Madison County Research Articles

Tips for managing a social networking site

Many public health organisations are making use of online social networking sites, such as Facebook, to disseminate information. The University of Kentucky's Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy (KCSP) has a...

Chemical Warfare: Eliminating Cold War-era munitions will cost more, take longer

The Department of Defense says it will cost about $2.6 billion more and take two years more than previously estimated to completely eliminate the nation’s remaining stockpile of obsolete chemical weapons. The total projected cost for destruction programs at the last two military installations where chemical warfare materials are stored is now $10.6 billion. The Pentagon says the weapons held at the Blue Grass Army Depot, in Madison County, Ky., likely will not be destroyed until 2023, rather than by 2021. The completion date for final destruction of the stockpile at the Pueblo Chemical Depot, in Pueblo County, Colo., has also been revised from 2017 to 2019. The new estimates include a “more conservative and realistic assessment” of potential operational problems that might occur, says Conrad F. Whyne, executive officer of the Army’s Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA) program. “Estimating costs and schedules for large, complex construction projects, which will ...

Characteristics and Environmental Problems of a Eutrophic, Seasonally-stratified Lake, Wilgreen Lake, Madison County, Kentucky

Wilgreen Lake (Madison County, Kentucky) is listed as “nutrient impaired” by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Commonwealth of Kentucky, and it also experiences high fecal microbe counts that restricts its use. The lake is a typical eutrophic lake, experiencing anoxia and dysoxia in its waters during summer stratification. Human activities in the watershed contribute additional nutrients to the lake that may exacerbate periods of anoxia, so knowing the sources of anthropogenic nutrient inputs to the lake would aid in developing best practices for development of lake shore areas and the watershed. Possible sources include residential fertilizers, cattle waste, and human sewage. High nutrient concentrations within surface waters generally occur only proximal to septic system clusters in the upper reaches of Taylor Fork. Bovine and human fecal microbes enter the lake causing periodic high fecal microbe counts, and are likewise restricted to shallow water areas especially after rain events. The areal distribution of high nutrient and fecal microbe values implicate septic systems as the most likely source of these pollutants, but runoff from pastureland must also contribute nutrients and fecal material. We plan to use additional tracing methods in the future to determine the main sources of nutrients and fecal microbes.

The Distribution ofCordulegaster(Odonata: Cordulegastridae) Nymphs in Seeps and Springs of Nelson Swamp (Madison County, NY)

Abstract Given the presence of foraging and reproducing adult Cordulegaster (spiketail) dragonflies in Nelson Swamp (Madison County, NY), we examined nymph distribution and abundance in the seeps and springs found within the swamp. From 9 September–4 November 2010, we surveyed 8 sites along Chittenango Creek in order to determine: (1) the species present and their distribution/occurrence among sites, (2) factors influencing species presence and abundances, and (3) patterns in size and age distribution among and within sites. For sites, we delineated habitat zones (inlet, middle, outlet), determined the benthic substrate, and measured shoreline perimeters. For nymphs, we measured head width, body length, and wing pad length and identified some to species. The majority of spiketails we identified were Cordulegaster diastatops (Delta-spotted Spiketail); Cordulegaster maculata (Twin-spotted Spiketail) was also present. Most nymphs occurred in inlets with muck and cobble bottoms and in water depths less than 1...

Application of a simple binary mixing model to the reconstruction of lead pollution sources in two Mississippi River floodplain lakes

A simple binary mixing model is used to determine the isotopic ratios of lead (Pb) pollution sources to a lake located near a smelter closed because of excessive Pb aerosols (Horseshoe Lake Madison County, Illinois, USA). As a control, we also examine a relatively unpolluted lake in a rural area of Southern Illinois (Horseshoe Lake Alexander County). Sediment cores were taken from both lakes and analyzed for Pb and Pb isotopes by ICP-MS. The mixing model shows that Madison County Horseshoe Lake had 3 different sources of Pb in its history. The first source is sediment from the Mississippi River with an intermediate 206Pb/207Pb ratio (1.223 ± 0.009) which dominates inputs in pre-settlement times. From 1750 to 1933, the source of pollution Pb has the high 206Pb/207Pb ratio (1.256 ± 0.005) characteristic of ore from the southeast Missouri Pb mines. The most recently deposited pollution Pb comes from a source with a low 206Pb/207Pb ratio (1.202 ± 0.005). This source is similar in isotopic composition to pollution Pb found by several other investigators in the Eastern US and probably represents the mixture of ores used in modern industrial processes. It is unclear from the isotopic composition whether this source at Horseshoe Lake is the local Pb smelter or vehicle exhaust. The sediment core from Horseshoe Lake, Alexander County, shows a less variable isotopic composition. The binary mixing model showed a source composition of 1.225 ± 0.003 before 1850 and 1.231 ± 0.003 after this date. The change does not indicate a pollution source, but may be a shift in the sources of natural sediment with slightly different isotopic ratios to the lake. Our results show the value of simple binary mixing models to reconstruct the isotopic composition of Pb sources to lakes.

“… To Keep Her in the Station in Which She Was Raised”

Courtship choices and matrimonial partners remained highly limited and well defined in the late antebellum South but two categories encompassed the bulk of objectionable variables: community ("spatial") and class ("social"). As a general rule, white antebellum southerners seldom married anyone residing outside their own space and rarely married anyone identified outside their own social place. This article examines these socio-spatial boundaries in the rural plantation regions of western Tennessee. Based on a detailed database of 122 new marriages in Madison County (1851-1855), the conclusions of this article reinforce the strength of these geocultural borders. Nine of ten white southerners married within their own class. However, a few notable exceptions complicate efforts to craft a monolithic interpretation, and exceptions are always illuminating. This article encourages reexamination of the subtle interplay between space and place in the slave South -- as evidenced in the universal pursuit of matrimony.

Observations on the biology of the endangered stygobiotic shrimp Palaemonias alabamae, with notes on P. ganteri (Decapoda: Atyidae)

Palaemonias alabamae is endemic to subterranean waters in northern Alabama. Its type locality is Shelta Cave, Madison County, and ostensibly conspecifi c shrimps have been found in Bobcat and two other caves. Pollution and other factors may have extirpated the shrimp from the type locality. In Shelta Cave the species is smaller than the shrimp in Bobcat Cave and P. ganteri in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Adult female P. alabamae (s.s.) and P. ganteri are larger than males. Female P. alabamae with visible oocytes or, rarely, attached ova, were observed from July through January in Shelta Cave. Each female there produces 8 to 12 large ova, whereas females of the population in Bobcat Cave produce 20 to 24 ova, and P. ganteri produces 14 to 33 ova. Plankton samples taken in Shelta and Mammoth caves yielded nothing identifi able as zoea or postlarvae. Palaemonias alabamae and P. ganteri usually feed by fi ltering bottom sediments through their mouthparts, but both sometimes feed upside down at the water’s surface. Although there is some overlap, the compositions of the aquatic communities in Shelta and Mammoth caves differ, and there are some major differences among the Alabama shrimp caves. The stygobiotic fi sh, Typhlichthys subterraneus, is a known predator on P. alabamae in Shelta Cave.

New County Distribution Records of Dragonflies and Damselflies (Odonata) in Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee

A total of 30 new odonate county distribution records are presented for counties in Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The known odonate fauna of Madison County, Kentucky, is increased from 16 to 27 species and the fauna of Claiborne County, Tennessee, is increased from 18 to 27 species. Libellulidae and Coenagrionidae species accounted for the majority of the new records, 15 and 7, respectively.

Effects of Breeding Stage and Behavioral Context on Singing Behavior of Male Indigo Buntings

Abstract We studied the effects of breeding stage and behavioral context on the singing behavior of male Indigo Buntings (Passerina cyanea; n = 15) during the 2004 breeding season in Madison County, Kentucky, USA, to better understand how males with a single-song repertoire vary the characteristics of their song to convey different information. Playback experiments were conducted in 2005 in territories of focal males (n = 14) to further examine the possible effect of male-male interactions on singing behavior. We analyzed 10,919 songs of 15 male Indigo Buntings with songs consisting of a series of figures that were usually paired (i.e., phrases). Mean song duration was 2.30 ± 0.13 (SE) sec (range = 1.44–3.40 sec) with males varying song duration by varying the number of figures and phrases in each song. Singing rates varied significantly (P < 0.0001) among breeding stages and were highest prior to pairing, suggesting singing has a role in mate attraction. Singing rates also differed (P = 0.013) du...

Introgressive Hybridization between Bighead Carp and Silver Carp in the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers

AbstractAsian carps are classified as either bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis or silver carp H. molitrix by multiple presumptively diagnostic morphological characteristics; however, hybrids pose a dilemma. Fish sharing the morphological characteristics of both species were observed in an Illinois River backwater (Calhoun County, Illinois) approximately 5 mi (8 km) upriver from the confluence with the Mississippi River as well as in two locations in Pool 26 of the Mississippi River (Madison County, Illinois). Biopsied tissues from individuals exhibiting mixed morphological features were analyzed at four diagnostic allozyme loci (ADH‐1*, sMDH‐A*, CK‐A*, and sSOD‐1*) via starch gel electrophoresis. This comparison revealed a high percentage of hybridization (22.5%) from an indiscriminate sample of 120 fish. Moreover, an unexpected percentage (12.5%) of individuals identified in the wild as either parental bighead carp or silver carp by gill raker morphology were genetically identified as hybrids. Finally, two levels of hybridization were detected, first‐generation hybrids (F1) and post‐F1 hybrids, revealing the onset of extensive introgression and the potential for a hybrid swarm. Variation in the amplified COII domain of mitochondrial DNA indicated a strong directional bias of hybrids (88%) containing silver carp maternal lineages. Morphologically, F1 hybrids were often identifiable (88%) by the presence of twisted gill rakers, but post‐F1 hybrids were difficult to identify with any appreciable certainty. This result creates concern where taxonomic assignment is critical for management or monitoring, warranting a more extensive and intensive examination of this phenomenon in North American waters. Finally, prior observations in aquaculture have shown reduced jumping behavior, fitness, and condition of fish resulting from post‐F1 matings between these species. This is the first confirmed presence of wild post‐F1 individuals of Asian carps in the United States and, although further monitoring is needed, a hybrid swarm may ultimately decrease invasion success as introgression continues.

Cotton Mill City: The Huntsville Textile Industry, 1880-1989

Cotton Mill City: The Huntsville Textile Industry, 1880–1989 IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY, a cotton mill campaign transformed Huntsville from a largely agrarian community into one of the largest textile cities in Alabama. Inexpensive labor, tax exemptions, free water, and lax southern labor laws attracted northern investors who provided capital and technological knowledge for mill endeavors. By fostering manufacturing, financial growth, and demographic change, these mills—despite their numerous reactionary tendencies —are excellent examples of southern industrialization. They also shine light on how, except in times of strike, rivalry and competitiveness fueled interaction between the various mills and their mill villagers. When the mills began to close, Huntsville, if not for the opening of chemical and ordnance plants followed by the arrival of Wernher von Braun and his team of rocket scientists, would probably have gone the way of so many textile-mill towns by becoming a “noindustry ghost town.”1 Huntsville is hailed as the home of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, but not until the city’s textile past is given just attention will its transition from Cotton Mill City to Rocket City seem all the more remarkable. The area that became known as Huntsville, then located in the Mississippi Territory, was settled in 1805 by John Hunt. When Hunt failed to register the land properly, LeRoy Pope bought the area, and on December 22, 1809, named it Twickenham after the birthplace of Alexander Pope. Situated in Madison County, which had formed on December 13, 1818, Twickenham attracted many settlers. Not unW H I T N E Y A D R I E N N E S N O W Whitney A. Snow is a doctoral student at Mississippi State University. The author would like to thank Dr. Sarah Shouse and Dr. Elise Stephens for their contributions to the oral history interviews that proved invaluable to this work. 1 James Cobb, “Beyond the ‘Y’all Wall’: The American South Goes Global,” in Globalization and the American South, ed. James Cobb and William Stueck (Athens, GA, 2005), 4. T H E A L A B A M A R E V I E W 244 til November 25, 1811, did the name finally change to Huntsville in honor of Hunt. Alabama became a territory in 1817 and then a state in August 1819; Huntsville was its capital for a short time. In its early days Huntsville was largely plantation and farm-oriented but had beer, candle, plow, hardwood, brick, hat, tanning, and water pump factories. Despite these varied enterprises, cotton remained the foundation of Huntsville’s nineteenth-century industrial growth.2 From 1810 to 1860 several cotton mills appeared in Madison County outside of Huntsville along the Flint River. Formed by Charles Cabaniss sometime between 1809 and 1817, the Cabaniss Cotton Spinning Factory became the first mill in Madison County and, consequently , in Alabama. In 1819 the Horatio Jones Cotton Spinning Factory, which relied on slave labor, began operation. Years later, in 1832, it became the Bell Factory, the most widely known antebellum mill in the state due to its high levels of production. Mill endeavors did not stop there. The Flint Manufacturing Company opened its doors in 1850, and the McFarland Mill began production sometime before 1860. Across the state the expansion of cotton mills kept pace with the growth in Madison County.3 2 Daniel S. Dupre, Transforming the Cotton Frontier: Madison County, Alabama, 1800–1840 (Baton Rouge, 1997), 38; Edward Chambers Betts, Early History of Huntsville, Alabama, 1804– 1870 (1909; repr., Huntsville, 1998), 5,11, 26, 32, 35, 48–49. See also William H. Brantley, Three Capitals: A Book about the First Three Capitals of Alabama: St. Stephens, Huntsville & Cahawba . . . (Tuscaloosa, 1947). 3 On the Cabaniss factory, see Cecelia Jean Thorn, “The Bell Factory: Early Pride of Huntsville ,” Alabama Review 32 (January 1979): 28; Huntsville Alabama Republican, February 18, 1818; Randall Martin Miller, “The Cotton Mill Movement in Antebellum Alabama” (PhD diss., Ohio State University, 1971), 11. On the Horatio Jones Cotton Spinning Factory, see Huntsville Alabama Republican, September 14, 1819; James William Bragg, “Frontier Entrepreneurs of Madison County, Alabama: The Bell Factory Enterprise, 1819–1842” (master’s thesis, University of Alabama, 1958...

A History of Early Settlement: Madison County before Statehood, 1808-1819 (review)

A History of Early Settlement: Madison County before Statehood, 1808-1819 (review)

Southern Folk Singers

Southern Folk Singers Charles Joyner (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Guy Carawan (here, in 2007), came to Tennessee’s Highlander Folk School in the 1950s and soon became its music director. He helped spread two freedom songs from the South Carolina Sea Islands—“We Shall Overcome” and “Eyes on the Prize”—to Civil Rights workers across the South. Photography by Heather Carawan, courtesy of a Creative Commons License 2.5. [End Page 73] Folk singers is an ambiguous term. To folklorists it means those whose repertoires have been passed down orally from generation to generation within the family and community. To others it often means professional singers, regardless of background, who learned most of their songs from recordings and offered them to the general public as folk songs. I shall call the former traditional singers and the latter singers of folk songs. Traditional Singers The Wallin Family of Madison County, North Carolina, is tenth. British folklorists Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles recorded members of the family in 1916, and John Cohen (filmmaker and member of the New Lost City Ramblers) recorded and filmed the family extensively in the 1960s. They sang, in the traditional unaccompanied style, the old English and Scottish ballads of love, betrayal, and revenge. Perhaps the most memorable of their songs is Berzilla Wallin’s heart-stopping “Conversation with Death.” Horton Barker, the blind ballad singer from Chilhowie, Virginia, is ninth. The clarity of his unaccompanied tenor, his sly wit, and his extraordinary repertoire of songs, hymns, and such rare ballads as “Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender,” “Bow and Balance,” and “The Turkish Rebilee” were unforgettable to those who heard him from Virginia’s White Top Folk Festival in the thirties to the Chicago Folk Festival in the sixties. Eighth is Vera Hall of Livingston, Alabama. Her rich contralto, recorded for the Library of Congress by John Lomax and Ruby Pickens Tartt, was nationally recognized from the late 1930s to the 1960s for such songs as “Trouble So Hard,” and “Boll Weevil Holler.” Emma Dusenberry of Mena, Arkansas, is seventh. Born in 1862, and blind since her early twenties, she is the earliest singer on this list. According to John Lomax, who recorded her for the Library of Congress in the 1930s, her repertoire of traditional ballads was the largest ever recorded from a single person. Janey Hunter and the Moving Star Hall Singers of Johns Island, South Carolina, are tied with Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers of St. Simons Island, Georgia, for fifth and sixth. Their virtuoso voices, accompanied only by hand-clapping and foot-stomping, evoke an incredibly spiritual response as close to its African roots as any in America. Jean Ritchie of Viper, Kentucky, is number four. From the 1940s to the present she has sung the songs, ballads, and hymns from her family’s repertoire in her authentically Appalachian voice, sometimes a capella, sometimes accompanying herself on the Appalachian dulcimer. Almeda Riddle of Heber Springs, Arkansas, is third. She learned ballads and [End Page 74] other traditional songs from her parents and her mother’s brother growing up in the Ozarks. Known by her friends and fans as “Granny Riddle,” she preferred to sing rare old ballads in the traditional a capella style, always keeping the haunting ambience of her voice behind the song, but embellishing it with unique vocal decorations punctuated by leaps into the falsetto at the end of lines. Click for larger view View full resolution South Carolinian Josh White (here, in 1945) became a protégé of Eleanor Roosevelt and a frequent guest in the White House. His “One Meatball” was the first million-selling record by an African American male singer. Photograph courtesy of The Estate of Josh White (Sr.) and the Josh White Archives. Tying for first place are North Carolina’s Frank Proffitt and Louisiana’s Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter. Ledbetter is remembered as much for his powerful accompaniment on the twelve-string guitar as for his high sweet voice and unabridged repertoire of work songs, love songs, ballads, and blues, such as “Rock Island Line,” “Midnight Special,” “Take this Hammer,” and “Goodnight Irene.” Frank Proffitt learned most of his...

Status of the flame chub Hemitremia flammea in Alabama, USA

The status of many freshwater fish species in the species-rich southeastern United States is surprisingly poorly known. Vulnerable species found in smaller streams in the region have not received adequate research attention. The flame chub Hemitremia flammea (Cyprinidae) is included among a group of stream species considered to be 'narrow endemics' susceptible to habitat alterations due to growing human population. The obligatory habitat is spring-fed streams sensitive to human activities. The species has a patchy range primarily in the Tennessee River Valley in Alabama and Tennessee, USA. The conservation status of the flame chub is poorly documented. The NatureServe global status of the flame chub is G3, Vulnerable, and the Alabama state status is S3, Vulnerable. Reflecting the poor knowledge of the species' status, the International Union for the Con- servation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Category is DD (Data Deficient), a change from an earlier listing of Rare. This study is intended as a presence or absence survey of flame chubs at historic location sites in north Alabama based on holdings records of the University of Alabama Ichthyology Collec- tion in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Fifty-three sites in 9 counties in the Tennessee River drainage with a historic record of flame chub presence were visited and sampled by seining. One or more flame chubs were found at 18 of these sites. Two strongholds remain for the flame chub in Alabama: the first is much of the Cypress Creek system in Lauderdale County; the other is in the Flint River system in Madison County.

Kudzu ( Pueraria montana ) invasion doubles emissions of nitric oxide and increases ozone pollution

The nitrogen-fixing legume kudzu (Pueraria montana) is a widespread invasive plant in the southeastern United States with physiological traits that may lead to important impacts on ecosystems and the atmosphere. Its spread has the potential to raise ozone levels in the region by increasing nitric oxide (NO) emissions from soils as a consequence of increasing nitrogen (N) inputs and cycling in soils. We studied the effects of kudzu invasions on soils and trace N gas emissions at three sites in Madison County, Georgia in 2007 and used the results to model the effects of kudzu invasion on regional air quality. We found that rates of net N mineralization increased by up to 1,000%, and net nitrification increased by up to 500% in invaded soils in Georgia. Nitric oxide emissions from invaded soils were more than 100% higher (2.81 vs. 1.24 ng NO-N cm(-2) h(-1)). We used the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to evaluate the potential impact of kudzu invasion on regional atmospheric chemistry and air quality. In an extreme scenario, extensive kudzu invasion leads directly to an increase in the number of high ozone events (above 70 ppb) of up to 7 days each summer in some areas, up from 10 to 20 days in a control scenario with no kudzu invasion. These results establish a quantitative link between a biological invasion and ozone formation and suggest that in this extreme scenario, kudzu invasion can overcome some of the air quality benefits of legislative control.

I-26 looking west at Buckner Gap, Madison County, North Carolina, 2008

I-26 looking west at Buckner Gap, Madison County, North Carolina, 2008

Idle Rural Land Phenomena in Madison County, Georgia: (Originally published in Southeastern Geographer , 1:39–49.)

Idle Rural Land Phenomena in Madison County, Georgia(Originally published in Southeastern Geographer, 1:39–49.) Merle C. Prunty That large amounts of idle rural land have appeared in recent years throughout the southern Piedmont and coastal plains is known to most students of these areas. The present discussion reports findings from an investigation of idle land phenomena in a representative rural Piedmont county, and preliminary conclusions therefrom. The investigation continues. Madison County is situated in the eastern central Georgia Piedmont (Figure 1). It was selected as the areal unit for this investigation for several reasons. (1) The county is a reasonably representative segment of the southern Piedmont in terms of its terrain, soils, and land use history. (2) Madison County has been readily accessible to the investigator; proximity has facilitated virtually continuous observation. (3) It is preeminently rural. It was deemed essential to select a clearly rural area for analysis in order to eliminate the effects of rural-urban fringe phenomena associated with cities of even moderate size. Madison County met these conditions; in 1950 its villages and small towns together accounted for only 2,254 of the total 12,238 residents and its farm and rural non-farm population together amounted to almost five-sixths of the inhabitants. Obviously criteria for recognition of bona fide idle land have been essential. As employed herein, rural idle land refers to any rural area that has been cultivated previously but is not now (i.e., at time of observation) in use for any agricultural, pastoral, or residential purpose and which does not support forest growth of even potentially merchantable quality or volume—no matter how young. Length of time since the last cultivation may have been one or ten years, i.e., is irrelevant, but highly relevant is the fact that the land use immediately prior to idleness must have been either cropland or pasturage. “Old fields”—areas formerly cultivated but now clearly reverting to forest—are eliminated as are also areas of cutover farm and non-farm forest which now support a few “seed” trees plus a dominant cover of bush and brush. These criteria obviously rest upon a morphographic basis: the contemporary appearance of the individual land unit and field interpretation of same. It has been established that broomsedge (bromus latiglumis) occurs prominently in the vegetative cover of idle land plots on the southern Piedmont.1 This condition suggested the interesting possibility of a distinctive gray-scale recording of broomsedge [End Page 5] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. on aerial photos, particularly since U.S.D.A. photography customarily is exposed during the winter season. Checks of selected “test” plots both in the field and on aerial photography revealed that broomsedge actually did create a distinctive gray photo tone. By extending this “find,” Tyner developed photo-interpretation keys for identification of idle rural land in the Madison County area.2 Broomsedge was found to be the common denominator in the vegetative cover of the idle tracts, each of which exhibited vegetative “complexes” which rendered distinctive images on aerial photos. The cover “complexes” customarily involved setaria, pluchea camphorate and andropogon scaparius in varying quantities in addition to the broomsedge, plus minor quantities of other herbaceous plants. Four classes, or keys, of idle land cover were established by Tyner on the basis of photographic tone and textural differences [End Page 6] as related to observed variations in the vegetative cover in the field (Figure 2). In general, the longer any given plot had been idle the coarser the texture of its photo image because of a progressive buildup in the proportions of coarser, brownish, plants that it supported—such as the broomsedge and setaria with brush. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. A fifth photographic key became necessary: one which recognized incipient natural restocking by pines. Idle units of this type were those in which the beginnings of the “old field” pie succession were in evidence. If 15 per cent. or more, of such an area was occupied by the crowns of young pines and associated brush, the area was considered potential timberland and therefore not idle. Conversely, those areas wherein less than 15...

Commentary on Merle C. Prunty’s Idle Rural Land Phenomena in Madison County, Georgia

Commentary on Merle C. Prunty’s Idle Rural Land Phenomena in Madison County, Georgia

Documenting Traditions and the Ethnographic Double Bind

Documenting Traditions and the Ethnographic Double Bind Martha King (bio) The documentary short Madison County Project: Documenting the Sound (King and Roberts 2008) tells the story of two intertwined traditions: a local a cappella ballad tradition and a documentary tradition that has developed around the music. This article touches on the history of documentary making in the area, discusses the experience of attempting new fieldwork in Madison County, North Carolina, and illustrates some of the problematic outcomes of doing that fieldwork collaboratively. In attempting to create an ethnographically-based documentary project, issues regarding representation and the dilemmas of collaboration were amplified by historical precedent and the decision to explore the ballad tradition through the vehicle of a film intended for a wide public audience. The nature of this project forced a kind of accountability not always experienced by those who do not labor with the expectations of their consultants reading, viewing, critiquing, and being a part of the finished work. Introduction Nestled between Asheville and the Tennessee border, Madison County boasts a long-standing musical legacy and has become well-known for the ballads emanating from its front porches for generations. This reputation is due, in part, to the simplicity and beauty of the music itself—long, repetitive, a cappella ballads relaying stories of unrequited love, intrigue, and murder. Its reputation is also due to the generations of ballad collectors, enthusiasts, photographers, filmmakers, and folklorists [End Page 37] who have documented singing families in the area since Cecil Sharp, an English ballad collector, came through the county in 1916. This relationship stands as a pair of symbiotic traditions: a community of Appalachian singers perpetuating their craft generation after generation alongside an array of documentarians capturing the music of the Blue Ridge Mountains in photographs, film, recordings, and text. Despite long-running disagreements between these two groups over money, ownership, and authenticity, collaboration between singers and recorders has continued into the twenty-first century. The collections that Sharp created (Campbell and Sharp 1917; Karpeles 1932) and a subsequent book about his visit to Appalachia written by his assistant, Maud Karpeles (1967), were among the first works to shift the focus in Madison County from singing as an everyday practice to music as a publicly valued heritage. Each successive documenter utilized new forms of media that added new layers to both traditions' interactions with technology. Although none of these collectors, film-makers, photographers, or folklorists used media forms that were so new that they might be considered foreign or exotic, they used media in new ways to interact with the musical tradition. For instance, the motion picture was not a mysterious concept in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Madison County, but John Cohen's use of film prompted an entirely different local exposure to this modern media form (see, e.g., Cohen 1963, 1970). The same can be said for Cohen's Smithsonian release of Old Love Songs and Ballads from the Big Laurel, North Carolina (Cohen and Gott 1964). Similarly, there was nothing shockingly new about Rob Amberg's use of 35 mm film to document the cultural fabric of Sodom Laurel. But the publication of those photos in glossy book form—and the narrative collaboration that gave rise to much of the book's text—pushed the community into new forms of engagement with modern representation (Amberg 2002). My own documentary work in Madison County repeated this pattern. The consultants regarded neither digital video nor filmic representation as unfamiliar or unavailable. However, mediating that representation with an online weblog and presenting the documentary product via streaming video pushed the musical tradition to a new representational and collaborative space. The effects of different technological and ethnographic approaches on the dialogue between these dual traditions—the ballad tradition and the tradition of documentary work in the area—shaped my own [End Page 38] entrance into the field.1 My co-producer, Rob Roberts, and I choose to film and edit a documentary video about these two entwined traditions. Becoming part of the documentary tradition revealed that relationships between tradition, documentary, and modernity were more complicated than we had anticipated. This revelation emerged explicitly from our utilization of collaborative ethnography. The...

Status and Distribution of Orconectes williamsi (Williams' Crayfish) in Arkansas, with New Records from the Arkansas River Drainage

Orconectes williamsi (Williams' Crayfish) is a rare stream-dwelling crayfish that is endemic to the upper White River basin of Arkansas and Missouri. It was described in the 1960s from a type locality in Madison County, AR, and the three localities named in the description comprise the published range of the species in Arkansas. In contrast, 27 locations have been reported in Missouri. This study surveyed a semi-random selection of stream sites in the Arkansas portion of this range in order to characterize the crayfish communities and evaluate the status of O. williamsi in Arkansas. A total of 2372 crayfishes were collected at 68 sites, including 197 Williams' Crayfish from 23 sites. Orconectes meeki meeki (Meek's Crayfish) was the crayfish species most commonly associated with O. williamsi, occurring sympatrically at 87% of sites occupied by O. williamsi. Orconectes williamsi was found in small streams, with coarse substrates and no aquatic vegetation. Orconectes williamsi showed a strong preference for riffle habitats. Due to its limited range and habitat requirements, O. williamsi is moderately imperiled in Arkansas and should be considered rare and vulnerable range-wide.