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The Weekly Gazette
East Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut
What is this article about?
In the Ozark hills, the isolated community of Hemmed-in-Holler consists of 21 self-sufficient families living in a mountain-surrounded valley without roads or modern amenities. They farm for sustenance, trade limited goods, and enjoy simple pleasures, remaining happy and independent from world affairs.
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People Happy Though Cut Off From World Interests.
St. Louis.—There is nothing new about subsistence homesteads. In the Ozark hills is a self-sufficing community of 21 families whose subsistence homesteads are over a century old.
Their life flows on without the aid of government money or bureaus. The name of this strange community is Hemmed-in-Holler, and it is described in the Review of Reviews.
Hemmed-in-Holler is a valley in the Ozarks about the size of Manhattan, which is completely surrounded by mountains. There are no roads, so that one has to enter it on foot or on horseback, crossing and recrossing a river.
For several months of the year it is impossible to get in or get out at all.
The land is fertile and easily supplies the 160 persons in the valley with food.
There is no way of getting bulky farm products to outside markets, so the people raise just enough for their own use. The only products which can be sold outside are furs, wool, medicinal herbs and roots, and white oak barrel staves because they can be transported on horseback. The average income per family from such sources amounts to about $5 per month.
In the valley there is no resident physician, dentist, preacher or full-time teacher. There is no movie, and not a single radio set. About one person in five has seen a film and none of them a talkie. Books and magazines are read. The Bible, Zane Grey, Edna Ferber, Harold Bell Wright, Dickens, Byron, Lamb, all have their readers. There is square dancing, and waltzing but no fox trot or ball-room dancing. Young women use lipstick and powder occasionally. Young men spend their little surplus cash on fancy boots or wide-brimmed hats, either of which may cost a year's earnings.
Nobody seems to miss being cut off from the world's interests and business.
People are happy, healthy and independent. One man who had spent several years wandering around the country explained why he was satisfied to return to Hemmed-in-Holler.
"It ain't so bodaciously different. This Holler is part of the world. Livin' in it a man eats and sleeps, breathes and sweats same as he does outside.
What I come back for ain't too easy to tell. I guess maybe it was because this place is old-fashioned, raw-boned honest, and outside I aidn't seem to meet up with no greater number of old-fashioned, raw-boned honest men."
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Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Hemmed In Holler, Ozark Hills
Outcome
people are happy, healthy, and independent with average family income of $5 per month from limited trade.
Event Details
Hemmed-in-Holler is a self-sufficing community of 21 families (160 persons) in a mountain-surrounded valley the size of Manhattan, accessible only by foot or horseback. No roads exist, and access is impossible for several months yearly. Fertile land provides food; they raise just enough for themselves and sell furs, wool, herbs, roots, and barrel staves. No resident professionals like physicians or teachers; no movies or radios, but reading, dancing, and occasional cosmetics. Residents do not miss external world interests.