When All is Lost

Interpreters, like most educators, know what it is like to operate on a shoe string budget – utilizing the resources at hand (leaves, seeds, and scenic vistas) and re-utilizing everyday materials (popsicle sticks, material scraps, and my favorite – peanut butter jars). There is something gratifying about not needing all the bells and whistles to highlight the significance of a place as special as Devil’s Den State Park.  However, when the tidbits of ideas, pictures, outlines, and contacts are all taken away, you realize how much time and research has gone into making the history of your park come to life.

On December 20, the interpreters’ office at Devil’s Den State Park was broken into. The perpetrators stole a range of items from our computers that stored things from contact information to pictures to amphitheater programs as well as personal effects like backpacks and hats and program materials like animal skins and binoculars. The saddest part about the loss is not the personal violation one feels when being broken into, but that those items were to help our visitors’ experience the park. These were the tangible items and thoughts that we had accumulated through the years to help tell the unique history of the park.

Although the loss was hard to accept as we walked around in a cloud of disbelief making a list of all the items gone from our repertoire, I am appeased to realize that the story of the park is still here! There was nothing in the office as precious as the materials found throughout the park. I look to the challenge of the days to come as a fresh start, a reason to get out taking photos around the park, a chance to brainstorm ideas, and revamp programs. If my programs were in a rut, they have just been given a fresh start! It will take time to rebuild our interpretive programs, but at least I have a good foundation and a great team to work with. This is a learning experience that has reconnected me to the resources outside my office and the fundamental things that no one can take from you – your ideas, knowledge, and Elmer’s glue (just try it!).

 

The history of Devil's Den is intact, in the park.

Please consider sharing your program ideas with me! What would you like to do on a visit to Devil’s Den State Park?

 

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. –  Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Interpreter Spurlock is determined to keep walking! Join her on one of her many fascinating, guided hikes through Devil’s Den State Park.)

Rebekah Spurlock, Interpreter, Devil's Den State Park

Rebekah Spurlock is a native Arkansan, originally from the Delta. Since graduating with her Master’s in Geography in 2007 from the University of Memphis, Rebekah has called Devil’s Den State Park home.

The Hoo Doo Woman of Arkansas

I have an atypical Park Interpreter station here at Parkin Archeological State Park.  The largest part of my job seems to be researching Arkansas History. Arkansas is an exceptionally colorful state, with complex and vivid stories about things you wouldn’t believe, not even if I told you.  This is one of those great Arkansas stories- the story of Aunt Caroline Dye.

Aunt Caroline Dye

One of Arkansas’ biggest Blues legends wasn’t even a Blues singer at all.  “Aunt” Caroline Dye, of Newport Arkansas, passed away September 26, 1918. Born a slave in Spartanburg South Carolina, immigrating to Arkansas some time in young adulthood, much of the rest of Caroline’s history is the stuff of Arkansas legend.

Well, I’m going to Newport just to see Aunt Caroline Dye.

Well, I’m going to Newport just to see Aunt Caroline Dye.

She’s a fortune teller, Ooh Lord, She sure don’t tell no lie.

– Hoo Doo Women, Johnny Temple

Caroline’s exceptional abilities started as a young child.  When she was 10 years old and still a slave on the plantation, she was helping to set the table for Thanksgiving Dinner.  She started insisting that they had not set enough plates, that Mister Charley was coming.  Charley was the Plantation owner’s brother, who was thought to have been killed four years earlier in the Civil War.  Sure enough, later that day Charley came walking in the door. The family couldn’t believe it! He relayed the fact that he had been wounded, taken prisoner, and had not had the chance to come home until that day. No one ever knew how she could have guessed such a thing, and all her little coincidences really started to be noticed after that.

“White and colored would go to her. You sick in bed, she raise the sick. … Had that much brains — smart lady. … That’s the kind of woman she was. Aunt Caroline Dye, she was the worst woman in the world. Had that much sense.”

– Band Leader Will Shade

Hers is an interesting Arkansas story-  the story of an uneducated, African American woman who amassed a small fortune as a wealthy landowner, rental property entrepreneur, and most importantly, as a seer and rumored hoodoo woman- all of this while being unable to read or write.  She is one of the most prominently featured women in the Delta Blues- though she herself was never a musician. The great Blues artists couldn’t keep away from her legend in their songs, too numerous for me to list them all here.

And she told my fortune as I walked through the door.

And she told my fortune as I walked through the door.

Said, “I’m sorry for you Buddy. Ooh Lord, your woman don’t want you no more.”

– Hoo Doo Women, Johnny Temple

Caroline became famous all over the Midsouth for her otherworldly abilities. She never advertised or charged for her services, but everyone always paid for them, one way or another. Affluent people from far and wide sought her services and feared her verdicts. Many prominent people would not make major decisions without at first consulting her, and if they could not bring themselves to consult her because of whatever reason, they did their best to avoid her altogether.

(Of Dye in her heyday) “…it is doubtful that even the name of President Wilson was more generally known.”

– John Quincy Wolf, Arkansas Folklorist

Speaking of the President, there was at least one Governor who took complete stock in her abilities. Governor-elect Donaghey refused to be inaugurated on either the 13^th of the month, or on a Friday. He declared he had no desire to take the oath of office on “hoodoo” day. When asked when he thought the inauguration would take place, he replied “Probably Thursday the 14^th or Monday the 18^th. Wednesday the 13^th, would of course be a bad day. Friday would never do.” – New York Times article, published January 6, 1909.

Aunt Caroline Dye she told me, “Son, these women don’t mean you no good.” Aunt Caroline Dye she told me, “Son, these women don’t mean you no good.”Said, “Take my advice and don’t monkey with none in your neighborhood”

– Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues, The Memphis Jug Band 1930

Celebrated by many, feared by most, Caroline Dye is an excellent example of a strong Arkansas woman having a profound effect on our history.  Through the Delta Blues, many of her lessons are still available to the masses. An atypical muse, Caroline influenced some of the greatest blues songs ever written, maybe even the best blues song ever written- W.C. Handy’s St. Louis Blues.

Now dat gyspy tole her, “Don’t you wear no black,

Now dat gyspy tole her, “Don’t you wear no black,

Go to St. Louis, you can win him back”

– St. Louis Blues, W.C. Handy

Do you believe her?  Get out sometime in our own backyard and explore history here in Arkansas- Aunt Caroline would tell you it’s a good idea.

Mary Anne Parker, Park Interpreter

Mary Anne Parker has been with Arkansas State Parks since 2005, and as Interpreter at Parkin Archeological State Park since 2006.  Mary Anne’s primary focus at Parkin has been on the African American Experience in the Delta, and she is extremely proud of the growth in community support the park has experienced with the renovation and opening of the Northern Ohio School in 2006. Her other interests and activities include running the Parker Homestead, which she owns and operated with her husband and his parents, and writing grants to further educational opportunities for students attending Arkansas Delta public schools.

First Snow of the Year at Arkansas State Parks

Photos by Arkansas State Parks, Taken between Jan 09-11, 2011

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