Well, this is part 2 of my northeastern Arkansas trip finally, now that I havent lived in the state for 2 months.
I left off in West Memphis, there in very few east central Arkansas, and went north from there. Southeastern Arkansas is primarily black, but once get a little north of West Memphis and into northeastern Arkansas its primarily white, its very strange the transition.
Memphis, along the Mississippi and it was flooding pretty good. This was way back in March.
The tiny crossroads of Clarkdale north of West Memphis in the cottonlands.
The tiny town of Tyronza.
A tiny Baptist church in Tyronza on Sunday morning.
Most small towns in Arkansas have mostly destroyed downtowns, especially in eastern Arkansas but I was surprised to see that the small town of Lepanto had an incredibly well preserved downtown.
Black Oak, which is the home of the semi famous 70s rock band Black Oak Arkansas which is kick ass, the town though, not so much.
Jonesboro, a very cool town, the only semi urban town in eastern Arkansas that is healthy due mostly to Arkansas State University which is located there. It was too bright so I decided to drive and see more small towns and I came back to Jonesboro later that day.
Bono, northwest of Jonesboro.
Walnut Ridge
Back in Jonesboro
More Jonesboro
This was crazy, a mosque in Jonesboro. The entire building was surrounded by barbed wire and the building even had bullet holes all over it from pissed off rednecks.
The imam or whatever they are called invited me in after he saw me taking photos and even payed me 60 bucks to take photos of the interior and exterior for their website, which was awesome.
Woke up the next morning and drove up to Paragould, one of the only towns in eastern Arkansas, along with Jonesboro that gained population in the past ten years.
The nothing town of Lafe on Crowleys Ridge, the only topographically diverse feature in the Mississippi Delta of eastern Arkansas.
Marmaduke
One of the only old buildings left in Greenway, just south of the MO border in extreme northeast Arkansas.
Abandoned house on the outskirts of St. Francis. Missouri is about 2 miles north of the house.
Crowleys Ridge looking out into the delta.
A lot of the architecture in northeast Arkansas looks as though it was influenced by St. Louis architecture, like this building in Coming.
Pocahantas on the edge of the delta region, where the Ozarks meet the delta.
The basically dead town of Black Rock, it looked like they were actively in the process of tearing down or getting ready to tear down all of these buildings.
An incredibly bridge in Black Rock that drops people down onto the delta from the Ozarks.
This incredible courthouse was amazing. I didnt know it was there and the lighting was perfect, I turned around a corner in the road and bam, there it was. The rest of the town is a ghost town but this courthouse remained and is now a state park apparently in the former town of Powhatan.
Strawberry in the eastern Ozark plateau.
The moon rising over a coal fired power plant near Newark.
Another incredible courthouse near Newark.
Newport back in the delta region.
This is where Sam Walton owned his first store a Ben Franklin Store, and look, today the downtown is destroyed and the Walmart on the edge of town is doing just fine.
More Newport destruction.
Newport Courthouse
Harrisburg, further out in the delta region.
This town was also actively tearing down its remaining historic buildings around the town square.
Wynne
Wynne
Augusta
Bald Knob
Midway
I dont remember where this was, somewhere around Searcy getting closer to Little Rock sort of.
Searcy, another rare example of a small eastern Arkansas town that has taken historic preservation to heart and is pretty nice.
Searcy
Searcy
Searcy
West Point, just east of Searcy
Georgetown, the second oldest town in Arkansas, founded in the late 1700s, today, its mostly abandoned.
McRae
Jacksonville, next town is Little Rock.
Back in Little Rock and chilled with the amazing band Little Tybee.
Ive got only 2 more threads left for Arkansas, than Im done with it, but I still need to finish my book, which is almost done.