Owen Rein working at the shave horse. Rein is famous for crafting chairs and baskets
using only hand tools.
This Ozark Folk Center 50th Anniversary Legacy Photo is in appreciation to our parents
who planted their families in these mountains which allowed us to grow up surrounded by
craft, music, and love.
Catherine Shoults
This essay Where Would I Be Without Trees? was written by Owen Rein. Reprinted here with permission.
In 1978 I found myself fresh out of college, without a degree, unemployed, not able to keep up with the rent, and staring out the window at a foot or two of Berkshire snow. While pondering my situation the only idea that came to me, one that I thought might really work, was to go off into the woods and build a house.
In the spring I did: A log cabin made out of Hemlock trees. Bill Strong told me that hemlock would last twenty years if you built right on the ground. (It also peels like a banana in the spring.) The whole project went well. And in less than three years we had saved enough money to buy our own land. We moved to Stone County, and I started making chairs. Hoping to duplicate the success of the log cabin, I made my chairs the old-time way by cutting down the trees and splitting out the pieces. This method appealed to me because it didn't require a big investment in tools--and it gave me direct access to my material source.
I've been making chairs here for 40 years now, and I still sell enough to keep making them. I discovered early on that success in this endeavor lay in being able to find the right kind of trees. The good ones. The ones with healthy growth, that grew tall and straight and have smooth bark.
There is a great variety of timber growing here in the forests of the Ozark Mountains. White Oak is my preferred wood for making chairs. And there are other things to make besides chairs: spoons, baskets, buckets, and bowls. And for each job I've always thought that the most important aspect was picking the right tree.
Just as there is diversity in the structures of a single tree, there is also diversity among the individual trees in a forest. To be able to find the right kind of wood for all the different things that you would want to have to get by with, you need a healthy and diverse forest to grow them in. All too often the quality of the trees standing in the woods is taken for granted. Good wood is grown under favorable conditions: good soil, enough water, and enough sunlight--but not too much. More and more conditions that trees grow under are determined by people and the decisions we make , what we decide to do and use. When I show people the history one can read in the grain on top of a stump, often someone asks about drought years and rainy years. But, more often what I see is the logging history of that piece of land on which the tree grew: the teeny-tiny growth rings when the woods were crowded--and then when the rings got all of sudden bigger, which meant that the other trees around it had been cut.
Now, I'm not suggesting that everyone should go chop their home out of the wilderness--heck, no. And besides, there is far too little wilderness left for us all to go messing around in. What I am suggesting is that our forefathers and mothers would not have been able to live as they did without good wood to make the things they needed.
I know that today it might not be that important if you can find a White Oak that is just so big with the right size growth rings and all that. But I do know that you can't make those nice cherry end tables or that big harvest table without good wood. And good wood comes from good trees. And good trees grow in forests that are taken care of.
There is only so much one person can do, I know this. But at least, I would ask the woodworker that the next time you get some nice boards in your shop, think about the quality of that wood and what it took to grow it.
There is a line in a country song that goes: "If it's worth cutting a tree down for, it's worth doing right."
Owen worked in the Furniture Shop at the Ozark Folk Center from 1986-1999 where he honed his skills as a chairmaker. He also met Wayman Evans at the Center and learned his style of White Oak baskets. Owen lives and works on his 40 acre wooded homestead across the river from the small town of Guion, Arkansas.
The Committee of One Hundred Tribute Wall recognizes contributions to the preservation of Ozark folk culture.
If you would like to help preserve the folk culture of the Ozarks, consider a
The Committee is made up entirely of volunteers so, except for transaction fees, all of your donation funds music, craft, or the herb gardens and, as a 501c3 entity
your donation is tax deductible!
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