Arkansas with Leslie & Shirley

Highway 9 in North Central Arkansas

Returning to North Central Arkansas, we planned to leave early enough to stop in at Grand Gulf State Park and Mammoth Springs State Park along the way. The early departure was easy enough, but it was around 11 am by the time we reached Springfield. It was a cold and windy day, and it would likely be 2 pm before we reached those stops. That really did not leave much time for the parks, as well as reach our final destination before dark, which was another 2 hours from there. It was deer season after all, and those pesky critters would be lurking along the roadside looking to pounce on any unsuspecting traveler. Since there was no hurry on the way home, and the forecast for our return trip looked to be a bit sunnier and warmer, we decided to postpone that diversion until then.

Bonniebrooke signage

We did make a few random stops along the way though. Nearly every trip south we note a faded billboard near Walnut Shade pointing the way to the “Home of the Kewpies,” and wonder about it. With nothing but time on our hands this particular Saturday afternoon, we decided to make a detour and check into the situation. Our timing could not have been better. After winding our way up the hill and into the empty parking lot, we discovered the place was closed for the season.

Mural in Historic Leslie, Arkansas

Seeking another minor diversion along the route, we stopped in on the little town Leslie. This is another spot we have noted a couple of times, based on signage indicating indicate that “Historic Downtown Leslie” is quite a happening spot. Set back from the main road a few hundred yards, it is mostly a collection of buildings from around the turn the 19th century housing little or nothing but antique shops. That seems to be pretty typcial for a lot of small towns these days. There seems to be signs everywhere to visit one historic downtown or another, and they all seem to end up lacking any sort of recognizable history. There were a few interesting architectural items here though, but clouds deterred any true photographic exploration of the scene, so we hit the road again, to make our destination prior to sunset.

The Little Red River near Heber Springs, Arkansas

This particular visit to Heber Springs did not offer much opportunity to explore. While it was a 5-day adventure, two of those were devoted to driving and one to getting a little work done. We did manage to squeeze in day trip back to Gunner Pool for a closer look around, and making our way back to base that same day, dropped in on the Turkey Creek Schoolhouse. I had discovered it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places while doing a bit of research earlier in the month, along with a several other points of interest, providing me quite a catalog of spots to investigate in the future. There was one other on that route too, but we must have missed it.

River Road near Shirley, Arkansas

Along the route, there were a few other oddities, as well. Eventually we ended up in Shirley, so dropped in on the old Missouri & North Arkansas railroad bridge that crosses the Little Red River. We crossed the old rickety thing and followed the road for about 10 miles or so, just to see what we could see. The old rail bed offered nothing more than a flat gravel road though, but that was good enough at the time. The only other day we had, we spent at the shooting range.

Woods Fork

Waiting to visit the two State Parks on the return trip turned out to be a poor decision. Thunderstorms rolling through the area put a stop to those plans. Indeed, severe weather was everywhere the day we returned. It did break momentarily, just about the time we were passing through the Branson area, so we stopped at one the last places available on the route to get out and get some air and enjoy the forest. A couple of riders on horseback provided some comedy relief there, but inevitably, the rain returned and chased us from there too.

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Further Reading

School at Turkey Creek

A neatly preserved piece of Arkansas educational history

Quiet Gunner Pool

A beautiful little space for a Confederate storage depot

Busiek at Woods Fork

A quick and quiet spot along the US-65 route

Busiek at Woods Fork

Walking Bridge crossing Woods Fork

Tucked just off US-65 between Branson and Springfield, is a great little spot to get out and walk around for a minute, if you need a break from the road. There is actually quite a bit more to do there than that, but we only have ever had time for that. Looking a little closer on our last visit, we should probably plan to make some time for the space in the near future.

Woods Fork

Named in honor of locals, Dr. Urban and Marie Busiek, and originally purchased from their son in 1981, the 2,502-acre Conversation Area hosts a fantastic forest full of woodlands, glades, and old farm fields. Camp Creek and Woods Fork cut through this section of land that provides 18 miles of trails for hikers and horseback riders. Primitive camping is also available by permit only, and a shooting range is also available. While the streams are insufficient for fishing anything more than minnows and tadpoles, hunting is available for all game in season.

Horses crossing Woods Fork

This last pass through, we wandered a little along the trail along Woods Fork, and explored the creek bed near the bridge mostly. It had been raining all day, and threatened more, so we did not want to get too involved. Indeed, it started up again, forcing a return to the dry safety of our car. While we were there though, we had the opportunity to see a couple passing through on horseback. It was amusing watching them try to keep control of the younger of the two, as the horse was more interested in playing in the water. After they passed through the creek bed, the horse turned back, in spite of protests by the rider, and began to splash about. The rider finally convinced the horse to return to the trail, but not before pressing the issue one last time.

Missouri Department of Conversation Map of Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area - Nov 2015

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Further Reading

Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area - Missouri Department of Conservation

Gunner Pool Recreation Area Late Fall Visit

North of the little town of Fifty-Six, tucked along the crossroads of Gunner Creek and North Sylamore Creek, in the Ozark National Forest lies an quiet little spot likely known only to locals.

There is nothing particularly significant about Gunner Pool Recreation Area, on first glance. Leaving the blacktop and traversing 5 kilometres of well-maintained gravel road, leads to a typical northern Arkansas creek, bluffs stoically guarding a wide bed of smooth, round pebbles generally larger than an inch in diameter. Clear and cold water streaming through provides home to various forms of wildlife.

The site was originally a munitions manufacturing and storage depot for the Confederacy, feeding the rebel cause throughout north central Arkansas with much needed gunpowder . Also known as Camp Hedges, from 1933 to 1942 it hosted base camp for approximately 2,200 Civilian Conservation Corps. They worked on several projects throughout the Sylamore National Forest, including the stone dam that holds back Gunner Pool, similar to that for Mirror Lake.

The bluff line is a bit more interesting than most, and is an excellent example of the crossroads of geology this little area straddles. East of a WPA-era Baltimore deck truss bridge spanning North Sylamore Creek, a massive bulge of rock tops off what is a decidedly different formation. This is a beautifully exposed contact between St Peter Sandstone and Everton Formation, both dominant throughout northern Arkansas and Southern Missouri. The top most layer bulges appears to bulge out since the each of the two formations weather at quite different rates. In one spot the St Peter Sandstone has collapsed from lack of support from the underlying layer, but it is generally stable and not likely to suddenly and unexpectedly collapse; that is, at least not today.

The area to the west of the bridge hosts the “pool.” I am not quite sure how deep it is, but it is probably not advisable to go swimming around in it. There are signs indicating as much too. The sides are steep and there is no means of escape, except to swim down to the dam; then, there is the risk of slipping over the top and falling 20 feet to the shallow and rocky pool below. It is probably better to spend your time splashing around and wading through the little pools below the dam in North Sylamore Creek as most folks seem content to do on a hot summer day. I did not get involved in that on this particular visit. While it was a beautifully sunny day, temperatures were in the 20s C, and not very conducive that sort of activity.

The area hosts a couple of picnic areas and nicely shaded but somewhat primitive campground. There are also a couple of hike-in sites available, but for the entire place the only available facilities appeared to be outhouses. I had no need, so did not inspect. The North Sylamore Creek Hiking Trail passes through the area, and there is immediate hunting access to the Sylamore Wildlife Management Area; whitetail deer, wild turkey, black bear, squirrel and whatever happens to be in season are readily accessible.

Gunner Pool Recreation Area is an awesome little spot, off the beaten path. There is a little spot in Fifty-Six to get a few supplies. Blanchard Springs Caverns is only 11 km down the road, if you need an afternoon diversion in the coolness of the caves. The White River is only 18 km down the road, or if you prefer, about 16 km to paddle there by way of North Sylamore Creek, which meets up with the White River.

US Forest Service Map of Gunner Pool Recreation Area

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further reading

Gunner Pool Recreation Area

National Forest Service

Turkey Creek Schoolhouse

If one knows where to look, all sorts of historical remnants linger about the back roads of Arkansas, all sorts of history abound. This particular spot lay south along AR-9 out of Mountain View, hidden in plain sight.

Built in 1925 by Robert Dawkins and George Green on donated land, the Turkey Creek Schoolhouse is an unassuming structure, similar to just about any other rural schoolhouse one might imagine. As with just about any old structure in Arkansas, a stone foundation supports a single-story wood frame structure with clapboard siding. A sheet metal gabled roof tops the building that also has front entrances and a row of five windows on each side of the building. A dilapidated well sits out front too, and small outhouses suffering the same neglected, tucked away to the north of the building.

A peek inside finds a space frozen in time. White painted walls and ceilings amplified the light streaming in from the windows. Several rows of benches bordered the room, surrounding a few desks huddled in the center of the room behind a rusty potbelly stove. The front of the room is filled by a standard chalkboard with a seemingly abandoned music lesson.

It was only used a school until 1949 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, along with the State register. I have yet to find a reason beyond it being a 60-year-old building at the time. Used primarily for various community activities these days, it remains in good shape, and a good example of the types of schools that peppered rural Arkansas and the Midwest during that time.

A few locals still reminisce on their school days there, as evidenced in the YouTube video, filmed by local youths in 2012. Sponsored by the Rural Community Alliance, in an effort to preserve local history, it is an interesting and amusing little sit down on the steps with a few former students and their teacher, Mrs. Elsie Compton, age 101.

Mapping Arkansas Waterfalls

I took a bit of a break from things this week to spend a little time cataloging some waterfall data derived from location visits, Panoramio, and coordinates found in the book by Tim Ernst book, “Arkansas Waterfalls, 2nd Edition.” The result of this effort is an awesome little online map that can be saved offline for reference in the field. It will be a huge help in future exploration efforts.

The Google product, MyMaps made the process rather simple, enabling sharing with anyone, and the offline access. Accessing the map, one can zoom in so the points are not all bunched on top of each other, and click individual points to get more information on the waterfall associated with the point.

The process is rather simple. The data will need to be in one of four file formats (CSV, XLSX, KML, GPX). After compiling all of the information, it only requires a quick upload. One or more of the columns needs to contain GPS coordinates or a City/State combination; all of that can be in separate columns, if that is one’s preference.

Accessing Google MyMaps, select to “Create a New Map.” In the display that follows, simply choose to import from the dialog box on the left.

Once the data loads, the process will request which columns define the location of the place marks for the map, and which column to use for titling the markers.

After assigning those, the map displays all of the points, and options come available to improve appearance. That which will make the most impact is “Style,” which refers to how the points display. For this particular map, the GPS Rating column was chosen, so one could quickly identify which falls were going to be the most difficult to locate on the ground.

Other options related to Style are also available, including ranges, categorization, or each point with its own individual style. If a different marker is desired, just hover over one of the categories or ranges, and a little paint bucket appears. Click on it and choose a different color, shape, icon, or upload your own marker.

Several other options within this overall dialog help refine the appearance too. Click the title to personalize it with a specific name and description. The three vertical dots next to the Map Title (in this case, Arkansas Waterfalls by GPS) provide the ability to copy the map, set the default view (extent), print the map, embed it on a web site, or export it to KML. You can also create multiple layers of data, as well as share it with others for viewing only or collaboration.

The three vertical dots next to the Layer Title (in this case, GPS Rating) enables renaming or deletion of the layer, or one can open the data table associated with the layer and work on the data from that angle as one would with basic spreadsheet functions.

Overall, this was a fun little test project that should make it much easier to get to this information while I am out on the road, especially since the recent integration with Google Maps. To accomplish that you will need to save the map, then simply launch Google Maps and navigate to your save maps. The map then overlays Google Maps with all of the functionality.

Access a live version of this map and try it out for yourself!

Parade Directions Fail

As a cartographer and geographer, nothing is more irritating than bad directions. They confuse people and create unnecessary chaos. The problem is compounded when these directions come from a “Trusted News Source.” I suppose the only thing that could be more annoying would be someone attempting to justify, or argue in favor of the bad directions.

After the Kansas City Royals won the World Series, a parade was in order to celebrate the momentous occasion. Everyone wanted to be The New Source for the parade information online, and everyone seemed to get it right, except for KMBC; not only did they get it wrong, but when several of us notified them of the inaccurate directions, they refused to correct it. Additionally, there were those on their comment forum attempting to argue the accuracy of the directions originally provided by KMBC as well. I am still not quite sure what to think of that. One individual asked, “What does it matter?” It matters a lot to those that are not from Kansas City, or know nothing about the layout of the downtown streets. Providing good advice is better than arguing though, so I suggested they take a look at a map.

See if you can follow the directions, as posted on the KMBC web site.

Here’s the starting point… 39.097790, -94.581003

The parade will start at Noon on Grand Boulevard between the Sprint Center and Power & Light District.

From there it will head north on 9th Street before turning east on Oak, south to Truman, then west back to Grand.

The parade will then head south on Grand to Pershing Road and head west.

The parade will end in front of Union Station where a victory rally will begin at approximately 2 p.m.

If you are not familiar with Kansas City, or are admittedly directionally challenged, here are a few notes about what went wrong.

You cannot travel North on 9th Street from the Sprint Center. It is five blocks away! Is the parade going to teleport there?

You cannot turn East on Oak. That street runs North/South; that is, unless they are only crossing the street, then by all means, go right ahead. Although, you are going to have some trouble getting to Truman Road, turning East on Oak.