The first time I visited this bridge, it was in the middle of a bright sunny day and none of my photos were working. I decided to return late some afternoon and try again. I didn’t get back for a couple days, and by then the weather had turned. It was a gray, drizzly day and all my photos looked washed out. I decided to try for a close-up. I scrambled down to a little rock bar and took this shot.
The bridge was built by hand from local rock by the CCC in the early 1930s.
I have a theory. Actually, it’s more of an opinion.
Back when people manufactured things individually by hand, they had pride of craftsmanship. A man’s livelihood depended on the quality of what he made and each piece he created became a work of art — whether it was furniture or a barn or a spoon. And then the Industrial Revolution came along with it’s assembly lines and machine manufacturing and all sorts of new things were suddenly possible. But the craftsmanship died. If a man was putting the same type of nut on the same type of bolt over and over all day for years, he no longer cared what the end product looked like.
Antique cars, from about 1915 to 1940 (and here’s where my opinion comes in), are the best of both worlds. They are works of art and incredible machines. I don’t know anything about them, and I can’t even identify most of them in the photos below, but I can look at them for hours. I find them stunningly beautiful, maybe the prettiest accomplishments of mankind.
The Museum of Automobiles on Petit Jean Mountain was founded in 1964 by Winthrop Rockefeller, one of the Rockefellers, who also owned a ranch on the mountain and served as governor of Arkansas. Originally the building housed his personal collection, but the collection has expanded and is now owned by the state of Arkansas, I believe. I’ve been there a couple times before, and I’ve driven past it many times. I’ve never seen more than two or three cars in the parking lot.
My wife and I had the place to ourselves for most of our visit. (Our daughter stayed at the camper and unpacked everything for us.) The Auburn V12 (V12!) Boat Tail Speedster in the first picture was my favorite. It can also be seen in the foreground of the panorama below. My wife’s favorite was the blue sedan in the second photo. We both thought the 1916 Cretors Popcorn Wagon was also a very impressive vehicle.
This 1967 Ford Ranchero was owned by Elvis during the year he tried his hand at ranching on the Circle G Ranch near Tupelo, Mississippi. He called it his “Cowboy Cadillac,” but he soon traded it with a car dealer for a new Cadillac.
John Kennedy was given three cars by Ford to use on his vacations during his Presidential years. This was his favorite, a 1963 Lincoln Continental, and there are several photos of him at the wheel. He used to scare his bodyguards by hopping into it and taking off. Brand new, the car cost $6,916.
This 1967 Ford Mustang was purchased in 1972 by Bill Clinton’s stepfather for his brother Roger. When Bill became Governor of Arkansas, he “acquired” the car and often drove it between Hot Springs and Little Rock. When he became President, he loaned it to the museum. He said it was the hardest thing for him to leave behind. So sad. He should have kept the car and given up the Presidency.
The full-size cut-outs of Elvis, JFK and Clinton were a little creepy. I kept seeing them out of the corner of my eye and thinking I was being watched. In the panorama below, the black car on the left is a 1936 Mercedes 500 K Phaeton. The two maroon Cadillacs at the extreme right were the personal cars of Winthrop Rockefeller.
Petit Jean State Park has long been one of my favorite places to visit. In the 29 years that I’ve been visiting my wife’s family in Arkansas, I’ve probably been to the park 20 times. I’ve hiked and birded and picnicked there and found the rock formations, waterfalls and cliffs strikingly beautiful every time. 
But the one thing I’ve never done is stay overnight, so when my brother-in-law invited us to camp with his family, I jumped at the opportunity. We drove to the park on Wednesday morning, the day before Thanksgiving and stopped at Stout’s Point on the eastern end of the mountain. The spot is supposedly the location of the grave of Petit Jean, a young woman with incredible powers of disguise. I’ll let you read about her on the sign and come to your own decision whether to believe it or not. My daughter finds the legend compelling. My wife’s theory is that Chavet knew all along who “Petit Jean” was.
Here is eastern Arkansas, with the Arkansas River down below, taken from Stout’s Point.
And here’s the “grave.” I thought the plastic flowers were a nice touch.
Between my east bank and west bank adventures at Toad Suck, I visited another local attraction — Cadron Settlement Park. It’s also an Army Corps of Engineers site, and like Toad Suck, doesn’t really amount to much.
Cadron was the first white settlement in Central Arkansas, founded in 1819 by John McElmurry where Cadron Creek empties into the Arkansas River. He built a blockhouse as a tavern and post for his fur trading with the Cherokee Indians. At its peak, perhaps six families lived in the area. In 1834, during the Trail of Tears forced immigration of eastern Indian tribes, about 700 Cherokees were stranded here when the water in the river became too low for boat travel. Many of them died of cholera. By that time, McElmurry was dead and the community was in ruins.
In 1976, a replica of McElmurry’s blockhouse was constructed on the site. I remember this building from visits with my older daughter several years ago. We were able to go inside and climb around and pretend like we were defending it from hostiles. That building was burned down by vandals in 1992. A second reconstruction was built in 1998, but this building is locked and boarded up to keep out the idiots.
There used to be a marker along the river stating that the last Confederate troops in Arkansas crossed near here at the end of the Civil War, but I didn’t see it on this visit. Perhaps the vandals burned it too.
Apart from the blockhouse, there isn’t much to the park. A road climbs a nearby ridge where there’s an overlook. The Arkansas River runs generally west to east across the state, but it makes a large loop to the south just north of Toad Suck. Cadron Settlement is just below where the river bends to the south. (To put it more simply, in case you care, the river is running from right to left in the photos below.)
In the distance (if you enlarge the panorama above), you can see Petit Jean Mountain where we camped for the next four days. Here’s a zoomed shot in which you can see it better.
You can barely make out a large flock of Ring-billed Gulls on the sandbar.
And, in case you can’t identify that large wet area immediately in front of your car …
