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LOVER’S LEAP LEGENDS: From Sappho of Lesbos
to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco
Leland & Crystal Payton
ISBN: 978-0-9673925-9-2
352 pages 7.5×10 511 color illustrations
$35.00
Lovers leap worldwide. In America the leaping was usually done by a love-shattered Indian woman. There are hundreds of dramatic cliffs where a “dusky maiden” is said to have plunged to her death after her father, the chief, demanded she wed an unloved brave. Thousands of poems, stories, and newspaper accounts chronicle these dolorous events. Millions of postcards and souvenirs have been manufactured picturing the often-spectacular bluffs where those princesses leaped. Folklorists have largely ignored these legends. Understandably so—they are “fakelore” and do not resemble Indian traditions. Mark Twain found Lover’s Leaps perversely amusing, and so do the Paytons.
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Ozark River Book Honored in 2019 Indie Book Awards
Urban ambitions and the Arcadian spirit swirl in the story of a famed Ozark float stream
“James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River” by Springfield, Missouri, authors Leland & Crystal Payton has been named by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group one of the best indie books of 2019. The Paytons’ book is a finalist in the Regional Non-Fiction category of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the world’s largest not-for-profit book award program for independent publishers.
Having Springfield, the largest city in the Ozarks, at the top of its watershed has had an enormous effect. This goes beyond the obvious utilization of its flow for water, waste treatment and recreation. With superior media, educational and economic and political assets a city can define region to advance its own self-interest.
As the James cuts into the limestone to the south, a mythos evolved concerning the log cabin folks who settled there. Hill folks, later called hillbillies were images of Ozarkers that Springfield Chamber of Commerce President John T. Woodruff despised. Primitive vs. progressive is a conflict with continuing effects on our relationship with nature. This book explores the influence of geography on culture while acknowledging that there are more scientifically verifiable implications of land use on stream transformation.
“We spent five years driving gravelly back roads searching out and photographing the crumbling foundations of old water mills, springs, caves, and antique bridges,” said Crystal. “We of course floated the James and explored its tributaries. Our research revealed a forgotten history of failed attempts to protect Ozark waterways. Many of the problems and solutions identified in this book are applicable to other Ozark rivers.”
“Railroads, highways, dam projects, tourism, the growth of towns, agriculture, industry, media and art, political will and cultural values all interact,” Leland interjected. “The river we see today is an outcome of all these forces. Even though transformed and changing, the watershed of the James Fork of the White is still in many places scenic and where it lacks esthetics, it is intriguing.”
After years of research, a mystery remains. The Paytons never found an explanation that holds water why this river is called the James.
James Fork of the White is an all color, 352-page book that sells for $35. It’s available on amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or here for $30 postpaid.
Our newest books, Missouri Squarely Seen and Ozark-Prairie Border are now available.
Buy Missouri Squarely Seen now
Leland Payton has lived in Missouri all his life and his photographs show Missouri as a lived-in place. Old buildings, old men, and faded pieced quilts airing in the backyard he believes are as worthy of representation as Ozark creeks in the spring or native prairies at dawn. All the photographs were taken with a square format camera.
Leland Payton admits the region where the Osage Plains and the Ozark uplift merge is topographically subtle. Still, he found eye-catching relic native prairies and a striking if melancholy architectural record of its American occupation. Driving the lonely farm-to-market roads he concluded “dawn is kind to bland scenery and old farmhouses.”
DAMMING THE OSAGE AWARDED SILVER MEDAL IN NATIONAL COMPETITION
NOW AVAILABLE: DAMMING THE OSAGE: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir
A 304 page all color book about paddlefish, prairies, farms & villages, dams & reservoirs, imperial Indians, explorers, slickers, sportsmen, tourists & various violent, litigious & noteworthy events in the history of the Osage River Valley
Only fragments remain of the native prairies of the upper Osage watershed. It’s been two centuries since the warrior culture for which the river is named and who maintained the buffalo grasslands by fire, was pushed west by displaced Eastern tribes and land-hungry Americans. Two massive dams have turned the main stem of the river into huge reservoirs. Leland and Crystal Payton find the tale of these transformations compelling but turbulent.