Up To The Ozarks

A few weeks back I was able to get away for a weekend, so I headed up to the Ozarks to visit with my good friend Zack Andrews. Along the way, I stopped for gas along the freeway in the small town of Blackwell. Across the road from the gas station was this field with lots of cows grazing amidst a carpet of yellow wildflowers.



Next I drove through Clarksville, which was my old stomping grounds for a few years when I went to college at the University of the Ozarks. I was a little surprised to see that some things haven't changed in the two decades(!) since I graduated. The Dodge's gas station, which was one of the few places open 24 hours and which fed countless college students with chicken strips and pizza sticks, was still going strong. The Mexican restaurant we frequented (El Parian) was still there, along with the venerable Diamond Drive In. I did make one quick stop at the back of this old abandoned building, home to The Fair Store. I wasn't able to find much info about the store, but did find a picture that was dated 1935 of the Fair Store, which had a sign proclaiming that it was "Clarksville's Greatest Value Store." No telling how long it's been closed.



And from Clarksville I headed north, up into the Ozarks. I made another quick stop at this old abandoned house, which had some flowers blooming out front. They were no doubt planted there may years ago by someone who once lived here.



The house had a really great covered front porch, complete with an old recliner. I bet this would have been a great place to sit and relax at the end of the day.







And further up the road was this row of abandoned buildings in the tiny community of Salus. I pulled over and got a few pictures before heading further up the road, deeper into the Ozarks...

The Old House In Pine Bluff

Whenever I'm in Pine Bluff, I try to make a stop at the old R.M. Knox house. It's one of the most beautiful old homes in Arkansas. But sadly, it has been left to rot and crumble and it probably won't be around for much longer.



In the last few months, part of the roof over the decorative two-story porch has collapsed. There's no telling how much longer the rest of the house will be able to continue its lonely struggle against weather and gravity.



The house was built in 1885, and has been called one of the state's most elaborate examples of the Eastlake style. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, but was also listed in 2011 as one of the most endangered historic properties in the state by Preserve Arkansas.



It is frustrating, because the state of Arkansas pretends to care about historic preservation when it comes to taking down statues of confederate soldiers or taking down a confederate flag. But we have lost, or are on the verge of losing, so many great historic properties. And when this house is gone, which is the path it seems to inevitably be on, what will replace it? A parking lot?





But it is a reminder of why we need to photograph and document these places. There's no telling how much longer it will be with us. And when it's gone, that bit of shared history will be gone forever.

New Saint James Zion Church

Hidden behind trees, almost invisible from the road, is the New Saint James Zion Church. It appears to have been abandoned for some time. The glass in the windows are broken and missing, and parts of the roof are gone. Looking in, the interior looks dark and ominous.





I wasn't able to find any information about the church, besides its name. When was it built? When was it abandoned?



It's like so many other forgotten places in the Delta. It must have once been a busy place, with weddings and songs. But it was left behind, and it is being taken over by nature's never-ending advances.





I made my way to the back of the building through some thick poison ivy and found the back door of the church was gone, which let me have a good look inside the church. The floor looked like it was in the process of slowly collapsing in on itself, so I didn't try to step inside.



And one last shot, looking back after wading through the sea of poison ivy around the old church.

An Old House On Hwy. 65

The old house is tucked back on the side of Hwy. 65, along the train tracks. The last time I stopped to get a picture here was way back in 2016:



I returned a few weeks ago to see how it was doing, and was shocked at how overgrown it was. The house was nearly hidden behind a wall of vegetation. Only the roof was visible above the trees and weeds and brush.



The soil of the Delta is lush, and nature will quickly reclaim any land that is taken from it.



It was hard to get too close to the house. Most of the former front yard was under a large puddle that ranged from a few inches to at least a foot deep in places. Fire ant mounds claimed the few places that remained dry and above the water. I carefully found a path through the dense undergrowth, wary of attacks from ants, snakes, ticks or any other assorted monsters.













A long freight train thundered along the nearby tracks as I made my way towards the front porch. A lot of the wooden boards were rotten, distracting from what must have been a great place to sit on a porch swing back in the olden days.



The front door was open so I very carefully made my way inside. The holes in the roof had allowed years of rain inside the house, resulting in some places that did not seem safe to walk through. Like this staircase:



Or this bedroom, which was missing most of its floor:





I think this may have been the kitchen at one point. It's hard to tell how long this house has been abandoned. But it does look like it did recently provide a home for some birds, who made a nest in the light hanging down from the ceiling.



A peek inside the bathroom:



And finally, one last shot from the living room. When the house was abandoned, the previous owners left this old recliner behind. Now the only things resting on it are pieces of the ceiling.

Two Rivers Sunset

Another big storm rolled through recently, but luckily without tornadoes this time. It was almost sunset when it hit, so I hurried over to Two Rivers Park in the hopes that it might produce some cool sunset colors. When I arrived the big storm clouds had already moved off to the east.

 

There was some lightning, which I tried to photograph but I had no luck. But at one point I turned around and saw this in the sky over the river, I managed to get a few pictures (with one in focus!) before the clouds moved off over the horizon.