Remembering Johnny

We were out geocaching in northeast Arkansas and realized we were only twenty miles from Dyess. Since we were in the area to go to the concert at ASU that was organized to help raise money to restore Johnny Cash's boyhood home there, well - away we went! The GPS sent us across a dirt county road and we bounced along amid the fields until we finally arrived in downtown Dyess. I treed to picture what it once looked like.

The Dyess Colony Resettlement Area was established in 1934 to help impoverished farmers. 15,000 acres of uncleared bottomland in Mississippi County; a fertile, swampy, snake infested area, was purchased and families could clear twenty to forty acres of land and homestead it.  Johnny Cash and his family became one of the best known residents. This is the administration building.

Johnny Cash once worked in the Dyess theater. He had fond memories of his boyhood home as reflected in his later video of a visit there. 

Arkansas State University in Jonesboro has bought the old Cash homeplace and is in the process of restoring the house. The concert we attended at ASU was the second they have had to raise funds for the project. After seeing last year's concert on PBS I knew I wanted to go this year. 

The Cash family farmed cotton but no doubt, they could farm most anything on this land.

Not far from Dyess we finally found a shade tree and parked here to fix a sandwich. This is a typical view all over that part of Arkansas.

This year's participants in the concert were Willie Nelson, Roseanne Cash, The Civil Wars and Dierks Bentley. Needless to say we enjoyed a fine time. It poured rain throughout the evening but we went early, found a parking space ten vehicles from the front door, and decided rather than going out to eat we would just cook there.

Since it was still raining at 11:30 when the concert was over we decided we were in a fine spot for the evening and indeed it turned out to be. The 43 degrees were no problem once I clicked on the little heater. All the comforts of home. The next morning was chilly but refreshing and we were on the road again! 

Along the mighty Mississip

We left the comfort of our Jonesboro campground early to go pick up another state park cache. This one in Manilla honored Herman Davis for his service during World War I.  The Arkansas farm boy and war hero was 4th on Gen. Pershing's list of 100 heroes of WWI.

Harvest was evident throughout the northeast part of the state where agriculture reigns. 

Cotton and rice are probably the two major crops in the area. 

At Wilson we were treated to a display of artifacts that Dr. Hampson found on his 5,000 acre farm from 1927-1941. There were a lot of red and white Nodena pottery and effigy vessels. The Nodena was a subculture with specific archeological traits such as the red and white pottery. They were part of the Mississippian cultural period that extended from 700-1650.

The property was covered with old cypress trees that we couldn't resist. Oh and there was a geocache at the Hampson museum state park also! Why would I lie there with a smile on my face?

Who wouldn't when you look up into the graceful cypress trees.

Leon was enthralled with the large round bales of cotton down the road. He had never seen cotton baled in rolls.

After wandering the backroads we visited the nature center in Jonesboro near our campground at Craighead Forest City Park. There is quite a nice display provided by Arkansas Game and Fish.

Click on some of these links and pretend you were riding along with us!

Jonesboro area geocaching

Fall is finally in the air and it is time to go geocaching. There are 52 state parks with geocaches and on this trip to northeast Arkansas we will get a few. On the way to Jonesboro we stopped for our first cache at Jacksonport State Park.

I love these old county courthouses. This one was built in 1869.  We started to take the small tour inside but the folks were ready to go home.  Jacksonport was once a thriving river port in the 1800s but it declined when the railroad bypassed them. The county seat was moved to Newport in 1891.  They have a nice little campground here where we stayed once before but this time we were headed to Jonesboro.

In Jonesboro we were delighted with Craighead Forest City Park. The $10 fee was suitable and the people were really friendly. Within ten minutes the host pulled up with a load of wood for us. Now that is a first! The large park has nice jogging trails, bike trails, fishing on the lake and so much more! 

The next morning we began another state park loop. Leon stepped on a weak branch and nearly did a roll into the lake at Lake Charles State Park. The picture doesn't show what a steep incline he was on. He did find the cache but not right there! A nice hike along the Mockernut Trail was our first in quite some time!

Not far down the road we arrived at Powhatan State Park. There were several old buildings around the courthouse. John Randolph came to Arkansas from Virginia and the town Pocahontas was named such because he was a descendant. Well if we check our history we learn that Chief Powhatan was Pocahontas' father. This restored 1873 courthouse was the center of a busy port on the Black River, a major shipping and distribution point for northern Arkansas.  

The displays inside tell about the history and culture of early Lawrence county and this steamboat and ferry landing. I never really thought much about making buttons from mussel shells.

We stopped by the Black River for our peanut butter and jelly picnic before venturing to more parks on the list.