University Libraries Awarded Grant to Digitize Neil Compton Film

The original film canister and notes for the script handwritten by Dr. Neil Compton.

Notes on the film canister provide an index to scenes on the film.

Dr. Neil Compton at the Buffalo River.

Dr. Neil Compton on the Buffalo River Trail.

Compton speaks at a commemoration of the creation of the Buffalo National River.

Photo Submitted

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. –The National Film Preservation Foundation awarded a grant of $4,590 to the University Libraries to re-master, preserve, and digitize a nearly fifty-year-old 8mm film produced in 1963 by Dr. Neil Compton. Compton was a physician in Bentonville and the founding president of the Ozark Society, the organization that led the campaign to keep the Buffalo River in north Arkansas undammed and free-flowing. These efforts resulted in federal legislation in 1972 to designate the river as the Buffalo National River, America’s first national river.

The fourteen-minute documentary film titled "Opportunity for Arkansas: The Buffalo National River" was made by the Ozark Society to promote and advocate “saving the Buffalo.” The film was shot, edited, and narrated by Compton, and includes footage of hiking and canoeing in the Buffalo River area. Scenes include the Goat Trail on Big Bluff, zoomed views of campsites on gravel bars near the river, wild azaleas, and fern falls hanging from the cliffs. Juxtaposed with these natural scenes is the destruction of land in preparation for the Beaver Lake reservoir in northwest Arkansas. The “Lost Bridge” in northern Arkansas is almost completely submerged, and buildings in the small town of Monte Ne are shown being destroyed by 1960’s-era bulldozers. Included are maps showing the impact areas of the dams proposed by the Corps of Engineers and opposing maps showing the Buffalo River national recreation area as proposed by the National Park Service.

The grant will fund the cleaning and re-mastering of the film and the creation of a digitized copy that can be used by the public. Re-mastering the film will coincide with the processing of the papers of the Ozark Society in special collections for the commemoration in 2012 of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Ozark Society and the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Buffalo National River.

This film and twelve others that Compton produced are included in the Neil Compton Papers, held in the University Libraries’ special collections department.