Depopulated Arkansas; The Mississippi Delta

[MolsonExport]

Wholly shit. Some of the most depressing examples of decrepit Main Streets anywhere. Fantastic thread, even more fantastic photos.

Most of these old bones are so rotted, there is nothing that can be done except start again, or let nature take its course.

[Blitz]

Excellent! Arkansas is on my list of states to be explored.

[urbanactivist]

Originally Posted by photolitherland

Benton

Amazing to see this shot. The Royal Theater is now a live stage theater, but it used to be the only movie theater in Saline county. The cut up the balcony and mainstage to have a two-screen movie house. THANKFULLY, it has been restored, and is still hosting some community shows.

The building on the right is Regions Bank (what used to be Benton State Bank). My mom worked here for 15 years. For a long time, she was the only African-American that worked there.

I did a thread on Benton back in 2009. Did you happen to catch First Baptist Church while you were there? I like it because the church was built on the city grid. It's a big church, so it takes up the whole city block... like you'd find in much larger, denser areas.


If I had your BEYOND awesome photo skills, I could have done it justice.

[photoLith]

Yeah I went into that church and thought it was incredible that they had the insight to build up to the sidewalk. Usually gigantic mega churches build huge parking lots in front of them. And I thought it was really cool that bank was also built up to the sidewalk. It's crazy how small the world is. In my first thread I made on here, I took a photo of an old house here in Russellville and someone living in Germany said that was their grandparents house, pretty crazy.

[flar]

Great shots as usual, this is crazy:

[Centropolis]

Great job! Do people ever harrass you or get upset in these rural, southern towns you when you photograph them (I cant remember if I asked you this)?

[photoLith]

The cops always harass me. When I was in crossit and the town of bearden the cops came up to me in their patrol cars. They said they got complaints of suspicious activity. People had called the cops saying that they thought I needed permission to photograph from the cops. Pretty retarded, but overall, people just come up to me and tell me their stories. I get asked a lot which magazine do I work for, etc etc. I tell people I'm just taking photos of their town and half the time they give me a strange look like, why would you want to take photos of a place like this? When I'm taking photos at night in these really small towns, lots of times cars that are passing by stop for like a minute and the people just stare, probably because they've never seen someone with a camera and a tripod at night. Plus, in these tiny places, they aren't used to outsiders since everyone knows everyone. I'm talking about the towns that have populations of about 500 and below. In the larger towns, usually 10k and above I don't run into problems. But even when I'm in places like soulard in stl I've been stopped by the cops due to people calling in about suspicious activity. I guess they think my extended tripod is a weapon or something?

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by photolitherland

But even when I'm in places like soulard in stl I've been stopped by the cops due to people calling in about suspicious activity. I guess they think my extended tripod is a weapon or something?

Naw, that's just because Soulard is gentrifying and has a lot of urban newbies that have probably read neighborhood flyers about how to be a vigilant urban resident as well as older folks with time on their hands. Hardcore urban pioneers and longtime urban residents don't call the police when they see someone with a tripod and camera.

[FrAnKs]

Very nice ! ... it is sad. but at least this remind me of the Silent Hill movie

[BG918]

Nice tour. My wife's family is from SW Arkansas so I've been through towns like Camden, as well as Stephens, Magnolia, Stamps (of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings fame), Waldo, Emerson, etc. Interesting area that like you said was once very prosperous due to the oil boom, and still has some oil production, but overall has been declining for decades. I love the pine forests in southern Arkansas.

[Crawford]

These are very moving photos, and remind me of some college summers when I visited Arkansas. Thanks so much! From my experiences, this area is described perfectly, and the decay really is that bad.

My freshman year roommate was from Osceola, AR (a Delta town to the north of these pics, in Mississippi County, one of the poorest counties in AR) and the area looked exactly like in this photothread.

Both Osceola and Blytheville (the two main cities in Mississippi County) had essentially 100% vacant downtowns. There was nothing outside of the courthouse and general govt. functions (police, town hall, etc.).

From talking to my friend (who's from a prominent old-line AR family), race played that major role in this abandonment. Prior to desegregation, blacks and whites lived roughly side-by-side in these towns.

Once desegregation occured, the whites (except for the very poor trailer park types) all moved to new developments on the edges of town, and downtown was reserved for the blacks. The whites vacated the public schools, and sent their children to "Christian Academies" (all these towns will have a Christian Academy, established in the desegregation era, for the whites).

These towns were also harmed by the massive movement to northern cities in the postwar era, and more recently, were harmed by migration to Dallas and Atlanta (those seem to be the most common cities for relocating folks).

And the whole Delta region is dirt-poor. I mean, even really poor for AR standards. I assume it's one of the poorest parts of the country.

I find the area quite beautiful, though. Really haunting beauty, and echos with a ton of history.

[pj3000]

Wow, thanks for the tour and trip down memory lane for me.

It's amazing that I've been to every one of these towns you listed, photolitherland. Funny, how you mention about people in those really small towns being so not accustomed to outsiders in their towns... I remember working in southern Arkansas and going into a diner for lunch with two coworkers (one of them an Indian guy)... you could literally hear silverware drop on plates when we walked in and it seemed like every single person in the place stopped talking and turned to look at us. It was funny, but also a bit unsettling at the time... but by the third day in a row that we ate there (the was nowhere else to eat for miles and miles), they were used to us and were actually quite nice... they seemed to be sad when we told them we were heading back to Dallas the next morning.

Great photos!

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Wow, thanks for the tour and trip down memory lane for me.

It's amazing that I've been to every one of these towns you listed, photolitherland. Funny, how you mention about people in those really small towns being so not accustomed to outsiders in their towns... I remember working in southern Arkansas and going into a diner for lunch with two coworkers (one of them an Indian guy)... you could literally hear silverware drop on plates when we walked in and it seemed like every single person in the place stopped talking and turned to look at us. It was funny, but also a bit unsettling at the time... but by the third day in a row that we ate there (the was nowhere else to eat for miles and miles), they were used to us and were actually quite nice... they seemed to be sad when we told them we were heading back to Dallas the next morning.

Great photos!

you in the oil (and gas), boy?

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Blitz

Excellent! Arkansas is on my list of states to be explored.

bring a sidearm. nothing wrong with a sidearm.

[Jarrod]

Originally Posted by Segun

That is exactly what I thought when I viewed the pictures.

Great pictures and truly sad that this happens to towns. Kind of tragic. Grand architecture that is being lost. Really sad.

[alps]

Thanks for another great phototour! Very sad, but fascinating.

[Robert Pence]

Beautifully-executed photos, saddening scenes.

I live in Fort Wayne, Indiana (>200K population), but grew up on a farm about thirty miles south, where the county seat is <10K population. The county is mostly agriculture-oriented, with a few small towns and villages scattered about.

I subscribe to the hometown daily newspaper, where aside from domestic disturbances in the trailer parks the "police notebook" section is dominated by records of callers reporting suspicious activity. When I go on a photo excursion in the area, I stop in at the police or sheriff's department and let them know who I am, what I'm about, what I'm driving, etc., so they won't bother to dispatch an officer to check me out when someone inevitably calls. I assure them that I don't trespass, and if anyone objects to my photographing their house, all they have to do is come out and ask me not to. People do stare but so far I haven't had any problems, and I've only had two people object to my taking a photo. One of those was a security guard at a big soybean-processing plant in a nearby town.

[boden]

Fascinating thread. Thanks.

[Thundertubs]

Excellent work. It's obvious the time and hard work that has gone into this Arkansas coverage.

The pics of the main street in Helena after dark are haunting.

[bicycles]

Alberta in 50 years...