Arkansas Post

About 14 miles from Dumas is the Arkansas Post National Memorial, one of the most historic spots in the state. The post sits along the Arkansas River, not too far from where it meets up with the Mississippi River. The road to the park passes by miles of fields, and also this large figure made out of tires.


A lot of history has taken place at Arkansas Post, which was established by the French way back in 1686 (which makes it the oldest European settlement west of the Mississippi River). The post was an isolated and lonely place, and it never had a large population. In 1723, the Inspector-General of the colony visited the post to find only 17 Frenchmen living there. In 1763, the post and surrounding land were given to Spain at the end of the French and Indian War. A census taken that year showed that only 31 people lived at the post.

One of the last battles of the Revolutionary War occurred at Arkansas Post, when British loyalists attacked the fort. Spain was an ally of the Americans, and the Spanish forces successfully defended the fort from attack. By 1798, the population there had risen to nearly 400. And in 1800, Arkansas Post and all of colonial Louisiana became the property of Napoleon’s France. The period of French rule was short-lived, as the U.S. government got all the land as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Arkansas Post remained a small and isolated town up until 1819, when it became the capitol of the new Arkansas Territory. The population here grew to over a thousand people, and several new buildings were constructed. That was again also short-lived, when the territorial capitol was moved to Little Rock in 1821. The town of Arkansas Post declined after this, only to see a lot of activity during the Civil War. A fort was constructed next to the town, which was attacked by Union troops in 1863. The battle destroyed the fort and most of the civilian buildings of Arkansas Post. In the decades after the war, the Arkansas River claimed the ruins of the civil war fort, and the town was moved a few miles upstream. By then all of the historic buildings were gone, lost to time or the waters of the river.

For all the history that has occurred in and around Arkansas Post, there really isn't much to see at the park. The visitor center sits near the plot of Arkansas Post back in the time when it was the territorial capitol. But it takes a lot of imagination to see what the town was like back in those days. The only remains are a few pieces of foundation, and an old cistern. Sidewalks criss-cross the park, following the path of roads in the old town.


There are signs that show where the major buildings were, and a few markers stuck in the grass. This one marks the location of the Arkansas State Bank.


There is a lot of wildlife in the park. A small lake by the visitor center had a sign about alligators, saying that the lake was an important habitat. I carefully looked in too see if there were any gators there, but didn't see any. Probably a good thing, since they would have probably taken a leg or arm as lunch. But some paved trails head off into the woods, and I heard some owls hooting in the distance. I hoped to see some type of wildlife, and managed to see a few armadillos running around.


After that I left the ghosts of the old fort and headed back out onto the road, heading south through the flat lands of the Delta...

Mitchellville

Mitchellville is a small town (population around 500) that sits along Hwy. 65 north of Dumas. The town is a collection of homes all bunched around a huge silo and grain elevator (or I guess that is what it is). The building looms large over the homes there.

I thought that it looked neat, so I turned off of Hwy. 65 and drove around some to try to find a good angle for some pictures. It's a very active place, with trucks moving in and out. I ended up behind the buildings, along a dirt road that runs next to some train tracks.




This is the view a field nearby, with the final remains of last years harvest...


From there I headed back south on Hwy. 65, and would soon visit one of the most historic places in Arkansas...

Grady & Gould

The next stops on our little Delta tour are the two small towns of Grady and Gould. Both of these towns sit along Hwy. 65 south of Pine Bluff. They aren’t all that big, but I do have some bad memories from here. Way back in 1999, I got a speeding ticket in Grady. It wasn’t too happy to have to make the drive back down Hwy. 65 for traffic court.

This time around I didn’t see any of the Grady P.D. patrolling the streets, although I did make sure I drove legally (or somewhat close to legally). Grady has a few old buildings lined up off of Hwy. 65, including an old building that looked perhaps like it might have one time been a train station. A weathered sign was propped up that said “Grady Public Library,” but the ravages of time left most of the sign unreadable (sadly ironic for a sign promoting a library).


It didn’t look like the library has seen any recent use, especially with the deep bed of moss growing in front of the door like a mass of green shag carpeting.


The paint along the building was flaking and peeling. If this had been a library once, it doesn’t appear that anyone has checked it out in years.


Just about 30 feet away was an old metal building, with the Grady water tower rising up above…


And just down the road was the small town of Gould. I drove around there and stopped at a few places for some quick pictures. The picture of this old store was taken while looking out the passenger side window of the car (and is the only shot that didn’t accidentally include part of the window in it).

Back in the U.S.S.R.

I had Monday off because of MLK Day, so I decided to head off somewhere to take pictures. It was too sunny to visit any waterfalls, so instead I headed down south into the Delta region of Arkansas. The trip got off to a rough start, because I managed to absent-mindedly drive the wrong direction - twice. It was a little frustrating...I've lived in Little Rock my entire life and still managed to get tangled up in the non-confusing interstate system.

After 30 minutes of driving in the wrong direction, turning around, then getting onto the wrong freeway by accident and turning around again, I was finally heading south on Hwy. 65. My first stop was to visit our comrades in old Moscow, a small town south of Pine Bluff.

Or as they would say in the old country: Yakov Smirnoff это комедия гений


This old building was just a bit down the road. There were a few old trucks parked under the edge of the building, quietly rusting away...


From there I headed on further south along Hwy. 65...

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

A shot of some graffiti, along an electrical box in downtown Little Rock. This was actually taken next to the studios for KATV Channel 7, shortly after I was there to make an appearance on the Saturday morning "Daybreak."


The interview went ok, I think. I was really nervous going in, since I've never done an interview like that before, especially one on live television. I managed to stumble my way though the questions. But I think it might have been better if the person interviewing me had spent a bit more time preparing for the interview. We met just about a minute before going on air, after I put on the lapel mic, and she quickly tried to find out more info about the show and the photographer sitting on the couch next to her. There were a few awkward pauses, I think, when she didn't know what to say to me and I didn't know what to say to her. Oh well. But at least my name was only mispronounced twice on air.

But the title for this shot comes from the R.E.M. song, which was inspired by what a mugger yelled at poor Dan Rather back in 1986. While walking along the street in New York, Rather was attacked by a man who was missing a few channels on the dial, so to speak. He believed that the media was controlling his thoughts, and he yelled out "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" But I just realized now that it is kinda creepy that someone wrote that outside of the tv station. I can reassure anyone who reads this that I did not go on tv in an attempt to control your thoughts...

Although my Republican friends have jokingly accused me of now being a member of the Liberal Media Elite.

It was a rare Saturday morning that I was awake before noon, so I spent some time driving around in an attempt to get some pictures in the chilly morning air. I did stop by the fountain outside of the Pulaski County Courthouse, which had turned into a giant ice cube in the below freezing weather (it was about 19 degrees out).


I thought it was a cool idea for a shot, only to find out later that a picture of the same fountain was published on the front page of the Arkansas section of the paper on Saturday....