In the spring of 1993, we visited Sally’s family in Arkansas for some reason. Bored, I decided to take off one day and drive almost two hours to Jacksonport to tour the state park. I was not impressed.
It’s chief feature at the time was an old paddlewheel steamboat, the Mary Woods No. 2. I didn’t phone first, and the boat was closed for tours until summer.
There was also an old courthouse which contained (in my words from back then) “a lousy museum of local junk.” Here’s what it looked like.
I had to go back to get my passport stamp, so after a morning of birding at Bald Knob, I drove another 20 minutes north to Jacksonport, a community of 150 people and one functioning business, a bait shop.
The past 33 years have seen some changes. The steamboat is gone. I don’t remember all the details, but it had to be restored several times due to various problems and, when it sank yet again, the state decided it wasn’t worth fixing. Parts of it lie on the riverbank somewhere nearby. And there’s now a fancy two-story visitor center between the courthouse and the river. Half the upstairs is a museum of Jacksonport and environs. Half the downstairs is a gift shop. I’m not sure what the other half of the building is used for. It’s a pretty impressive place for a dumpy little park. I’m still new at this passport/state park pursuit, so I didn’t get a photo of it or of the park sign. I may have to stop in sometime when I’m driving by Newport.
The courthouse is still there. It has been further restored and now has a cupola.
I made sure I visited on a day when the courthouse was open. A woman met me at the door and offered to give me a tour. She was a history buff and knew her stuff. She was very enthusiastic as she told me about the building, the town, and the history.
In short, it was a river town, with a steamboat landing. It was chosen as the Jackson County seat in 1853. The courthouse was built after the Civil War and was finished in 1872. When railroads came in, the river traffic stopped and when the county seat was moved to Newport in 1892, Jacksonport died. The courthouse was used as a school, a cotton gin, the county poor house (for 40 years) and a warehouse for grain. It was abandoned and falling apart in 1962 when the County Historical Society restored it. It became a state park in 1965. Here’s the courtroom. Almost nothing in the building is original because of all the other uses it was put to over the years.
Not much happened here, and it isn’t clear to me why there’s a park. My guide had done tons of research and created the displays in the courthouse and the visitor center, and she did a good job. She made the tour interesting, and we got to talking about this and that. But still, not much happened here. Troops from both armies wandered through here during the Civil War. There’s a monument (in the background of the next photo) to the 6,000 Confederates who surrendered here in 1865.
Well, there was this, but it doesn’t sound like much.
After touring the visitor center (and reading about all the things the guide had told me about in the courthouse) and getting my passport stamped, I wandered down to the banks of the White River.
I had planned to bird in the park, but it was a blustery day and the “trail” was just an unmowed path along the river from the visitor center to the campground. It looked like a good place to pick up chiggers. I drove to the campground, then turned around and drove back. And that was it.
I headed into nearby Newport, which is larger but only marginally less abandoned than Jacksonport. On the internet, I’d found a restaurant called The Angry Possum that got good reviews. I had to drive around the empty downtown blocks for several minutes before I found it in an old storefront. It looked abandoned, and even more so when I went inside. There were two men sitting at a table, and that was it. I sat down and studied the possum-related artwork on the walls. A woman came out after a bit and took my order. I got the Possum Dog, “wrapped in bacon and deep fried. Topped with beer onions.” I wasn’t expecting much, but it was delicious.
