State #6 on the GeoAdventure

State #6 on the GeoAdventure

We spent a couple of hours in Fort Smith grabbing a few geocaches on Friday afternoon. Fort Smith is an old town with very narrow streets. We did what we 'had' to do and went back to the campground across the border in Oklahoma, some 20 miles away. We had visited Fort Smith in 2003, so saw the historic buildings and got the information about the community. This second visit reminded us of why we did not spend a lot of time there the first visit.

Saturday morning we hit the road, Hwy. 72, and headed south to Texarkana.

We stopped at a coal mining display. Who knew so much coal was mined in Arkansas?
Although the Arkansas River Valley coal fields are 33 miles wide and 60 miles long, the depth of the coal vein rarely exceeds 9 feet. Between 1880  and 1920, coal was the major mineral export of Arkansas used to fuel locomotives and steam powered machines, as well as heating homes and businesses. Today, most of the mined coal is made into charcoal briquettes.

Several saw mills along Highway 72.  I can understand why because we drove in forested areas most of the way.

 Not much color variation in the deciduous trees right now. We were in the Quachita National Forest. The forest produces pine on the slopes and hardwood in the valleys for the lumber industry.

There were a lot of pawn shops, buying and selling guns, LOTS of swap meets, and many rural Baptist churches along this road. I mean every little hamlet had a pawn shop, someone set up selling garage sale items, and at least one Baptist church.

We entered Texas when we got to Texarkana. I am not counting it now as we plan to geocache in TX in a couple of weeks.

 This was the main reason for stopping in Texarkana.

One can stand in two states at the same time; Texas & Arkansas.

The courthouse and post office are built on the state line.

"The State Line Post Office and Federal Building at 500 State Line Avenue is the only U.S. post office situated in two states. It is said to be the most photographed courthouse in the country after the Supreme Court Building in Washington D.C." 

"Each state had separate post offices until 1892, when first joint office was built on this site. It was razed in 1930 and in 1933 the present structure was completed."

"The base is Texas pink granite while walls are of limestone from Arkansas."

We drove to Magnolia AR and stayed the night. Sunday Louisiana is on the agenda. No time for touristy stuff; after all, this is a GeoAdventure!