We took a drive out to see Crowley's Ridge and Lake Frierson State Parks. Both parks are small, woodsy campgrounds. A lot of Crowley's Ridge was built by the CCC during the Depression and it has the typical look of that type of building construction. Crowley's Ridge is a geographical remnant from erosion 40 million years ago. It stands 100 to 200 feet above the farmland in the Delta area of eastern Arkansas. The ridge was named for Benjamin Crowley, a soldier in the war of 1812 and whose land grant was the first settlement in this part of the state. The Ridge forms an arc of scenic rolling hills that extend from Cape Girardeau, MO (my home town) and the NE part of Arkansas. When I was growing up and we would drive south into the bootheel of MO, I thought of the ridge as sort of dividing line to the south. Those towns south, like Sikeston, Charleston, and New Madrid always seemed to me to be distinctively southern in a way that Cape was not.
Lake Frierson is a 114 acre park that is on Crowley's Ridge. The park is located on the shores of 335-acre Lake Frierson. You can enjoy year-round fishing for bream, catfish, crappie, saugeye, and bass. The park campground offers seven campsites (four Class B with water and electric, and three tent sites with no hookups). The park is 10 miles north of Jonesboro on Hwy. 141.