Back To The Delta

I had to run an errand in Stuttgart, so I grabbed the camera and headed out with Elliott (my two-year old) for a little drive out to the Delta. Luckily Elliott loves sitting in his car seat (as long as he has a cup, snacks and a bunch of toy cars with him - which he calls his "beep beeps"). So we made sure we had all of his accoutrements and were on our way.

As I headed east, I made a quick stop by this old abandoned building near Scott. Many thanks to the great photographer Laurie Skillern on Instagram who shared some background info about this old place. This was probably once the company store for the Jones Colony, which was an agricultural resettlement area. There used to be a sign here that once read "Hamiter-Little Estate 1879," but the sign was probably knocked down when the front overhang collapsed.



A few years back this old building was surrounded by old junk cars. There used to be a mobile home behind the old store, but it caught fire and burned down. The flames spread to the old store, leaving it partially burned.



I pulled over down the road and got a quick shot of another old abandoned store, this one well hidden behind overgrown vegetation.



And nearby was this old home, which had a recent roof collapse.



After finishing up in Stuttgart, we got lunch and then headed towards home. I did a small detour to look for some interesting old buildings, and managed to find this old shack sitting back in a field, surrounded by cows.



Elliott fell asleep as we continued north, and I made a quick stop at the old Idlewild school. This one-room school was built in 1921.



The school closed in 1949 when it was consolidated into the DeVall's Bluff school system.





As Elliott snored in the backseat, I drove over to DeVall's Bluff. Which is a small town (population around 600), but one with a deep history. The town was founded along a bluff on the White River in the 1850s. At the start of the Civil War, DeVall's Bluff was just a boat landing, a store and a home. But during the war this was an important and well-fortified spot. When the Arkansas River was low, many boats couldn't travel upriver to Little Rock. But they could go up the White River to DeVall's Bluff, where shipments could then be put on the rail line that connected to the capitol city. Union troops liberated DeVall's Bluff in 1863 and the town's population grew with both soldiers and refugees.

There are many old and historic buildings in DeVall's Bluff, but some are not in the best shape. I parked the car and took a peek through the door of this abandoned building, which had a collapsed roof.



The front doors and windows of the building had been boarded up, probably for years. Wonder what this store sold back when it was open?



Next door is the old Robinson Building, which was built in 1913. The building was deteriorating and in need of serious repair, but it was recently purchased by a group called DRIFT (Developing Rural Infrastructure for Tomorrow). They removed the roof and stabilized the structure, and are looking for plans to rebuild the interior and roof and convert the building into a multipurpose space.







The Robinson Building was named as one of Preserve Arkansas' Most Endangered Spaces in 2022. But it is nice to see that there is hope for this space, when so many other buildings in the Delta have been lost.