Mike's Epic Road Trip Texarkana - Monday the 24th of January 2005

"It was down in Louisiana,
Just a mile from Texarkana,
In them there ol' cotton fields at home."

~Leadbelly

As a child I can remember hearing those lines many times as crooned by the New Christy Minstrels. This was waaaay back in the early sixties as my sisters and brothers and I gathered around the old phonograph which sat on a small table next to a window in the kitchen.

It was from this song I learned early on about the western town of Texarkana which sat directly on the border of Texas and Arkansas and how it got its name. Years later the song resurfaced in my life as it spun on the stereo in our living room at 2381 Bush Street in San Francisco during the late 60's. The song was hit a for CCR ( Credence Clearwater Revival ) and their cover of it is still listened to today.

This childhood connection with Texarkana is what steered me towards the small town when planning my ERT.

When I arrived in Texarkana around 3 o'clock after a long days drive from Nashville I was beginning to wonder if I had made a mistake by planning to stay over in this small, obviously rundown little town which had seen better days.

I had decided to check out the Twilight Motel on 9th street since it appeared to be relatively close to down town and not out on the main drag out by the Interstate.

The hotel was shabbier and more foreboding than I thought it would be. I was not even out of the car before some guy approached me about buying a watch. Hmmmm...

I asked the lady for a price for a single - 30 bucks. I decided to not even look at a room and got back in the car and headed north towards the Interstate. Being pretty tired and developing a nice headache by now I decided to pull into the first place saw - a Comfort Inn at 54 bucks a night. A ripoff, but I was too tired to get back in the car and keep looking. ( The next day I saw Knights Inn 5 minutes down the road for $29.95)

After I checked in I decided to look for Arkansas's largest Magnolia tree which according to the map distributed by the Chamber of Commerce was near the hotel somewhere between Arkansas Blvd and I-30 near County Avenue. When I reached the location I though I must have read the map wrong. Nope. So I wandered around some back streets. No sign of any big Magnolia. In fact the only thing big I saw where the tree should have been was a Walmart Super Center and a new subdivision. Was the map wrong or did the old tree end up on a construction site burn pile? I have not yet found out.

After my fruitless search for the Magnolia I headed downtown for a look see of some of the old historic buildings I had found out about on the web. On the way to downtown I passed by the Shamrock Motel. A small 12-15 unit place within easy walking distance of downtown. I called the Chamber of Commerce for info on hotels like this one and they said none existed. One wonders why.

Below are some of the photos I took that afternoon and evening in Texarkana along with info on Lead Belly and the New Christy Minstrels

Mike's Epic Road Trip

Texarkana, Arkansas and Texas