Listing Through Life

This park is in extreme northern Arkansas near the Missouri border — literally 500 feet from the Missouri border. It seems more like a city park than a state park — there is no wild area or campground — just a lake, a gift shop that doubles as the state welcome center, a hydroelectric dam and power house, a train depot, some picnic tables, and a baseball diamond.

After talking with the overly enthusiastic young man in welcome center, I set off to see the spring. First I came upon a Civil War cannon that has nothing to do with Mammoth Spring or Arkansas. It was a gift from the Federal government because there was an annual reunion of Confederate and Union troops here — when there were any. They still have an annual festival although Civil War veterans no longer attend.

The spring shoots up seventy feet below the surface of a pond and cascades over two waterfalls into Spring Lake. It’s the 10th largest spring in the world with a flow of 9.78 million gallons of water per hour or 235 million gallons a day.

Here’s the view I took later from the observation deck visible in the trees in the center of the photo. The Welcome to Missouri sign is just beyond the gas station on the hill.

This is Spring Lake looking west from near the Train Depot. The power house and dam are on the left, the welcome center is in the middle, and the spring is hidden in the trees on the right.

The dam was originally built by the mammoth Spring Milling Company, a large concern that milled and sold wheat. Just one small cement structure is left. You can see what the mill looked like on this sign.

It was then purchased by a power company, which operated here until the early 1970s. Here’s what things looked like when that was here.

I’m not sure anything demonstrates the size of the spring so much as the view down Spring River. The spring is the sole source of water for the river. Mammoth indeed.

I came on a Wednesday because I wanted to see the Depot Museum, which is closed some days. But I had to wait around for an hour until the guide returned from lunch. I wandered about looking for birds and covering pretty much the entire park. It isn’t large.

I also wandered around and through the caboose parked next to the depot.

The depot was built on this spot in 1885 for the Kansas City, Ft. Scott & Memphis Railroad.

It’s set up with dioramas inside to give a feel for what it would have looked like in operation if all the people had been made of wax.

There were interesting displays on the walls, including one on the four or five train wrecks that have dumped cars into Spring Lake over the years.

The smaller section of the depot was the baggage area, and the guide unlocked that and let us in there too.

In all, I was at the park for something less than two hours, but I feel like I saw what there was to see. It was a pleasant place, but I’m unlikely to return since it’s almost three hours from my house.

When I decided to create my own Arkansas t0-do list, I thought it would be fun to find at least one attraction to visit in each county. For several counties, this proved to be a challenge. Sharp County was one of the challenges. I drove through much of the county on my way up to Mammoth Spring State Park and stopped to see what there was to see.

Corner Booth Restaurant in Hardy

It was around 10:50 when I stopped in. Obviously, they think of themselves as a breakfast place, and that’s what I probably should have ordered. But the menu was mostly omelettes and pancakes, and I just wasn’t in the mood. I ordered a cheeseburger and onion rings, and I can’t complain. The tomato was as large as the hamburger patty and overwhelmed it, but once I took it off, the burger was tasty. So were the onion rings. It just turned out that I wasn’t in the mood for that either. I should have bought breakfast.

I got the distinct feeling that if I could go back in time and visit the place in 1964, my experience would have been no different.

I drove eight miles east of Hardy to the Morgan’s Mill Battlefield marker.

In a nutshell, the Union Army was in Batesville, about 40 miles south of here as the crow flies. A small force (112 men) was sent to chase off a Confederate force. They found the enemy and attacked, but it turned out there were considerably more Confederates (around 300 men) than they’d realized. After some initial success, the Union force had to retreat, and they were chased for about 12 miles west towards Hardy before the action petered out. The Confederates had significantly more casualties (dead, injured, or captured) than the Union, but they kept the field, which makes them the considered winner — as is stated on the sign, which I thought was funny. It feels like more of a draw to me. To reinforce that the Confederates won, there’s a Confederate flag next to the marker.

There’s a mill nearby, although there’s no information about it on the site or on the internet that I can find. Whether it’s a reconstruction of Morgan’s Mill on the original foundation, a reproduction of what it may have looked like, or just somebody’s folly, I don’t know. My guess is that it was built by someone who wanted to turn this site into a tourist attraction and has since given up on the idea. But that’s just my guess.

On my way to the battlefield, I passed a store that caught my eye. I decided to stop on the way back, looking for one of those serendipitous moments that can turn good days into great ones.

It turned out to be two small rooms filled with cypress tables, clocks, and … things, just like the sign said. As I entered, I told the woman who greeted me that I very likely wasn’t in the market for anything but I thought I’d take a look. That set her off on a 10-minute monologue that covered subjects like how her husband was down pouring concrete, the neighbor who had his shed blown over in a storm and gave the wood to her husband who built another shed out of it, all the occasions for which I might “need” one of her products, and how they’d taken their flags down and hadn’t gotten around to putting them back up . I kept edging my way toward the door, trying to get away without being rude. She got up from behind her desk and followed me outside, still talking. She didn’t stop until I actually got in my car.

As for the store, some of the tables were cool, but out of my price range. The clocks were too gaudy for my taste. The cheesy Indian and animal pictures on the walls looked like decoupage crafts I used to make at summer camp in decoupage craft class — the kind of thing that covers the walls of Northwoods rental cabins. I didn’t buy anything.

And that was it for Sharp County. There were a couple promising antique stores in Hardy, but I had neither the time or money, so I didn’t stop.

I’m not sure exactly what Lake Sylvia is. It shows up on the Arkansas State Parks web site and the state park logo is on the signs, but it isn’t a state park and it isn’t in the passport. It’s within Ouachita National Forest, and most of the signage is about the national forests.  Still, in the interest of completeness, I decided to go. Actually, go back. I’ve been there a couple times before. There’s rarely very many people around, and today there wasn’t anybody. Even the campsite was empty. I walked the trail around the lake to the dam, birding as I went.

I’ve been to Petit Jean probably 100 times over the years. I’ve walked all the trails, explored behind the waterfall, eaten meals in the lodge, and camped. Today I just went to get my picture by the sign and get my passport stamped. It was my 25th stamp, for which accomplishment I was given a deck of cards with the Club 52 logo.

I’ve been to Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge 67 times since I moved to Arkansas, and that means I’ve driven past this restaurant at least 100 times. It didn’t impress me, so I never gave it a try until a couple months ago when I stopped in for lunch with a friend. I just got a burger, and although it was tasty, I didn’t think any more of it. Then I discovered that it made the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame in 2023.

I stopped in for lunch today and made sure I ordered something more impressive — pulled pork with beans and slaw with a side of onion rings.

I now understand. The beans and pork/BBQ sauce were amazing, as were the onion rings. The slaw was mediocre, but I wasn’t complaining. They advertised strawberry shortcake with fresh Arkansas strawberries, and I was planning on getting one, but after the main meal, I had no room left for more food.

I’ll probably stick with burgers most of the time in the future, but I’ll definitely be back.