Category: Within The Realm

Fayetteville, Arkansas can lay claim to a great American musical heritage with Levon Helm, the legendary singer/drummer for The Band, Rockabilly stalwart Ronnie Hawkins and the Cate Brothers. But there is a name, long forgotten, that lead the way. Ferdinan Zellner was the first to bring music from the sleepy little Ozark town to the rest of the world

This past Easter Sunday was my Kindergarten teacher Louise Carson’s 90th Birthday. On the occasion of her birthday we revisit Mrs. Carson to discuss what it was like trying to teach a bunch of kids like me. And, as usual with any discussion with Mrs. Carson, we learn a little something along the way.

The largest non-military battle in the American West occurred 150 years in the Cherokee Nation. Often told as a tale of a Western gunfight, the battle at the Whitmire School on Peacheater Creek in the Goingsnake District was a much more complicated affair. It was a jurisdictional conflict between the Cherokee Nation and the United States Federal Court in Fort Smith. Who is to blame for the bloodshed is still debated and a recent Supreme Court ruling had reignited the jurisdictional conflict once again. Hear the complicated story for yourself!

It’s been a while since I started this podcast. I know not a lot of folks have heard the first episode and my quick introduction of the show and what it was I was setting out to do. There’s been a lot of improvement on storytelling, recording quality, etc. since that first episode, so now is as good a time as any for a re-introduction to what I’m trying to accomplish with this show. Hello, it’s me.

Has your life ever been changed by a chance meeting with someone? Mine has. Over three decades ago, quite by accident, met author Jerry Ellis while he was working on his first book. He uttered a few sentences to me that changed the way I saw the world and my place in it. We recently reconnected to talk about that day and what has transpired since!