A look back at Linc Hinrichs: Keeper of trees

In November 1968, late Poplar Bluff resident, Linc Hinrichs, set out from Clearwater Dam on the Black River carrying over 2,000 pecans and a few hundred walnuts on the day of his 73rd birthday. Linc was determined to return the river banks' depleted natural habitat back to its original state. Armed with a bright red knapsack and a nail apron, he floated the river planting seeds in places that were likely to be around for a long time. Linc honored teachers, old friends and fishing companions by planting trees in their names. Before he finished planting in 1972, he had sowed seeds along the Current River beach in Arkansas from Clearwater Dam to six miles below Corning, Ark. and sowed from Silva, Mo. to Fisk, Mo. while floating the St. Francis. Poplar Bluff's version of "Johnny Appleseed" spent four years repopulating the area's river bank trees.