Courtesy of Western Regional Archives
FOCUS
ROLE
ATTENDANCE
Doyle Jones was a local farmer of Black Mountain and was farm staff at the college from summer of 1952 to fall 1954.
The following is an excerpt from David Silver's "Trueman MacHenry at Black Mountain College" which shares a story between MacHenry and Doyle Jones,
"In the summer of 1951, MacHenry explains, Doyle Jones, a local farmer from the town of Black Mountain, and his wife Clara took over the farm at Black Mountain College. Soon after Doyle’s arrival, a pig got loose. As MacHenry tells it, “There was the time when, in front of a lot of students who had come to the farm— it was unusual for many students to be around the farm, except when the call for extra help went out —a pig had gotten loose from the pen. Pigs, unlike cows and sheep, don’t drive easily. This one didn’t drive at all. So I got a lariat, coiled, did the usual twirl around my head, threw the loop and caught the pig by the hind legs. A great cheer went up, and I was a hero from the cowboy movies from then on. Doyle was watching” (17 June 2013 email).
Faithful to his name, Trueman divulged the truth: “The thing that is wrong with that picture is that, even though I learned to rope as a boy, I was never really any good at it. I did know that when roping horses, you aimed for the back legs, or the back feet, and that that is all that would work for a pig. The rest was a colossal, but timely, piece of luck. I smiled, and nonchalantly walked away. Fortunately, I didn’t have to repeat the trick.”
Shortly after the pig roping, on August 31, 1951, the BMC Board, on Doyle’s suggestion, approved MacHenry to be farm assistant for the 1951-52 year (Minutes from the Corporation Meeting, 31 August 1951, BMC Collections, Western Regional Archives).
Unlike most BMC students, MacHenry had experience with livestock. On the farm at Black Mountain College, he could handle a horse, milk the cows, build fences, and work in the hay fields. In fact, MacHenry proved so able that Doyle had him oversee all new farm projects, which, in 1951-52, were steadily increasing."
David Silver is associate professor and chair of Environmental Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he teaches classes in urban agriculture, hyperlocal food systems, and food, culture, and storytelling. His book, The Farm at Black Mountain College, will be co-published in 2024 by Atelier Éditions and the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.
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