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.
Although cotton was king in Buffalo Island, Arkansas, families grew and produced livestock and other agricultural products for their own use and for sale. Nan Snider gives an overview of the kinds of farming in the region.
Nan Snider (00:04): . . . farming and animal livestock. Hog business was a big business, things they could do before they got the land cleared. They were deep into raising hogs and animals and grain crops that they could send to the mill here, the mills locally, and have them ground into flour and cornmeal and stuff.
Nan Snider (00:21): They just lived off the land. Truck patches were very big. They had strawberries and cabbages and cantaloupes. I think there's some of the old train pictures that shows them loaded down with cantaloupes or tomatoes.
Nan Snider (00:36): Whatever they could produce, they raised. But the more and more they cleared the land, the more and more it really got into cotton. Now, we see it diversify, and they have peanuts, potatoes, and all sorts of things growing. So they keep up with the times. Where the prices are, that's where they go.
Asset ID: 2018.20.11
