Billy D. Higgins, associate professor of history at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, wrote A Stranger and a Sojourner: Peter Caulder, Free Black Frontiersman in Antebellum Arkansas (2004) and The Barling Darling: Hal Smith in American Baseball published in 2009. He received degrees from Arkansas Tech University and the University of Arkansas and is a member of the Society of American Baseball Researchers as well as a number of historical societies.

Billy wedded Peggy Caldwell of Salus (Newton County), Arkansas, and in the subsequent years they raised their two children, Tim and Lea, on a remote valley farm near the Little Mulberry (Johnson County). Billy and Peggy took care of thirty head of cattle, baled hay, and, along with Billy’s parents Clarence and Opal Higgins, operated the Oark General Store.

The Higgins’ were a part of the Little Mulberry Community that hosted a Fourth of July on the creek featuring events like picnic, softball, volleyball, tug-of-war, horseshoes, and conversations. Many neighbors and guests attended and the celebration always concluded spectacularly with an evening firework show orchestrated by Jeff Levin and Daniel Torres.

This active community originated the Yale-to-Oark 10K race which attracted runners from all over the state. The race expenses were offset by tamale sales and graced with trophies hand made by potter Stephen Driver. The tree canopied course ran along the north bank of the Mulberry and Oark school buses transported runners to the start line.

In 1975, Higgins began to photograph and interview his neighbors especially those who were life long residents of the mountains and with the material produced “Life and Work in the Ozarks” supported by the Arkansas Humanities Council. Now a documentary film, it was screened at the Shiloh Museum in Springdale in October 2008.

Higgins is a co-editor of the Journal of Fort Smith History which is available online from the Boreham Library at UAFS.