Jacksonport
Before we left Jonesboro, our nearly 14 year old German Shepherd had really gone downhill. He got a visit from the family in town and that was literally his last hurrah. He just couldn't go on and he wasn't eating. I took the list of vets that my wife always compiles before our trips and started making phone calls. I could find no vet that could get him until too many days in the future. There was just no way for him to carry on that long. So I did try a vet in the town of Newport which was fairly close to the state park in Jacksonport, out next stop.
So after a week, we left Jonesboro and headed to Jacksonport SP. The drive there was very rainy with lighting in the distance. Once we arrived, we realized our site was right on the White River and that it was pretty high. We settled in and spent an hour with Sabre before the appointment. He was very weak but seemed to enjoy the attention. The vet office turned out to be very small but the vet was kindly and we all made the best of a very difficult situation. We asked that his ashes be mailed to our friends back in St. Louis so that they didn't sit in the post office with our held mail.
We went back to our RV and were grateful that we had the bubbly personality of Kismet. The rain had slowed down which was also a relief.
Overnight, the rain held off but there was some lightning. We woke up and realized it was just the three of us moving forward. We had named our RV OBDA for Old Black Dog Adventures and that now we had a brown and tan dog but the name continues. That is how we started. We looked forward to sitting near the river today. But first we decided to head over to the Visitor's Center and learn more about this park and the area. As we headed down the road, we saw just how high the water was and the cows across from the park were huddled between mini-lakes.
The history of Jacksonport was very much the story of the White River. The town is just past the point where the Black and White Rivers converge. Steamboat traffic made this a booming city. It was also culturally part of the deep south with plantations and rowdy towns with riverboat gamblers. The ugly stain of slavery is part of the story. The worst part is always the denial of area residents during those times that there was anything wrong with what they saw as this noble lifestyle.
Eventually the townspeople were not willing to give land to the railroad and didn't realized that river traffic was moving to the rail. Jacksonport lost and the county seat eventually moved to Newport, a town who had given the requested land to the RR. The beautiful Jacksonville courthouse was eventually abandoned. In 1962, the local Historical Society bought it and it has since been restored.
During the Civil War, Jacksonport was occupied by both Confederate and Union armies due to its strategic position. On June 5th, 1865, Confederate General Jeff Thompson surrendered 6000 troops to Lt. Colonel C. W. Davis at the Jacksonport steamboat landing.
During the Civil War, Jacksonport was occupied by both Confederate and Union armies due to its strategic position. On June 5th, 1865, Confederate General Jeff Thompson surrendered 6000 troops to Lt. Colonel C. W. Davis at the Jacksonport steamboat landing.
Once we got back to our campsite, it wasn't long before the rangers stopped by to tell us the news about the river crest that was predicted for the next day. It wasn't good. They had decided to close the park and we had a couple hours to leave. The rangers suggested some of the other nearby state parks but none of them would get us closer to our next destination, which was Little Rock. I looked through the local guide and found Barnes RV park in Bald Knob. I made a call and found they could definitely get us in. Once we arrived, we realized we were lucky as it was the middle of their weekend strawberry festival. The owners could not have been nicer and helped us get set up. The bonus was attending the softball tournament in Searcy that the Jonesboro niece would be playing in. We saw two excellent softball games and then in the afternoon, took a drive down to the nearby wildlife refuge. We saw a lot of indigo buntings. They were literally everywhere and then we saw a most interesting bird which turned out to be a scissor-tailed flycatcher. It was a beautiful bird. Later that evening, the owner brought us two strawberry shortcake sundaes from the famous Bulldog restaurant.