Where Are The Beverly Hillbillies From?

Cafe Society
41

My mother (excuse me, my mama) was from the Ozarks and I can tell you with first-hand knowledge, when you’re from the deep Ozarks, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re on the Missouri or Arkansas side of the state line.

As far as I’m concerned the only clue that’s really telling is the picture show in Eureka Springs. When Jed and Pearl went there, they almost certainly rode in a horse and buggy. By road, Eureka Springs is about 12 miles from the Missouri border, which is about as far as you could go by horse and get back the same day.

Ergo, the Clampett’s are mountain folk that live somewhere along the Mo-Ark border close to Eureka Springs. And despite being poor and in the middle of nowhere, they were somehow able to visit Springfield, have Jasper DePew come all the way from Joplin to court Jethrine, and after getting money, go to a bank in Bug Tussle.

In other words, the Clampett’s are either

A) from flyover country (which as all TV viewers know is a vast amorphous blob with no real cities in it, somewhere west of New York and east of Los Angeles)

OR

B) slyly humorous mountain folk who engine messing with the city folks’ heads by making up places and times that can’t actually coexist in the physical universe.

Given the existence of Green Acres, which absolutely can’t exist in our universe, I suspect the correct answer is B.

42

I actually studied this problem recently and I came to the conclusion that the family lived in Northern Arkansas (where a lot of my family lives) and Granny was from Tennessee. Everything matches up on Episode 1. I also have assets in the oil and natural gas business in that area and Northern Arkansas still has true hillbillies. Tulsa, Oklahoma is the closest big city. There is no way that the writers weren’t referring to that area.

43

Yeah, the recognizable names encompass the entire area of NW Arkansas and Southern Missouri. It is too large an area to just jaunt here and there between these towns. They are just names in the writer’s imagination of what the rural Ozark people were like.

My grandfather was a Circuit Preacher in that area. Horse and buggy riding between small communities. A wedding on Tuesday, a burial in another area Thursday, a sermon when time allows. And then back home to farm, near Shirley and Alread, Arkansas. Paid in whatever people had to give.

Not great-grandfather, my grandfather and grandmother were married in 1898, died in the early 1970’s. Long life.

44

I note that the OP failed to alphabetize the names that he’s included in his two lists about Locations and Entities, like he doesn’t even care.

45

That would be Pat Buttram, just to give “the actor who played Mr. Haney” his name.

46

The Clampett truck was from Fontana, CA.

47

Dope folks say “Beck move away from thar”
“Californie, is the place you wanna be”

(Dang, I wish I could shoot up some Texas tea)

48

I deliberately sorted the lists by order of first appearance in the series because I thought it would be more useful that way. Nonetheless, I really don’t even care.

49

Yeah, but that makes it easier for the clans to mingle. :wink:

50

I think Kent Clark is on to something here, especially with his answer B). We cannot always assume that all statements made by the characters are completely true. For example, when Pearl told Mr. Brewster that the nearest telephone was 40 miles away in Oxford she may have just said that because she wanted to take a long ride in the car with Mr. Brewster. Mr. Brewster might not have known where the nearest telephone was but, being an experienced oil man, he would know or could tell by looking at a map that Oxford was 40 miles away. On the other hand, when Pearl told Jed that his nearest neighbor is 8 miles away Jed would know if this is true or false and would be expected to call Pearl out on this if it was not true.

51

Pffft, with no index for cross-referencing?!

52

I’m waiting for a complete concordance of all the scripts of the show, and then we’ll get … nowhere.

The idea that Granny &Co might be unreliable narrators is at first unsettling. And then I start thinking about the Granny-types I’ve known. Some of the worst BS artists, evah.

53

Not to mention Albuquerque.

54

The song says Jed was a “poor Mountaineer”. **West Virginia **is the Mountaineer state.

55

I’m pretty sure there was an episode that involved them going “back home” and visiting nearby Silver Dollar City, which is near Branson, Mo.

Shagnasty has it nailed, and I don’t think there’s a lot of counter-evidence.

56

I believe that, immediately prior to their move to Beverly Hills, the Clampetts lived in northern Stone County, Arkansas.

In the first season of the show, we learned that the Clamplett home in the Ozarks was: (1) 40 miles from Oxford, Arkansas, (2) 8 miles from the nearest neighbor, and (3) in the hills. First we must decide what Pearl meant when she said the Clampett home was 40 miles from Oxford. I think that most likely she meant 40 miles driving distance. I drew a circle with a radius of 40 miles centered on Oxford on a map of Arkansas and Missouri. The area within that circle that best met the three criteria was northern Stone County. This area is sparsely populated and a home 8 miles from the nearest neighbor is certainly plausible. This area also has the hilliest terrain within this circle. Although this area is in the Ozark National Forest, there are numerous private landholdings within the national forest boundary. If Pearl meant 40 miles in a straight line, which I don’t think she did, then areas in extreme northeast Searcy County, Arkansas and extreme southeast Marion County, Arkansas might also be considered. Also within that circle in northern Baxter County, Arkansas and southern Ozark County, Missouri are some areas between the White River and North Fork River that are possible candidates for the Clampett home. However, these areas are more densely populated and is less hilly than northern Stone County. It is much less likely to find a place that would be 8 miles from the nearest neighbor in this region. Areas to the south, east, and north of Oxford are much flatter and densely populated and need no further evaluation. In the early 1960s there were still areas in rural Arkansas without telephone service. However, Oxford would not have had the closest telephone to northern Stone County. There certainly would have been telephone service in Calico Rock on the way to Oxford. Either the telephone in Oxford is the closest one that Pearl was aware of, or Pearl deliberately misled Mr. Brewster so she could ride with him all the way to Oxford in his car.

There are several conflicting geographical references that must be reconciled. Although Jed’s grandfather built the cabin that the Clampetts lived in immediately prior to the move to Beverly Hills, I think that Jed, Ellie Mae, and Granny had only lived there for about 8 years or less prior to the move. While nothing was ever directly said in the series indicating this, there was never anything said that precludes this. Prior to living there, it appears that the Clampetts lived in or near the Bug Tussle-Sibley Metroplex in Taney County, Missouri. Jed was said to be born and raised in Taney County, although he did spend some time in Cass County, Missouri as a young man where he was known as the lady killer of Cass County. Granny said that Sibley is “just a hoot and a holler” from Mincy. “A hoot and holler” is a shorter distance than “clean over to.” Mincy is an actual community in Taney County southeast of Branson near the White River. Granny said that the river road cuts off to Bug Tussle in Mincy. There is rail service in both Ripley and Bug Tussle and it is 18 rail miles between the two. This would put the Bug-Tussle-Sibley Metroplex west of Mincy on or near the White River Division of the Missouri Pacific Railroad (now the Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad) somewhere between Branson and the Arkansas state line. Perhaps the reason the Bug Tussle-Sibley Metroplex cannot be located on modern maps is that this is now the location of the new Branson Airport (not to be confused with the Springfield-Branson National Airport) which was opened in 2009. Ellie Mae may have been as young as 14 when she moved to Beverly Hills. Beauregard Short was the son of Luke Short, owner of Luke’s General Store in Sibley. Ellie Mae remembers throwing rocks at Beauregard when she was a little girl. This suggests that Ellie Mae lived in the Bug Tussle-Sibley Metroplex until she was at least about 6. The Possum Festival is held in Sibley and Granny claims to have ran for Possum Queen 47 times. Granny also claims to have entered a beauty contest in the Expo ’97 in Bug Tussle. This would have been in 1897. This suggests that Granny was born in the 1880s and moved to the Bug Tussle-Sibley Metroplex from Tennessee when she was a teenager or younger. The Clampetts were familiar with and had great respect for the mayor of Bug Tussle, Amos Hogg.

Let us consider what is meant by “back home.” I will start with my own personal experiences. I was born and grew up in City B in State A. As an adult, I moved from City B in state A to City C in State A where I married and raised a family. Then I moved to City S in State N but kept my home in City C. When I first moved to City S, if someone asked where was “back home” for me I would have described my specific house in City C. As time passed I would have just said City C and eventually said City C and City B. After a number of years I now consider the entire State A “back home.” Similarly, when the Clampetts first moved to Beverly Hills they considered “back home” to mean the cabin in the hills. Later in the series “back home” also meant Sibley and Bug Tussle as well and eventually included an even broader area including Silver Dollar City which is west of Branson. Note how Jed referred to Luke’s General Store as being over at Sibley in Season 2 but referred to Sibley as back home in season 4. Also note that when Jed saw Shorty Kelloms in Silver Dollar City that he said he hadn’t seen Shorty in 25 years.

In regards to Pearl and Jethro, they must have lived in or near Oxford immediately prior to the move. Pearl played the piano at the movie theater there. Towards the end of the series it is implied that Pearl was living near Silver Dollar City. This is not implausible, as she had a millionaire cousin who was generous with his money and he could have bought her a new house. Pearl probably lived in the Bug Tussle-Sibley Metroplex in the vicinity of her cousin Jed prior to living in Oxford because she recalls Jed’s father taking them to Eureka Springs to watch the movies. Pearl’s late husband was from Oxford. Her husband may have lived with her in the Bug-Tussle-Sibley Metroplex for a while as well. Recall how Jed told Jethro that they had to drive him “clean over to” Oxford to go to the same school as his late father. Elverna Bradshaw must have lived in Oxford as well before moving to Silver Dollar City later in the series.

I found it interesting that Jed once said that Granny was related on his late wife’s side of the family, the Moses family from Tennessee. Did he mean his late wife’s father and Granny’s husband was a Moses? As shown above, Granny must have moved to the Bug Tussle-Sibley Metroplex as a teenager or even sooner. Was she already married to a Moses when she moved? Would a married woman enter a beauty contest in 1897? It sounds more like he is saying that Granny is a descendant of the Moses family. Did Granny ever say that she was a widow? Could it be that Granny was a single mother and Jed’s wife was illegitimate? Someone please answer this for me. I do not want to have to watch all 274 episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies again.

57

Ynnad, that is a lot of work you’ve done for this thread.

58

In my last post I forgot to Include my rationalization for an Indian reservation being adjacent to Jed’s “oil lands.” This was not mentioned until Season 5. The land in the boundary dispute were always described as part of Jed’s “oil lands” but never described as being “back home.” In the five years since discovering oil and moving to Beverly Hills Jed could have very well invested some of his money in “oil lands” located somewhere other than Arkansas or Missouri.

59

No doubt the Commerce Bank did.

60

Ynnad, you are absolutely mad. The correct kind of mad.