The Prison Next Door [View all]

In 2001, Don and Bo Sosebee picked a spot for their house on a small hill overlooking a pasture where their horses and cattle roamed. They spent the next three years building a one-story cabin there. Don hauled in 6×12 logs from Mount Juliet, Tennessee, for the frame. He lined the interior walls with lumber from his old barn and nailed white pine across the ceiling. In the front of the house, he hoisted a metal roof atop columns of tree trunks to make a covered porch. It became the background for their friends’ family photos, and where Don hosted his daughter’s wedding.

A quintessential cowboy, even at 83, Don still puts on his uniform each day: a denim long sleeve Wrangler button-up shirt with dirt stains on the sleeves, jeans, boots, and a tan cowboy hat.

He tells stories in a slow and sure drawl. One he enjoys telling is how he ended up in Franklin County, Arkansas. As it goes, in 1918, his parents climbed into a covered wagon and rode north from West Texas to northwest Arkansas, after three years of drought made it impossible to run cattle. They settled one town over from where Don lives now. Growing up, his family had no electricity or running water, instead using kerosene lamps and suspending food into their well in buckets to keep cold.

Don’s father knew horses and passed along his knowledge to his son. Patience, Don learned, was the key to winning their respect. As a kid, he earned $10 a month breaking neighbors’ horses. He learned to make his own horseshoes, too—a necessity after the town blacksmith was shot dead by his mistress’ husband (another story he likes to tell). Don fell in love with ranching and by age 20, he started buying land on nearby Mill Creek Mountain—locals describe it as more like a large hill—to ranch and train horses.

Since then, Don has acquired around 300 acres. He’s given some of it to his son, Cody Sosebee, a renowned rodeo clown, and his daughter, Shannon McChristian, who runs a daycare 30 minutes away in the small city of Fort Smith. He’s filed plans to build a cemetery, and intends to pass his land down to his great grandchildren.


https://boltsmag.org/arkansas-prison-franklin-county/