All Around Arkansas: Woolverton Mountain

                

                If you were listening to country radio in the summer of 1962, chances are you heard the song "Wolverton Mountain." Performed by singer/songwriter, Claude King, the tune told the story of a man who longed for a girl who lived atop a place called Wolverton Mountain, fiercely guarded by her overprotective and violent father, Clifton Clowers. 

                That year, the song spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard country chart. "Wolverton Mountain" was also a huge crossover hit for King, hitting No. 6 on the Billboard top 100 pop chart and No. 3 on its easy listening chart.

                The song was co-written by Merle Kilgore, a major force in the country music industry in the 1960s and through the mid-1990s. Not only did he help pen "Wolverton Mountain," but he also co-wrote "Ring of Fire" with June Carter, whose future husband, Johnny Cash, recorded in 1963. Kilgore helped write many other country tunes over the years and was the longtime business manager of Hank Williams Jr.

                Clifton Clowers was named after Kilgore’s uncle. In the song, Clowers is pictured as an ornery and dangerous man who's "mighty handy with a gun and a knife" and who posed a fatal threat to any man who tried to win the affection of his “pretty young daughter.”

                But most people don’t know that Clowers was a real person who lived on top of Woolverton Mountain in Arkansas. (It's not clear why the mountain’s name is misspelled in the song title and lyrics.)

                Woolverton Mountain stands about 4 miles north of Center Ridge (Conway County) and has an elevation of 1,063 feet. The mountain was named for the Woolverton family, who had settled it in the late 1800s.

                The song’s antagonist, Clifton Clowers, was born on Oct. 30, 1891, in Center Ridge to Thomas and Mary Clowers. In July 1919, Clifton married Esther Bell. After returning from World War I, Clowers became a father, farmer and served faithfully as a longtime deacon at Mountain View Baptist Church. He lived most of his life on a small farm located on the northern edge of Woolverton Mountain. 

                The success of the song made Clowers a minor celebrity, and many tourists came to Woolverton Mountain to get a picture or an autograph. Clowers didn’t particularly like the attention. He often said he wished that Kilgore and King hadn’t suggested in the song that Clowers threatened his daughter's suitors with a gun and knife. "I never used those things for that purpose, I just used them to hunt and whittle,” he said. 

                For his 100th birthday celebration in 1991, Clowers was visited by both his nephew, Merle Kilgore, and Claude King, who performed the iconic tune. Clowers died at age 102 in August 1994, in Clinton (Van Buren County). He was buried at Woolverton Mountain Cemetery, which is located at the base of the mountain.

                I have a personal connection with the song — one of the first I remember hearing as a child. My parents had become friends with a couple, Carroll and LaDon Woolverton, through the world of square dancing in Sherwood (Pulaski County) in the late 1960s. Carroll was a member of the Woolverton family, who were longtime residents of the mountain. When I was born several years later in 1976, the Woolvertons became like second parents to me. The story goes that as a young boy in the early 80s, I actually met Clifton Clowers. Somewhere there’s supposedly photographic evidence to prove it.

                So, the song may say don’t go on Woolverton Mountain and face Clifton Clowers, but apparently I did and lived to write about it.