(Compiled by Kenneth Rorie for Encyclopedia of Arkansas)

Fifty-Six is one of two cities in Stone County. It stands on State Highway 14 in the northern part of the county. Fifty-Six (sometimes spelled without the hyphen) is located near Blanchard Springs Caverns, one of the most visited tourist sites in the Ozark National Forest.

The forested hills and mountains of northern Arkansas were claimed as hunting and fishing land by the Osage, who lived in southern Missouri, when the United States first acquired the land as part of the Louisiana Purchase. White settlers gradually arrived in the area, but the rugged land remained only sparsely settled for many years. Stone County, which was formed in 1873 from parts of four other counties, had about 5,000 residents at the time, most of whom lived on farms or in small, isolated settlements. Its county seat, Mountain View, had fewer than 100 residents when the county was formed.

One of those small settlements, called Newcomb, applied for a post office in 1918. The community name was rejected by the postal service, and the name Fifty-Six was substituted—reportedly because that was the number of the community’s school district. Despite its small population, Stone County had as many as seventy-one school districts until the 1940s, when school consolidation reduced the number to five. Fifty-Six was one of the five, but it later was consolidated into the Tri-County School District, which was itself closed in 1993. The post office became a rural branch of the Mountain View post office in 1966.

In 1940, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a dam on Sylamore Creek, creating Mirror Lake. It also built two bridges and an observation shelter, all out of native stone. The CCC’s work, now part of the Blanchard Springs Caverns land administered by the U.S. Forest Service, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Because of its name, the community captured statewide attention around the beginning of the year 1956. At the time, the settlement had a population of thirty-nine, as well as the post office, two churches, and four stores. The primary occupation among residents of Fifty-Six at that time, according to the Arkansas Democrat, was guiding more than 5,000 deer hunters through the hills of the Ozark National Forest. However, plans had just been announced to harvest many acres of white oak from the forest in a ten-year project that was expected to involve four new mills, including a stave mill, in the Fifty-Six vicinity. The same article also makes passing reference to prospectors seeking uranium deposits in the area.

Blanchard Springs Caverns was opened to the public in 1973. The extensive cave system has two hiking trails as well as an interpretive center and gift shop. The North Sylamore Creek Hiking Trail also brings tourists to the area. Seeking to benefit from tourism, the residents of Fifty-Six voted to incorporate as a town in 1971. The municipality reincorporated as a second-class city in the early twenty-first century. The population of the town and city has remained between 150 and 180 throughout its years of incorporation.

The town was the birthplace of country musician Billy Don Burns.

(Compiled by Kenneth Rorie for Encyclopedia of Arkansas)

Fox is located on Highway 263 between Timbo (Stone County) and Rushing (Stone County). Turkey Creek flows a few miles north and northeast of Fox, while Jimmys Creek is to the northwest. With the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, early settlers began to eke out a living by growing crops along Meadowcreek and the Little Red River. A few hardy frontier families slowly moved up the hill from the river; their settlements would become the community of Fox. Fox was originally called Smart, but when the post office was opened in 1905, another name was required, as there was already a Smart in Arkansas. As the debate over a name was taking place, someone caught a fox in the middle of town. One of postmaster George Washington Harper’s brothers suggested that the post office be called Fox, and so it was. Others say the name derives from the Fox family who lived in the area at the time.

The Turkey Creek School was built in 1925 and served Fox until 1946, when the isolated Stone County communities of the hill—including Fox, Meadowcreek, Mozart, Parma, Rushing, Sunnyland, and Turkey Creek—built one common school located along Highway 263 two miles from Fox. Called the Rural Special School, the tiny school was noted for its high educational standards. However, in July 2004, with only 200 students, Rural Special was made to consolidate with Mountain View Public Schools in accord with Act 60 of 2004. Because of its isolation, the Rural Special campus remained in use. Since August 2013, Rural Educational Heritage Inc., a nonprofit organization, has operated a successful preschool in Fox. The traditional frame Turkey Creek school building designed by George Green and Robert Hawkins was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 25, 1985. 

The original pioneers not only brought their farming equipment and animals, but they also brought their musical instruments and crafts. Fox is noted for its fine folk musicians and craftspeople who, during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, met at the Lonnie Lee residence for “hootenannies.” Two such musicians were David Jackson Samuel Lafayette “Fate” Morrison and his brother William Perry (Willie) Morrison, both fiddlers. Morrison family tradition holds that an ancestor fiddled for George Washington at Valley Forge. Noted local guitarist Seth Newton Mize usually played with them. The Morrison brothers and Seth Mize traveled the world with their neighbor from Timbo, folk musician Jimmy Driftwood, in the 1950s and 1960s, entertaining and promoting local folk music and folklore. Following Fate Morrison’s death in 1988 in Fox, a lane connecting with Highway 263 was named the Fate Morrison Road.

Versatile folk musician David Smith, together with Robert and Mary Gillihan, make up the folk band Harmony, which performs in Fox and elsewhere. The group performed at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View for many years. Fiddler John Taylor, once of Fox, performed with a family band known as Sons of the Ozarks. Popular comedian and singer Paul Harris (the Cleverlys Band) graduated from high school in Fox. Several noted artisans of Stone County have called Fox their home, such as ceramic artist Joseph Aloysius Bruhin III.

(Compiled by Edie Nicholson for Encyclopedia of Arkansas)

Situated in the Ozark Mountains of north-central Arkansas, Mountain View is an isolated community that has long been known for its preservation of traditional folk music and culture. The Mountain View area attracts thousands of visitors each year, with features including the Ozark Folk Center, Blanchard Springs Caverns, the White River, and the Ozark National Forest, as well as the unique musical gatherings on the courthouse square.

The Gilded Age through the Early Twentieth Century
Until the Civil War, the area now known as Stone County was part of Izard County; no city of Mountain View existed and very few settlers resided on its soil. However, when Stone County was formed in 1873, a site at the center of the county was chosen to be the seat of government. After some disagreement on what to name the new county seat, a group of citizens held a drawing. Though sources conflict about who submitted the name “Mountain View,” Elijah Chappell is thought to have been present at the drawing, as well as early settlers Jacob King and Calvin McMurtry. Before Stone County was formed, the largest townships at the time were Riggsville and Sylamore. After a small log building was constructed as the new county courthouse, businesses began to grow around the new county seat. In 1890, Mountain View finally became an incorporated town.

William H. Rosa was the first mayor to serve the city of Mountain View, which has grown from a population of 270 in 1891 to 2,748 in 2010. The city has had three courthouses: the original log structure, a two-story frame courthouse built at the present site in 1888, and the current stone building that was constructed in 1923.

The town of Mountain View grew during the early years of the twentieth century, and the Stone County Academy, erected in 1895, attracted up to 200 students from the area during the 1911–12 school year. In late 1933, Mountain View entered negotiations to install a water and sewer system, including a water tower and well house; by mid-1937 the Mountain View Waterworks was completed, and it has continued to serve the community ever since. The community experienced steady growth throughout the next several decades, as well as the usual losses during World War I and World War II, which took many of the isolated community’s young people away from home for the first time. Before and after World War II, many citizens of Mountain View were affected by the downtown fires that struck in 1936 and 1946. Both fires damaged the businesses that operated in the original stone structures. Today, the stone buildings stand rebuilt, housing antique shops, the local newspaper offices, and restaurants. A devastating tornado hit the town in February 2008.

World War II through the Modern Era
Agriculture—mainly beef cattle and poultry—and timber have always been important industries for the Mountain View area, but the community struggled to attract industry because of its inaccessibility. The roads leading out of Mountain View—with the exception of Highway 14 toward Batesville (Independence County)—were not paved until the late 1960s and 1970s, and local residents feared that the community would decline if it did not find a way to attract visitors.

In the 1960s, a group of local people saw the need to create a unique attraction in Mountain View that would help keep the small community alive. Many residents at that time enjoyed playing and singing traditional “mountain music,” and informal gatherings were common. To capitalize on the rich folk music and craft traditions, Mountain View hosted the first annual Arkansas Folk Festival in 1963. In the first year, the April event brought more than 2,500 visitors to Mountain View, which had a population of less than 1,000 at that time. The festival was a revival of the original 1941 folk music festival, the Stone County Folkways Festival.

A group called the Rackensack Society, formed by musician Jimmy Driftwood and other musical citizens, began gathering weekly in the courtroom of the courthouse. In the 1970s, the Ozark Folk Center State Park was constructed in Mountain View. The idea for the state park came after the success of the folk festival. The city did not have the funds for a water and sewer system, and it was suggested that the city apply for federal money to build a music auditorium. By 1973, the Ozark Folk Center State Park opened, and Mountain View was able to use the park’s water and sewer system. In the 1980s, a second festival, the Bean Fest—with its unusual event, the Great Arkansas Outhouse Race—was added in October. Today, the Mountain View area attracts thousands of tourists every year.

Education and Industry
Mountain View is home to a branch of Ozarka College, a two-year institution. The Mountain View School District encompasses all of Stone County and includes Mountain View School, Timbo School, and Rural Special School at Fox. Government—including city and county offices and the public schools—is the largest employer in Mountain View, though timber and agriculture are still important industries in the area.

Attractions
Tourism remains one of the area’s most important resources and a great source of revenue for the community. Stone County generated more than $64 million in total travel-related expenditures in 2010, with a travel-generated payroll of more than $12 million for 742 jobs. An estimated 286,828 visitors came to Stone County during 2010.

The Mountain View area offers many attractions, including the Ozark Folk Center State Park. The park features a craft area with demonstrations of traditional Ozark crafts, a 1,000-seat music theater, and the Ozark Cultural Resource Center dedicated to preservation of Ozark music and culture. Blanchard Springs Caverns is also located just outside Mountain View, and the town is home to several musical theaters. The beautiful scenery is an attraction, and hiking and bike trails, as well as scenic roadways, run throughout the Ozark National Forest. Mountain View’s city park has a stone amphitheater and walking trails connecting it with the Ozark Folk Center. The White River, which is known for its trout fishing, also draws many visitors. Mountain View’s thriving downtown area is known for its informal musical gatherings, or “pickings,” that take place on the lawn around the county courthouse.

Famous Residents
Prominent local figures have included several folk musicians, including Jimmy Driftwood (Jim Morris), who wrote songs such as “Battle of New Orleans” and “Tennessee Stud,” and Grandpa Jones, who was a regular on Hee Haw and the Grand Ole Opry. Film and TV actor Dick Powell’s childhood home was located on Main Street until 2018, when it was demolished.

(Compiled by Kenneth Rorie for Encyclopedia of Arkansas)

(Compiled by Kenneth Rorie for Encyclopedia of Arkansas)

Originally part of the Locust Grove community, Timbo is located on Highway 66 thirteen miles west of Mountain View, the county seat of Stone County. During the Civil War, it served as one of the induction centers for Searcy County. At the time, the area was also a hotbed of wartime dissention, with the Arkansas Peace Society active in the region. Timbo is today perhaps most well known for its association with musician Jimmy Driftwood.

The pioneers to the area first settled in Campbell, today almost a ghost town, in Searcy County, sixteen miles southwest of Timbo. The Campbell brothers—Wash, John, James, Alex, and David—along with their families from Tennessee, were the first white settlers in the area, having followed the Indian trial from Batesville (Independence County) in 1836. The Morrison family, which became a leading family of the community, was among the other pioneers of the region. Thomas Morrison from Johnson County, Illinois, settled his family along upper Sylamore Creek in 1842 and eventually opened a general store on his farm. He had taken a keen interest in politics and had joined the Whig Party while in Illinois. Another pioneer family was the Maloy family. John Maloy, emigrating from Tyrone, Ireland, settled in the region in the early 1840s.

Much of the violence on the homefront during the Civil War in what was then Searcy County was related to lawlessness and banditry, as well as the suppression of the Arkansas Peace Society, which formed in the early days of secession. Although the leaders of the society claimed primarily to be against secession and war in general, the newly formed Confederate government of Arkansas looked upon the members as traitors. As many members as could be caught were rounded up by Colonel Samuel Leslie, head of the Searcy County militia. In December 1861, seventy-eight men were chained together and marched from Burrowville—present-day Marshall (Searcy County)—to Little Rock (Pulaski County). (The chain gang episode inspired Jimmy Driftwood to write “He Had a Long Chain On,” covered by popular recording artists Peter, Paul, and Mary in 1963.) Outlaw Bill Dark terrorized the Searcy County region and hid out in Dark Holler (a.k.a. Dark Hollar) at Locust Grove until he was killed by fifteen-year old Jim Berry in early 1863. Berry was a known associate of Union sympathizers. It is now believed that Bill Dark was being paid by the Confederate governor of Arkansas, Henry Massie Rector, to track down and eliminate the remaining Peace Society associates. Many in the region used the mask of allegiance to settle old scores.

In July 1864, while the Morrison brothers were away fighting in the Civil War, Thomas Morrison, who was in his sixties, was at home with his wife, Polly, and their youngest child, Sarah Jane (age thirteen). A group of irregulars galloped into the Morrison yard, having heard that gold was hidden on the Morrison farm. They tied Morrison up and forced him to walk around in circles in the front yard with no water, trying to make him tell where the gold was hidden, until he collapsed and died from exhaustion. His wife and daughter buried his body near the front yard. When the sons returned from the war, they tracked down the jayhawkers and avenged their father’s murder. The road in Timbo leading to the place where his body is believed to be buried has been named the Thomas C. Morrison Road.

Following the Civil War, farming and raising livestock dominated the economy, as they still do in the twenty-first century. A two-story building called the Hall was the only place of note in what would become Timbo. The second floor housed the Masonic lodge, while the first floor was used as a general merchandise store owned and operated by Colonel Tandy Young Casey, whose brother-in-law was Dr. Joseph Marion Wolf, a medical doctor who practiced in the Hall. Wolf and Colonel Casey’s wife, Malinda, were the children of Major Jacob Wolf. Dr. Wolf left Timbo for Texas in 1891, and the young doctor who took over his practice, along with a friend, were later convicted for colluding with the infamous Bullfrog Valley Gang of Pope County for smuggling and passing counterfeit paper money.

Before the Timbo post office opened in 1886, the Blue Mountain post office served the area from 1837 to 1886. The first post office at what is now Timbo opened in 1886 with Joseph Lan Maloy appointed the first postmaster. Joseph Maloy had a brother named James Maloy, whom everyone called “Jimbo.” Jimbo Maloy was appointed postmaster of Timbo in 1888. It was decided to use his nickname for the name of the new post office, but a postal bureaucrat mistook the “J” for a “T,” and so Timbo was born. The current Timbo post office is located near the intersection of Highway 66 and Happy Hollow Road.

In the 1880s, the Reverend Jacob King, who lived in Timbo, founded the Bethany Missionary Baptist Church in nearby Onia (Stone County); it is still active in the twenty-first century. He was also a teacher, farmer, and legislator and had served in the Confederate army in North Carolina.

Timbo’s main claim to fame is the role it played in the folk music revival in the late 1950s, primarily through James Morris (who later took the name of Jimmy Driftwood). Folklorist Alan Lomax visited Timbo to record Driftwood’s father, Neil Morris, and to record and interview others relating to the rich folk heritage of the area. When RCA Records heard Neil Morris’s son James play “The Battle of New Orleans,” they contracted with him to record it, thus launching his career as a songwriter and musician. Driftwood later aided in the establishment of the Ozark Folk Center State Park in Mountain View.

One of the most beautiful natural features of Timbo is Roasting Ear Creek, pronounced “Roshneer” by locals. It supposedly got its name from a long-ago flood that washed roasting ears of corn downstream. The creek is noted for hosting fishing, swimming, and baptisms. Local minister Earl Marvin Gammill reported that he had conducted more baptisms than he could remember in the creek. According to his daughter, Nola Gammill Morrison, Gammill was a Baptist pastor in Stone and Searcy counties in Arkansas and also in Okemah, Oklahoma.

The old Roasting Ear School and church still stands in a secluded location near the spring source for the creek. In February 1940, a dispute concerning student discipline erupted into an argument just outside the schoolhouse door one night during singing lessons. Two men, who were cousins, were killed in the scuffle. The building is today used for activities such as reunions and revivals.

Timbo had its own elementary and high school until 2004 when it was consolidated with the Mountain View School District. Several churches are active in Timbo, with the Blue Mountain Missionary Baptist Church being the oldest still active.

Information about the following towns and communities in Stone County was compiled primarily by Kenneth Rorie, and can be found at EncyclopediaofArkansas.net

Alco, Arlberg, Big Springs, Chalybeate Springs, Fifty-Six, Fox, Hedges, Herpel, Kahoka, Marcella, Mountain View, Mozart, Onia, Optimus, Pleasant Grove, Rushing, St. James, Timbo, Turkey Creek