October 30, 1891

Clifton Clowers, the subject of the song “Wolverton Mountain,” was born in Center Ridge (Conway County). The song, written by Clowers’s nephew, Merle Kilgore, tells the story of a man who keeps would-be suitors away from his daughter, being “mighty handy with a gun and a knife.” It became a number-one hit country song in the 1960s. According to his neighbors, however, the real-life Clowers was nothing like the man in the song.

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