DigitalRoadtrip: April Roadtrip, Day 13...Toltecs, or Not

Day 13

April 13, 2013

When I came across a place just east of Little Rock called Toltec Mounds, I knew I had to go. Construction began on the first mount around 750AD. For unknown reasons, the people who built them abandoned the area around 1050AD. When the European settlers moved here, they were convinced mound building was beyond the skills of the local tribes. Someone else MUST have built them. Perhaps the Toltecs. So, they named their community Toltec.

Last year, the state officially renamed the site the Plum Bayou Mounds State Archeological Site and started referring to the builders as Plum Bayou.

The mounds were built around a large rectangular plaza and set to mark the position of the sun during solstices and equinoxes. And if that wasn't impressive enough, everything built here, from the mounds to the main plaza, to the berm along the edge of the lake were all measured precisely.

Imagine this, you're plotting out a new community. Your standard unit of measurement is 100 feet. EVERYTHING is based on that. So, some things may be 100 feet apart, others 500 feet or 2,000. But, they're always an exact factor of 100, not 50 or 99. Just precisely 100.

That's what the Plum Bayou people did, only their standard unit translates out to just under 156 feet, precisely. No one really knows why.

Archeologists studying the site don't believe many people lived here full time. It was more likely a central meeting place.

It was still fairly early, so I decided to take the scenic route.

First stop, a quick pass through England...

And eventually the town of Stuttgart, though they had no murals along the main road. Eventually, I'd come to St. Charles.

In June, 1862, Union forces had been moving towards Little Rock and needed resupply. The Confederates hastily built fortifications and scuttled three ships in the White River to prevent it.

While four Union ships bombarded the fortifications, ground troops were landed upriver. The position was overrun, but the resupply ships were unable to advance. The army advancing on Little Rock retreated to Helena.

St. Charles is also the closest town to the Dale Bumpers White River National Wildlife Refuge, named after the former governor of Arkansas. The refuge is big enough to support numerous hiking trails.

After checking in at the visitor center, I found out the White River had been running high from the storms and most trails in this section of the preserve were flooded.

I tried two trails. The first would have been a mile from the parking lot down to the river. The first half mile was elevated boardwalk.

Then the second half mile... Yeah, I turned around.

The other trail is another mile loop through the woods and swamp. It was a bit muddy in places, but passible.

The AAA map had something interesting, simply labeled Louisiana Purchase. It seemed in the middle of nowhere. Naturally, I went to check it out. With nothing but minimal cell service, I had no idea what it was all about.

There was one solitary sign along Hwy 49. This also never gets old...

At the end of the road you reach the very small Louisiana Purchase State Park. How small? There's parking for perhaps eight cars. There's also an elevated walkway leading out over the swamp.

At the far end of the the boardwalk you'll find a marker sitting in the muck. This was the starting point of the first land survey after the Louisiana Purchase.

Eventually, I pulled into Helena, Arkansas looking for food. The internet said good things about Dee's Barbecue, so I went in search of the place. It doesn't look like it's been open for a while.

A few other local places also seemed closed, or only open on weekends. So, I wound up at a place called the Burger Shack. The grilled checked sandwich was decent, and the sign doesn't lie. The do have twenty-four flavors of soft serve ice cream.

My home for the next three nights was a generic looking place called the Delta Inn. It was showing its age on the outside, but the room was perfectly fine. Why three nights in West Helena? Simple, I booked late. More on that tomorrow.

With all my stuff dropped off in the room, it was time to explore a little. Fort Curtis was closed for the day, but I drove by anyway. It's one of five forts erected by Union forces during their occupation of Helena.
Meanwhile, downriver the siege of Vicksburg was taking place. As long as the Union held Helena, supplies could get downriver. If the Confederates could take back Helena, they could stop the resupply. Their attack failed and Vicksburg would fall.

The downtown area by the river seemed eerily dead, even in the late afternoon. It seemed hard to picture the area crowded with people for the annual King Biscuit Blues Festival.