Wrapping up our 2024 Travels
We toured our 1st 2 days in Little Rock and took 2 days to pack for home and get Lizzy to storage…we found a place inside, with electricity! Last night, after saying goodbye to Lizzy and The Beast, we walked over the Big Dam Bridge, which spans the Arkansas River and Murray Lock and Dam between Little Rock and North Little Rock. At 4,226 feet long, it is the longest pedestrian/bicycle bridge in North America that has never been used by trains or motor vehicles. This morning we had time to visited the Capitol, before getting to Little Rock Airport, where we are now awaiting our flight to…Denver…NO Non-Stop Flights from Little Rock to Seattle. Sigh.
Big Dam Monoliths, cut from the dam during bridge construction, used as design elements rather than being discarded 
Looking up the Arkansas River, to the west, from the Big Dam Bridge. 
Looking down the Arkansas River, to the east, from the Big Dam Bridge. 
Locks on the Arkansas River, seen from the Big Dam Bridge.
Visits to 2 new National Park Sites:
- Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site (#270), which, in 1957, was the epicenter of confrontation and a catalyst for change as the fundamental test for the United States to enforce African American civil rights following Brown v. Board of Education. Today, Little Rock Central High School is a functioning 9th – 12th grade facility. We explored the museum, saw the movie and took a 90 minute Ranger Talk & Walk. That was the first we’d understood, that entry to the school by the Little Rock Nine was “easy” compared to the harassment they faced—verbal and violent, private and public, latent and life-altering—throughout the school year. Horrifying.
- Arkansas Post National Memorial (#271), located at the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. In 1686, Henri de Tonti established a trading post known as “Poste de Arkansea” at the Quapaw village of Osotouy, the first semi-permanent French settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley. Spanish soldiers and British partisans clashed here in the 1783 Colbert Raid, the only Revolutionary War action in Arkansas. We watched the movie, explored the museum, talked to the NPS Superintendent for 90 minutes, and walked the grounds.
Little Rock Central High School 
Magnolia Mobil Gas Station, across the street from Central High School’s campus, with a pay telephone on site, served as the media headquarters in the 1957 desegregation crisis. 
Arkansas Post NMem-display regarding the only Revolutionary War battle in the territory 
Arkansas Post NMem-Three Villages Robe of the Quapaw 
Arkansas Post NMem-Three Villages Robe Info
Toured 1 new State Capitol:
Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock (#38), where we got a very interesting tour from the wife of an Arkansas Representative. Of note, all elected officials (including Supreme Court Judges) have term limits. It is also the only state, where the public an go into the Vault in the Treasurers office. We both got to hold $600,000 in $100s. Heavy. Outside, we saw the monument to Confederate Women, and…the Memorial to the Little Rock Nine.
Heading Home for the Holidays!
Home for ~7 weeks. Then we’ll be visiting the Grandkids in NJ in early January, before heading back here. Little Rock, Part 2 will post in late January. Until then…Happy Holidays!
For more pictures, see (in-work) Adventure Album: All Around Arkansas
2 Comments
Gretta · November 12, 2024 at 1:49 pm
About tome you went home. Probably take some getting used to.
Thought of you when I sa an ad for a puzzle of all the National parks.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Gail · November 13, 2024 at 10:21 am
Yeah, it will take time to get used to being home…and in a different time zone!
I have at least 2 National Park Puzzles, and have finished both of them.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.