A Rainy Day In The Delta

I have finally reached that part of being in your 40s where (and sorry if this is too much personal information) I hit the recommended age to have a colonoscopy. And so I did, and luckily all went well. But to make up for the indignity of the "prep," I treated myself to an extra day off from work. And since it was raining, I headed out to get a few pictures.

I headed east into the Delta, and soon stopped at the old Johnson Chapel Methodist Church, which was built in 1871. Services were held there for nearly 100 years, and the old building still looks nicely maintained.



It had rained heavily overnight, which gave the drought-parched landscape a good soaking.







The road headed further east into the small town of Des Arc, which is the home to the Lower White River Museum State Park. Next to the museum is this historic dogtrot cabin.





There were a few other old building scattered around the grounds:



Des Arc is an old city, established in the 1850s along the White River. And the oldest building in Des Arc is the old Frith-Plunkett House, which was built in 1858.



Due to its strategic location along the White River, Des Arc was a busy spot during the Civil War. Which meant that over the course of the war, most of the buildings in town were burned or destroyed. But the Frith-Plunkett House was spared, since it served as a hospital for Union troops.





The old house is empty and quiet, its windows and doors hidden behind plywood boards. There is a faded sign in the yard asking for donations to help restore the old home.



A few blocks down the road is the Prairie County Courthouse, which sits on a low hill above the river. The courthouse was built in 1913.



And just a few blocks away was this old home, which also seemed to look empty and disused. The yard was covered with a carpet of pine needles. I got a few pictures before heading out, crossing the bridge over the river and heading further east into the Delta.



*** So my apologies to anyone from Des Arc who might be stumble upon this blog while doing something innocent like looking for pictures of their hometown. Sorry you had to first read about a colonoscopy **