Rush, Arkansas - a Ghost Town

Today’s hot weather drive was to the ghost town of Rush, Arkansas. Old log cabins, remnants of rock wall foundations and once-upon-a-time homesteads can be found within a mile of the Buffalo River.

This remote area was thriving the 1800s, with a population of over 5,000 coming to find prosperity mining what was originally thought to be silver and ended up being zinc ore. The smelter still remains. 

The Rush boom town was well established by the 1890s and a community of homes and businesses developed along the most famous mine in the area, Morning Star Mine. Its heyday was in World War I. By World War II, several of the processing mills were dismantled for salvage. The town hung on through the 1950s when the post office closed. Sometime in the 1960s, the remaining inhabitants left, leaving Rush to its ghosts and the pages of history.

Bull Shoals, White River and surrounding areas - North Central Arkansas

I grew up in this part of Arkansas but haven’t spent any significant time here since graduating from Mountain Home High School in 1976…  other than a few summers before college graduation. Nothing is the same accept the beauty of the area.   

We are staying at the Bull Shoals White River state park. Our campsite backs up to the White River. We walked down to the river which was about 25 feet away and it was 20 degrees cooler. Wish that would carry up to the travel trailer. This July week it is almost 100 degrees. 

Since it is so hot - we decided to explore the area. We went by the high school, found where I used to live - saw a unique sign (below)  - and then drove to the small community of Norfork. 

We stopped at the Jacob Wolf House. The oldest public structure in Arkansas.  In 1826, when Wolf was elected as a representative to the general assembly of Arkansas Territories, he successfully presented legislation to move the county courthouse to Liberty (now called Norfork) and even donated land for the construction of the courthouse. The courthouse building, constructed in 1829, became known as the Jacob Wolf House. It is a massive pine log building and free to tour. 

It was beer thirty and stopped for really yummy beer at the Norfork Brewing Company. Recommend this stop if you are in the area. 

We continued on the Calico Rock - population 1.545. I entered a cotton fabric garment contest here sponsored by a fabric store in 1974. I won first place and $10!  Not much to see. But we shopped at an antique store and bought a fun wine carafe. 

 Put Mark in an old bootleggers jail… 

Crossing a very old bridge gave me a small thought of … nope… we found the old jail. The small cement hut, served as the city jail from the 1920s to the 1950s. On any given Saturday night, up to 20 people were jailed inside the small, dank space. This is the only building you can walk inside in the old ghost town portion of Calico Rock. Do it. It’s an eerie thing.