Conway AR to Oklahoma City OK

Day 49 (March 29)

We had a longer drive ahead of us today so we set our alarms, got up, had breakfast and hit the road toward Oklahoma City. Most of our travel was on I-40 but the traffic wasn't bad until we got closer to Oklahoma City.

Fort Smith and Fort Smith National Cemetery were about halfway through our trip today so we had planned to make a stop there and see some more of our country's history. As we were exploring Fort Smith we found out it was also on The Trail of Tears. Since Garey is part Cherokee on his mom's side, we've been doing a bit more research into that part of his heritage. Garey and the man who volunteers at Fort Smith had a discussion about the Cherokee Nation and the man showed Garey a book that lists the names of people on the Cherokee Nation roles; there were several names that could be connected to Garey's family so we will be doing some more genealogy work when we get home. The Fort Smith National Cemetery is one of only two national cemeteries that have Union and Confederate veterans buried in the same cemetery. Discovering our nation's history as well as our own is one of our favorite things and road trips help in that.

Rosie finally came out again today and had a great time at Fort Smith ... she was also a hit with Ranger Toad!

Right after leaving Fort Smith, Arkansas we crossed into our 16th state ... Oklahoma. From here on some of our states will be duplicated ... hmmm, can we count them again???

Today's Pictures

Trail of Tears View Point at Arkansas River

Border Marker

Trail of Tears View Point at Arkansas River

Courthouse and Jail

Rebuilt Gallows at Fort Smith

Photo of The Gallows

Outlaw or Lawman???

Commissary at Fort Smith

Inside the Commissary at Fort Smith

Inside the Commissary at Fort Smith

Inside the Commissary at Fort Smith

Rosie's Great Adventure at Fort Smith

Watching the information film

Inside the Courtroom

Rosie made a hit with the Ranger

Hanging out with Ranger Toad

Playing Hide and Seek

Wish all National Cemeteries had the white headstones

Union Soldier

Three brothers ... all Confederate soldiers

Statue at entrance to the cemetery

WARNINGS ....

Sixteenth State on the 2016 Building Memories Trip

Dyess, Arkansas

Dyess Colony Arkansas Background

One of the families that were included in the Agricultural Relief and Rehabilitation program in Dyess Colony, Arkansas (circa 1936) was Garey's grandparents. Dyess is where Garey's mom went to school (with Johnny Cash) and is also where Garey was born.

The movie Walk the Line about the life of Johnny Cash was filmed in Dyess. There are a lot of areas around the town that would be very familiar from that movie.

When we went through Dyess about nine years ago, it was pretty run down. Since then they have received some grants and have started to revitalize the area. Part of that includes a new museum that tells the history of the Colony but what was even better was to see actual records with Garey's grandparent's name and the location where their land grant was. It's hard to describe how it feels to have gotten so much information that fills in a lot of family history, especially since all the family members who could have filled in the blanks are now gone.

Today's Pictures

Road into Dyess

Family Farm Information

Family Farm Plat Map

 

View of area of original location of family farm

Additional view of family farm location

Building used in Walk the Line where J.R.'s brother Jack had accident

Administration Building (Newly refurbished)

Photo of 18-Bed Hospital where Garey was born

Refurbished building with cafe and pop shop - Garey's mom probably spent some of her teen years here with friends

The Old Theater is in the process of being refurbished; we can imagine Garey's mom going to movies here

Class of  1943-44 Arch that led to old High School (no longer there)

Painting of High School where Garey's mom went to school

Garey hanging out in Dyess

Taken inside Johnny Cash home ... this would be very similar to Garey's family's home; patterned vinyl flooring is original to the colony homes

Building Memories at Johnny Cash Boyhood Home

Johnny Cash Boyhood Home ... similar to what Garey's family's home would have looked like

Loved the quilt rack and quilt pulled up to the ceiling!