Page 329, Old Folks Talking by Jim Liles
Roy and Katy Keeton farmed and raised a family on about 150 acres of former Clark land, at the entrance to present day 'Lost Valley.' They both came from forebears who were strong, both physically and mentally. They invented, contrived, built and labored to make a good life in the Valley, for almost forty years. Their children, after growin up in the valley and attending school at Beechwoods, have settled elsewhere and done well. Roy Keeton, Jr., for example, operates a successful beef cattle and poultry farm near Capps, Arkansas. His family selected Boone County's 'Farm Family of the Year' in 1986. The previous year his father, Roy Keeton, was buried in his beloved Beechwoods.

Page 380, Old Folks Talking by Jim Liles.
The Roy Keeton family lived directly by the road into Lost Valley. The Keetons declined to give authorization for the National Park Service to appraise their property, on which they continued to live and derive a living, farming in Boxley Valley. When Mr. Keeton began construction of a 'pole shed' shop building, the managers of the national river reviewed the construction as a non-conforming use within the park; and the land acquisition officer argued that it should be stopped, or it would add to the government's cost of acquiring the Keeton property. A 'complaint in condemnation' were delivered by a U.S. Marshal on January 27, 1978, converting the Keetons' 157.5 acres to Federal ownership. Needless to say, that action caused irreparable damage to relations between the Keetons and the National Park Service. And, thanks to a sympathetic jury award, rather than saving the taxpayer money, it ultimately cost half again as much as it would have, had the acquisition been pursuant to a 'willing seller-willing buyer' arrangement.

'Friendly condemnations' were sometimes required (even sought by landowners disagreeing with the government price offer), to obtain a court settlement on price, whenever the landowner refused the government's final offer. But the Keetons' land taking was the first of two outright ('hostile') condemnations filed during the 10 years of land acquisition for Buffalo National River.

We carried water from Roy's spring for the school and it was just down the hill from the Beechwood Cemetery. He was on the original Abraham Clark place where the Beechwood Post Office was established.