Springtown Heritage Loop preserves family legacies, history

SPRINGTOWN -- The Northwest Arkansas Land Trust is preserving three historically significant properties in this small Benton County town for public enjoyment and education.

The nonprofit land trust is dedicated to enhancing life through land preservation, which includes protection of water quality, local farms, wildlife habitat and places for outdoor recreation, according to a June 29 news release.

The organization serves 13 Northwest Arkansas counties, with a focus on Benton, Washington, Madison and Carroll counties.

The donated properties form the Springtown Heritage Loop and include the Flint Creek Headwaters Preserve, the Springtown Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Myrtle Freeman and Jerry Riley Preserve, comprising about 23 total acres.

Permanently protecting these sites represents history and heritage at a time when the region's small towns and their characters are vanishing because of urban growth, according to the release.

Marson Nance, the land trust's director of land protection and stewardship, said Springtown is significant to the region's culture and natural history despite its small population of 149 residents.

"With the preservation of the Springtown Methodist Church, an historic home site and a natural area, which is home to a threatened fish species, all along a recognized Civil War Trail, the Land Trust is protecting a lot of conservation value within a small package," Nance said.

Springtown Mayor Terri Glen said "the town is happy to share its rich history and beauty of the Big Spring for which it is named."

The late Dr. John Wasson first approached the land trust in 2016 with 20 acres of land along Flint Creek that had been in his family for generations. Wasson shared memories of learning to swim in the cool deep pools and jumping from limestone outcroppings that border the stream. He donated the land so future generations of Springtown residents and visitors can experience these same joys, Wasson said.

Visitors can access Flint Creek Headwaters Preserve at the corner of Springtown Cut-off Road and Peach Blossom Lane, just off Arkansas 112. They are invited to explore nearly a mile of trails bordering the creek and wade in the cool waters.

The Wasson family legacy in Springtown can also be traced to the Springtown Methodist Episcopal Church South, which was established in 1881 on Readings Road. The church's foundation was taken from the bed of Flint Creek, and the lumber was milled near the creek at Beck Mill. W.D. Wasson donated the church bell and built the pulpit from goods boxes.

The church's charter members include W.D. Wasson and wife, D.P. Wasson and wife, James Williams and wife, Stuttering Davis and wife, and possibly a few others, according to Bertha Wasson Clemmer's account of the church's history at the homecoming in May 1938. Leah Whitehead with the Benton County Historical Commission provided the account.

The first Sunday school used literature from David Cook, who founded a large religious publishing company, Clemmer wrote. Several families had joined the church shortly prior to this time, including the Condreys and McHargues. The church size was substantially increased by Uncle Ramson, Aunt Rhoda Collins and their family members, according to Clemmer.

Clemmer details the many different superintendents who presided in the church over the years, including her uncle, Frank Wasson.

Historians believe the building to be the oldest standing church in Northwest Arkansas, according to local historian Rick Parker.

"The building represents a core structure in the community as it has since its first days in 1882," Parker said. "It is one of the few surviving structures from this period in Arkansas history to have survived the wrecking ball," Parker said in the press release.

Terri Lane, the land trust's executive director and CEO, said the organization wants to thank the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church for donating the property to be preserved.

The third property is a single acre near the intersection of Main Street and Aubrey Long Road, near the town's namesake spring. The Freeman-Riley family lived for almost 100 years.

Myrtle Freeman lived on the property as a teenager in the 1920s and purchased the two homes on the property and the surrounding land. Fires destroyed both homes, and her son Jerry Riley bought the property from her in the 1990s.

Myrtle McCrath, Freeman's granddaughter and one of Riley's three children, said many of her family members have returned to the property over the years to enjoy the creek and reminisce about when the Freeman-Riley family lived there.

Riley's wife, Rose, decided to donate the property to the land trust after he died in 2012. She said she hopes people will enjoy the land and creek as much as her husband did.