The old farm is all gone.

Say goodbye to Rusty and Peggy,

and we'll take Penny along."

-- Barry McGuire and the Doctor

With family roots in Northwest Arkansas going back to before statehood, perhaps I am more attuned to the changes that have taken place over the past half century, and beyond.

I grew up on an apple orchard, and am very aware of how Northwest Arkansas agriculture was dominated by apples in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the St. Louis World's Fair, Arkansas swept the apple competition, but of course that was before the advent of the Washington state apple industry. There are also stories I have repeatedly heard about how once you entered northwest Arkansas by rail, all you could see were apple orchards, for miles and miles. To help protect the industry from cedar rust, the state legislature outlawed the growth of cedar trees in Benton and Washington counties. Can you imagine telling a wild plant it can't grow?

Then along came the coddling moth, and the apple industry was largely history.

The next big thing to come along was poultry, and that is still evidenced today by industry giants such as Tyson  Foods, as well as Cargill, and others, such as Peterson Industries which was recently purchased by George's.

Growing up in the 1950s, a recall the stories of old-timer Henry Parker about the plethora of wild turkeys. There are still a few around, but they are relatively rare.

I witnessed the revival of white-tailed deer, as my father called them. Growing up on an orchard, I learned that deer have a taste for young apple trees, and were a bit of a nuisance. Now I have herds wandering my neighborhood.

Around the same time I was taking piano lessons, and my teacher gave stickers for completed pieces, most of which were manufactured in Eureka Springs. I often wonder what happened to that enterprise.

But back to wildlife. I first met the woman who would become my wife when she was given the first armadillo to be seen north of the Arkansas River. I worked for another newspaper back then, and got a photo of it -- she housed it in a galvanized metal trash can.

My wife also remembers the chinquapins growing along Mountain Street in Eureka Springs. I too recall the chinquapin oaks that grew on the family farm, but a blight wiped them out. Now, the only chinquapins that can be found are young ones whose bark has not yet cracked, allowing whatever causes the blight to invade.

In recent years, it seems that historic species are making a comeback. While the state game and fish commission is reluctant to verify the presence of some of these, I and others can provide documentation. I and the wife have seen mountain lions sunning themselves on rocks, and road runners racing on our driveway. In mid-July a family or armadillos traipsed through our property.

But the stunner is the black bear that has been at our place not once, but at least three times. I saw him waddle through the front yard one morning in early July, and within a few days he reappeared, and my wife caught him on video tape as he went across our front deck and into our garage.

Let me know if you see a jack rabbit in the county.

It's curious, this resurgence of wildlife. Being a native of neighboring Benton County to the immediate west, I can't help but wonder since the development of the regional airport, where I used to hunt quail, and the creation of I-540 provided for a tremendous population growth, if the stress on wildlife is forcing them to find less stressful environs.

And I wonder how long it will be before Carroll County, like neighboring Madison, Benton and Washington counties, will become part of the Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area.