H I S T O R Y  O F  H E R E   by, James F "Jim" Barrett       H I S T O R Y O F H E R E      I just had a very exasperating and humbling experience - my word processing program crashed and I lost an entire, completed, article. I thought I had been "saving" right along as one is supposed to do. But some glitch, some mysterious "bug" had secretly locked up my program. While the typing part went right along, the saving part was somehow blocked. So, when I did my last "save" and told the darned thing to print - nada! - nothing! It went dead. Finally my cursor even locked up and then I knew I was in deeeeeeeep trouble! That's the first time such a simple program as a word processor has locked up on me. How terribly frustrating, and how humiliating. But once again it taught me a lesson. We're the "boss" only so long as God, time and circumstances permits. Life, like our computers, can mysteriously "lock up," or "crash" at any moment. I'll try to keep that in mind, it's terribly important. In life, as at our computers, we must "save" regularly. I don't mean save "cash," I mean, save experiences, good things, happiness, love and other such valuables which we don't want to "lose" to some glitch in life. Or fail to enjoy before our "program" "crashes." So, back to local Ozarks history, or Editor Ed will tie me to the Message Tree's front porch post, pile old newspaper issues at my feet and turn me into historical toast. I can see it in his eyes sometimes.      "The Coming of Table Rock Lake." Ozark heroes of history. Today's worries over MoDot cutting down our lovely old oak trees. Native farms and cemeteries lost under two hundred feet of lake water. Ozark heroes of today. How do all of these considerations tie together? How can it all fit into Ozark history, or does it? It surely does, dear reader friends.      Do you like good old sayings? I do. They speak truisms in a few, direct and positive words. "Anything worth having is worth fighting for," "Don't give up without a fight," and a host of others just as succinct, direct and solid. I recall one great old "saying" which I last saw in a "sampler" hanging on a cabin wall. Do you dear reader friends recall Archie and Mehetible the Cat? Well, it's not important that you do, but one of their sayings is valuable, "Don't give a inch." Yes, it should be "an" not "a", but the thought is the important thing, not the grammar.      Today, we Ozarkers can reach out and touch just about anyone we want to touch, just about anywhere in the world we want to touch them, can't we. We have the telephone, mail every day at our door, and the new and ever growing powers of the electronic computer and the internet. With such assets we can reach out and make our thoughts and desires known to anyone and everyone across the land and around the world. We can launch or join any "fight" we want to initiate or participate in.      One wonders, had such things been available to the pioneers along the White and James, would our lake system ever have been built? I am told that lthe building of the Panama Canal would be absolutely impossible today. By the time Teddy Roosevelt and his Canal guys got through the environmental red tape, soothed the rancor of a thousand tree-and-owl groups, battled through every mile of paper in the court suits and cases, wrestled with every environmental study, explained why Panama was created out of another country by force of coercion, and so on - why - the canal would have "died a-borning." (That's yet another old time folk saying.) The great Senator Dewey Short might have had to fight those same battles had the computer, the telephone and at-the-door-mail existed in the White and James River Valleys during his days of campaigning for approval to create Table Rock Dam and Table Rock Lake.      Ozarkers have fought for the land they love for nearly two hundred years, if you just consider the time they've lived here. But most native Ozarkers originally came from the East Coast. So, yes, they fought in wars for America back then too. Well over two hundred years, and still ready to fight for the land they love. Do you, dear reader friends, recall the great old movie about Sergeant York? He was a mountain man, called to fight in the First World War. He became one of the nation's greatest, most highly decorated war heroes. True, he was from another area of mountains, but he was typical of our type of native people. The Ozark Mountain Area has sent countless sons to fight for our land, even though they hardly understood the meaning of the war. But they were ready to fight and die if necessary for the land they loved.      Then there was Audie Murphy, from our neighboring Oklahoma. Another backwoods boy who went to defend his beloved country. He, too, became a major war hero, one of Americas most decorated. Also, typical of the people from our part of the country. Ozarkers have served in every war America has had to fight, and they will serve once again in the conflict with terrorism.      Yes, the Ozarkers have fought to preserve many things. They have fought to keep the bit of earth they won through generations of hard work and sacrifice. Just as Ozarkers today fight to keep their bit of God's green earth. And we should fight these battles, it's traditional, right and proper that we do. As Archie and Mehetible once wrote, "Don't give a inch." But our reasoning has matured as our grasp of community has grown over the centuries. Giving an "inch" has sometimes become necessary for the community to grow and prosper, for things to happen which will provide for our children and grand-children in the future.      The pioneers and descendents of pioneers who lived along the James and the White Rivers could hardly see the future advantages of surrendering their farms, their home places, their cemeteries and places they had loved for generations. And, yes, they did fight to keep and preserve them. But they didn't have telephones, computers, at the door mail, and so on. Most of them didn't even have electricity, let alone computers. And the giant forces of the government in those days was much more than simple farmers could oppose. They didn't have a dynamo like Dewey Short on their side to lead them in the fight. Yes, of course, they were well paid for their losses. Their cemeteries were carefully and cautiously moved to high ground, and everything that could be preserved was preserved. But the White River was a killer, had been a killer, for nearly two hundred years. It needed to be tamed and the area needed to move forward. So Dewey Short and the U. S. Corps of Engineers, with permission and funding from the Federal Government, bought up the river bottom and built Table Rock Dam.      It all started with the building of Powersite Dam, which created Lake Taneycomo and generated the first electrical power in the Mid-Ozarks. That was done with private money. And it, too, turned out to be a great boon to that particular area at that particular time. Norfork, Bull Shoals, Table Rock and Beaver have all been created by the government to tame the White, to create non-destructive, self-replenishing electrical power. And, incidentally, to create thousands of well paying jobs, hundreds of miles of valuable shoreline property, countless thousands of acres of valuable "view" property, new homes for a vast amount of "newcomers" to build, settle, and spend the rest of their lives in quiet contentment. As well as creating things almost beyond comprehension and measurement: The fishing industry, boating business, docks, fuel, supplies, equipment - the list goes on and on and on.      Yes, the settlers along the river beds had to "Give a inch." But the resulting "good" is so vast and important, the created community so vital and worthy as to be beyond this writer's words. If it weren't for the lakes, Branson would still be a two-bit river fishing town. Silver Dollar City, Shepherd of the Hills Farm, the vast music and entertainment industry, and ninety-nine percent of the other businesses in the lakes area wouldn't exist. Our graduating children would still have to go to the big cities to find an education, employment and a way of life for their children.      Never ever "Give a Inch" without due consideration, without fighting for what's right and proper. But give that inch when it will mean a better life for the community, a safer environment, roads which better serve and save lives and property, and water which we can drink without boiling. Yes, the Ozarks has created many heroes, both in war and in peace. Those who gave up their homes to create our new way of life are as much heroes as the veterans. They began to be heroes when they came here to the Western Frontier of that day, and they died heroes for their ongoing sacrifice for their children and grandchildren.      We of the Message Tree and we journalist historians salute the Ozarks' heroes, the veterans and those who built and sacrificed pioneer homes and lands that we might have what we have today, here on the shores of Table Rock Lake and other of the White River's great water vistas. See you in a couple of weeks. James F. "Jim" Barrett (Copyright 1995/96/97/98/99/00/01/02/03/04)