Ozark Highlands Radio

This week, a celebration of 50 years of the Ozark Folk Center State Park presented through archival audio from its 1973 grand opening as well as interviews of key park figures and commentary by historian and writer Charley Sandage. The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, in an early attempt to preserve the vanishing heritage of the Ozark Mountains, assisted local craftsmen and musicians to form the Ozark Foothills Crafts Guild in 1962. The guild started with 30 members and grew to a membership of over 300 master craftsmen and musicians. In 1963 the guild, in cooperation with local civic organizations, education advocate Bessie Moore, and renowned Ozark singer-songwriter Jimmy Driftwood organized the first Arkansas Folk Festival which attracted approximately 15,000 people. The festival became an annual event and within a few years was attracting almost 100,000 people to Mountain View. Because of the success of the annual festival the guild realized that they needed a permanent home. The