I'm not an "outdoor" person. that is to say, i don't go camping and i hate swimming in any natural body of water, whether it be the ocean, a lake or a stream. but i am a sightseer and a lover of the quiet solitude of nature. i love to hop in the car (when i have one) and just drive, drive to all kinds of places. it may be the artist district in the rundown NODA district here in charlotte, a small run-down diner in a neighboring small town, or rambling around back country roads, communing with nature (albeit, from the comfort of my car).

when i visited back home, i was disappointed that i didn't get the chance to visit one area of the state that i spent about nine months of my life in. it was in the "foothills" of the mountains and the town and more specifically the area has reared it's ignorant and inbred head in several of my stories.

it is a town of probably no more than two-hundred people. the school is all-in-one, elementary to high school, where the graduating class is rarely more than 10-15 students.

the area itself is quite large, as most of the people who live there had been there, or rather their "kin" have been there for generations and generations. it is nothing for them to own 200 acres of mostly pasture land which has been passed down through the families. rumor has it that actual decendents of the hatfields (of the kentucky hatfields and mccoys) are the ones who own the small quickie store/gas station/burger joint on the main highway.

it's easy to get lost on those dirt backroads that wind beneath canopes of trees, following and crossing the Lee Creek as it snakes its way through the countryside. outsiders have to be careful about turning around in "driveways" as they will more than likely be met with business end of a shotgun. moonshine and marjuana are their unofficial "natural" resources and very few people live off their land anymore, instead having to travel 1/2 hour to an hour away to either van buren or fort smith to work.

when i lived up there with z's dad, we lived in a hundred year old log cabin that one of the decendents had rocked over. the old logs were still visible on the inside with the original lime chinking and the peeling lanolium floor was warped beyond belief. we had no running water and pumped water from the artisian well to fill the fifty-five gallon barrel on the back porch. from there, i would carry bucket after bucket inside just to flush the toilet. the only electric we had was one of those temporary set-ups that the electric co-op usually reserves for new construction. as the windows were also old and warped, it didn't keep the elements, or bugs out. one night i felt something crawling on me. when we switched on the light, hundreds and hundreds (and I MEAN hundreds) of grandaddy longlegs covered every inch of the room.

it's a great irony that several years later, mark's mother moved them there. of all the places in the world she could have taken them, she took them there.

we didn't live there at the same time, but we both know the area and he has an aunt and uncle that still live there.

the other day i heard something that just ticked me off to no end. the road next to the post office (one of those one-room jobbies that you only see in movies) leads to a popular swimming hole. there was an old concrete "bridge" to cross over the widest section and which always ended up underwater in a good rain. it was just about flush with the water itself anyway, so even if it didn't rain, you'd still have to be careful when crossing it.

supposedly, they have filled in the old swimming hole and apparently all the rich folks in fort smith, who in recent years began stacking houses one on top of the other in one of the two fancy-smancy developments, have begun to flock to the little town, building massive places. this is the main reason why they decided to fill in the swimming hole.

as if it's not shocking enough that they would ruin a little known and pristine part of the state, they have also decided to fill in natural dam. natural dam is about thirty minutes up the highway and it is just as the name implies. a natural rock wall that spans a wide section of Lee Creek. the creek runs over it, forming an amazing little waterfall that empties into a rather large pool of water. most people in northwest arkansas and even over into oklahoma know of natural dam. it's been a favorite destination of those who like to spend time outside and especially in the summertime, it's natural pool is filled with swimmers from all over.

do they not realize what they're doing? obviously they don't. and years and years down the road, when it's too late, they will see that money cannot replace natural beauty. development will destroy one of the prettiest places in the state and no matter how hard they try, they can never get that back. if we continue to sprawl without concern to what we destroy in our wake, eventually we will run into each other until there are no longer any unspoiled, quiet places left to reflect and "just be."