Mammoth Springs, Arkansas
Inspiration for the Grand Ole Opry
In 1919, George D. Hay, a young newspaper reporter for the Memphis
Commercial Appeal, visited Mammoth Springs, while on assignment. Before
boarding the train back to the city, Hay was invited to a traditional
Ozark musical and marveled at the enthusiasm of the musicians and
dancers. He wrote: I sauntered around the town, at the edge of which,
hard by the Missouri line, there lived a truck farmer in an old railroad
car...We chatted for a few minutes and the man went to his place of
abode and brought forth a fiddle and a bow. He invited me to attend a
"hoedown" that neighbors were going to put on that night until "the
crack of dawn" in a log cabin about a mile up a muddy road. He and two
other old-time musicians furnished the earthy rhythm.
A few years later, Hay assumed his role as the "Solemn Old Judge" and
inaugurated the Nashville radio show that became known as the "Grand Ole
Opry." In his 1945 book about the Opry and its history, Hay credited the
visit to Mammoth Springs as his inspiration for the world-famous show
stating: No one in the world has ever had more fun than those Ozark
mountaineers did that night. It stuck with me until the idea became
Grand Ole Opry, seven or eight years later.
