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Save the Osceola Courthouse.

September 16, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner 10 Comments

Osceola Courthouse, Osceola, Ar

Hey y’all. I’m excited that my first article as a regular contributor for Delta Crossroads is included in the Fall 2015 issue. It’s an opinion piece on saving the Osceola Courthouse, a gorgeous Classic Revival masterpiece that deserves at a minimum a discussion about its value to the city beyond dollars.

A snippet from the article:

Antique bricks and mortar, a shimmering copper dome high above the oak trees—the Osceola Courthouse is so much more than the structure itself. The courthouse marks the centerpiece of the square, the town’s greatest landmark.

Osceola, named for Chief Osceola of the Seminole tribe, became the county seat of Mississippi County (located in Northeast Arkansas) near the end of the nineteenth century. In 1900, Osceola was a boomtown, a stop on the main line of the St. Louis-San Francisco “Frisco” Railway. The downtown area bustled with two ice plants, two bottling works, a wagon factory, and electric and water utilities. The town even boasted an opera house. Fancy.

To read the entire article online, click HERE. (Be sure to read all the articles—this month’s issue is dedicated to fall and harvest. The Save the Osceola Courthouse article can be found on pages 27-30.)

AND, for those of you interested in my soon-to-be published book, Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee, there’s a surprise on page 32.

 

Baked tile floor. Osceola, Ar courthouse

Baked tile floor, Osceola Arkansas historic courthouse.

 

Osceola Courthouse marker

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

P.S. If you are a tweeter, please tweet to get the word out and share using the hashtag #DomeSweetDome.

[tweetthis]Save our #historic courthouse! @SavingARPlaces @Artourism @Arkansasgov @historicark #domesweetdome #OsceolaAr #Delta[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

Bobbie Gentry, Mississippi Delta

my Ozark day (part 2)

August 22, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner 7 Comments

Woo-hoo, this begins Part Two of my day spent exploring the Ozarks. If you missed the first part of the story where I searched for hobos and drank a butterscotch malt, click HERE. Before leaving Calico Rock, I stopped to visit the Trimble log cabin, home to Arkansas’ earliest settlers.  A few years ago, the cabin was moved eleven miles from its original location in Dolph to its current home on Highway 56 across from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Built from virgin hardwood short-leaf pine, the Trimble cabin is one of the few remaining pre-Civil War cabins standing in Arkansas.

Trimble House, Calico Rock, Ar

As I headed back toward the lake, I made several stops in the small town of Norfork. First, the Food Bank of North Central Arkansas.

This sign lured me in.

Food Bank, North Central Arkansas - Seeds!

Heirloom seeds are inside… Okay, how wonderful is this?

North Central Arkansas Food Bank

This place was fantastic with several rooms filled with clothes and household items, a food bank pantry and heirloom seeds for the win! Talk about teaching a man to fish…The director’s passion for helping others showed. I knew this was the perfect place to spend the rest of my shopping allowance so I bought three vintage magazines (for my Little Free Library) and seeds for the seed exchange drawer.

(Maybe all food banks have seeds? If not, they should.)

Next stop, a cemetery, of course. I’m forever wandering around in old cemeteries, and this is just the sort of old sign that would make me stop in the road and turn around no matter how busy I pretended to be.

Cemetery, Norfork Ar

This may be the saddest most heart-wrenching tombstone I’ve ever seen. Eighty-six years after the death of this child I never knew, I can feel this mother’s pain long after she’s gone from this earth. A sunbeam from the world has vanished.

Baby Grave - Norfork, Ar

I wandered around in this cemetery for a while, but the afternoon was brutally hot and the weeds were tall.

The highway ran parallel to the railroad track I had visited earlier that morning. Again, I crossed and stopped to see what I could see. There’s something about the nostalgia of a railroad track. Railroads turned settlements into towns, brought commerce, people, more opportunity.

Train track, Norfork, Ar

At the town of Norfork, the Norfork River joins up with the White River on the other side of the railroad track. I met a fisherman who was kind enough to let me photograph his trout. Good eatin’.

Trout, White River, Norfork, Ar

It’s impossible to visit Norfork, without spending time at the Wolf House—the oldest public structure in Arkansas and the first permanent courthouse in the Arkansas Territory for Izard County.

Jacob Wolf House

In 1809, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Major Jacob Wolf as Indian Agent to the Arkansas Cherokee Nation in the northern section of the District of Arkansas, Louisiana Territory. Wolf and several Negro slaves poled a flatboat up to the mouth of the Big North Fork of the White River where they began to clear the land and construct the log house… Major Wolf supervised the Indian workmen in constructing the two-storied, double-log mansion. Yellow pine was used exclusively and each log was hewn and dovetailed to fit perfectly. The slaves built a blacksmith shop nearby and fashioned the wrought iron hinges and rivets to hang the doors and window shutters. They also made the very few square cut nails used in the building. (Baxter County Historical and Genealogical Society)

The Wolf House, Norfork Ar

Interesting fact: John P. Houston, brother of legend Sam Houston, served as a county clerk in this courthouse.

That’s pretty much it for my idyllic day in the Ozarks. Here’s one parting shot of the stunning bluffs overlooking White River. I won’t tell you how I got that shot… (#anythingforapicture)

Bluffs overlooking White River

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Ozark adventure—North Central Arkansas Food Bank has #heirloom #seeds! @ARTourism @Arkansasgov #Norfork #CalicoRock [/tweetthis]

P.S. My souvenirs for the day—seeds, reads and local art:)

Ozark shopping souvenirs

Arkansas handcrafted pottery

Handmade pottery by Sue W. purchased at Calico Rock Visitor Center – perfect beside the sink!

Musical Pairing:

Rosanne Cash, 500 Miles

Violet Cemetery, Osceola, Arkansas

March 19, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner 14 Comments

Violet Cemetery, Osceola, Ar

I want to be buried here. Someday. Just plant my dead body in the midst of the gorgeous tulips, and I would be happy for all eternity. 

Is this not the most beautiful cemetery?

Violet Cemetery is the final resting place for early settlers, war veterans and founding fathers of Osceola, Arkansas. Obviously I won’t be allowed in. The first grave marker dated 1831 pre-dates the founding of Mississippi County and Arkansas Statehood. It’s truly a peaceful patch of heaven, smack in the center of downtown Osceola, across from the tired little post office and fire station. 


tulips grow like ground cover
Growing up, downtown Osceola was vibrant. It was a treat to shop at Sterlings, buying goldfish which unfortunately didn’t live long in our household. I purchased my first 45 record down at the end of Main Street. Although the record shop is long gone and forgotten by most, that 1970’s vinyl still lives deep within our quiet bedroom closet with dusty board games and old prom dresses.  

Years ago, a group of dedicated citizens formed an association to beautify the neglected cemetery. Raising funds, they re-set and repaired markers and planted violets at each grave, hence the name.  Although the violets were not blooming when I visited, the tulips were absolutely brilliant. Multiplying and spreading across the cemetery, they were nearly choking out the grave markers, pushing up through the cracks of the stepping stones, clearly thriving in this spot. Gene Robinson, an energetic resident who was devoted to Osceola, worked tirelessly to insure Violet Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places. She died recently, but I bet she is smiling over these happy tulips.


Although activity has migrated toward the interstate and the new Wal-Mart, in the center of Osceola, Violet Cemetery still shines.

talya

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees under which you never expect to sit.” Nelson Henderson

“Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter into the joy of your lord.” (King James, Matthew 25:23)

Works of art…

Osceola history
died Nov 23 1884

Talya Tate Boerner


Hi! I'm Talya. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (Now Available!)

Click to BUY NOW!

Talya Tate Boerner books
Gene, Everywhere

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