Many years ago, Rickey Butch Walker took his tape recorder and camera and systematically began interviewing some of the oldest living descendants of the pioneer families of the Warrior Mountains of northwest Alabama. No price can be put on the stories that he recorded. He captured sanpshoots of Americana and family history that would have been lost forever. These historical sketches and photographs will be revered forever by the descendants of the families who lived on mountain farms in one of Alabama's most rugged back country. His down-to-earth style of writing is reminiscent of summer afternoons that I have spent in a front porch chair capitivated and fascinated by listening to the old timers telling of the old days and the old ways. My, the world has changed and maybe not for the better. - Lamar Marshall, Cultural Heritage Director, Wild South