Impressive
Rick Smith
Salem (MO) News
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Celebrating 50 years as a National Park Service concessioner; a lifetime commitment to the Riverways
Ozark National Scenic Riverways is a special place. Indeed, it boasts the first two protected rivers in our nation and some of the most spectacular natural and cultural resources found anywhere. But some of the most precious resources are the people who have chosen to spend their lives here. There are countless stories flowing through the hills and hollers that make up the Ozarks. Some are true, some are partly true, and some don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. Many of these stories and the people that make them up are intertwined with the Riverways, such that the two can’t be separated. One such story is that of Darrel Blackwell.
It’s not often that someone or something can be considered “one of a kind.” However, in the case of Darrel Blackwell, you have just that. This past January marked 50 years since Darrel purchased Jadwin Canoe Rental and became a concessioner for the National Park Service (NPS). While that is a great accomplishment in and of itself, it does not paint the full picture of the relationship between Darrel Blackwell and Ozark National Scenic Riverways. Darrel worked four summers as a park ranger for the NPS in the early days of the park’s establishment. In addition, a portion of his family’s farm was acquired through eminent domain during the creation of the park. To our knowledge, Darrel Blackwell is the only person along the Riverways to have these three distinct experiences. It’s possible that no one in the history of the NPS shares these three same experiences either. Recently, Riverways Chief of Maintenance William Terry, who grew up in Jadwin, sat down to catch up with Darrel about reaching his 50-year milestone as a park concessioner. William has used many of Darrel’s own words to share his unique and true story with you.
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Darrel Blackwell grew up in the community of Rector, Missouri, in northern Shannon County with his father Wayne, mother Iceline, and brother Charlie. Wayne was a hard-working farmer, and Iceline was a teacher at the local schoolhouse. Wayne managed two farms, one in Rector where the family lived and the other along Current River across from present day Pulltite. Wayne Blackwell bought their farm across from Pulltite in the mid-1930s. In 1937, Wayne and Roy Weise built a new road down into Pulltite for access to the property. Today, Highway EE predominantly follows the route of that very first road down to the river.
“Dad bought a TD21 bulldozer that started on gas then switched over to diesel,” explained Darrel. “He had a big pull grader and a lot of dynamite to clear stumps out and get the road pushed out.”
After the road was completed, there were still difficulties getting across the river at Pulltite. Sometime in the early 1940s, Wayne built a ferry boat to help cross the river at Pulltite. If you know where to look, you can still see remnants of the ferry boat there today. The Blackwell farming operation mainly consisted of cattle. For a time, the family grew crops in some of the bottom fields along the river.
Darrel recalled, “When the Johnson grass got too bad that we couldn’t fight it any longer, Dad decided to plant oats in the fields. We then cut the oats and Johnson grass for hay.”
The oats and Johnson grass made for good hay for the cattle on the farm. The farm did well and allowed Wayne to add two additional tracts of ground to his original purchase along Current River. As the farming operation grew, so did the work. The Blackwell family had a series of caretakers who lived permanently on the farm to help manage the land. Wayne saw the value in education for the children of these families and worked to ensure these children could get to school.
Darrel continued, “Dad helped supervise the building of a swinging bridge across [Current River at the Lipps Hole] with the help of the Shannondale Ministries. See, originally, Shannondale Church was a missionary church where they would bring young kids out of the city to help put up hay and build barns. That summer it was to build that swinging bridge. This got kids that were on Dad’s place across the river to Wells Ford School on the Walter Lipps Road. The bridge tied to the bluff on the south side of the river and a big sycamore on the north side of the river. They had four cables stretched across there with woven wire sides and wooden steps on the bottom.”
Life was simple growing up in Rector in the 1940s and 1950s for Darrel and his family. There was no telephone, no television, and no indoor plumbing. Darrel went to school where his mother served as the teacher at a one-room schoolhouse that went from 1st through 8th grade.
“I only went seven years because my mother was the teacher and I was the only one in my grade, so she just put me in the next class up. I started high school when I was 12 and graduated at the age of 16,” he recalled.
That next fall, Darrel pursued a higher education at the University of Missouri, despite his young age by today’s standards.
“Eugene Maggard [Darrel’s cousin and longtime owner of Akers Ferry Canoe Rental] took me up there and dumped me out on the street in front of Cramer Hall. He set my suitcase out and said, ‘There it is, cuz; get after it!’ Then he drove off.”
While at the university, Darrel met and married the love of his life, Shelia. He went on to graduate Mizzou with a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics despite a few academic bumps and bruises along the way. In the spring of 1967 Darrel and Shelia moved back home to Shannon County to help his father farm. A few days before school was scheduled to start that fall, Darrel’s wife Shelia was approached by James Orchard, superintendent of a local two-room schoolhouse in the community of Timber, to ask if she would like to teach school that fall. Shelia declined because she didn’t yet have her degree.
“I came home, and Shelia told me they were needing a teacher down at Timber. She said, ‘why don’t you go down there and talk to them.’ I went down there and met with them, and they said they would get me a contract to teach. There was one problem, I was scheduled to go into the army in October. [James Orchard] said he would meet with the draft board 'to see if we can’t get that put off for the first two quarters ‘til we can find a teacher to replace you.' In the meantime, Shelia got pregnant with our first son Brad, and they didn’t look for another teacher. I ended up teaching for nine years.”
Darrel started his teaching career at Timber in the fall of 1967. He taught the 1st through 4th grades and James Orchard taught the 5th through 8th grades while carrying out his superintendent duties.
Reflecting on these times Darrel remarked, “It was a challenge for a young man like me jumping into a room with four grades. However, it’s amazing how things work out for you. Sometimes you are pretty lucky things happen the way they did.”
Darrel taught at Timber for two years and then went on to teach for seven years at Oak Hill R-1.
While teaching at Timber, Darrel became well acquainted with Jack Peters. Jack was the first ranger at Ozark National Scenic Riverways and had three children in the Timber school. Jack liked the way that Darrel conducted himself as a teacher and approached him about being a seasonal park ranger in the summertime when school was out.
“Jack was a really good guy," Darrel stated. "When he lived at Pulltite, he was really good buddies with my dad. I remember one time he was over there helping my dad pull a calf even though he had a broken leg.”
Jack held his employees to a high standard. If someone asked what a certain plant or flower was, Jack considered it alright if you didn’t know it the first time a question was asked. However, you better learn the answer before it was asked again.
Darrel recalled, “One time he handed me a book and said ‘You learn these flowers.’ I’d always just considered them weeds my whole life. Jack expected things to be done a certain way as my boss. It wasn’t unreasonable, it was what needed to be done.”
Darrel enjoyed his time as a ranger and reflected fondly on the experience.
“I remember that I really enjoyed it. It was a good job, and I looked forward to going to work every day. We did something different every day. We were either patrolling the river in a canoe, patrolling the river on horseback, or taking care of the campground; we never did the same thing two days in a row.”
Rick Smith
5264 N. Fort Yuma Trail
Tucson, AZ 85750
Cell: 505-259-7161
Email: rsmit...@comcast.net