Chicot County Park (Lake Village, AR)

Wow, I can’t believe I am so far behind on my blog postings.  We arrived at Chicot County Park in Arkansas on October 25.  All we really knew about the park was that it was on Chicot Lake across the Mississippi River from Greenville, MS.  Our choice to stay at this particular park was driven by the nightly cost of only $15.54 (senior rate) and the close proximity to friends, Wayne and Keron, who live in Leland.  Well what a surprise when we pulled into the park and were warmly greeted by the park managers, Raymond and Margie.  The view from our site was absolutely beautiful:

The sites are exceptionally spacious and there is no limit on the stay.  We might consider staying next fall for a month or more.  The only problem we found was the neighborhood dogs which are allowed to run loose.  The first two days of our two week stay were especially troublesome—I was walking Duke and Abby when I came upon a campsite that had two loose dogs that were visiting.  When one of the loose dogs went behind us, Duke and Abby turned me around (protecting me, I suppose) and literally pulled me off my feet and I went down face first.  The owners were quite apologetic and offered to help me back to our camper but, of course, I am much too stubborn to give in to a bit of a bloody mouth.  It turned out that my wounded lips healed fast but my bruised knees took longer (all is ok now).  The next day, Pat and I went to Sherman’s for a delicious steak dinner to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary.  We felt right at home with all sorts of memorabilia from Peyton Manning—Sherman’s owner and Manning’s father are good friends.  After we got back home, I leashed the dogs and started out the door with them.  This is when I discovered that there are neighborhood dogs that run free.  One of them was coming by our camper just as I opened the door; Duke and Abby saw the dog and took off; they pulled me down the steps and in the process I had to let go of the leashes.  Pat and I took after our pups—Abby stopped and came back but Duke continued chasing the stray.  Since it was dark and Duke is black, we thought we had lost him forever.  L  Abby and I continued looking all the way to the entrance to the park and all of a sudden, Duke comes out of the ditch.  His leash was wrapped around his legs but he was not harmed other than a couple of scratches.  What a relief!!  J  Fortunately, I was not hurt other than a couple of bruises.  After these two episodes, we always looked outside before taking the dogs out.  By the end of our stay, I was much more comfortable walking them on my own.

On the Saturday before Halloween, we attended Monuments on Main Street…a walking tour of the Greenville Cemetery with Wayne and Keron.  This was NOT a spooky event but rather a historical tour of the cemetery with actors portraying the featured personalities.  The event benefited three not-for-profits, Animal Rescue and Relief Fellowship (ARRF), Animal Welfare League (AWL), and The Greenville Cemetery.  The first featured grave site was Harriet Byron McAllister Blanton Theobald (April 17, 1798-January 23, 1888).  She is known as the “Mother of Greenville” and her philanthropic deeds helped to rebuild Greenville after the Civil War.  We visited six other grave sites of prominent citizens of Greenville.  This was the first year for the event and reportedly was more successful than the organizers imagined.

In front of this grave marker is a step--in the days of
horse and carriage, the carriage would stop at the
step so that paasengers could exit the carriage.

We also visited the Cypress Preserve.  The preserve is a forested swamp (it is partially dry at this time of the year).  “It is a wetland dominated by woody plants and characterized by saturated soils during the growing season and standing water during certain times of the year.  The highly organic soil of swamps forms a thick, black, nutrient rich environment for the growth of water tolerant trees such as the bald cypress.”  The preserve has trails through woodland and meadow to view various wildlife and vegetation.

Another day’s adventure led us to Vicksburg to drive through the Vicksburg National Military Park.  The driving tour begins at the visitor’s center along Union Avenue.  This was basically the Union line during the battle.  Different aspects of the battle are indicated by blue markers representing union activity and red markers for confederate movements.  In addition, every state that was represented by troops has a variety of monuments marking where different units participated plus a main monument for the entire state. 

African American Monument

Illinois Memorial--Names of all soldiers are listed inside

New Hampshire Memorial

Shirley House-only original building still standing

List of Names of Wisconsin Soldiers

Wisconsin Memorial

The drive continues past the USS Cairo Museum.  The museum contains artifacts from the Cairo as well as the remains of the boat.  The USS Cairo was the first vessel ever sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo (today called a mine).  Across the road from the museum is the Vicksburg National Cemetery.  Of the almost 17,000 Union soldiers buried in the cemetery, about 13,000 are unknown.  Established in 1866, the cemetery is also the final resting place for veterans of the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean War.  It was closed to burials in 1961. 

USS Cairo

Vicksburg National Cemetery

The drive then continues along Confederate Avenue where the confederate states memorials and monuments are located.  It would probably take days to fully cover the entire park and read all the signs. 

Tennessee Memorial

Texas Memorial

Arkansas Memorial

An unusual highlight of our stay at Chicot County Park was to watch the demolition of the approach to the old bridge over the Mississippi River.  Mississippi and Arkansas built a new bridge to replace the old one that was a hazard to river transportation.  We happened to be driving back to the campground and saw several cars parked on the levee.  We decided to drive up and see what was going on.  We were told that they were setting explosives to blow up the bridge and that we could watch from another location.  We made it to the alternative location and waited for the show to begin.  When it did it was pretty fantastic!

New Bridge

Section of old bridge still standing

Bridge Approach before demolition

DEMOLITION!

After Demolition

Having grown up and lived all my life in the north (i.e. north of the Ohio River), I never saw cotton fields before this trip.  My initial reaction was how hard it must have been to harvest the cotton before the invention of the cotton gin.  Now a field can be harvested in a matter of a few hours.  We witnessed and photographed a field being harvested and the filed being prepared for plowing.  I am sure the farmers thought we werenuts but we found it quite interesting!!

All in all our stay in Chicot County was a lot of fun seeing friends and the sites of Chicot County, AR, Greenville, MS, and Vicksburg, MS.   On November 8, we continued our journey into Louisiana.

EASY LIVING!!