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a c k n o w l e d g m e n T s In assembling material for this book the most important source of information was the Special Collections Division of the University of Arkansas Library.In addition to my own papers,which they had acquired in ,was valuable material from the files of such personages as Senator J. William Fulbright, Congressman Jim Trimble, Congressman Clyde T. Ellis, Governor Orval Faubus, Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt, and Senator John L. McClellan. I was especially welcomed in Special Collections by coincidence. My daughter Ellen Shipley was their field archivist. She, Michael Dabrishus, the director, and her coworkers were of invaluable assistance during the two years I spent reviewing those lengthy documents. Kenneth L. Smith, who figures throughout the text, had given his extensive papers to Special Collections and had persuaded me to do the same.As the author of The Buffalo River Country, Ken was qualified by experience as a critic for this book. No one else has been so intense a participant in the Buffalo River battle. He has known all contestants both pro and con.Without his corrections I would have made many errors great and small. Ellen Shipley and Mike Dabrishus knowing of my dilemma in finding a publisher suggested that I approach Miller Williams of the University of Arkansas Press. In an interview with him that matter was happily settled. Ellen also knew of an expert typist, Jeanie Wyant, who produced the first readable manuscript. Brenda Crities, current vice-president of the Ozark Society, came from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to proofread the book for spelling and punctuation. Tom Dearmore, a native of Mountain Home and an early decision maker in favor of the Buffalo National River (but at the same time a grandson of that apostle of the Norfork Dam, Tom Shiras), was another valuable proofreader. Tom Dearmore, recently retired as editor of the editorial pages of the San Francisco Examiner, had also been an editorial writer for the Washington Star and the Arkansas Gazette, and with his cousin, Pete Shiras, published the Mountain Home Baxter Bulletin in the s. May I also commend most highly the Ozark Society Foundation for assuming vii the expense of providing the original electronic manuscript and the index. The Ozark Society Foundation is a publishing enterprise on its own and an outgrowth of Ken Smith’s original Ozark Society publishing fund. To retired architect Paul Young of Fayetteville especial thanks are due for providing information concerning the early day conservation efforts of Dr. Thomas Hardison that led to the establishment of Petit Jean State Park, an accomplishment which Arkansas citizens should not forget. Recognition of those who furnished some of the photographs is also in order. They are Harold and Margaret Hedges, John Heuston, Nancy Jack, Jeannie Rush, John Swearingen,Everett Bowman,Jack Atkins of the Arkansas Parks Commission, and Joe Clark. We are also indebted to the various newspapers and magazine whose running account of this contest enabled the author to set down events in proper order without dependency on memory alone. And last but not least thanks to the staff of the University of Arkansas Press for their interest in this episode of Arkansas history and their hard work in putting it all together. NEIL COMPTON viii Acknowledgments ...

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