Day 12
April 12, 1012
Just for kicks, I looked at the map for the neighborhood. There's a city park about a mile and a half from the motel. A few features caught my attention. Being such a nice day, I chose to walk. But first, like I said, the Markham House Inn was your basic motel.
Sunrise, such as it was on the way to breakfast.
From a residential garden along the way...
Some days, randomly choosing which route to take truly pays off. These flowers were in front of the Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church.
The neighborhood is called Pulaski Heights. Heights due to it being significantly higher in elevation than downtown. Brig. Gen. Casimir Pulaski was a revolutionary war general killed in the siege of Savannah.
To get to the park, I had to cross Kavanaugh Blvd, once the main thoroughfare through this section of Little Rock. Yes, this does come back in the narrative.
Eventually, I made it to an entrance to Allsopp Park and a trailhead. The park is named after Frederick Allsopp who fought for its creation.
Like most wooded city parks, this was well cared for, maintained and marked.
This path leads to an area called the Rock Garden for obvious reasons.
I kept winding my way through the park. There was something curious on google maps. but not on the official park map. It was something called "Stone Pillars." It took some looking, but eventually I found the first one.
And then the second one...
The park is in the Hillcrest section of Pulaski Heights. In 1903, developers bought the land. Little Rock was expanding outward. With the promise of a streetcar line down Kavanaugh Blvd, they felt it would be a sure thing.
The last piece of the puzzle was a pedestrian suspension bridge from the new neighborhood to Kavanaugh Blvd and the streetcar. Once cars had made the walkway and streetcars obsolete, it came down. These two pillars are all that remains.
Once out of the park, I took a walk down the boulevard. I passed a place called Control that sells used vinyl. Curious, I checked the door, but it was locked and the lights out.
Apologies to those with OCD. They got so close...
Next stop was Mylo Coffee.
It's true, it really is the little things...
From the walk back to the room...
This had certainly been a great start to the day. After a stop at the room to recharge the phone, it was time to venture out and explore more of Little Rock.
After a pint and a pretty good turkey reuben at Lost Forty Brewing, I made my way downtown, ditched the car by Riverfront Park and started walking.
The Junction Bridge began its life in 1884 as a railroad bridge. Rebuilt in 1970, it's now a pedestrian bridge between Little Rock and North Little Rock.
On the north side of the bridge sits the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum. Part of the museum gives you access to the WWII era submarine, USS Razorback. This time of year it's only open on the weekends.
Adjacent to the southern end of the bridge is the city's namesake, the Little Rock. French explorer Jean-Baptiste Bernard used the small rock outcrop as a navigational landmark, calling it "le Petite Roche." When the area was formally settled, they named the town Arkopolis. But, the name didn't stick.
Next to the parking lot sits the Riverfest Amphitheater, or it's formal name, the First Security Amphitheater. Covering seven acres of land, it had the capacity for 8,375 people.
Riverfest used to run for three days of Memorial Day weekend. Citing soaring costs, it was temporarily shut down after the 2017 festival. Organizers blamed a combination of rain, competing festivals, higher ticket prices and rising appearance fees by the artists. That year they lost $300K. The forty year tradition had apparently ended.
The next year, a different non-profit stepped up, took a deep look at previous years events and Riverfest was back on. At least for a year. Organizers shut it down again to "restructure, reorganize and re-invent."
The last entry on the official Riverfest website is a list of artists and supporters from 2018.
There was one more place I knew I had to check out. The riverwalk does go all the way. But, a six and a half mile walk out would mean six and a half miles back, too.
To get there, I drove through Murray Park. More on that on the drive back when I didn't have cars behind me.
At the end of the road sits the Murray Dam and Lock.
It's one of seventeen locks and dams along the Arkansas River. Construction on the dam and lock began in 1927 and it's named after William Murray, one of the principal engineers and designers.
North Little Rock Electric runs the Murray Hydroelectric Plant built into the dam. This supplies about 15% of North Little Rock's electricity.
In 2006, the Big Dam Bridge opened for pedestrian traffic across the dam. It wasn't the original idea for a name. But, a local judge kept referring to it as "that damn bridge" during the early legal and fundraising stages.
And the lake formed by the dam? You guessed it, Murray Lake.
The tornado that touched down in the northern section of Little Rock also touch down in the area around Murry Park.
All the parking areas within the park were closed off. There were no trees standing on either side of the road. A few metal poles were visibly bent. There was still a great deal of tree debris on the ground.
Knowing I was heading out of town in the morning, I just drove back to the motel. These are from the third floor balcony.
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