process and decompose organic wastes (if not for them, we’d all be wading in a wasteland of dead stuff and poo). They pollinate our gardens.

They serve as a food source for those big dogs higher up the food chain, and they produce useful products like medicines, honey and silk. They are even used to make red food coloring!

Lacewings This is one bug that doesn’t creep me out. It’s actually beautiful.

Attracted to light, you’ll usually find them buzzing around porch fixtures or clinging to your windows. The adults have long, slender, green transparent wings and golden eyes. They only consume pollen and nectar. They lay their eggs on the ends of long fibers to keep the new hatchlings from eating each other.

The larvae are huge protein eaters and can eat up to 500 aphids per day, giving them the name “aphid lions.” Welcome them to your garden with caraway, golden rod, yarrow and dandelions.

There are eight bugs no garden should be without. They’re easy to find in your backyard and easy to enctice into your garden. They’re hard workers, and help control hundreds of unwanted pests.

Big Eyed Bugs Say hello to my little friends. They may be tiny but they’re aggressive when it comes to controlling caterpillars, spider mites, aphids, flea beetles, whiteflies, and the eggs of many other pests. Adults are only about 1/6 inch long, have a slightly oblong body with wide-set, bulging eyes. They can eat several

Ladybugs

Spiders

whiteflies, beetle larvae and other pests. Remember, ladybug larvae don’t look like the adult version- they look more like elongated alligators with orange spots. Don’t get rid of them!

Both the larvae and adults will chomp on pests. Adults enjoy nectar so give them clusters of small flowers such as Angelica, cilantro, thyme and yarrow.

There are 38,000 known species in the world, all with great hearing, many legs, and an exceptional sense of smell and touch. They catch their prey, liquefy them and “drink” them.

They are all predators. Hard for me to get past those facts and say, “Come on in!” Good thing there are only four species of poisonous spiders in the U.S.: the brown recluse, black widow, hobo and yellow sac. Most spiders’ fangs are not large enough, or strong enough to pierce human skin, so for the most part, they are harmless. Some pounce, some spin webs, some dig holes and others, like the wolf spider, live on the ground. They will help rid your garden of aphids, various beetles, fire ants, squash bugs and many others. They all enjoy a mixed garden of varied plant heights and blooms.

Minute Pirate Bugs Ahoy tiny creatures! Don’t let their size fool you. Oval shaped, black-and-white adults measure only a 1/16 of an inch (the orange or yellow nymphs are even smaller) and are fast moving. They feed on spider mites, aphids, insect eggs, small caterpillars, lace bugs, and whiteflies with needle-like “beaks.”

Flowering plants attract these small soldiers. Good choices are sage, oregano, crimson clover and parsley. Note: Be mindful, they may turn to plants for food when prey sources dwindle in the heat of summer.

Tachinid Flies

@image Bresson Thomas

Resist the urge to break out the fly swat. These little guys are both pollinators and pest eaters. Here again, the female lays eggs directly on the host (caterpillars, beetles, sawfly larvae, and many others). The eggs hatch, feeding begins and the host is killed. Adults use pollen and nectar as a food source so provide flowering herbs, especially dill, cilantro, fennel, and several members of the daisy family.

Parasitic Wasps Those are two words that should just not go together. Good news is they are non-stinging and are some of the most beneficial insects. Here is where it gets nasty. The females lay their eggs inside or on host insects. The babies hatch and eat the prey. Some species have external cocoons (like the Braconid that preys on tomato hornworms). Eeewww. They help control aphids, bagworms, several variety of beetles, squash vine borers and many others. The adults are attracted to plants like cosmos, dill, fennel, sunflowers, yarrow and thyme.

Start small. Understand the cycle of predator and prey. Learn to identify the good and the bad guys. If your garden is low on beneficials, you can purchase them online from a variety of sellers.

Be sure to always read and follow the enclosed instructions.

These ladies are probably the most recognized beneficial bug. They look sweet and innocent, but prey on aphids, mites,

12

@image Stephen Friedt

13

@LIFESTYLE

E

leven years ago, my husband bought me a miniature schnauzer for my birthday. Since then, we’ve added three more schnauzers and one rescue dog to the mix. I can’t imagine

my life without them, although my furniture has suffered a good bit, along with my bank account. Especially when I dole out more than $50 a month for flea and tick repellent.

So in March, I tried something new. EcoEXEMPT IC2 is a blend of plant oils that is designed

@story Marla Cantrell

to kill insects. Like ticks and fleas. The ingredients listed are: ten percent rosemary oil, two percent peppermint oil, and eighty-eight percent oil of wintergreen, mineral oil USP, and vanillin. It comes in a one gallon jug, with a measuring cup attached, and smells like an acre of spearmint gum.

I paid $80 for this product, $30 more than a month’s worth of the standard flea and tick protection for my little four-footed tribe. But here’s where the green side of EcoEXEMPT turns golden. I estimate the container will last me at least two years, using a hefty gallon a month.

Here’s why. You only use one ounce of EcoEXEMPT in a thirty-two ounce spray bottle.

My (unscientific) experiment has played out this way. I’ve only found one tick on one dog, and that was on the underside of his floppy ear, where I had not sprayed. So far, so good. I’ve been told by another enthusiast that he used EcoEXEMPT last summer on his dogs, who play in the

You’ll Need 32oz. Spray Bottle oz. of EcoEXEMPT, added to the bottle

woods all day, and it worked superbly, so I’m hopeful I’ll have the same result.

What I can tell you is this. My dogs have never smelled better.

The stuff can also be used to control mosquitoes, aphids on roses, flies, and as I’ve recently learned, ants. My husband is even using it on his fruit trees, so we’re getting our money’s worth.

drop of a mild dishwashing detergent, such as Dawn, as a binder for the mixture

I bought EcoEXEMPT CI2 at GrowFresh in Fort Smith, but a Google search will also turn up a field full of sources.

Fill the remaining space with water. That’s it. Now, corral your pups, and spray away, making sure you evenly distribute the mixture. (You can also dip them.)

Take care to avoid getting any of this in their eyes. I used a cloth to wipe the mixture on their heads.

I’ll keep you posted this summer and let you know how my trial goes. I think it’s worth a try. A very minty try!

Always check with your vet before introducing new treatments for your pets.

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@LIFESTYLE

the mayor of bluegrass frog bayou boys

@story Marla Cantrell @images Marcus Coker

I

n a small Craftsman house that also serves as Rudy’s town

hall, Mayor Bill Rogers makes executive decisions, runs the one-man police force, and plays bluegrass. Oh my, how the mayor plays bluegrass.

His band, the

Frog Bayou Boys (named after the waterway that borders Rudy proper, population seventy-two), come here on Friday mornings to practice, philosophize, and sing the roof off.

Mayor Bill, who writes original music for the group, won’t take credit for starting the band. That honor goes to Larry Walker, who used to play solo, sitting in a recliner near the entrance of A to Z Sporting Goods in Alma. “There was no music in my family much, other than singing in church,” Larry says, his elbow resting on the knee of his Big Smith overalls.

He is a big man, the kind you’d want beside you if a fight ever broke out. The fiddle, when he holds it to his chin to play, looks as small as a toy. “Never picked up an instrument until four years ago. I retired and had to find something to fill the time.

Well, I’ve always loved fiddle music. My wife came home one day and said the seventy-one-year-old doctor she worked for had started piano lessons that day. That inspired me. I went and bought me a fiddle and a book that said it could teach you fiddling. The truth of it is that what I can do today is because of these guys. You wouldn’t believe how many hours they have sat and listened to some very bad music.” Larry tips his ball cap to the other five members of the group. “I owe everything I can do to these guys right here.”

longing so sharp it makes you wince. But there is also light, and joy. “And moonshine,” Bill says. “Try to feel sorrow when you

Larry fell in love with music four years ago; Bobby Burkhart,

sing about moonshine.”

who plays guitar and “sings a little” started so long ago he can’t remember exactly when. “Played all my life,” Bobby says.

Banjo player James Robertson chimes in. “It’s hard to be sad,”

“I played country and western music most of the time. I’ve

he says, “when the banjo’s playing. I like bluegrass because it’s

always played bluegrass,” Bobby says. He is a compact man,

the only true American art form. Most other music can trace its

straight-backed and efficient, and he fits easily in the folding

roots back to some other country. Bluegrass started right here

chair brought out for this jam session. Next to Larry, there is

in the United States.”

a striking juxtaposition of height and space. “We can go about anywhere and play with just about anybody. Over our lifetime

Bobby jumps in. “The first music was folk music. Well, then, bluegrass

we’ve played about every song they are.

come along with Bill Monroe and them, they kindly converted the folk music with country music and come up with bluegrass. It’s just

“’Wildwood Flower’ takes me all the way back to my childhood

kindly in between. All these bluegrass bands play gospel, country.

[in the 1940s]. First song I ever learned to play on my guitar. My

Ricky Skaggs and them, they just mix it all together.”

dad taught me. He played music. I got three or four brothers that can play. ‘Course mostly they play in church. We play a lot

For a while all the talking stops. Vander Atwell, the oldest

of gospel songs.”

member at seventy-seven, picks up his mandolin, adjusts the strap across his shoulder, and cocks back the brim of his fedora.

Gospel music runs as deep as a river through bluegrass. There

Larry twists the watch fob that’s come out of one of the many

is salvation in the lyrics, trouble higher than the mountains, and

pockets on his overalls, and then the music starts. The Frog

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@LIFESTYLE

Bayou Boys begin to play “Put My Little Shoes Away,” a song so

Bill finishes the thought. “You can’t play rock and roll in a cow

full of emotion it’s like listening to a confession.

pasture. The bass,” he says, pointing to Kendall, “is the most vital part of this unit. That’s what drives the tempo.”

As they play, Larry closes his eyes and leans on his fiddle. He begins to sing, his voice like an instrument all its own, raw and

“It’s simple music; it’s not sophisticated,” Vander says. “But it’s

mournful, full of Southern mornings and nights on the farm. The

beautiful music. Yes sir, just beautiful.”

others sing along, and the small room swells with music. You can feel the rocking of the wooden floors, the notes humming

Larry points with his bow, making the point they all share.

off the walls.

“This music,” he says, “this music is our history. We all kind of love that.”

Bill says bluegrass is a lot like life: you find yourself at depths you never imagined, then soar so high you think you might never return to earth. During a show, the Frog Bayou Boys take you to both extremes, make you tally there, and then bring you back to solid ground. Kendall Hopkins, who graduated from a Number 2 wash tub, played with a string and a stick, to a very respectable stand-up bass three years ago, sees bluegrass as a kind of therapy.

“Every human goes through something that makes them believe nobody understands how they feel,” Kendall says. “Young, old.

FREE

Bluegrass grabs whatever that feeling is and lets them know they’re not the only one. It’s going to be all right.”

The Frog Bayou Boys play for free at the Rudy Community Center on the fourth Monday of every month, beginning at 6:00 P.M. The town provides a potluck dinner, everyone’s invited, and the boys play until the requests stop.

The six men respect the music that brings them together each week. “There’s a big misconception about it being hillbilly music,” Bill says.

July 3rd

Bobby tugs at the brim of his hat. “Here’s the most important

On July 3, they’ll be playing on the ball field just outside the community center, during the town’s fireworks show. The park opens at 6:00, the Frog Bayou Boys play at 7:00, and concession stands will be open for drinks and food. Fireworks start when the sun goes down.

thing about bluegrass,” he says. “This music is all acoustic instruments. For years and years they wouldn’t allow an electric instrument at all.”

18

@ENTERTAINMENT

“Darlin’ Kate,” a heartbreaking tribute to her dear departed friend, Kate McGarrigle, is one of the best songs she’s ever written. “The Road,” is a look back at the beginning of her career and the time spent with Gram Parsons. While not in the same class as “Boulder To Birmingham” from 1975’s “Pieces Of The Sky,” her breathy vocals and the straight-up rock beat make it a joy to listen to.

“Big Black Dog,” is inspired by her animal shelter philanthropy, and “My Name Is Emmett Till”, tells the true story of a fourteenyear-old black boy killed for talking to a white woman.

High Points: That voice! Has there ever been a more angelic sounding voice than Emmylou’s? Also, the writing, where she

now hear this

proves she is more than qualified to be held in the same regard as legendary songwriters such as Woody Guthrie, Paul Simon,

emmylou harris — “hard bargain”

and even Bob Dylan. Yes! She is that good.

@review Jim Martin

hroughout her career, critics have questioned time and again

T

Low Points: Track 4, “Goodnight Old World.” I can’t figure out

whether Emmylou Harris is an artist who interprets other

why, I just don’t like this one.

the attention of music fans through her contributions to the solo

This is an album full of sad songs, but surprisingly short on

career of Gram Parsons, she has become known as one of the

melodrama.

finest interpretive vocalists in American music. Even she admitted

honest, heartfelt, and tuned to the realities of American life. At

in a recent interview that songwriting isn’t something that comes

sixty-four, she has made an album as fresh and distinctive as

easy for her, “It’s the fear of writing that’s still there with me.”

any in her catalog, serving as a reminder that her evolution as a

people’s songs better than she writes her own. First coming to Emmylou’s voice keeps these songs sounding

songwriter is one of the most pleasant surprises in a career that’s produced quality music for nearly forty years.

After breaking new ground with 1995’s “Wrecking Ball,” she set out on a new creative journey. While previously writing songs for her albums on an occasional basis, now her compositions began to fill out her recordings. Writing with an unforced lyrical and

I Rate It

melodic grace, she has proven herself as gifted a songwriter as she is a singer. Emmylou wrote or co-wrote eleven of the thirteen tracks on “Hard Bargain,” her first release in three years.

20

@PEOPLE

Yet he still has regrets. Because what he believes now is different

my nervous system and my skin.” Butch rolls up the leg of his

than what he believed then. “I used to say, I am confident, not

trousers and shows his calf, covered with brown spots. “It made

conceited. I’d go to the mall, walk down into the parking garage

my legs hyper-sensitive,” he says. “I have neuropathy on my feet.

and think, I could take on anybody that approached me. I could

I can’t feel them but I still feel enough pressure to walk on them.

whip the world. Nobody could take me out. I thought that was

It feels like a stone bruise, sometimes like needles.”

confidence. I was wrong. I thought I was in control. Well, I wasn’t.”

But that was the least of his worries. “I read up on amyloidosis.

It took a series of setbacks before Butch changed his mind. The

Best I could tell, in a full-blown case the life expectancy was

first came in August, 2002, when he went to the doctor, fearing

twelve to eighteen months. It likes to attack the kidneys or the

he had kidney stones.

heart and shut them down. My heart was slightly enlarged, and they felt like that’s where it was hitting me.”

The test results confirmed a much bigger problem. “At first they thought I had muscle neuropathy. They hit me with heavy

What seemed like a reprieve came shortly after. “I thought he

steroids. I went from 225 to a 300 pound blob. I kept getting

[one of his doctors] told me I was cancer free. I came home

worse. We were just sitting there watching my body die. That

and we all celebrated. I was telling people prayer worked. On

went on for five years.”

my next visit I learned I was multi-myloma free but I still had amyloidosis, and I still needed treatment.”

Butch was admitted to the Mayo Clinic twice. “My last trip to Mayo was in February, 2008. They finally found a protein in

The news was hard to take. “Yeah, it hurt,” Butch says, “but you

my blood that wasn’t supposed to be there. An M-protein. All

know what. Through this whole deal, God gave me a peace that

they could tell me then was that I would develop some form of

was unbelievable.” He smiles, runs his fingers through his thick

cancer at some point.”

shock of hair. “My biggest fear was losing my hair.”

him for guidance, physical discipline, and a philosophy that

By June, the dire prediction had come true. Butch had a form

So the treatment began. For a week, through a process that

would serve them when times got rough. “You can’t run a

of cancer called amyloidosis. He was also diagnosed with

reminded Butch of dialysis, they harvested his own stem cells.

karate school for money,” Butch says, “because there’s no

fibromyalgia, which explained the constant pain he’d been in.

He was given a strong round of chemo. The next day he was

real money in it. It has to come from your heart. In all the

“My strength was just gone. My muscle tone was shot. I’d blown

given the stem cell injection. “At one point,” Butch says, “my

utch Whitlow never wasted a minute. “I’ve run a hundred

time I had the school, I probably spent $25,000 out of my

my back out and had had to have surgery.”

white blood count went down to .03.

miles an hour with my hair on fire ever since I can

own pocket. Maybe more. But we never turned a kid down. It

remember. I raced boats, ran this business,” he says, sitting

didn’t matter if their parents could afford it. There were kids

Soon after learning the news, his doctors ordered a bone marrow

“The next week wasn’t too bad, but the following week, well,

behind his desk at Whit’s Marine in Fort Smith. “I’m an eighth-

we needed to touch, that we needed to reach out to. That’s

biopsy. “God just intervened. We found out the number one place

I’ve never been so sick in my life. If it hadn’t been for my wife

degree black belt in GoJu. I’ve done that for thirty years. Had

the blessing in it.”

to treat this disease was UAMS in Little Rock. ..The M-protein

Cindy, I don’t think I could have made it. She pushed me to eat,

attacks the organs, and the best we can tell it was attacking

kept me going.”

double miracle butch whitlow

@story Marla Cantrell @images Marcus Coker

B

my own school for twenty-five.”

He influenced hundreds of students in Alma, who looked to

23

@PEOPLE

His trouble wasn’t over yet. “I had to go through another round,

a double miracle. You’ve beat the cancer, and you’ve beat the

in March of 2009,” Butch says. “And yeah, I dreaded it. That

other problems.’”

time I went into respiratory failure. I was on a ventilator for nine Butch, who once turned heads as he walked through crowds,

days. For the first five, they weren’t sure I’d make it.

whose body had been honed from years of breaking boards “I’d taken big doses of steroids. I’d been in that bed for a long

and tossing students onto padded mats, is not the same person

time. My blood count was low and I was battling infections. My

now. “I look back and I was cocky. I described it as confident,

muscles deteriorated; I couldn’t walk. When I woke up, I couldn’t

but I think I was also telling God I could handle it all. I found out

sit up. I couldn’t even slide my legs together.”

in a hurry, I needed His help. A lot. I look back and I would have done it differently. I think my family suffered a little, because I

His hospital stay stretched into July. His wife didn’t leave his

lived and breathed karate for a while. I led, but I didn’t allocate

side. “I knew there had to be a reason for all of this.” But there

much,” he says, and this statement sums up the crack in his

was frustration. “I’d gone from this big guy who could take care

armor. “If a man climbs to the top of a mountain, then he’s on

of everything to someone who couldn’t take care of myself. My

the mountaintop alone. If he takes people with him, then it’s a

wife would go to the truck to get something and I’d think, I can’t

nice place to be.”

even make sure she’s okay. If my kids had a problem, I couldn’t Today, he’s back at work. He’s catching up with his son, and

take care of it. That’s what hurt.”

so proud of his daughter it’s almost heartbreaking. One of his Butch’s son, Micah, was fourteen at that time. His daughter,

prized students has opened a karate school in Alma, and Butch

Alex, was twenty, and away at school. Butch grips the edge of

will help teach – one night a week. He’s also telling his story

his desk. “Both my kids had to grow up. Micah, especially, had

from the pulpit, and plans to take an online seminary course

to grow up. Cindy stayed with me. My parents watched him,

come fall.

but I wasn’t there. Micah missed six years of my life; I missed six He is tested regularly, but doesn’t lose sleep worrying about

years with him. He was ten when I first got sick.”

what might happen if the tables turn. “Worst case scenario I go And there is the conundrum for Butch, who worked so hard for so

to Heaven,” Butch says. “My only heartache is thinking about

many years to help kids find their footing. The man who made a

leaving my family behind.”

difference in so many lives, fears he fell short with his own son.

But the light was beginning to shine again. “I had no (cancer) markers. I was talking to my doctor and bragging on them for what they’d done for me. She looked at me and said, ‘You know you’re not the norm, don’t you? You have to look at yourself as

24

@PEOPLE

O

ne of the most profound nights of Gary Hays’s life

materials.” But an even bigger draw was the strength of the

nicknamed him Shorty, ‘cause I could do like this,” Gary says, and

happened in February during a church service in

Erecta Pier, an anchor that looks like giant metal X, which is

then raises his right arm like a chicken wing. “I’d put my elbow

Cheridant, Haiti. Until then, Gary had never been out of the

driven three feet into the ground to help the building stand

right on top of his head. You could tell he’d been mistreated in

United States. And he might never have gone had it not been

during hurricanes and earthquakes.

his life because of his size, and he got picked on a little. We hit it off. When he had time during that week, and he’d pass me on

for the earthquake that hit the Caribbean nation in 2010.

And there’s where Gary thought the story ended. He’d train But the 7.0-magnitude quake did hit, flattening Port-au-Prince

construction volunteers in Greenwood, ship the components to

and the surrounding area. It’s estimated 200,000 people died

Haiti, and move on to his next project.

the job site, he’d grab me around the waist and go, ‘My friend.’”

On the last night of the mission trip, the local church held a service. “I’m late, so I tried to sneak in, but I tripped on a

in the country no bigger than the state of Maryland. Nine million people lived there, and a third of the population was

But volunteerism has a way of catching fire, and when the day

microphone cord, so I failed at it. We’re up on the pulpit area.

in immediate need of assistance. The media was doing its best

was done, Gary decided he might as well go himself. So he

There’s probably 250 Haitians that walked to church. I looked

to show what life had become for the Haitian people, most of

packed his gear, and headed to Cheridant, Haiti, where he and

back there, and me and this old lady lock eyes.” Gary looks away,

whom were already living in abject poverty.

eighteen other Haiti Education volunteers and local workers

taking off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Well,”

spent a week building a 3,000 square foot guesthouse that will

he says, “my grandparents raised me, and my grandmother, I was

Gary, who’s a partner in a company called ErectaShelters,

serve the community. It will also house future volunteers who

her doll. I was a spoiled child, but I was a good kid. She treated

watched the horrific suffering from his steel-framed home in

will work on water purification systems, install solar power, and

me wonderful. Man,” he says, “I loved that woman.

rebuilding haiti

Greenwood, and realized he held a piece of the puzzle that

build more new buildings. The guesthouse was chosen as the

@story Marla Cantrell @images J.D. Hoffman

could set the country on a stronger footing. About fifteen years

first project to see how well the system worked, and as a way

“I looked out there, and I swear this to you, there sat my

ago he’d taken off a year, gotten “an engineering book,” and

to train the Haitians who would be rebuilding the larger schools

grandmother inside that Haitian woman. We lock eyes and it

figured out a building system based on the width of a standard

that were also destroyed by the quake.

come to the part of the service where you shake hands. I couldn’t

city in a box

stand it. I walked to that woman and it was just like hugging

piece of sheet metal. “It’s really just the adult version of a kid’s erector set. Everything’s pre-cut, pre-drilled, pre-measured and

“We worked from daylight to dark,” Gary says. “And I learned to

Grandma, you know.” He pauses again and then shakes his head.

letter coded.”

love those people. You remember how when you were a kid and

“Unbelievable,” Gary says, still amazed by the experience.

you’d get something you were so proud of?” he asks. “You’d So Gary reached out to the Haiti Education foundation, which

kind of shiver when you showed it to someone.” He points to a

Today, Gary is working toward his second trip outside the

is headquartered in Arkansas. “They [government officials]

photo of one of the men he met on the island. “I saw that look

country, and once again it’s to Haiti, this time to help build a

were saying they were going to need a million homes. From

on this guy’s face when I handed him a power tool. He’d never

school. “I can’t describe what it’s like to help people who have

day one, I’d seen this system as a city in a box, because it’s

seen one before.”

absolutely nothing,” he says. “But I can tell you this. It’ll make you feel wonderful.”

modular and you can build just about any configuration. What

26

better way to find out?” Gary asks. “So, I drew up the plans

Life in Haiti was a shock for a man from Arkansas. The people

[which included an 850 gallon ‘bladder’ to hold rainwater, and

he met had so little but they wanted to give back, as a way

a filtering system to make it usable for showers and toilets].

of thanking the foreigners who came to their aid. “You never

The cost was only about twelve dollars a square foot for raw

been loved so much in your life. There was one little short guy. I

The local chapter of the Haiti Education Foundation is looking for volunteers to go with them to Haiti this fall. To learn more contact Chris McRae at cmcrae11@cox.net.

@PEOPLE

R

onnie Cluck looks like an older version of Paul Bunyan,

He’s an expert at making the new fit with the old. If you look

and it’s easy to imagine him swinging his nineteenth

closely, you’ll see that two of the rooms in the main house are

century broad axe. He is building on the bluff in Van Buren,

log cabins themselves, each about a 120 years old. Ronnie

overlooking the Arkansas River. At fifty-five, he is partial to tools

transported the cabins from Daisy, Arkansas. “All the ends of

from another time, when craftsmen built without the benefit of

those logs have U.S. stamped on them. They were whittled by the

electric motors or hydraulic equipment.

U.S. Army and originally came from a garrison above Little Rock.”

“You’ve got to have a sharp axe and you’ve got to have antique tools. The new tools out on the market today—if you try to use them on hardwood—well, you won’t chop but just ten or fifteen minutes and then the end of your blade will actually curl. The metal’s not good enough in it,” says Ronnie.

Ronnie and his family live in Chester and build log cabins. For the most part, they don’t use nails, they don’t use screws, and they don’t use saw mills. “We use drawknives and foot adzes [tools for shaping wood], and lots of sand paper and polyurethane.

And lots of elbow grease. Tons,” says Ronnie.

Ronnie is currently working on an estate in Van Buren that includes a house, two log cabins, an outdoor barbeque, and an In the living room, the trusses that hold up the twenty-eight foot

outdoor patio that hangs out over the bluff.

ceiling are all hand hewn. “There’s a little over a mile of four-byRonnie started working on the property in 2001, building a 400

sixes whittled on this big house—for the rafters—if you had them

square foot cabin. “I started that one by myself. I worked for a

end to end,” says Ronnie.

week or ten days and lost thirty-four pounds,” says Ronnie. “You don’t have to go to the gym,” says Ronnie’s twenty-eight-year-

Even the spiral staircase, which leads to a loft, is held together

old son Bubba.

with wooden dowels. Ronnie had never built one before, but was unintimidated by the idea. “I used lots of math—in my head,” he says.

Work began on the main house at the end of 2002. “We

the power of building

without power tools

@story and images Marcus Coker

spent probably a month just clearing [by hand]. We just took out what trees we had to, to make it look like it’d been here

Ronnie does a lot using only brain power. He doesn’t even sketch

forever,” says Ronnie.

or draw plans. “It’s all off the top of our heads. All of it is.”

29

@PEOPLE

The loft is supported by trees, stripped bare of their bark, which literally come out of the floor and reach to the ceiling. In the bathroom, another tree seems to grow from the floor, this one supporting a sink between two of its branches. Ronnie fashioned the sink from an old dough bowl, probably 150 years. “Ain’t no telling how much bread was made in that,” says Ronnie.

Many of the interior doors came off old houses. One of them is marked ‘from a house in El Dorado, $165.’ “We tore down eleven old barns from here to Sallisaw to get all the lumber for the outside of [the house].” As Ronnie walks across the outdoor patio and surveys the property, he says, “There’s about thirteen hundred tons of stone on this project. [It came] off of my place in Chester.

All of this came up this hill in a wheel barrel, one load at a time.”

Working by hand, free of power tools and heavy equipment, takes time. Ronnie says, “You can build a whole row of brick house while you’re building one of these. Of course, you don’t find this anywhere. There just isn’t any of it.”

And Ronnie isn’t anywhere near finished. “My mind never stops.

Sometimes I’ll wake up at two o’clock in the morning because I can’t sleep because I’m thinking about something.” He leans against an oak tree and says, “We’ve only got so many days on this earth, and you give up your life to do something like this.

If you spend ten years of your life doing it, well, that’s a lot. But you can be proud. I’m one of the only ones in the United States that does this, and we’re in a select group. We’re carrying on something that’s a lost art. ..Unless Mother Nature takes it away, it’ll be here 150, 200 years from now.”

@TASTE

W

hat purebred, red-blooded American doesn’t like a

it up evenly into patties. While the patties rested in the fridge,

perfectly cooked, juicy hamburger? OK, leave out the

I got my burger fixins ready.

vegans, the vegetarians, and the poor souls with a generally flawed palate. Those who are leftover will most likely sink their

Adorning your burger can be a very personalized, intimate affair,

teeth into a charbroiled meat patty sandwiched between two

so I’m not going to micromanage here, or bark orders about what

soft, toasted buns with the glee and delight of a five-year-old at

you should put on it and how you should put it on. I will tell you,

Chucky Cheese. Yours truly included.

however, that around our house, bacon and cheese reign supreme.

Tomato, lettuce (and pickle and onion for Hubby) are nice additions, sure; but seriously, it’s all about the bacon and cheese.

Hubby and I recently bade adieu to our first grill. Purchased ten years ago, this grill far outlived its original life expectancy; it was a humble, reliable workhorse, and helped host many outdoor parties. Towards the end of its life, however, the burners had rusted through and collapsed into a brittle, rusty mass. We ditched the propane tank and filled the body of the grill with charcoal for a few more uses, finally giving in and purchasing a shiny new natural gas Weber.

The farewell meal on our old Coleman may have been the best

@recipe & images Laura Hobbs

we ever made. I’d just purchased a few top end Polish sausage

6 of your favorite fresh sausages Burger toppings of your choice good buns Hot grill

links. Turns out, what I thought were three Polish sausages were

The bun plays another important role. While there are a bazillion

really two Polish sausages and one “wild card” sausage – I’m not

choices out there, the vast majority of them are inherently the

sure what the guy behind the counter grabbed, but it sure wasn’t

same: dry, fluffy white bread that turns to mush in a matter of

a Polish sausage. No worries, though! I was already planning to

nanoseconds. Give me something with substance, something

use them with some leftover brats I had in the fridge.

with body! I chose ciabatta buns for our burgers, and was not disappointed. The outside was crisp, the inside was chewy, and

You’re probably thinking: Wow, fascinating. Grilling sausages. What’s

I actually tasted the bread as a part of my burger, not just using

she going to talk about next, boiling water? Well, listen here, you!

it as a vehicle to get the meat in my face.

What I did was to take a grilling staple – in this case, fresh sausages – and transform them into another grilling staple – burgers.

As the old Coleman cooled after its final mission, Hubby and I sat down to an epic burger experience, complete with home fries

For my Bratburgs, I began by peeling off the sausage casings

and spicy ketchup. I could try in vain to explain the burger’s

and placing all the meat in a bowl. With my hands, I gently

flavor with fluffy adjectives, but I’ll spare you. They’re amazing.

mixed the meat together until it was incorporated, and divided

We’ll leave it at that. Enjoy!

33

@TASTE

S

ome artists paint with a brush, others pen and ink, still

Every beer can be placed into one of two categories, ales and

others with ingredients and processes. Like today’s

lagers, which are determined by the kind of yeast used in the

American Craft Brewers, who toss guidelines out the window,

brew process. Ales are made with “top-fermenting” yeast, which

designing unique brews to tantalize our taste buds. Each glass

means the yeast ferments at the top of the brew tank. These

contains the thoughtful creativity of its maker, along with

yeasts tend to produce chemicals called esters that can affect the

palatably complex ingredients.

flavor of the beer, depending on which strain of yeast is used.

When we talk about craft beer we don’t mean Bud Light or

Lagers use “bottom-fermenting” yeasts, which sink to the bottom

MGD (not that there’s anything wrong with those). Craft beer

of the tank and ferment there. Because they collect on the bottom

is different, it’s special. It’s been described as an intellectual

of the tank, they can often be reused. The yeast in lagers does not

beverage, glee in a glass, full flavored, authentic, liquid living history. Enjoying a craft beer is not about guzzling down a cold one on a hot day. It’s a journey of discovery.

If you’ve yet to discover the world of craft beers, you may have many questions: What’s the difference between an ale and lager? What’s a hop? What’s the best beer to drink with my meal? Does the glass I choose really make a difference?

Your foray into the world of craft beers will be much more enjoyable if you first arm yourself with some basic information.

For the most part, beer contains few ingredients: water, hops, yeast and barley. Hops have one thing in common, bitterness,

the art of crafting brew @story Catherine Frederick

» Belgian & French Ales Vast array of strengths, colors and flavors. Weak or strong, light or dark, sour or sweet, they always contain aromas of pepper, fruit or spice.

» Other Ales and Hybrids Most “Other Ales” are lagers, although several traditional German styles are top-fermented (i.e. ales). Hybrids share lager and ale characteristics- California Common

usually add much in the way of flavor. This typically comes from

Beer and Cream Ale are two examples.

other ingredients in the brew, such as hops.

» Classic Lagers

{ The Six }

Smooth, clean flavor profile emphasizing both malt and hops.

Becoming familiar with the varieties of craft beer can be a bit intimidating. The Brewers Association defines over 130 specific styles of beer (style is a label given to a beer which describes its

» Specialty Beers

overall character and sometimes origin) grouped under twelve

May include fruit, honey, chili, and seasonal flavors.

categories along with many more sub-categories! We’ve kept it

Seasonal beers are a special treat worth waiting for.

simple and pared it down to six major categories of brew:

and are used to flavor beer and give it different aromas. Yeast

» English, Irish, & Scottish Ales

turns sugars into alcohol. The barley gives beer color and flavor.

Described as Ales from the Isles, these beers place malt

Within these six categories there are many variations, each packed with its own punch of intense flavor, from light and pale with mild hops, to dark and malty with intense flavor. If you appreciate choice, it’s a very good time to be or become a fan

sweetness over hop bitterness. Some contain spicy and

of craft beer.

fruity characteristics.

{ The Glass }

» American Ales Maltier and more aggressively hopped than British Ales.

Once you’ve selected your brew, it’s time to select a glass - but not just any glass. When it comes to glass selection, style does matter. It’s the same reasoning behind different glasses for red

35

@TASTE

and white wine. The glasses are crafted to bring about the color, aroma and flavors of the wine. Beer is no different. The style (and temperature) of the glass either enhances or dilutes the

Hog Haus Brewing Company

beer’s intended flavor and aroma. An ice cold mug is enticing on blistering summer days, but it will drastically alter the flavor of

430 W. Dickson St, Fayetteville 479-521-2739 (BREW) or www.HogHaus.com

your beer. However, for beginners, taste is most important, the vessel is secondary.

{ The Food }

» » » »

Diamond Bear Brewing Company 323 Cross St, Ste C, Little Rock 501.708.BREW (2739) or DiamondBear.com

For years, beer and food have been enjoyed together and with today’s array of beer concoctions and textures you can find a beer to pair with almost any kind of food. Even dessert. It’s best to mimic flavors of the beer with the flavors or sauces of the food. Try to match the weight of the beer with the weight

Boscos Restaurant & Brewing Co.

of the food. Light beers with delicate dishes, more aggressive beers with heavier fare. Think dark Ales with clams or bitter beers with cheese. If your beer is floral think salads, if it’s a spicy dish think hoppy (bitter) beers. As long as the flavors of one don’t overpower the other, then you’ll have a nice paring.

@recipe Monica Kleck @image Catherine Frederick

500 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock 501.907.1881 or BoscosBeer.com/littlerock

Thaw frozen limeade and pour contents of can into pitcher.

Vino’s Brew Pub

Fill limeade can with tequila and add to limeade.

Practice makes perfect and your trial and error will create an appreciation for the unexpected!

923 West 7th, Little Rock 501-375-8466 or VinosBrewPub.com

Ready to dive into the intriguing craft beer culture? You’ll discover several breweries with a wide variety of craft beers right here in Arkansas. Most of these breweries feature a variety of regular brews as well as several seasonal varieties. Check their websites

Add four Michelob Light Ultras to the mixture and stir to combine.

Refined Ale Brewery

for current offerings. Many also double as restaurants so great food pairings are readily available, along with knowledgeable

Rim tall glass with salt, add ice, and fill glass.

2221 Cedar Street, Little Rock 501.280.0556 or RefinedAle.com

staff ready to assist you on your journey.

36

(4) Michelob Light Ultras (1) can of frozen limeade tequila lime and salt for garnish

Garnish with lime.

37

@DESTINATION

zipping through the ozarks locoropes

@story Marcus Coker @images Courtesy of locoropes taken by Michelle Edmonds

I

felt like Tarzan. In training. I wasn’t swinging from the treetops just yet, but I was standing in them. I had a

bird’s-eye view of the Ozark Folk Center State Park in Mountain View, and it was breathtaking. For a moment, I felt myself relax and I thought I heard God speak. Time didn’t exist. I was one with creation. I was free.

As the wind picked up, I looked down forty-five feet and reconsidered my newfound freedom. Time may not exist, I thought, but gravity does. Tarzan was crazy.

It was then that my legs began to shake. I told them to stop. They didn’t listen.

Just one hour before, I was standing in the Locoropes parking lot. I knew any activity that began with a legal waiver of liability had to be exciting. As I completed the paperwork, I noticed a gray-haired woman who had just finished the high-altitude ropes course that lay before me. She appeared to be alive and happy, which seemed promising.

I couldn’t wait to get started climbing trees, but safety comes first at Locoropes. I was tossed a harness to attach to my waist and legs. I stepped into the nylon belt, pulling the straps to make the fit tighter. One of

the Loco Crew pulled the straps even more, and I gasped.

like one of Peter Pan’s Lost Boys. It was his third time to

Apparently, snug equals secure. The device gripped my

complete the course. As I watched him move quickly and

waist and thighs and bunched my jeans in places you

confidently, I knew I had to keep up.

don’t want your jeans to bunch.

Hell, I thought, the oldest to complete one of the Locoropes Things that keep us safe, I thought, are often functional

courses was a seventy-nine-year-old man. I was not about

but rarely flattering.

to be outdone.

I shrugged and followed a family of seven to orientation.

For the most part, I wasn’t outdone, unless, of course, you

Our instructor, Luke, was outfitted with a bandana, a walkie-

count Andrew, the sixteen-year-old who was in line behind

talkie, and multiple carabiners (spring-loaded metal rings

me. He joined our group late, never seemed off balance,

used for fastening ropes together when climbing). He had

and sometimes didn’t even use his hands. Granted, he was

a ponytail and facial hair, and I imagined he ate a lot of

the owner’s son, but by comparison, I felt like a grizzly bear

granola. Standing in the middle of the forest, he looked like

trying to play ping pong.

he knew what he was doing. He told us we would each be equipped with a personal protection system that would

While I was busy getting my legs twisted amongst the ropes

always be attached to something steadfast. He walked us

and wires, several other adventurers were shimmying

through a miniature ropes course, which stood only a few

across cables and leaping off tree-supported platforms.

feet off the ground. It allowed us to become familiar with

All the course elements are tree-to-tree, a feature that

the safety equipment and the course procedures. I was

sets Locoropes apart from many other challenge courses,

the last to finish, and as my feet returned to the earth, I

which often use telephone poles. Locoropes offers three

was sold. I knew the afternoon would pass too quickly. I

treetop courses, totaling thirty-two different elements.

was so eager for the real thing, that I later forgot Luke’s

Each course increases in difficulty, and all end with a

advice: “Don’t look down, look forward.”

zip line—a thrilling way to use a pulley, a cable, and the power of gravity to return you back to earth.

The adventure that lay before me was a mid-air obstacle course, built dozens of feet off the ground. My challenge

Father away, several other adventurers were at the

was to move from tree to tree via tight ropes, cargo nets,

climbing tower, a rock wall with several difficulty levels.

and suspended logs, among other things. I was the last

From the top of the tower, which could also be reached by

in line and I could barely wait my turn. I wasn’t the only

stairs, a young girl was celebrating her birthday as she shot

excited one. The first of our group to start scampering

320 feet across the forest, suspended from the Flying Pig

through the trees was a four-year-old boy. That’s right, I

ZipLine, a motorized pulley and cable system. A balding

said a four-year-old was dancing amongst the branches—

man stood ready to experience the HotShot FreeFall, which

39

@DESTINATION

is one step off a forty-foot platform and four seconds of gravity

in keeping people safe, but right now I know they’re not being

before reconnecting with the earth. Don’t worry, his landing was

used in Arkansas, except by us,” said Dru.

soft, thanks to a cable that slowed down his rate of dissension.

Driving home, I considered the amount of time I spent in front of The courses, set up in the lush hilltops of Mountain View, bring

my computer, on my cell phone, how little time I spent outside

in visitors hoping to spend a day with nature, and expand their

with the people I care about. I made a note to change all that.

horizons. “We offer team building and leadership development

I realized how much I’d learned in just one exhilarating day.

programs for Boy Scouts, for sports teams, for academic groups.

And there was something inherently satisfying about feeling

We work with those groups individually to determine the

my legs shake beneath me—and continuing to move forward

program. We can even put them up overnight here at the cabins,

anyway. Despite the involuntary quivering of my legs, I felt like

do lunch for them,” said Dru Edmonds, operations manager.

Tarzan. In a safety harness.

What all the activities have in common is this: they have a sneaky way of building confidence. Dru said, “We encounter a wide range of people here every day, from those that breeze through and have a fantastic time to those that come to us knowing that this is going to be quite a challenge for them. We had a woman come in

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from Mountain Home just a couple of weeks ago. She came with her son, who’s a pass holder, and we see him all the time. It was

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her first time on the course, and she was at the element called

(Flying Pig Zip Line, Hot Shot Free Fall, or Planks Peak Climbing Wall) $7.50 each or Six for $30

The Runaway, which you might know as The Tarzan Swing. She actually had to turn around. She just could not get up the nerve

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to go off. But she came back just yesterday and went through the entire second course, and had a great time. She came back to confront that fear again, and just did wonderfully.”

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Four hours, one way, from Fort Smith 1025A Park Ave, Mountain View, Arkansas 72560

Instilling confidence is one thing; safety is another. Dru said, “The perceived risk of a high-ropes course is much higher than the

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actual risk.” Locoropes uses a double locking security system,

10am - 5pm, 7 days a week, March 1st - November 30th Treetop adventures Thursday-Monday (closed Tuesday and Wednesday)

which means a climber is unable to unhook from one safety cable until he attaches to another. “They are almost unique to us, in that they’re used a little bit more overseas than they are

For more information, visit LocoRopes.com or call 870-269-6566

here. It’s growing in popularity because it’s such a great system

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@DESTINATION

The object of the hunt is to follow coordinates from a website

There are two ratings on geocaches: a rating of one through five

like geocaching.com to a place where some sort of geocache

for difficulty, and a rating of one through five for terrain. This

(cache always means container in the geocache world), is

hunt is named “Spider in the Spout” by its creator Jay Gill, and

hidden. It doesn’t take much more than a GPS system, a little

is rated a two out of five for both difficulty and terrain. “If you

curiosity, and a feel for adventure.

have a five-five [difficulty rating-terrain rating], you’re pretty much hanging off the side of the mountain in climbing gear.

finding the cache

techie treasure hunt @story Tonya McCoy

Once it’s found, the hunter opens the cache (container), unrolls

There’s one five-five that’s actually hidden on a plaque that’s in

the log and signs their username as proof of the find. Then they

a trench at the bottom of the ocean.

also log their find on the website for all to see. It’s the thrill of the hunt that attracts these cachers. Some have found thousands of

There’s one on the International Space Station. “There’s a Russian

caches, and there are millions hidden worldwide.

cosmonaut that’s a geocacher and they allowed him to hide a cache [container] on the ISS. There’s one person that logged it [as

Sometimes cachers will hide a box with “treasure” inside. This

a cache find] after watching a YouTube video of the astronauts.

can be anything from a McDonald’s toy to an old, collectable

He actually found it in the shot,” says Chris.

coin. The rule is if hunters take something, then they leave something of equal or greater value as a trade. Also, when

But most containers are hidden under a stump, in a tree, or

hris Moore walks over to where a loop of wire is

cachers are doing all of this hunting and trading, they’re

behind a street sign. There are about 500,000 caches hidden

attached to a nail in a tree, just off Pine Hollow Drive

supposed to use a little stealth. The trick is not to be noticed

in the greater Fort Smith area. And since there are a lot of rural

by non-hunters.

areas here in the Natural State, that sometimes means hiking

C

in Van Buren. One end is attached to one tree and the other end is slung over the limb of another. He grabs the wire and

through thorn-covered territory.

moves a couple of steps forward, causing a camouflaged

By day Kristie is a librarian at the Arkansas Tech University in

ammo box to slowly appear from above. When the box lowers

Ozark, and Chris is a network designer for Diversified Computer

“Ticks. I hate ticks,” says Chris as he reaches down to brush a

to the ground, Chris’s wife Kristie opens the metal container

Resources in Pocola. But by night, weekend, and sometimes

large bug off his calf, just above an Apple icon tattoo accented

with the words “Geocaching” stenciled on the side. Inside is

lunch break, the Van Buren couple live for the “cache.” Chris goes

with the words iGeek.

treasure. A toy soldier, someone’s photograph, a log of names

by username Pizzaboy 2600, while Kristie goes by username

and dates, and, unfortunately, a whole colony of tree ants.

Guwisti (Kristie translated into Cherokee).

Geocaching is high-tech treasure hunting that uses GPS

At another hunt site in Van Buren, Chris and Kristie walk straight

the clue “Placed in the rough at a Van Buren park about 150 feet

coordinates. Adults love it, kids find it fascinating, and

across a parking before disappearing into the forest. The smell

from a parking area and is placed inside another container.” The

couples like Chris and Kristie can’t get enough of it. The sport

of cedar wafts upward as the two crunch through the thick brush.

hint is: ‘walk the spider out.’ “His are very creative, they’re not

has been played around the world for eleven years.“Using

A white mother duck sits on her nest – stone-still, protectively

straightforward. You usually have to do something to be able to

billion dollar government satellites to find Tupperware. It’s

staring back.

get the cache.”

Kristie peers at her iPhone through her black oval glasses, sunlight glinting off the rhinestones along the the rims. She reads

wonderful!” laughs Chris.

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@DESTINATION

After about twenty minutes of backtracking and circling, Chris yells

Also, believe it or not, the two drive around in a type of cache.

that he’s found it and holds up a can with three nails hanging by

On the back glass of Chris’s metallic orange Dodge Nitro is a

short wires attached to the can. It really does look like a primitive

window cling called a “travel bug”- another sort of geocaching

metal spider. A camouflaged pipe is wired to a tree across from

find. Just below the image of the bug is a code that geocachers

him. Chris takes the “spider” and “walks” it up the pipe, otherwise

can log on the website, which plots where their travel bug has

known as the spout, just as he was instructed.

been sighted.

“It’s addictive,” says Kristie, who has over 300 finds; Chris is

And “treasure” from geocaching containers is on the move

only slightly trailing behind with about 250. It’s so addictive

as well. Sometimes inside one of the containers there will be

that the two made time for the hobby even on their honeymoon

instructions to take an item like a key chain, toy, or coin and

in New Orleans.

move it to another cache and then log the move. Some of these items travel all over the U.S, and sometimes overseas.

“The coordinates led to a high-rise… So we walk into this ritzy jewelry store and we’re wearing backpacks and I’m in a tie-

“One of my favorite things, almost like a prized possession, I got

dyed shirt and I got a GPS around my neck and I tell them

out of a geocache… It was at a blues festival in Sedan, Kansas,

I’m looking for Bamboozle. They didn’t know who I was talking

out in the middle of a field. They had the biggest ammo can I’d

about, so they sent me to the concierge desk to ask. They knew

ever seen in my life. All the things in it were things people had

him. He was the superintendent of this building and he took

made. I found a film canister in it, and it had five dice in it and

us up the service elevator to the top of the thirty-sixth floor

it had instructions on how to play an old pirate dice game. It’s

building. In the maintenance access at the very top of the

bone-head simple but it’s so much fun. I keep it in my work

building, there was an old toolbox.” They’d found their cache.

backpack, it’s always with me,” says Chris.

That hunt was called the “View Carre,” because the location allows hunters to see a view of the French Quarter from high

“We went through the logs to find out who left it and it was

above the crowds.

some guy from Nebraska. We emailed him to say ‘Thanks for leaving the game, we had so much fun,’” adds Kristie.

Back in Arkansas, Kristie and Chris created a cache of their own to celebrate their marriage. They hid the container at an old

From games and coins, to buckeyes, and sometimes even tree

church where they were married on October 16, 2010. Kristie

ants, hunters never know what they’re going to find. Cachers

likes to incorporate song lyrics into her hides, so she posted the

may have the coordinates to where they’re going, but they never

lyrics to “Chapel of Love” by the Dixie Cups, along with the clue.

know exactly what they’ll find once they get there. But, Kristie

She even has a photo of herself caching at Fort Chaffee in her

explains, it certainly changes the way you look at things. “You

wedding dress on her profile at geocaching.com.

get a geocaching eye. Once you start doing this, you’ll never look at trees, or light poles, or parking lots the same.”

44

@DESTINATION

I

recently had the pleasure of being escorted down Big Devil’s

don’t have to cross any creeks. But as I soon learned, there’s no

Fork Creek by my three-year-old black lab, Bo. Bo really likes

truly simple route to Twin Falls!

this magazine gig, as it ensures her a monthly stroll and a couple nights out in the woods each month. Now, I know I take you to

A couple years back, I took my wife, along with my son and a

incredible places every month, but Big Devil’s Fork Creek leads

friend of his, up the other trail to Twin Falls and I’m still hearing

right down to the start of Richland Creek, which is truly my

about it. I remember my wife being swept down the creek. She

favorite. If you love hiking or kayaking, and are fit enough for

yelled, ‘I hate you!’ as she went by. I got some good pictures of

the challenge, Richland Creek Wilderness Area, which is about

that! I decided not to try that route on this trip because I was

halfway between Russellville and Jasper, will definitely push

carrying too much gear to try to cross the two creeks, especially

you to the limit. It has me, that’s for sure. More than once.

since recent rains have raised the water levels.

I scheduled four days for this trip and carefully prepared. I had

So I struggled down the trail, (something I would pay for the

my topo maps, GPS, extra batteries, canteen, tent, sleeping bag,

next morning) trying to keep up with my furry, four-legged trail

and blanket for Bo (she’s a little on the spoiled side), plus my

guide. After an hour and a half we reached Twin Falls, two and

photo bag, tripod and food. I have no idea how much all this

a half miles down the trail. I pitched the tent and Bo helped me

weighed, or how I thought I could carry it all. No surprise, Bo had

gather some wood.

a much better time than I. A nice fire and a quick splash in the creek helped me recover from

@story Todd Whetstine @images Wild Woods Photography

Our enduring journey started at Hill Cemetery, located in the

my rugged hike. The newly found pep in my step had come just

northern part of the Wilderness Area. It was about four o’clock

in time for the “golden hour.” Nature photographers recognize

in the afternoon. I was hoping to quickly find the trail and make

the golden hour as the first and last hour of daylight. The rising

our way to Twin Falls in time to build a fire, pitch the tent, and

and setting sun low in the horizon casts very intriguing shadows

shoot a few photos. I hurried to change clothes, and eat a quick

that give our 2D photographs a 3D feel.

snack. I knew the trail would be narrow and covered in poison ivy. I thought my trusty old Carhartt bibs and a long-sleeved

After a few nice shots of the falls, Bo and I headed for the tent,

shirt would suffice (what I really needed was a darn Superman

which was set up right between Big Devil’s Fork and Long

suit and red cape).

Devil’s Fork creeks. These beautiful creeks spill over a twenty foot ledge to make the Twin Falls. I know of several twin falls in the state. This is the most stunning of them all.

I lifted a dreadfully heavy backpack, grabbed my photo gear and struggled to my feet. I walked around that cemetery looking for the trail and was drenched with sweat before I even located it.

I listened to the raging waters being washed down the canyon

In planning for my trip I read this was the easy way to Twin Falls.

and spilling over the ledges and then I asked myself: Are you

I guess he meant to say it was a little less difficult, since you

lucky or what? For some reason I started thinking about black

47

@DESTINATION

bears. Then I started thinking how the engaging sound of the

trip. So, a little bit defeated, I wiped the tears from my eyes, and

falls was so loud I wouldn’t hear anything approaching. Then

headed for home.

I started thinking about the time an old-timer once told me a little bit about black bears. He said, ‘Kid, before you trek out into

Here are some tips for you, before you head out to Richland

black bear country, tie bells on your shoes, put a whistle in your

Creek.

pocket, and sprinkle pepper all over yourself.’ I asked how you

companion. Bring along a GPS system and a map. Also, let

could tell if black bears were close by. The old-timer replied,

someone know where you’re headed and when to expect you

‘Look for their droppings. If black bears are nearby, you’ll find

back. It’s backcountry and not a place you’d want to get lost.

Study the area beforehand.

Always travel with a

droppings with bells and whistles that smell like pepper.’ I concentrated on the sounds of the falls in an attempt to get the

The U.S. Forest Service also urges visitors to bring drinking water

thoughts of black bears out of my mind.

or a filtration system with you for your own safety. I’d add, you need to be in good in shape. The terrain is rugged, but it’s also

Well, that rejuvenation I felt the night before wore off by the

beautiful. Get ready to see some of the most beautiful views

following morning. I awoke with a cramp in the calf muscle.

you’ve ever seen.

Feeling pain in every muscle and aching in every joint, I strapped on the backpack, once again struggled to my feet, and

More information on Richland Creek can be found on

decided to call it a day. I really wanted to show you more of this

the U.S. Forest Service’s website at fs.usda.gov.

beautiful wilderness, but that would have to wait for another

48

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