He was honored by the Research Historians of Johnson Central High School, Paintsville, Johnson County, Kentucky at the March 24, 1973, Big Sandy Valley Historical Society meeting with a plaque and the following tribute:
We the Research Historians of Johnson Central High School for the next few moments depart from the usual course of this type meeting to honor one who has done so much over several years to promote the knowledge of and preserve the heritage of Eastern Kentucky. The gentleman we honor today is truly one of Kentucky's distinguished historians. He is well and favorably known through out the South and West. His biography is listed in the Twelfth Edition (1971-1972) of WHO's WHO IN THE SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST.

This distinguished historian was born at Stanville, Floyd County, Kentucky, son of William Preston Scalf and Phoebe Alice Stratton Scalf; educated in local schools, Eastern Kentucky Normal College, Portsmouth (Ohio) College of Business; taught 19 years in the Pike and Floyd County public schools, supervisor of materials, Wainwright Shipyard, Panama City, Florida, World War II, in business and merchandising, Stanville, 1946-1948; accountant, Prestonsburg, 1948-1952; associate editor Floyd County Times, Prestonsburg, 1952-1965; Awarded Kentucky Citation for outstanding journalism, Transylvania College, Lexington, Kentucky, 1954; editor and publisher of the EAST KENTUCKIAN, 1965 to present; President Floyd County Historical Society; Chairman Floyd County Historical Markers Program; President Floyd County Forestry Association; President Floyd County Agricultural Council; University of Kentucky Community Development Specialist, 1968-69; Chairman Floyd County Sesquicentennial Association 1950; Chairman and organizer Jenny Wiley Drama Association; Municipal Judge, Prestonsburg; Kentucky Colonel; biographee of Kentucky lives; Author KENTUCKY'S LAST FRONTIER, historic Floyd County Kentucky; numerous monographs on Eastern Kentucky history and contributions on history to area and regional newspapers; member Floyd County Hall of Fame; retired 1965 to operate farm. Mare Creek Road, Stanville; writes feature column, Appalachain Notebook, Pike County News, Pikeville, Kentucky; married Norah James; four children.

More recently, he has been the vice President (For Kentucky) of the Big Sandy Valley Historical Society, which he helped organize here at this school in 1970.

You must look back on the last quarter of a century with pride and satisfaction, for today you hold a unique position - You stand foremost among Eastern Kentucky Historians.

Since the above tribute, Henry has served as President of the Big Sandy Valley Historical Society.

In later years Henry P. "Buck" Scalf stayed in or around his cabin enjoying his pipe, typewriter and the many friends who visited. All told he has written some 4000 books, articles, pamphlets about his mountain folks, their roots, their ways, their works and their lives and deaths.

His Bedstead Farm gets its name from the need of his great grandfather, Tandy R. Stratton, for a new bed when he married in 1823 and moved to Mare Creek. Tandy took his axe, went over the farm, selected the yellow poplar tree, cut, dragged the logs into his small shop and with a homemade lathe, proceeded to build the beautiful bedstead which today graces one of the bedrooms of the ancestral cabin which Henry inherited some 110 years later.

Henry was very proud of the cool, piped spring water which flows to his abode from a spring deep in an old abandoned coal mine on the farm. He and Norah enjoyed publishing the genealogical quarterly, THE EAST KENTUCKIAN, his wife's small general store, free natural gas from their farm and the quietness and privacy of the Mare Creek farm location.

A unique feature of the Bedstead Farm is that it is situated in Little Floyd County, an island in the middle of Pike County. Due to the contrariness of his great grandfather, who wanted to remain in Floyd County, and having a brother in the State legislature, accomplished just that. Pike County was formed from Floyd in 1825, and the act to keep this 1000 acre farm in Floyd is known as the Tandy R. Stratton Survey passed in 1845.

Henry said each time the census is taken usually they wind up on both the Floyd and Pike County Censuses, as the census takers of both counties list them.