Miriam McFate Travel Journal - 1926

Mon, Nov 8, 1926

Rained hard here last night. Ready to travel 7:00. Drove on to Little Rock. This is quite a city. Population 74,216. The capitol building is surely a fine building. Are route turns here right in front of it so we had a fine view of it. They have the best river bridge here we have crossed. Have one for street cars, one for railways, and one for motorist. We could see them all. This Arkansas river is a big old river. This city is built in the hills. Some very steep little grades to climb. Lots of nice large dwelling houses in this city. After we left Little Rocks city limits we passed a number of dairies, summer resorts and dance pavilions. Lots of timber on both sides of us. Have lots of nice homes along here in the timber. All have names. These are a few I notices as we drove along. The pines © Lonesome Alley © Lonesome Pine © Fairview © Dew Drops © Blossoms © Mt. George © Pine Sighs © Sunset © Douglas Park © Red gates © Log cabin and Hillandale. This is quite a fad. This road winds just like all the rest. Lots of flowers in bloom here. Have seen yards full of roses. The leaves are just beginning to change color. Most all wells here are the Old Oaken bucket type. We don’t see many pumps. Lots of poultry farms thro here. Mostly all white Leghorns. Have seen more white people this forenoon than we have seen for a week.

After leaving Benton Ark. we came into the hills and curves. Lots of sharp curves now. Don’t see anything only bluffs and timber. This remains us of parts of Missouri. The road winds round and round. Mostly all down grades. We can’t see very far ahead. This is fine scenery thro here. The bluffs are full of slate rock. The timber here is most all pine and oak. Many of the oil stations are made of logs. When built right these make nice houses. We are ten miles from Hot Springs and we can see the Mountains way off in the distance. These are higher than any we passed in Mo. This sure is a lovely drive clear thro to Hot Springs.

Hot Springs is a fine city. Its population is 11,695. Our road took us right thro the heart of it. It has four magnificent hotels. These is 2 blocks used for nothing only bath houses. These are nothing more or less than fine Hotels. They are all beautiful buildings. Fountains of drinking water all along this one street. Water coming from these, steam like water from a teakettle, They have 46 of these hot springs located around here. The temperature of this water is 147 degrees to 156 degrees F. Lots of crippled people here. Eat our dinner in camp this side of the city. Started on 1:37. We have 37 miles graveled roads from here to our next town. Crossed the Ouchita river 4 miles from the city. They have a fine tourist camp here.

Drove on till the hills got so steep we thot it best to tighten up our brakes. So we stopped. Picked up some hickory nuts while the boys were doing this. Then on we went. This time we went into real bluffs, and I don’t mean maybe. These are young mts. hundreds of feet high. Trees grow right out of the rocks, all the way up to the top. Some of the fir trees are 40 or 50 feet in height. I think this must be where our telephone poles come from. Thro here is where we get our first real mountain roads. Roads are very narrow in some places. On and on we go. As a rule the roads are pretty good. Not many people live thro here. Once in a while you will see where people live back in the valley between the mountains. We stopped near one farm house to see about our gas and oil. Found out the name of the mountains we had just come thro. These are called the Trap Mts.

We have drove 15 miles without passing a gas station. This is the greatest distance since leaving home. We stopped for gasoline at this station. 25 cents a gallon here. We have to pay 4 cent road tax in this state. Started on from here. Got nicely squared around in the road when bing©go we hit an Ark mudhole, or I’ll guess will have to call it a clayhole as there isn’t enough good dirt here to make mud. Nevertheless we slid all most cross way in the road, and it gave us all a scare. We drove on into the foot hills of the mountains, up and down and round and round. The road is wider and more people live thro here. Some real nice houses built thro this section. Have an up grade pull for 3/4 of a mile. It makes old Lizzie boil. This finally put us upon another level stretch, around thro more timber. We thot Missouri had lots of stones but Arkansas has her beat by a 100 miles for rocks and stones. We are 6 miles from Arkdelphia Ark. Have come again into a farming country. Some cotton and a little corn. They cut all the tops off the corn here. Just leave the lower part of the stalks and the ears. Seen our first patch of tobacco growing here. Cotton nor corn are a very flourishing crop. The fields are so full of little stones, I don’t see how they plant their seed.

Crossed the Ouchita river again. Had to stop on the bridge for a team to pass us. They were afraid of our rig. Dropped into the hills again here. Hills all the way into Arkadelphia. Drizzling rain so pulled into camp at the Ford station at 4:20. Raining again to night. Got our supper. Went to bed.