Ghosts of the Saline River

Chapter One ………………… 1-22

Dedication to Curry Martin
Preface by Paul L. Maier, 
            ph.d., litt.d., ll.d.
Introduction
History of the Saline River 
Crow’s Station – a Gambler’s Lookout
Ozment Bluff
A Bulldog for Jesus
No Hair on her Belly
Get There Eli
A Preacher and his Gun
The Real Story of David and Goliath
The Gold Headed Walking Cane
A One-hundred Year Lease
Steamboat Captain Bob Withers
The Longview Ferry
An Accidental Shooting
Three Brother-in-laws
Horse Head Bend
Amelia’s’ Signal
Riverboat Captains
Waiting for a full dozen
Saline Riverboats
The Steamboat Handy
The Saline Waterfall
Ignorant Bend
Curry Martin and the Monster Boats
A Moment of Decision
Ten-foot Alligator Gar
A Shooting at Pine Island
A New Tent from Sears
Buffalo Dinner Curry Style
Trapping on Franklin Creek
Passed Out
Naked with No Sheets
Never a Dull Moment
The Coon Man
The Old Green Jeepster
Somber Moments
When the Irish Eyes are Shining

Chapter Two ………………… 22-34

John Wheeler
Not a Dry Eye in the House
Terrapin Tom
The Resold Chicken
Reclaiming Dead Head Logs
The Leonard Rice Story
The Oold Hamilton Farm
A Cardboard Note
The Clio Lumber Company Shootings
The Bradley Camp
Mayberry Nicholson
Jim Young
The Price of a Slave
Samuel Nicodemus McKinney
The Old Yellow Toyota
Clois and his Bird gun
Nick and the Zoo
The Gaff Hook
The Last to Cross the Bridge
Dr. Livingstone I Presume
Do Those Things Hurt?
Stanley on the Saline
The Ingham Plantation
The Discovery of the Source of the Nile

Chapter Three ………………… 35-50

Walter Melton & the old Monticello Bridge
Cow Ford
Buck & Bill
Gold in a Blue Granite Basin
Creatures Falling from the Sky
A Bed of Snakes
Arkansas Pearl Boom
Desoto and the Saline
The Saline River Big Foot
The Jackman Trail Monster
The Monster at Tull
The Apeman of Sardis Road
Uncle John Sullins
Ghosts of Past Saline River Residents
The Ghost Train
A Plate Filled with Blood
The Old Allen House in Monticello
The Ghosts of Marks’ Mill Battleground
The Largest Living thing in Arkansas
The Villages of Prague & Old Belfast
The Shoppach House
Fountain Hill
Bonnie & Clyde
The Village of Johnsville
Colonel Hampton’s Gin House
Snake Creek
Dunk’s Gold
The Naming of Johnsville
The Old Gee Shop
Solomon Gardner’s Wedding Suit
The Saline River Madam
Gambling, Girls, & Guzzling
The Mansion
A Fourteen-month Prison Sentence
Double Buckshot
A Shoot-out in Warren
Godfrey Landing

Chapter Four ………………… 51-64

Twenty-five Ears of Corn
Camp Quapaw
Crazy Jack
Boyscout Troop 55
Armadillo Island
Three Dollars a Day
The New Madrid Earthquake
The Shelton Home
Old Negro John
Rafting the River
Madstones & Rabid Dogs
Giant Red Oaks
Saline Gumbo
The Naming of the Saline
The Busche Brother’s Rampage
Cane Break Mischief
The Rhodes Double Hanging
Jesse & Frank James
Mount Elba Lnding
Two & One Half Hours
Civil War Battles
Early Surveyors
Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge
The Best Kept Secret
The Saline River Bridges
Fender & the Buttermilk Railroad
Owensville Dynamite Fishing
Piranha in Arkansas
The Canon Ball House of Guess Creek
The Pontoon Bridge

Chapter Five ………………… 64-79

The Wheeler Trace Road
Spanky & Joe
John Murrell’s Treasure
The White Onion
The Salem Campground
The Andrews’ Houseboat
Possum Valley
Bottom Terms
The Village of Tull
Button & the Pea Thrasher
Yellow Jackets & Pentecostals
Mule Ball
Big Boy & the Flying Chicken Leg
Banjo Jack
The Dam Fight
A Woman, her Cow, & the Federals
Give em Air – Give em Air!
A Saline Escape
A Night in the Saline Swamp
The John Carter Wood Murder
Bear Hunting on the River
Sling Blade
A Saline River Tavern
The Pavilion
The Mule Brigade
Saline River Indians
Indian Burial Mounds
Reburying the Dead
Saracen the Hero
The Caddo Indians

Chapter Six ………………… 81-101

Salt Manufacturing
Ferry Crossings
Alligator Gar
The Four Forks of the Saline
The Source of the Saline
The Other Saline River in Arkansas
Laid Out During Store Hours
Saline Gypsies
Swinging Bridges
The Covered Bridge
The Cow Trough Delivery
The Alum Fork
The Hanging of Tom Staner
Outlaw Tom Slaughter
Wildcat Moonshine & Elephants
The Whiskey Rebellion
Rabbit Foot Mine
Traskwood & the Horsefly Diet
A Sunbonnet & a Bible
The Middle Fork Murders
The Sonny Lamb Shooting
The Saline River at Pool
The Bonfire Mail Delivery
The Train Wreck Cremation
July 4th Celebrations
Rotarians on the River
The Community at Stillion
A Two-story Saw Mill
The Downfall of Stillion
A Saline Whipping
Abandoned Babies
Hell in My Britches
Leola Cunningham
Indian Dugout Canoes
The Hughes Indian Mounds
The Hanging of Pherebe
The Twice Murdered Will Traylor
The Kidnapping of Wit Stephens
Mills Along the Saline
Fire in a Horn
River Rats
The Slab Town Flu Epidemic
Pioneer Doctors

Chapter Seven ………………… 101-117

The Stolen Grapevine
The Preacher with a Nasal Drawl
 Bootleggers & Bragging Rights
Cullen Montgomery Baker
The Saline River Massacre
The Revenge of a Battered Wife
High Water Tragedies
Nothing But Splinters
Longview as it Used To Be
The Woodpecker & the Judge
The Prayer that Moved a Bear
The Longview Ferry
A Booming Village
Longview & the Steamboats
The Village of Crowsville
Railroads over the Saline
The Saline River Train Wreck
Two Riverboat Captains
A Second Story of Saline Exploits
The Steamboat Morgan Nelson
A Watchful Eye
The Witherington Plantation
A Wagonload of Silver Belt Buckles
The Sale of the Morgan Nelson
The Murder of Gus Witherington
Camp Mansfield
The Cow Pattie Challenge
Saline River Landings
Collecting Mayhaws
The Panther & the Bus
The Pulley Swing
Trotlines & Campfires
The Longview Camps

Chapter Eight ………………… 118 -127

The Saline & Moro Bay
The Old Steel Bridges
Wild Pigs at the Camp
Unpredictable River Travel
Tales, Memories, & Yarns
Old Fort Buss
Lost Canons
Sulphur Pits
River Boundaries
The White Oak Post Office
The Pitts-Wilson Home
Pool Access
A Long Walk Home
Four Hundred Years of History
White Oak Community
David O. Dodd
The Prophet’s Chamber
Hooper Ford
The Killing of John McCool
The Execution of Tommy Black
The Hanging of T. A. Morris
The Mad Ax Man
A Bloody Saddle
Brass Knuckles
Run, Billy, Run!
Sneed Gang Shootout
Conclusion