Arkansas Civil War 150- Gaze and Graze 19

We ate supper on Monday night at Godsey's in Jonesboro.  It was good.  The best thing was walking in and seeing my friend, Roanna, eating supper with a group from her work.  We were both surprised and that was fun!

We walked around the Court House area on Tuesday morning and read about the Battle of Jonesboro. 

 They have a really neat display out front in the bricks with the names of local folks who fought in every war. Very moving.

 From Jonesboro we went to Jacksonport.  I think this was tied with a place in Camden as my favorite spots on our trip.  It is a state park that is beautiful and peaceful.  Kimberly, in the visitor's center, was the best guide we had on our trip.  She told us all about the park and the history of Jacksonport.  The major export from this area was bear grease- really, bear grease.  It has two uses, cooking and oil for your lamps.  The river traffic made Jacksonport a bustling town.  When the train wanted to come to the town the towns folk refused to fund it thinking it would come anyway.  The train went to Newport and the town of Jacksonport dwindle to about 1/4 the size it had been.

Jacksonport was a surrender site after the war.  I've never been to a surrender site before.  Jeff Thompson, who you met in my last post, the Swamp Fox of the Confederacy, came here to surrender with his troops numbering over 6,000 .  The men were given food when they surrendered.

 The White River looked so peaceful.

 The Museum is located in the old courthouse.  It was built completed in 1872 at a cost of 80,000.00.  It boasted a walnut paneled, triple seated privy which was talked about state wide!!!  In 1892 the county seat was moved to Newport.

In the 1890's pearls were discovered in the rivers.  A button factory was opened in Newport and locals provided the mussel shells.  The few pearls found today bring completive prices on the global market.  Who knew!?!

Here are our two pictures from Jacksonport.  Andrew liked the monument and the Court House.

 Lunch was at the Bulldog.  I called my friend, ElizabethT, and asked her where to eat and this was her suggestion.  It was fun, good and quick.  Very good milk shakes!!  After lunch we were on the flat Delta again.  Lots of sky and lots of cotton.

After lunch we drove to Jacksonville.  The Museum of Military History is awesome.  The displays are all donated so the stuff they have is amazing.  I highly recommend this museum.  We have been to lots of museums over the years and we saw things here that we have never seen before.

 Here is a copy of the speech that Eisenhower gave the troops before D-Day.

 They had these weapons that you could pick up.  We saw a photo opportunity!!  Andrew has an AK-47 and I have some thing else.  My gun knowledge could fill a thimble.

 I had no idea there were Titan missiles here in Arkansas!  That display was fascinating.

 I'll leave you today with our serious face gun picture.  We were the only ones in the museum, in case you couldn't tell.

We spent the night at home this night and I slept well.  I was tired.  We had done all the stamping sites that were northwest and northeast.  Tomorrow we head south.