Kinfolks
by Evelyn Flood

My story published in the Newton County, Arkansas Times Newspaper on 12 March 1998 in my 'Kinfolks Column'

Some time back Eva Foster Verdun of Gerber, California wrote to the Times inquiring about a "belled buzzard" that flew over the hills of Newton County, Arkansas.

At first I thought it may be a "tall tale" like my father-in-law Lee Chester Flood used to tease me about, but was reading an old folklore book and noticed there was mention of a buzzard in the Arkansas Ozarks in a settlement along a river bottom. Seems there were high limestone bluffs bordering a river (probably the Buffalo River) which were topped with scrub timber, the home and breeding place of hundreds of buzzards.

Hog raising was the main source of income for this area. One summer hog cholera broke out among the hogs. The buzzards, while feasting on the dead hogs, carried the Cholera disease from one section of that area to another.

Seems there was an unwritten law that no one should kill these buzzards. The farmers knew that if some action was not taken to check the spread of the disease, their hogs, along with their income, would be wiped out.

The farmers got together and it was decided that they should capture one of the buzzards and fasten a small sheep bell around the neck of a buzzard in hopes that it would cause all the birds to leave this area.
Finaly one of the buzzards was trapped and a bell placed around its neck. When the bird flew among the other buzzards, it caused a great commotion and in a few days the flock of buzzards disappeared. Only the "belled buzzard" remained. Finally he flew off and left the area.

At the end of the summer there was an epidemic of typhoid fever in this area at the time the "belled buzard" reappeared. The tinkle of the bell could be heard as he soared above the houses. He would go away and come back. Each time he reappeared some sort of calamity happened. His presence became associated with misfortunes. The people thought this bird possessed an evil spirit.

Many believe he still roamed the skies and to this day any sighting report of the "belled buzzard" casts a spell over the Ozark area.

So there must have been a true incident that actually happened concerning the "belled buzzard" of the Ozarks and not just a folktale. Does anyone remember the belled buzzard??
Did one of your KINFOLKS perhaps know who put the bell on the buzzard?
Evelyn Flood
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Copyright(c)1998

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