This old farmhouse at Pickens, Arkansas is the archetypical Delta farmhouse of the early and mid twentieth century. Most did not have indoor plumbing or electricity.
Click on the old house for more pictures
This trip began with the specific purpose of revisiting a site I visited the last of June this year. The subject was this old farmhouse east of Pickens, Arkansas on Desha (pronounced Dee-shay) County Road 20. Lighting conditions on the first visit were less than stellar, but pixel implantation saved the day.
I resolved to return in more favorable light and today (September 6, 2014) was the day. Milky overcast skies evident on the trip to the site miraculously cleared about the time I started to shoot. You can see more view of the old house and the rural Delta environment where it lives on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com.
If you lived here back in the day, this is more or less how it looked in your front yard and beyond. You did not have to walk to work, You lived in your job. One exception. The white plastic irrigation tubes would not have been there.
The two front door configuration might lead one to believe that the house was originally a dog-trot. Taking a look at the inside leads one to believe that what you see is how it started. Take a look at the size of the planks that make the walls. They appear to be more than a foot wide.
This is the archetypical early and mid twentieth century Delta farmhouse. In their latter years, they were used more by farm hand families than the farm owners, but many started as a residence for the owner of the property.
With two front doors, it appears that it might have started life as a dog-trot house, but a glimpse inside one of the windows makes me believe this is the original configuration. I have not been able to find out much about the history of the old house other than the fact that is is constructed of cypress. That is probably a contributing factor that, despite the harsh winds and weather of the Delta, the old structure is still standing. Few woods resist the nasty temper of weather better than cypress.
Having satisfied the urge to record the old house, I sallied forth to see more of LA. But before I left, I had to yield to oncoming traffic. There was no argument that this big boy, a John Deere combine, had the right of way. Look at the size of those tires.
Once I was rolling west on Desha County Road 20 I encountered crops ready or close to ready for harvest. If you have never seen soybeans ready for harvest up close and personal, here they are. Next stop margarine (aka “oleo”), oil for your fries or a myriad of other uses for this wonder legume.
Though cotton is no longer the mainstay of Delta agriculture, you still find areas where farmers successfully raise the white stuff. This healthy growth is showing blooms which will turn to bolls which will eventually produce cotton. The blooms you see here are pink, there may be white cotton blooms on the same plant. If you look closely you can see bolls which have already formed.
When you stay on Desha County Road 20, eventually you cross the county line into Lincoln County and the road becomes Lincoln County 36 which eventually crosses Arkansas Highway 293. It was west of highway 293 that I saw my first open cotton bolls of 2014, a sure sign that fall is just around the corner. While I am no cotton expert, the first week of September is pretty dad-gum early for open cotton.
Well into Lincoln County, east of Tyro on County Road 36, I found the first open cotton for 2014. I freely admit that while other cotton may have opened sooner, this is the first for me. So there!
Corn is probably the “new cotton” here in LA. Where you formerly would see cotton fields that seemed to stretch forever, now you see corn. This field is ready for harvest. Giant combines will cruise through this field and others like it leaving scattered remnants of stalks and cobs — with their bellies full of corn kernels.
After my sojourn on county road 36, I came back to highway 293 to eventually take a swing through Winchester, Arkansas. I saw little of great interest except for this old barn which looked like a good candidate for exploration. On second thought, since there was a pond in front of it (think cottonmouth habitat), chest high surrounding weeds, and a foreboding fence, I decided this might the the best and only view.
On the outskirts of Winchester, I saw this cotton storage which appears to have a designer’s touch, perhaps Peter Max? ;o)
In Winchester, on the main drag through town, you can see this old store with the ubiquitous “No Trespassing” sign.
On the way home, I passed by “The Cross Tree” (the name I gave it). It stands as a living memorial by a family for a beloved relative who was murdered in a home that was on the site. Read the Cross Tree story for details.
There you have it. You’ve taken a swing through the Lower Arkansas Delta less mosquito bites, the price of gas, and bumpy gravel roads. That’s the sort of thing I do for my friends. Thanks for being one of those.
Joe Dempsey,
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind
http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photoindex.html
Filed under: Behind the Scenes, but wait, there's more |
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind 
Really enjoyed riding along and all the picture. The store looks so so familiar. Very typical here, too. The old old wooden frame house we had also had 2 front doors onto the porch ( basically 4 rooms – each with 2 doors opening to other rooms – no bath) This “living room” had a fireplace with brick running up the outside (we only caught the mantel on fire once) This was never a dogtrot house – the doors allowed access to the front porch where everyone sat to cool off. Kids generally were in the back room that opened to the kitchen. Pretty much a basic design in East TX (where they used to grow a lot of cotton, corn, peas, and sugar cane)