Includes bibliographical references and index (pages 299-302).

Foreword : collecting recollections by C. Ray Brassieur -- Preface : a wagonload of fire -- Introduction : backwoods interviewing -- Part I. My first Ozark River oral histories : headwaters, setting forth in oral history. King of the Ozark rivers : Ralph "Treehouse" Brown -- Taking care of his creek : George Langenberg -- Highlights of Ozark rivers oral history -- Memoir : at trails end camp -- Part II. Working with the U.S. Forest Service : techniques, beginning in oral history. Palmer, Missouri : in the valley of the ghosts -- Grasshopper Hollow : fieldwork in the Ozark's largest fen -- Establishing a farm and hunting fox : Amel Martin -- Sidebar : Alford Forest wins new lease on life -- Memoir : Adirondack and Ozark ancient forests -- Part III. U.S. Geological Survey of gravel and the river : fieldwork, researching downstream and up. Gardening for a life of abundance : Ted and Kay Berger -- Gravelbars and a thief at the corn crib : Rev. Cecil King -- "We are losing this river..." : Jack Toll -- Memoir : almost a great job for an oral historian -- Part IV. Marching with the military again : enlistment, public service interviewing in the Ozarks -- Hogs and midwives : interviews with Ft. Wood's early settlers -- The lady with the bull dick cane on TV : Aileen Hatch -- Missouri moonshining days : George Lane, Waynesville, MO -- Sidebar : ambrosia on the Piney -- The Cadillac mayor of Crocker, Missouri : Norma Lea Mhalevich -- Memoir : dancing with the spirit of Vietnam, May 2014 -- Part V. Journalism into history : deadline, every day a new story. Two special parents for special children : the Earl Adamses -- Bass fishing tournament : Basil Bacon -- Area inventor looking for business partner : Louis Moore -- Sidebar : fine art from White Oak Forests -- Local prophet carves wide swath : Rev. Joseph Jeffers -- From birch tree to the Battle of the Bulge and back : Bill and Trudy Reed -- Exposé from a newbie election judge -- A day with the rainbow family : Ted Berger and Ronnie Jones -- Memoir : holding the feather : reflections on the rainbow family -- Part VI. Making it as a freelancer : gigging, community culture from diverse angles. La Guignolée : fiddling in the new year : Kent Beauline -- Good sports : a Burnham Sunday tradition : Gini Webb Scudder -- A visit with Bob Holt and Venae Heier -- View to the east : country folks will wave -- Route 66 : African American history along the Mother Road -- Sidebar : hard traveling in the Ozarks -- Celebrating the Ozark Highlands viticulture : Mary Codemo -- Visit with an Ozark swamp queen : the nature conservancy -- Video with Ralph "Treehouse" Brown and others -- Voice as fast as a fiddle : dancing at a country music club -- Deliberate lives : a celebration of three Missouri masters -- Memoir : hillbillies and black helicopters -- Part VII. Profiles, portraits and champions : likeness, capturing an essence. Healing the waters on an Ozark frontier -- Organic more than a century : Frances "Nana" Yeary -- Sidebar : is it true? -- Visiting moondog in Manhattan -- Magic quartz near Mount Ida -- Selling ties in an early blizzard -- A man who loved copperheads : Ken Carey -- An Ozarker in his new Kentucky home : George Marshall Smith -- Clyde and the recycled chairs -- Woodcarvers : Harold and Elaine Enlow -- Memoir : portrait of my father as an eminent hillbilly : a cautionary tale -- Part VIII. Ethics, activists and timber : hillbilly ethics, truth-tellin' and rural rapport -- The sweetest fiddler in all of Arkansas : Violet Hensley -- This is the Ozark earth : a conversation with a river conservationist -- Sidebar : Rex Harrel's best story -- In search of commonwealth : in memory of Doug Wixson -- Plonked in nowheresville : Tristen Russ -- Memoir : from China's skuzziest city : teaching oral history -- Epilogue : bedrock, paradox and petroforms -- Appendix 1. A brief guide to doing oral history interviews -- Appendix 2. Oral history projects and related contributions -- Appendix 3. Oral and community history bibliography -- Appendix 4. Schedule of questions : oral history of land use in the Ozarks.