Booger Hollow

Finally we had started getting enough rain to get waterfalls flowing again! It was even raining that day as I drove out towards the Ozarks. I turned north onto Hwy. 7 from Russellville, and the tops of the mountains were covered with thick fog. I tried to find a good spot to take pictures, and ended up at the Moccasin Gap Recreation Area. I got a few pictures (and didn't see any moccasins for people wearing clothes from the Gap).



From there I passed by the ruins of the old Booger Hollow Trading Post. This used to be one of the landmarks along Hwy. 7, but it's abandoned now. The parking lot is now filled with overgrown weeds, and the buildings are in various stages of decay.



The Booger Hollow Trading Post opened in 1961, and signs along Hwy. 7 would beckon travelers to stop at the quirky attraction with the population of "7....countin' one coon dog." The store sold stuff like soap, jams and a wide selection of hillbilly-themed souvenirs and doodads. It had a restaurant, the Boogerhollow Chuckwagon Cage, where hungry travelers could dine on a "boogerburger."



But Booger Hollow permanently closed in 2004. Some of the buildings are gone now, including the two-story outhouse (where the upper level was closed "until we git the plummin' figgered out"). The remaining buildings are fenced off, far removed from the passing traffic along Hwy. 7. It was eerily quiet when I was there, the only sound was from a dog that appeared out of the fog and stood in the middle of the road to bark at me.

Booger Hollow

The ruins of the Booger Hollow Trading Post sit amongst the rolling Ozark Mountains. The wackily-named store opened back in 1961 and served tourists driving up Hwy. 7 between Russellville and Jasper. For several decades it was a popular spot. The store sold all sorts of Ozark hillbilly themed souvenirs and tchotchkes like the "hillbilly weather vane," which was a rope attached to a wooden sign that said if the rope was wet, it was raining. If the rope was moving, it was windy. If the rope was white, it was snowing. If the rope was gone, it was tornader. Or there was the "Hillbilly Chicken Dinner," which was a wooden box with a piece of corn inside (for the chicken to eat).



Booger Hollow was one of those places that would have fit right in along Route 66. Motorists driving along Hwy. 7 were treated to sign after sign promoting Booger Hollow and counting down the miles to the store. And when you arrived, there was a large sign proclaiming "Booger Hollow Arkansas - Population 7 Countin' One Coon Dog." At one point, Booger Hollow also had a restaurant, which served the "boogerburger" and the "boogerdog."

The Booger Hollow Trading Post operated until 2004, when the owner sold the property. But for some reason, the new owners never reopened the store, and the buildings have been left empty and abandoned ever since. Time has not been kind to the buildings since then. The old two-story outhouse (where the upstairs was always closed "until we git the plummin' figgered out") has completely collapsed into a pile of rubble. The remaining buildings are fenced off and sit amongst weeds, silently watching the tourist traffic on Hwy. 7 pass them by.



For anyone wondering, the name Booger Hollow is actually based on the location of an actual community nearby. I've seen two explanations for the name - the first being that the valley had two cemeteries on each end that were haunted. So anyone passing through would need to be careful of any bogeyman, or boogermen. The other explanation was that after the Civil War, the rough road through the valley was a hospitable place for robbers and bandits. Which made this a "booger" of a place to travel through. Either way, it was an interesting name for people to have picked. Perhaps they should have dug deeper to find something better instead.

Annie's Chapel

Along the road between Dover and Hagarville sits Annie's Chapel, a quaint old church that was built in 1886. I wasn't able to find out much about the church besides the year that it was built (and that it was once a Methodist church)



I don't know who Annie was, or if anyone ever knew the answer to the question of Annie are you ok? Are you ok? Are you ok Annie?



Anyways, the door to the church matched the rest of the building with faded and peeling paint.



I invited myself inside and looked around. The internor was graced with a collection of pews, all covered with dust and cobwebs. Next to the altar was this old piano...



The church sits near the delightfully named community of Booger Hollow. One idea of where the name originated is because back in the olden days (after the end of the Civil War), the valley was considered an inhospitable area. The rough road that headed down from the mountains was a good place for bandits and highwaymen, who would attack and rob travellers. Because it was a "booger" of a place, the name Booger Hollow stuck.

Another idea was that the community sat between two cemeteries, and that one should need to bring a friend with them if they were walking around at night. The word Booger here instead is a combination of the words boo and bogus. But however the name was derived, I think we can all agree that it is definitely a strange name to pick. And that perhaps those early settlers should have dug deeper and pulled out a better name for the area.