OPINION

OPINION | REX NELSON: Saturday at Village Creek

It was unseasonably cool that Saturday as I stayed off crowded Interstate 40, instead taking U.S. 64 from Marion to Little Rock following a lunch meeting. Rain was falling in east Arkansas. It also was falling in St. Louis, leading to a rain delay in the Cardinal baseball broadcast. That was fine with me since they were replaying interviews with legends of the game.

In no hurry to get home, I turned off the highway as soon as I began climbing Crowley's Ridge just east of Wynne. I spent the next couple of hours driving slowly through the jewel that's Village Creek State Park.

When Arkansans contemplate hilly, tree-shaded routes, they typically think of something in the Ozarks or the Ouachita Mountains. But I can't imagine a more majestic hardwood canopy than what I drove under in the unusual natural region known as Crowley's Ridge.

The ridge, which ranges in width from one to 12 miles, runs from southern Missouri to Helena. It's named for Benjamin Crowley, the first white settler to live in the area near what's now Paragould. Crowley settled on the ridge in about 1820.

"Crowley's Ridge, surrounded by the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, is clearly visible because it rises some 250 feet above a relatively flat landscape," Hubert Stroud wrote for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "The ridge is capped by a deep layer of wind-deposited (loessial) soils, a fine-grained soil created millions of years ago as glaciers moved across the continent. Extensive areas, including the Mississippi Alluvial Plain and Crowley's Ridge, were covered by windblown soil. Rivers and streams that continued to meander across the plain washed away the material.

"On Crowley's Ridge, however, the loess continued to collect, up to 50 feet in depth in some locations. Since loess is easily eroded, steep slopes and deep valleys characterize much of Crowley's Ridge. A feature of Crowley's Ridge is its vegetation. Interestingly, many of the trees that make up the forest are similar to those found in the western Appalachian Mountains. The ridge is covered with a lush mixed forest, including oak, hickory and uncommon hardwood trees such as American beech, sugar maple and the tuliptree (yellow poplar)."

The park covers almost 7,000 acres. A section of the 1820s Military Road that linked Memphis to Little Rock is visible. An early settler named William Strong purchased Spanish land grants and built a 20-room mansion just east of what's now the park boundary.

Strong was the first postmaster along this part of the Military Road, was a delegate to the 1836 constitutional convention when Arkansas became a state, and recruited residents to the area. It's the natural beauty rather than the history that attracts visitors these days, though.

In 1967, when east Arkansas had the most powerful state senators, the Arkansas Legislature authorized a study on the need for a major park in the region. Land acquisition began five years later and continued until 1978.

The official dedication was June 27, 1976, as part of the bicentennial celebration. Gov. David Pryor spoke, and people came from all over Arkansas to hear Charlie Rich sing. The crowd was estimated at 20,000. Rich had been born in December 1932 in nearby Colt.

"He was the only son (he had two sisters) of devout Missionary Baptist parents who sang in a church quartet," Arkansas music historian Robert Cochran once wrote. "His mother also played piano. He grew up immersed in the whole range of Southern music. Along with church music, there was the country music on the radio and the blues he learned from a sharecropper named C.J., who taught him piano. Rich played in his high school band in Forrest City, where he was already known as Charlie Kenton for his love of jazz (especially the music of Stan Kenton, George Gershwin and Oscar Peterson)."

Just three years earlier in 1973, Rich had recorded two blockbusters. "Behind Closed Doors" made it to No. 1 on the country charts, and "The Most Beautiful Girl" reached No. 1 on both country and pop charts. He was the Country Music Association's Male Vocalist of the Year.

I drove to both lakes in the park. Lake Austell is named for Samuel Austell, the first county judge of Cross County. Lake Dunn is named for Poindexter Dunn, a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives who served from 1879-89. Dunn, a North Carolina native, moved to St. Francis County in 1856 and was elected two years later to the Arkansas House of Representatives.

The park's main attraction these days is the Ridges at Village Creek, which features 27 holes of golf. The Ridges, part of the Natural State Golf Trail, was designed by Andy Dye, a member of a famous family of course designers. The original plans for the course called for a centralized lodge that would also contain meeting rooms and a restaurant.

Those plans fell through when a private developer backed out of a partnership with the state. Hopefully, the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism will one day build the lodge.

I'm in agreement with the park official who told the Forrest City Times-Herald: "We have 10 cabins here. There's also lodging at motels in Forrest City and Wynne, but the one constant request we have had is for more lodging near the course. ... It's something that must be considered just because of the number of requests that we've had. I think someone will eventually seize that opportunity."

If only Charlie Rich--who died in July 1995--were still around to sing when that lodge is dedicated.


Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.

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