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Singer's cabin a sight at nature center

The log cabin where where folksinger Almeda James Riddle was born in 1898 later was relocated to South Fork Nature Center in Van Buren County.
(Special to the Democrat-Gazette/MARCIA SCHNEDLER)
The log cabin where where folksinger Almeda James Riddle was born in 1898 later was relocated to South Fork Nature Center in Van Buren County. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/MARCIA SCHNEDLER)

CHOCTAW — Tucked on a fork of Greers Ferry Lake, a secluded conservation project focuses on awareness of the natural world. It also preserves the relocated log cabin where a prominent Ozarks folk singer was born in 1898.

The scenic site with its inviting trails is South Fork Nature Center, 5 miles northeast of Choctaw in Van Buren County. The singer was Almeda James Riddle, who played a widely respected role in the American folk-music revival of the 1950s and '60s.

An information panel outside the rustic cabin describes Riddle, known in later life as "Granny," as "an important figure in America's folk-music revival. Her memory of ballads, hymns and children's songs, many of which originated in 17th-century Scotland, England and Ireland, was one of the largest single collections documented by folk-song scholars."

Riddle is pictured on the sign, which reports that she shared the stage in later years with such famous performers as Doc Watson, Pete and Mike Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. She was honored with the National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts to recognize her role in preserving Arkansas musical traditions. The endowment praised her as "the great lady of Ozark balladry."

The cabin was built in the 1890s by her lumberjack father, Jonas James, in Cleburne County to the east. The original low ceiling reflected the fact that he was just 5 feet, 2 inches tall. When the house was reassembled at South Fork in 2007, an extra log was added to the height for easier accessibility.

It's possible to imagine Riddle's hardscrabble youth from the fact that the cabin housed not only her father and mother but also seven siblings. The eight children slept in the loft. Out back, as a reminder of that era's rudimentary sanitation, stands a reconstructed outhouse complete with the traditional crescent moon on the door.

The singer married H. Price Riddle in 1916. Tragedy struck 10 years later when her husband and the youngest of her four children were killed in a tornado. She then moved to Greers Ferry to care for her aged mother, before being discovered by musical researcher John Quincy Wolf in 1952. She later recorded for the well-known folklorist Alan Lomax. Her final performance in Arkansas came in 1984, at the Ozark Folk Center.

Located along the South Fork of Greers Ferry Lake's Little Red River section, the nature center opened in 2010 as the premier conservancy project of Gates Rogers Foundation. Set in the Boston Range of the Ozark Mountains, it aims "to educate and inspire us to be aware of our environment, to protect vulnerable species, to adopt practices which are ecologically sound, and to work toward re-creating a planet on which man and nature can co-exist in a mutually beneficial partnership."

Access to the center's roughly two miles of public nature trails, leading to the James Cabin, is available to pedestrians. The vehicle gate at the entrance is locked except during special events. The schedule of programs later this spring is being finalized. Near James Cabin, a covered pavilion with views over Greers Ferry Lake is used for a variety of student programs, spring through fall.

The sign outside the cabin includes a lyrical passage that may evoke the spirit of the folk singer born inside 12 decades ago: "Listen quietly, you may hear the echoes of Almeda's songs in the soft breeze."

To reach Gates Rogers Foundation's South Fork Nature Center from the Little Rock area, take the Interstate 40 Exit 125 to U.S. 65 in Conway. Go north on U.S. 65 to Choctaw and turn right on Arkansas 330. After proceeding 3.7 miles east, turn left on Klondike Road. After about 2 miles, Klondike becomes Bachelor Road, which reaches the center's entrance. The untended site is open free of charge daily to pedestrians.

For more information, visit southforknaturecenter.org or call (501) 745-6444.

Style on 04/09/2019

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