DYESS COLONY - BOYHOOD HOME OF JOHNNY CASH

New Deal Relocation Colony 1930s

Back during the Depression, many farmers lost their homes and had nothing. Dyess Colony was established in 1934 under the Works Progress Administration by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Resettlement Colony No. 1 consisted of 16,000 acres. Men were hired off the relief rolls to make something of the snake-infested area.

It was a second chance for 500 families stricken by the Great Depression.

Families were selected on the basis of need, farming knowledge, and physical fitness. These pioneers cleared land for farms with the government-subsidized help of 20-40 acres and a mule. These families were expected to pay back the federal government in two years.

Fertile Swamp Bottomlands Were Cleared

The area in northeast Arkansas that included Dyess were known as the "Sunk Lands" after the New Madrid earthquakes. A series of shocks between December 1811 and February 1812 dropped vast amounts of land as much as 50 feet into the earth.

Small Two Bedroom Home on Site 266

The government built farm houses, chicken coops and smoke houses and expected the colonists to do the back breaking work of clearing the remainder of each tract, convert it to agricultural production, and ultimately purchase their farmsteads on reasonable terms. They cut down trees and blasted stumps to farm cotton, corn and soybeans along with maintaining a pasture for livestock.

Mama's Pantry

A town center was also created with federal offices and support services for the colony, including a community center, schools, hospital cannery, cotton gin, co-op store, cafe and other services. Colonists took their produce to the Dyess cannery where the cannery kept a portion of the canned fruit in exchange for processing the rest for the family.

The boyhood home is furnished based on recollections from family members.

Mother's Original Piano in the Front Parlor

The Cash home in Dyess, AR was built in 1935 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was neat to stand in the hall and look into the bedroom where the American legend slept and hoped for better times.

Ray Cash and his wife, Carrie Rivers Cash, moved to Dyess, AR in 1936. They had seven children: Roy, Margaret Louise, Jack, J. R., Reba, Joanne, and Tommy.

J.R. started working in cotton fields at age five, singing along with his family while working.  The family farm was flooded twice, which led him to later write the song "Five Feet High and Rising." Johnny Cash was inspired by economic and personal struggles of his own family and other people facing similar hardships.  He had sympathy for the poor and working class.  

Original Linoleum "Carpet"

 J. R. Cash lived here from the age of three until he graduated high school as Class Vice-President in 1950.

At birth, Cash was named J. R. Cash.  When he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1950, he was not permitted to use initials as a first name, so he changed his name to John R. Cash. It wasn't until 1955 when signing with Sun Records that he started going by Johnny Cash.

After basic training and technical training in San Antonio, TX, he was assigned as a Morse code operator intercepting Soviet Army transmission in Landsberg, Germany. He was considered a "spy" and was really good at it.

Johnny Cash was married twice, once to Vivian Liberto, with whom he had four daughters. And later to June Carter with whom he had a son, John Carter Cash.

Johnny and June continued to work, raise their son, create music and tour together for 35 years.

Administration Building in Dyess, AR

Arkansas State University is working to preserve the heritage of the Dyess Colony by restoring significant buildings that remain from its days as an agricultural resettlement community. The first phase of this plan involved restoring the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home and the Administration Building in the Colony Center and stabilizing what remained of the former theater. 

Phase Two included re-creating the former theater and adjacent pop shop for use as a Visitors Center and installing historic signage at locations of previous colony buildings, such as the school, hospital, cannery, cotton gin, and community building. 

BLUFF CITY -- WHEN COTTON WAS KING

Trading Took Place Here Until 1970s

Memphis, TN was founded on the cotton trade. The Cotton Museum displayed how time and mechanization have changed the way cotton is harvested.  The museum consists of the main lobby, a room with authentic artifacts, and a science/technology room. The exhibits, artifacts, oral histories and archival footage present how Memphis was founded as a shipping port for cotton and slaves in 1819.

Beautiful Art Deco Decor in Lobby

This building was built for the trading and exchange of cotton. Wealthy old men made and lost fortunes speculating on the price of cotton.  The Exchange was originally a private social club with a huge yearly fee to join.

Pricing Board Display Covers Entire Wall 

There is a life-size figure on a ladder "writing" changes on a chalkboard.  The room is similar to the old cotton exchange room.

Original Phone Booths in Exchange

500# Cotton Bale

Cotton was graded fair to middling. This is a Deep South term (originally used by the British and Scots) for okay, fair enough, alright that refers to gradations of quality in cotton and other commodities.

Boll Weevils Are Size of Ladybugs

The boll weevil is a destructive beetle that infests cotton plants. The adult has a long snout that it uses to puncture the buds and bolls (seed pods) and lays eggs in them. The insect crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, TX to enter the U.S. from Mexico in 1892 and devastated cotton crops in the U. S. until the 1920s. Boll weevils have been eradicated in most states by use of pesticides.

Symbol for U. S. Grown Cotton

"Gin" is the abbreviated version of the word engine. Photos described the cotton plant: who knew it had a white flower, then a pink flower, and finally the boll (containing the cotton) formed.

Memphis Skyline

Where Blues Musicians Gather

No Vehicles Allo

SNOWBIRDS AGAIN

We began our trek to Alabama earlier than other years to stay ahead of the snow predicted at home.  We have become "snowbirds", that is ... allergic to S-N-O-W!

Our first overnight was at Whittington Woods in southern Illinois.  It is a nice overnight stop as some sites are long enough you don't have to unhook your tow vehicle. Due to cold weather and storms in AR-TN-LA we decided to delay our trip for a few days.

We have stayed at this campground before but have never ventured into Benton, IL.  It is approximately five miles from the campground with a population of 7,100 residents.  The city is the county seat and has a downtown square on a round-about with antique shops, restaurants, and retail stores.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER DAYS

We lingered in West Memphis, AR to check out the Tom Sawyer RV Resort along the Mississippi River where you can watch tug boats and barges. The river is extremely fast moving and gets very brown after every rainfall.

To our dismay, the Mississippi River Museum on Mud Island was closed for the season.  We stopped for lunch at the Bass Pro Shops restaurant at the "Pyramid", formerly a sports arena and concert venue.  You can stay busy in the arcade, shooting gallery, or bowling alley if you don't like shopping.  

Bass Pro Shops has repurposed the sports arena into a 5 star hotel and retail space complete with a faux cypress swamp forest, Spanish moss and ponds.  There are several wooden bridges crossing the water in the swamp-like wilderness where you can view ducks, huge catfish and gar, aquariums and even alligators.

A glass elevator ride costs $10 but offers the best view of Memphis, TN and AR across the river. This is the largest Bass Pro Shop.

CAMPGROUNDS, SOME NEW, SOME FAMILIAR

Whittington, Woods in Benton, IL

Good Sam Park
Mavis liked the chickens, ducks, cat and turkey on the loose
We stopped here in spring and fall for about five years
Finally checked out the city of Benton, approximately 4 miles away
Coal mining area until the 1970s
Now oil fields and Rend Lake recreation area
Trains can be heard after midnight

Tom Sawyer RV Campground in West Memphis, AR

Good Sam Park
Right on the Mississippi River across from Memphis, TN
Some concrete and some gravel sites
Sketchy Internet
You can hear train horns and the motors of tugboats


River View RV Resort in Vidalia, LA

Good Sam Park on the Mississippi River 10/10/10
By far the nicest campground so far on our way south this year
Overlooking the legendary Mississippi River and bluffs of historic Natchez, MS
Features a 1.5 mile river walk
150 full hook up sites
Internet, infinity pool, hot tub, gift shop, city water. clubhouse
You can hear trains and tugboats pushing barges up and down the river

Cajun Palms RV Resort, Henderson, LA

Hurricanes Destroyed Most of the Palm Trees in RV Resort

Good Sam Park 10/10/10
We have visited this area for three years
Home of boudin and cracklin'
Breaux Bridge is Crawfish Capital of the World
Avery Island is 45 minutes away
Lots of locals take advantage of buy 4 get 5th day free for Thanksgiving
Reconstruction of US 10 began Labor Day 2017 and is still in process in 2018

LEWIS & CLARK NATIONAL TRAIL

President Thomas Jefferson asked Congress to fund an expedition that would cross the Louisiana territory, regardless of who controlled it, and proceed on to the Pacific. This became known as the Lewis & Clark Expedition. 

The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail is a route across the United States commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to 1806. It is part of the National Trails System of the United States and extends for 3,700 miles from Illinois to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon.

The trail is not a hiking trail, but provides opportunities at many locations along the route for hiking, boating and horseback riding. The trail is the second longest of the 23 National Scenic and National Historic Trails.

In 1803 the U. S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. This is important because it gave the U. S. control of the Mississippi River and the port city of New Orleans which were both use by farmers to ship their products such as flour, tobacco, pork, bacon, lard, feathers, cider, butter and cheese. 

A gold star represents Bird's Point

The black granite map of the continental United States outlines the Louisiana Purchase. Acquiring the territory doubled the size of the U. S. (13 states worth) for a sum less than three cents per acre.

The murals 

The six columns supporting the murals are from the 1903 county courthouse that burned down in  1997.  The 11 1/2 feet columns each weigh one tone each and are constructed of limestone.

MAGNOLIA MOUND PLANTATION

We took a self-guided walking tour of the Magnolia Mound Plantation House, a French Creole home that was constructed in 1791.  It is situated high on a ridge overlooking the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

Magnolia Mound

I envisioned a white pillared house standing amid lush gardens and trees dripping with Spanish moss.What we found was a country farmhouse with a large porch that formerly sat on almost 1,000 acres. 

Big Openings for Air Conditioning

The plantation supported many people who needed to be fed, housed and clothed.  It was like a small self contained town that encompassed the planter's family and the workers.

Note hand operated fan on ceiling

Nice Wallpaper

Outdoor Kitchen

A kitchen garden provided fresh vegetables for the plantation.  They were enclosed by a cypress picket fence (called a "pieux"). 

Kitchen Garden with Pieux

Most plantations raised squab (young pigeons) that were considered a delicacy. 

Dried Herbs for Seasoning and Medicinal Purposes

Cash crops grown on the plantation included indigo, cotton and sugarcane.  The success of the plantation required large land holdings and a controlled and constant labor force. In 1820 the plantation had 53 slaves; by 1860 there were 79.

Man At Work

The complex is owned by the city of Baton Rouge and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.