Q. Who was Neil Compton?
A. Neil Compton was a physician, environmentalist, author, photographer, and friend. He was generally known as the man who Saved the Buffalo River.
Q. When/where was Dr. Compton born?
A. He was born August 1, 1912 in Falling Springs Flats to Ida Wilmoth and David Compton. He moved to Bentonville with his family when he was 11 years old.
Q. What was Dr. Compton’s education?
A. Dr. Compton graduated in 1935 from the University of Arkansas with a degree in Geology and Zoology. From 1935 to 1939, he attended the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, then interned in New Jersey.
Q. Was Dr. Compton in the Military?
A. Yes, in 1942 he entered the U.S. Navy as a physician stationed in Florida, California, and the Pacific.
Q. What type of doctor was Dr. Compton? When did he retire from practicing medicine?
A. He was a medical doctor – a family physician who studied obstetrics. He retired in 1976.
Q. Did Dr. Compton start the Ozark Society? When? Why?
A. In 1962, Dr. Compton founded (and served as President for 10 years) the Ozark Society to support the idea of making the Buffalo a National River under the National Park Service.
Q. When was Dr. Compton’s first time on the Buffalo River.
A. Dr. Compton took his first boat trip on the Buffalo River in 1932 with Reverend Stan Hayden
Q. Did Dr. Compton save the Buffalo River? From what did he save it?
A. Yes, Dr. Compton was the leader in the effort to save the Buffalo River from planned U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dams.
Q. Who else worked on the project to save the Buffalo River?
A. Senator J. William Fulbright, Governor Orval Faubus, and John Paul Hammerschmidt were public figures advocating for the saving of the Buffalo River
Q. When was the Buffalo River officially saved?
A. In March 1972, the bill creating the Buffalo National River was passed and signed by President Nixon.
Q. What other involvement did Dr. Compton have in local organizations?
A. He was a member and involved in the Rotary Club, the Benton County Historical Society, and state and local medical societies.
Q. Was Dr. Compton a photographer and writer?
A. Yes, he was both. Some of Dr. Compton’s photographs were published in The Buffalo River in Black and White (Ozark Society Foundation, 1977). He wrote two other books, The High Ozarks: A Vision of Eden (Ozark Society Foundation, 1982) and The Battle for the Buffalo River (University of Arkansas Press, 1992).
Q. Who were the members of Dr. Compton’s family?
A. Dr. Compton had a sister named Edra. He was married for 55 years to Laurene Putman Compton, who died in 1990. They had three children, Ellen Compton, Edra Compton Diaz, and Bill David Compton. Dr. Compton’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Edna Swift Putman, who was responsible for the purchase of the property and the construction of the house, lived with them and had her own suite on the upper level East wing. Edra now lives in Kansas. Ellen and Bill David live in Fayetteville.
Q. Is Dr. Compton still living?
A. Although his legacy lives on, Dr. Compton died on February 10, 1999.
Q. Why did Neil Compton feel so strongly about the natural landscape and its preservation?
A. The answer came when he was testifying before the House of Representatives in October of 1971 in support of the Buffalo River bill. He linked together his knowledge of medicine and the experience of restoration provided by the natural landscape. He said “I believe that all of us engaged in the treatment of human illness are aware of the face that the body, mind and emotions are all intertwined in such a way that they cannot be separated. Almost all human afflictions are definitely affected by tension, anxiety and frustration, which factors become increasingly a part of our life when technology and artificial existence become compounded. Thus, more and more we yearn to seek out the undisturbed, remote and beautiful places away from the crowds of people, the unending miles of pavement and heavy traffic and the hurly-burly of urban living which has practically engulfed us all. Along the Buffalo River in its canyons and on its gravel bars, we may still seek spiritual, emotional and physical reconstitution, and here those of us who know it seek to turn from the stress of our daily lives…A sick environment can make people sick. It can undo everything a doctor works for…There’s no use our trying to keep people well in a dead land.” (quoted in The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Sunday, July 30, 1995, p.64)
