Out of Arkansas - Romance

Looking for Romance? Here are the easiest ways to find it: Leave Searcy, Ark. by driving west on Pleasure Street, then through Joy and Harmony to Rose Bud. Or you could take a rural route from Conway along the rocky road to Romance.

Despite the puns, the view from any road to Romance is very scenic.

Still not satisfied? Try Dwight. Historically, this area near Russellville has been important because of the easy ford at the Arkansas River and the east-west trail along the north side, which was part of the Memphis-Fort Smith Road.

Major William Lovely, namesake of Lovely County, was a Cherokee federal agent for 15 years. He died in 1817 at his last post, which was near the confluence of the Illinois Bayou and Arkansas River, and near the center of a recent Cherokee settlement.

Subsequently Dwight's Mission (school) was founded here in 1820 by request of the Cherokee in 1818, as sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (ABCFM), a Presbyterian organization, and overseen here by Cephas Washburn, a New England missionary, who, on his way to Dwight Mission in 1820, supposedly delivered the first formal sermon heard in Little Rock.

Dwight was reportedly one of the first Protestant missions west of the Mississippi in an era when it was said: "If you hear something coming through the canebrake, you may know it is either a bear or a preacher, and both will be hungry."

Still not satisfied? Okay. The longest pontoon bridge in the world was built on the Arkansas River in 1889-1891 (at today's State highway 7), and was not replaced until 1929. Teddy Roosevelt (president 1901-1909) walked across it in 1912.

The 2,343-foot wooden structure with a load limit of 9,000 pounds was floated on 72 boats, using 11 spans of six boats under each span and a draw span of nine boats. Its 12-foot width had a few 16-foot passing lanes for wagons and foot traffic between Dardanelle and Russellville.

Like everything in this article, the bridge is long gone. Hmm. Is that a metaphor between romance and nostalgia?