fautrever.com

Our next location in Arkansas was chosen because of my desire to visit with an old friend. Jenny and I met almost nine years ago while working at Glacier National Park one summer. Of all the National Parks I have worked at or visited, Glacier is my favorite (close second is Olympic). It is not just because I made some amazing friends there, though that is true, it is because it is so incredibly scenic, wild, and accessible. Plus, there’s just the right amount of black bears, grizzly bears, and mountain lions to remind you that you are not at the top of the food chain.

It had been a few years since Jenny and I had last been in contact so I was looking forward to the chance to catch up and yes, reminisce about that amazing summer. Jenny and her husband Kevin live in Fort Smith with their almost two-year-old daughter Ella and their devoted dog, Necie. Fort Smith, in the upper northwest section of the state close to the Oklahoma border, has quite a history.

Fort Smith was first founded in 1817 at the confluence of the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers (in Arkansas, the French word poteau is pronounced “poe-dough” much to Lance’s chagrin). The fort was closed soon after but the small civilian settlement nearby remained. Arkansas was on the border of Indian Territory and Fort Smith soon became a major stop along the Trail of Tears. Out on the edge of civilization it was a rowdy and lawless area until 1875 when Judge Isaac Parker arrived.

Judge Parker was serious about upholding the law and restoring order; within his first term he sentenced eight men to death for murder and hung six of them at once on the same gallows. Judge Parker held court six days a week often for ten hours at a time in an effort to keep up with the case load. Parker soon earned the nickname the “Hanging Judge” and by the time he died in 1896 Judge Parker’s courthouse was known as the place where the U.S. government put more men to death than anywhere else in America. Judge Parker’s courthouse and remnants of the original Fort Smith as well as a memorial to the Trail of Tears are all contained in the Fort Smith National Historic Site downtown.

The northwest corner of Arkansas is the most populous part of the state. All because of one man who opened a small variety store in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1945. Sam Walton’s Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is still based in Bentonville and the area’s population growth can be linked directly to the company. Love the company or hate it, and there are plenty of reasons for both, the story is phenomenal but I won’t recount it for you here. I’d rather talk about the awesome force of nature.

Tornadoes to be exact. We both were aware that this part of the country is considered Tornado Alley. What we weren’t aware of is that Spring is the start of the tornado season. From my childhood visits to Ohio I’ve always associated tornadoes with warm summer weather. Once Jenny and Kevin told us about the storm watch that was on for the area it made Kevin’s obsession with the Weather Channel more understandable. Thankfully, the storm passed by to the north of us, we only received a few sprinkles. Obviously, our RV would be the worst place to be during one of nature’s most violent and unpredictable storms. Later that night we discussed our evacuation plan, just in case.

Jenny learned how to cook from her mother and her mother learned from her mother, so the food was delicious and some of it was new to us. Chocolate gravy for breakfast anyone? Sounds strange but when you actually try it, over warm biscuits in the morning you’ll wish you’d heard of it sooner. Jenny told us that when she was young her mother would make it on Saturday mornings to tempt the kids out of bed. It would’ve worked for me!

Jenny, Ella, Lance, and I drove down to her parent’s house in Oklahoma. They live near Heavener in the beautiful Poteau River Valley. This isn’t the Oklahoma that comes to mind; this part of the state is mountainous, with fertile river valleys separating the pine and oak forested slopes. Our first stop was the famous and highly debated Heavener Runestone. The large stone slab (12’ tall, 10’ long, 16” thick) was shown to white settlers by area Choctaws in the mid-1800s. The carved stone became known as the “Indian Rock” but little was known about the rock or its inscription. A dedicated local citizen researched the stone and in the 1950s the markings were pronounced to be Viking runes. Hence the name.

That the Vikings reached the shores of North America is not disputed, a matter of lively debate is whether any of them ventured into the interior of America. I’ll leave that to the experts but it might help you to know that the Heavener stone is not the only one. At least four others have been found in Oklahoma as well as one in Minnesota (the Kensington Runestone). As for me, I don’t think we’ll ever have the whole story on who came here and when. So, in the meantime, I allow for the possibility until I have evidence to prove otherwise. Vikings in Oklahoma, fun to ponder.

We whiled away a lovely afternoon on her parent’s farm. We were given an ATV (four-wheeler) tour of their property and neighboring hilltops. The countryside reminded us of the mountains back in southern Arizona—similar vegetation, just at a much lower elevation. Dinner was home cooking at its finest, of course we ate way too much! It was all washed down with the South’s favorite beverage: sweet tea.

If I ever get my hands on Jenny’s mom’s pickle recipe I will be so happy. They were amazing, not too vinegary with just a hint of sweet. Jenny swears it is the grape leaf that her mother puts in every jar that makes them so special.

I can’t finish this without talking a bit more about the state of Arkansas. It was admitted as a slave state in 1836 and became the 25th state in the Union. Even though a slave state, Arkansas didn’t secede from the Union until May of 1861. The state was readmitted in 1868. Arkansas is part of the Bible Belt, which is almost hard to believe considering some of the state’s early history. Arkansas is the only state that has the pronunciation of its name defined by law:

Whereas, confusion of practice has arisen in the pronunciation of the name of our state and it is deemed important that the true pronunciation should be determined for use in oral official proceedings…It should be pronounced in three (3) syllables, with the final “s” silent, the “a” in each syllable with the Italian sound, and the accent on the first and last syllables. The pronunciation with the accent on the second syllable with the sound of “a” in “man” and the sounding of the terminal “s” is an innovation to be discouraged.

My only question is what is the penalty for mispronouncing it? I just don’t want to be joking around and make a costly mistake!

Our brief time in Arkansas came to an end when we drove over the Mississippi River and entered Memphis, Tennessee.

Photos: View our photographs from Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Notes: We stayed in Fort Smith, Arkansas from 03/30/2007 to 03/31/2007.