Buffalo Point, AR May 12-19

I just love this sign.

We had a grill your own potluck over at Cory's site. She was located on the bluff overlooking the river. We also celebrated several birthdays.

Just north a ways down the road is Rush. It is a fun place to hike and look at the old buildings and machinery. Rush was settled in 1880 as a zinc mining town. It peaked 1914-1917 with over 5000 people living here. After WW1 the zinc market dropped and the mines started closing. Now all that is left is some buildings and an old smelter.

See the mosquito nets? The bugs were terrible. All the rain had the gnats and bugs out in force. They were so bold they would fly right into your mouth and eyes.

Along the hike are several of the old mine openings. And of course, boys will be boys. Even though the sign says to stay out, as Max puts it, "The sign doesn't say 'Max stay out'." The bars across the old mine shaft does keep people from venturing into dangerous areas though.

This was once the general store. It was actually used until the 1960s as a post office and store.

The smelter here was built for silver. Some of the founders thought they had silver, not zinc. It was used only once and after they discovered they did not have silver, it was abandoned and never used again.

There was even a large hotel. This is the foundation of one part of the hotel which burned in the 1940s. Part of the building was actually used as a ranger residence until a few years ago when it was finally destroyed by a flood.

On the way home from the hike we stopped here for lunch. Last year this was a dry county, but since then they elected to allow beer and wine sales. In addition to Buffalo burgers, then also sold Elk burgers, so of course I had to try one. I thought it was good. Some thought the elk to be a little dry because it was so lean.

On Friday and Saturday nights they have live entertainment. Several guys from Yellville played. It started out bluegrass, then turned to country. We stopped by both evenings to hear them play.

Mark hauled our kayaks to the river access.

Buffalo River is known for its wonderful bluffs all up and down the river.

There are even places where you can kayak into and hide, waiting to surprise those coming behind you.

Friday night we went to the Front Porch Restaurant in Yellville. They feature a seafood and frog leg buffet. Some of our group had never had frog legs before.

Saturday we headed to Harrison for a festival.

Of course, if you are at a crawdad festival, you have to have some.

These young musicians ranged in age from 13-15. They were selling CDs to raise money so they could go to some National Bluegrass Music competition in Orlando, FL. Last year in Nashville at a Christian music festival they won 9th. We thought they were pretty good and even bought one of the their CDs.

 

One of the events was the 'burnout'. We wandered over to see what was going on. They would pull a vehicle up, block the front tires, then proceed to burn rubber until a whistle was blown. We don't know why, whether anyone won this event, or how it was judged, but it was loud, smokey and smelled terrible. This truck blew a tire and pieces of rubber went everywhere. It sounded like a gun went off and when it did, I ducked. Good thing too since a piece flew right over my head.

The blown out tire.

One of the pieces picked up near me afterwards.

The big event, at least according to the radio and papers.

Sadly, there were only 2 entries. The entire boat had to be made of cardboard and they had lots of rules about what you could or could not do. The boys in the blue boat had a lot of trouble.

Kayaking again on the Buffalo. Pictures just don't do the bluff justice.

Here I am looking behind me at some turtles on a log. There were turtles perched on the banks and every log we passed.

Our last day had us traveling down to Buffalo City. That is the confluence of the Buffalo River and the White River. At one time it was quite a logging town since logs were floated down the Buffalo so they could be transported further down the White River. Now there is nothing there except this resort and a river access.

Here is where the two rivers actually come together.

On the way back we stopped at this park along the White River.

We have a fellow RVer whose last name is Cotter, so we had to take pictures of these signs for him.

This is the bridge spanning the White River.