(click on images to see larger picture – opens in new window)
I’m trying to remember to take my camera with me whenever we get out of the truck when we’re on the road. Unfortunately, it still isn’t an ingrained habit.
These images are from the westbound rest area on Interstate 40 near Ozark, Arkansas. Though we’ve stopped here many, many times, it’s usually been on the side where the cars park. This time, though, towing the camper, we had to park with the trucks and other campers.
The people in the cars miss out on the most interesting parts of this rest area. The first thing that caught my eye was a sign pointing to tree in a fenced in area. The tree is a red mulberry, estimated to be over 110 years old, 48 feet tall, over 4 feet in diameter, 12 1/2 feet in circumference and a 48 foot spread of it’s branches. That’s a big mulberry tree!
The fence was not just for the tree. It enclosed a cemetery that had three small stones, all with the surname Nichols. All three had died months apart in 1889, at the ages of 19, 24, and 25.
We also discovered a rock wall running through the rest area not far from the little cemetery. To me, this indicates that the rest area sits on part of a nineteenth century homestead.
There’s a little bit of family history to this general area. Though I didn’t know it when we moved to Arkansas, one of my ancestors moved in the late 1830s, with most of her kids and grandkids, to Huntsville, Arkansas, about 50 miles north of the rest area. One of her kids, James Madison Goad, settled about 20 miles west of here at Dyer. His wife, Rebecca Fisher, died in 1859, leaving behind several children. James was killed in April 1865 by bushwhackers at the very end of the civil war. All but one of the kids were taken north to a Springfield, Illinois, orphanage when some of the Illinois troops in the area went back home after the war.
I’m also trying to post at least a photo a day on my photo blog.
Comments on “Travel Photos – I40 in Arkansas”
August 19, 2007
Opal Tribble @ 4:31 am
I enjoy looking at the photos. I cannot wait to see more. 
The fence was not just for the tree. It enclosed a cemetery that had three small stones, all with the surname Nichols. All three had died months apart in 1889, at the ages of 19, 24, and 25.
I find that fascinating. I wonder how they died?
A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011
