The Arkansas Beekeepers Association will hold its
Annual Conference at the Ozark Folk Center, http://www.ozarkfolkcenter.com/, in
October. The beautiful Ozark Mountains will be in full fall foliage color, and
beekeepers will gather in the town of Mountain View. The beekeepers will hear
the latest in honey bee health research. They will purchase bee hives and equipment
and renew friendships with fellow beekeepers. They will also enjoy mountain
folk music played on the town square during cool fall evenings. Rita and I have
been travelling backroads through the Ozark Mountains exploring the countryside
little changed since pioneer family members moved into the Territory of
Arkansas in the early nineteenth century. We stopped for hamburgers at the Oark
General Store, in continuous operation since 1890. From Oark we travelled to
Boxley and Ponca, the elk range along the Buffalo River, http://www.agfc.com/education/Pages/EducationCenterPonca.aspx.
Above the river we passed several small groups of bee hives. Bee pollination is
important in providing food for wildlife like Arkansas’ elk. Pioneers often
kept bees in hollow logs known as gums. They also hunted for feral colonies
living in hollow trees, and robbing these trees for honey was an exciting cool-weather
tradition. With honey being the only sweetener available, it was a prized
commodity often collected in the winter when bee populations were at a minimum.
Rita and I found our family cemetery hidden in the woods between Damascus and
Center Ridge with its 32 family members’ graves. Only three headstones were
engraved, each dated 1861. All other graves were marked by simple slabs of
sandstone.
For program and information about the Arkansas
Beekeepers Association’s meeting in Mountain View, see http://arbeekeepers.org/events.html
and http://arbeekeepers.org/docs/2014/ABA%20Fall%202014%20Package.pdf.
In today’s photo we see the Ozarks in late summer foliage. When the beekeepers
gather in Mountain View, the mountains will be colored with red and purple gums;
yellow maples, hickories, and sycamores; green pines; and oaks in many shades
of brown. You are welcome to join the Arkansas Beekeepers Association in the
Ozarks.
--Richard
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