In his early years Forrest Wood worked hard. In retirement, he works even harder
When you look at Forrest Wood, it’s easy to see success. By any standard, he’s rich and famous. The Stetson-wearing icon of Ranger Boats is known all over the world.
In most people’s dreams, Wood’s life is one we strive to achieve, a life seemingly filled with luxury and leisure. Looks, though, can be deceiving. Wood’s life is all of those things, but none of it is what we would like to think it is. Wood often says that nothing came easy in his part of the world in the Ozarks. But he didn’t know the difference. Hard work and hard times were just a way of life.
If you look at his story and realize that almost everything he achieved has taken place well after he was an adult, it’s a testimonial for living and working hard.
That standard hasn’t changed for Wood. At 67, he works as hard as he ever did as a youth plowing furrows in rocky ground behind a mule to plant cotton, or trying to fatten cattle on the same ground, or building bridges and houses, or selling boats and rebuilding a burned down boat plant. The hard work has never stopped. In trying to set up an interview with Wood for the story on his life, I was struck by how much work Wood still puts in, even though his moniker at Ranger Boats says he’s retired.
As an example, take a look at a three-week window when an attempt was made to find time to interview Wood. It would seem like an easy assignment, just a few hours of Wood’s time, discussing how he etched Ranger Boat Company out of the Ozark hills. But this summer, like every summer, time is precious to Wood. In his slow Ozark drawl, he means it when he says, “We have to make hay while we can.”
If it’s sunny, which is most of the time, Wood is in the hay fields, cutting, baling and hauling 6,000 to 7,000 bales of hay each summer. It’s all for the benefit of about 1,000 head of Angus cattle that require daily attention. During our three-week window, hay was a big part of Wood’s life. But there were also days spent coordinating bulldozer work on his 7,000-acre ranch, bush hogging, moving cattle and shuffling paper work for the cattle business or for Wood’s other responsibilities.
He’s a member of the seven-man Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, appointed by the Governor of Arkansas to oversee the dealings of the state’s wildlife agency. Public meetings, where details of several fish and wildlife issues have to be worked out, often occupy his nights. Currently, he is leading an Arkansas Game and Fish move to get the Corps of Engineers to better manage water releases on Bull Shoals Lake.
Water levels fluctuate wildly on the lake, often killing spawns of bass, while during the summer, low water and low dissolved oxygen levels hurt trout populations in the White River. Wood has been debating the issue with the Corps for more than 30 years and only recently has he been able to spearhead work toward a compromise.
Those issues take time and work. Add to that Wood’s status as the symbol of Ranger Boats. That duty alone required a week at the company’s dealer meeting. That week was followed by another week representing Ranger at the BASS Masters Classic.
When we finally caught up to Wood, the first interview took place during the girl’s Arkansas High School All-Star basketball game. Wood’s granddaughter Micaela Hopper, a senior at Flippin High School, was playing, and Wood spent more time cheering than talking. He had good reason though. Hopper’s outstanding play gained her the Most Valuable Player Award.
Wood’s second and final interview took place a week later as a wedding gift. He and Nina guided my new bride and me down the White River, trout fishing. It was one of the first times the Woods had an opportunity to take a float trip in years. Even then, Wood never stopped working. All day long he never made a cast, opting instead to paddle the float boat over ripples and shoals while the rest of us fished.
He was constantly in motion, insisting on threading night crawlers on hooks, removing caught trout from the lines and supplying his clients with drinks, all the while reminiscing on how the White River had changed through the course of time – and unintentionally proving that Wood had inexplicably stayed the same, even in the lap of fame and luxury.