Vacation - Day 5 - Thursday October 1
No one bothered us in our "stealth" campsite during the night. We were up early, left money in the self-registration box, and were on our way by daylight.
We awoke to clear sky and gorgeous sunshine, a great day for traveling thru the incredible Arkansas countryside.
This is farming fertile river delta land in eastern Arkansas.
After passing Little Rock and continuing south along I-65, which parallels the Arkansas River for awhile, we reached the small town of Gould where we took "small" road #212 east thru farming country connecting to Hwy. 165 where we headed north crossing the Arkansas River.
We wanted to check out Arkansas Post, which we had never heard of before.
So much history! This area is just a short distance north of the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. The Arkansas Post was established in 1686 and the Arkansas Post Museum gives a glimpse into the lives of the folks who lived here between 1877 to modern times.
In our current world of "wash and wear" clothing most of the younger generation cannot fathom having to iron their clothes. This is the amazing collection of irons in the museum.
The Arkansas Post Museum is quite extensive and includes several buildings, a restored log house, cabin, summer kitchen and more. Photos and artifacts all give us a sense of the hard life our forefathers endured.
Inside the large Peterson Building is an amazing playhouse! The playhouse was built in the 1930's for Harriet Jane Carnes by her father, Grover C. Carnes, a state representative from DeWitt, Arkansas. Mr. Carnes owned a lumber company and all the materials were made to scale. It is completely furnished and features a wood burning fireplace, electricity, and a screened back porch complete with a swing!
Can you imagine being a little girl and having this kind of playhouse?
Pretty cool, huh!
We then proceeded down to the river where the Arkansas Post National Memorial was located.
As we stood and looked out across the water we tried to imagine how it looked in 1863 when Confederate Fort Hindman stood in what is now water. The fort stood atop a 23 foot high bluff where the fort's cannon could fire up or down the river to protect the breadbasket of Arkansas. The Confederates could slip down to the Mississippi River to disrupt the Union's supply lines. Soon after the fort was finished, a massive Union Army-Navy force attacked. What they did not demolish, the river washed away. The Arkansas River's changing course swallowed all traces of Fort Hindman. Today a shallow oxbow lake completely covers the site.
The Arkansas Post was the first European settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley and present-day Arkansas when Henri de Tonti established it in 1686 as a French trading post on the banks of the lower Arkansas River. It was designated as the first capital of the Arkansas Territory in 1819, but lost that status to Little Rock in 1821.
At the Arkansas Post National Memorial there is a park Ranger on duty at the Visitor Center, a museum, and a small theater where we watched an interesting film depicting the rich history of this area. The grounds surrounding the Visitor Center are very well-kept and there are kiosks strategically located describing what happened here so many years ago. {We were shocked to be the only visitors here on this beautiful day!}
Following our little detour over to Arkansas Post, we once again headed south toward Baton Rouge, Louisiana, our planned destination for the night.
We saw this "tire man" as we cruised south on U.S. Hwy. 65.
This rich river valley is home to numerous large farms......this is round bales of hay wrapped in some sort of yellow material......
....massive fields of cotton ready to be picked....
.....grain silos (I think?)...........
....and some oil storage tanks thrown in along the way....
...big farms need big equipment......
After passing thru the tiny Arkansas towns of Eudora and Readland we finally crossed over into Louisiana.
We continued driving south along U.S. Hwy. 65, crossing I-20 while passing thru Tallulah, La. and before long we made it to Nathez, Ms. where we crossed over the mighty Mississippi River!
In Nachez we picked up U.S. Hwy. 61 south which we followed straight to Baton Rouge, arriving there about 5:00 p.m., at about the same time as Tom's brother Tim, wife Kathy (from Georgia), along with Tom's nephew Todd (from St. Louis, Mo.), wife Andrea and their boys, Grant and Bryce.
There is more of Tom's family members arriving here this weekend all in celebration of Todd's 40th birthday and also a "Tailgate Party" at the LSU football game on Saturday.
More to come...............
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