Listen to a story ’bout a man named Black Tim Villines

a big man living as a hermit in the hills above Bullfrog Hollow

in the days when one black man in the county was one too many.

In the only surviving picture of him, he is wearing overalls with one strap off and

a shapeless hat like the one worn by the father in The Beverly Hillbillies mashed down on his head.

It came to pass that Black Tim, lonely as he was, was holed up in the hills for a reason.

He believed in the legend of the Dover Lights, which spoke of Spanish conquistadors traversing the country who died one by one in the Ozark hills laden down with the spoils of their looting.

Because they were suspicious of each other, they buried their gold and baubles down in the valley with the intention of returning in their spirit state to retrieve the treasures.

Ever since, swinging lights, said to be the oil lamps belonging to the dead soldiers, can be seen on clear and cold nights. One of the lights is red, and that light is said to belong to Black Tim who supposedly died while trying to follow the others’ lights

or maybe he was killed by the conquistadors for getting a little too close to their treasures.