This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Recorded by Buffalo Island Central High School, EAST Students, in conjunction with the Buffalo Island Museum, Arkansas.
Nan Snider (00:04): Buffalo Island got its name, to the best of our interpretation, is from the fact that it actually was surrounded by water from Kennett, Missouri, which was a Indian village called Chillicothe. The Kenmore Slew, sometimes called the Kenmore River, went from Kennett, which was near Mississippi River, all the way west over to the St. Francis River, came down the St. Francis River through Lake City, which was actually a lake at that time, and went on down to Rivervale, to where it came to a point in the Rivervale Marked Tree area.
Nan Snider (00:44): Well, at the same time, the Hornersville, which came down from Kennett, went on down to Big Lake, which was the lake on the eastern side of Buffalo Island, and it kept running down the Little Red, and it ran down to Rivervale, and Marked Tree, and they joined like a tip, it's kind of like an arrowhead.
Nan Snider (01:03): But at one time there was actually water around, and there were a lot of braided stream terraces that carried the water through Buffalo Island. But it started being called Buffalo, Buffalo Township, Buffalo Island, and that's the stories I've always heard and read about, is how it got its name.
Asset ID: 2018.20.14
