Dogtown

A few weeks back, some massive storms brought some heavy rains to the state. In between the rounds of storms, I managed to find time to head out and try to take a few pictures. I drove over to North Little Rock, and went through Burns Park. The first stop was the old pioneer cabin, which was built before the Civil War.



Across the street from the cabin is a concrete path that heads up a hill to a small cemetery.



A little bit of fog began to develop, slightly obscuring the vibrant green of the tree's new Spring leaves.



And then I headed down to the old covered bridge:





I grew up in North Little Rock, so I felt it was my civic duty to make a visit to The Old Mill. I arrived and was a little surprised to see that there wasn't anyone else there. I guess the heavy storms kept everyone else away, but it was a little strange to have the entire place to myself. The only other creatures there were some ducks, who lazily drifted about in the water.



My grandparents used to live in Lakewood, just a few blocks away from the Old Mill. So I've made tons of trips to the Old Mill over the years, and I don't think I've ever seen this much water flowing over the waterfall here.





And from there I headed to the edge of North Little Rock, where the city meets the flat lands of the Arkansas Delta. Sitting in a field is an old house, slowly collapsing away.





A guard dog approached and barked a few times and then headed over to the field and posed for a few pictures by the old house.

New Shots of Old Mill

Jonah was out of school for parent-teacher conferences, so I decided to take the day off from work too. To get out of the house, we made a quick visit over to the Old Mill in North Little Rock. The fall colors weren't really showing there yet, things were mostly green still. So I took the infrared camera instead for a few pictures.



Jonah was the one who decided we should go there, and I was really glad he did. I grew up in North Little Rock, and my grandparents used to live just a few blocks away from the Old Mill. When I was kid, right around Jonah's age, my cousins and I would often all walk over together and visit the Old Mill. It's really nice to see that while there have been some improvements (nicer bathrooms, a little waterfall feature), that the Mill remains mostly unchanged over all these decades.

The Old Mill

Last week, Jonah and I visited the Old Mill in North Little Rock. I actually grew up in NLR, so I've made many trips to the mill over the years. My grandparents used to live a few blocks away, and we would always walk over there when we would visit. It's nice to see that the Old Mill still hasn't changed all that much - it's like an old reliable friend.

Whenever I visit the mill, I can't help but remember one of my teachers in high school. Way back in the olden days of the 20th century, I was a student at North Little Rock High School. There was a school literary magazine, which even had a photography contest. So I submitted a few pictures, including one of the Old Mill. As a true native of Dogtown, it's impossible to resist the lure of the Old Mill when you have a camera.

So my senior year, I actually joined the staff of the literary magazine as one of my electives. I soon learned that the Creative Writing teacher in charge of the literary magazine had some pretty strict policies on what could be accepted into publication. There were certain things that were instantly declined when they were submitted, like lovey-dovey or "dark night of the soul" poems, which did certainly help in keeping out some of the more angsty teenage poetry. But one of the teacher's biggest pet peeves was in photography, specifically Old Mill photos. She was so tired of seeing so many Old Mill pictures that she forbade any Old Mill picture from being published. Over the years, the magazine had received so many Old Mill photos that they even set up massive boards that displayed all of the collected images as a massive collage. So as a new member of the staff, I went over and saw the boards and soon found the Old Mill picture I had submitted from the year before. It was there, along with all the other rejects.

The Old Mill has been attracting photographers since it first opened (in fact my grandfather took pictures of it back in 1934). And with my most sincere apologies to Mrs. Ward, here is one more Old Mill photo to add to the mix:

The Old Mill

Traffic was starting to back up on I-40 on our drive back home from Dagmar, so we detoured into North Little Rock and made a quick visit to The Old Mill. I'm a native of Dogtown and have made many trips here over the years. My grandparents actually lived in Lakewood, just a few blocks from the Mill, and we used to walk over there regularly.

But of all the times I've been there, I think this was one of the few times when there weren't any other people there. I guess it helped that it was pouring down rain while we were there.

North Little Rock

As a proud native of North Little Rock, I was pleased to head back to my Dogtown roots and check out a few places in my hometown that were showing off some good fall colors a few weeks back. My first stop was The Old Mill, which I know is a popular spot but it's one of my favorite places to drop in for pictures. My grandparents used to live just a few blocks away, so I have made many visits to this landmark over the years. On this visit, it was surprisingly empty of people (probably because it was pouring rain). In fact there were more ducks here than people, and they didn't seem to mind me trying to take a few pictures.





From there I headed over to Burns Park, where I stopped to get a few pictures in the rain. This path actually lead to a small cemetery.



The person buried in the small cemetery actually lived in the small cabin the sits nearby, which was built before the Civil War. I think this humble little cabin is actually the oldest building in all of the North Little Rock.



I drove a bit down the road and stopped to get this shot. Luckily there wasn't much traffic that day.



I headed over to the covered bridge, where a strong wind had picked up and created a sort of "leaf-fall," where the trees shedded their leaves in mass and sent them falling down in a sort of cascade. You can kind of see it in this shot, where the leaves created a few brownish-orange streaks against the red of the bridge.



And one last shot from Burns Park, from inside the covered bridge showing off the fall colors that were there before the wind knocked them all of the trees....