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I enjoyed watching the ShowMe T’s at War Eagle Mill Friday. They were in the area for a few days and one of their stops was at the mill. Here’s a photo gallery and a video. Hope you enjoy.

© 2010, Scott Branyan

My wife Sharon and I took a road trip the end of last week down to Jacksonport, Arkansas. Jacksonport State Park is located there and is a wonderful place for a history lesson on the development of the White River.

The park has the last remaining steamboat to have operated on the White River, the Mary Woods No. 2. The boat was built in Nashville, TN as a coal steamer in 1931, was converted to diesel in 1949, and was retired in 1967. The boat was built for the Woods Lumber Company and pushed barges of logs on the White River. It was named after the daughter of the owner of the company, Eugene Woods, Sr. In 1997, a tornado came through Jacksonport State Park and severely damaged the boat which had been decorated out as a passenger boat. It was restored to its original intent as a work boat at that time.

Another fascinating piece of history at the park is the old court house which was built from 1869-1872 by a confederate Colonel and with bricks made there at Jacksonport. Jacksonport was by-passed by the railroad when the town refused to sign the right-of-way. The railroad was put in three miles down the road at Newport instead, and Jacksonport died on the vine along with the steamboats. As I lay in my tent at the park Friday night and listened to the train whistles, it made me wonder how the town’s people felt about the transition from the steamboat whistles to the newer train whistles which by-passed them. After being renovated, the court house opened as a museum in 1965. The court house too was damaged in the 1997 tornado and and underwent renovation again in 1999.

We also learned a lot about the pearling industry. The park interpreter, Donna Bentley, lead an excellent campground program on it Friday evening.

On the way to Jacksonport, Sharon and I drove through the Buffalo River Valley from Boxley to Jasper and then again back on the return trip. Friday morning we arrived late enough the elk were already gone out of the field. On Saturday evening we saw many elk, including a nursing calf. The bull elk which just days ago had antlers in velvet, now sport bright and shiny new antlers. The rut cometh. No elk photos in this photo blog, but there are a few elk photos in the previous photography blog post which you can check out.

Enjoy the photos.

© 2009, Scott Branyan

Thursday afternoon I had an appointment in Little Rock and later that night there was a seminar I wanted to attend at Petit Jean Mountain. The trip down and back held some scenic possibilities, so I left early Thursday morning so I could take some backroads. 

I left Rogers before first light and caught a good omen at Pinnacle Hills where I saw a meteor from the Perseids shower as I was looking west past I-540. I headed to the Buffalo River Valley at Ponca and watched the elk for a few minutes. Before descending into foggy Boxley Valley I enjoyed riding the ridge and watching the sunrise. From Boxley I headed south on Hwy. 21 and turned east on Hwy. 16 to the Limestone cuttoff. The gravel road goes down into the Limestone Valley where the headwaters of Big Piney Creek start. This valley is about 1,000 feet deep from the rim and is one of the deeper valleys in the Boston Mountains. It is extremely rugged terrain although the forest service road is good for the most part.

Just west of the junction of highways 21 and 16 are found the headwaters of the White, the War Eagle, the Kings, and the Buffalo, which all flow north and east into a much larger White River further downstream. To the south are the beginnings of the Mulberry River and the Piney Creeks which flow south into the Arkansas River.

The largest stand of cane I have ever encountered I saw in the valley around Limestone. The cane was about 30 feet high and bending over the road. A cut-through had been hacked out for a driveway back to a cabin. Coming up out the other side of the valley the road heads to Ozone where it meets Hwy. 21. This part of the national forest is heavily logged.

From Clarksville I hightailed it to Little Rock for an afternoon meeting at the federal building. Before my meeting I visited Murray Lock and Dam and the “Big Dam Bridge”—a pedestrian bridge built across the Arkansas River on top of the dam structure. This was a cooperative project between the county and the Corps of Engineers and has become a very popular place for walkers and cyclists.

After an afternoon meeting with the Corps of Engineers, I drove to Petit Jean State Park for an archeology seminar and stayed in one of the cabins at the state park. The next morning I ate breakfast in the lodge and visited a few of the overlooks.

On the return trip, I headed to Mt. Magazine and drove the park road from Havana to Paris over the mountain which is the highest point in Arkansas. The visitor’s center has some unique presentations on animal tracks and the butterfly displays are worth noting. I enjoyed several of the overlooks and scenery and even happended upon a wedding on the north rim. From there I headed west on Hwy. 22 to Fort Chaffee and drove past the old barricks. I turned north on highway 59 and drove over the James W. Trimble Lock and Dam on the Arkansas River. Taking old 71 north I stopped off at the new Lake Fort Smith visitor’s center north of Mountainburg.

A whirlwind tour of some great scenery and history.

Here are the photos.

© 2009, Scott Branyan

Here’s a couple I took of Maddy in early morning light. On the first one, I missed the focus on the eye. After all, how do you get through all that hair? One way would be to auto focus generally and then fine tune by simply moving the camera by hand forward or back slightly to achieve your aim. Canon’s100mm macro can have a narrow depth of field, and this is hard to do manually at times. So the other option is to use the focus ring after auto-focus is achieved. I was slow and Maddy does not like a camera lens in her face, yet.

Eye on Maddy

The second photo is a profile. We’ve been training Maddy to sit, but haven’t worked on stay yet. So how I got the profile I don’t know. Notice the line of her head from top right corner to lower left corner. This makes an interesting composition for a profile as the space at the bottom puts some emphasis on the nose :-). Maddy is all hound.

Maddy Profile

© 2008, Scott Branyan

We returned from Texas with Maddy, my wife Sharon’s birthday present. Maddy is a Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen and an ex-show dog. She has a wonderful temperament for us.

We left Texas at sunrise and drove part of the Talimena Scenic Drive in Oklahoma on the way home. This was the “Indian Territory” destination to which the Cherokees and other tribes from Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee were forced to relocate on a tragic march to Oklahoma–the Trail of Tears. Here also Judge Parker, of Ft. Smith, sent 200 deputies to round up criminals who had fled into and lived in the remote territory, as depicted in the movie True Grit.

Here’s the slide show. Enjoy.

Maddy’s First Trip from Scott Branyan on Vimeo.

© 2008, Scott Branyan

My niece and two other students qualified for their blackbelts last Saturday. I was able to photograph the event. Allison’s brother Russell made blackbelt also earlier this year and is shown in some of the sparring photos. Good job, kiddos!

See some of the photos.

© Scott Branyan

Our neighborhood usually has some small fireworks displays going on, and this year was no different, except that I was ready to take some photos. This is from about 4-5 small shows which I could see from our yard.

http://www.sbranyan.com/galleries/2008FourthofJuly/index.html

Hope you enjoy the photos.

© 2008, Scott Branyan

A photography blog at The Boston Globe has a series of Mars photos which are stunning. Be sure to check out the dust devil images.

© 2008, Scott Branyan

I finally received the infrared filter I had custom ordered for my older Nikon Coolpix 5000 digital camera. It has some infrared capability with the simple addition of a relatively inexpensive filter. Here is my first attempt at infrared photography. This is a dogwood blooming in my yard.

I am anxious to try it out on some other landscape possibilities on the river, especially as we are entering the spring of the year where the shades of greens are prominent. Another interesting aspect of light recording.

© 2008, Scott Branyan

The gallery of photos from the tour is here.

See the video of Shores Lake Spillway below (Windows Media file).

Every spring and fall I try to take at least one road tour around Northwest Arkansas just to witness the spring redbuds and dogwoods in bloom and the fall color. This past Saturday, April 12th, I drove down the old 71 Hwy to Alma, across to Mulberry, up Hwy 215 to Shores Lake and then across the Ozark National Forest service roads to the Pig Trail (Hwy 23) and back north.

It had been several years since I drove old 71. It’s curious it has been dubbed old 71, because there are still places where you can see concrete pavement from the old, old 71 highway. The drive was rather dismal. There was not much in the way of dogwoods or redbuds in bloom. And many of the old buildings and businesses are withering away. I bet I only had half a dozen vehicles going my direction the whole length of the trip from Fayetteville to Alma. Once I made Mountainburg, things started to come alive as the leaves were coming out on the trees.

One could see the new Lake Fort Smith filling up where the old Lake Shepherd Springs used to be. It was muddy from all the runoff, and the new facilities are yet to open.

The paved road from the south (I-40 to Shores Lake via 215) is a beautiful drive. A lot of dogwood were out. I found basically from a line from Mountainburg to Shores Lake to Hwy 23 at the Ozark Highlands Trailhead and southward the dogwoods were in full bloom. North of that line redbuds and serviceberry trees were still the primary bloomer and leaves were yet to start to come out on the trees there.

I puttered around Shores Lake for a while. This park along with the cabins at White Rock Mountain were CCC projects from years ago.

The gravel road from Shores Lake to Turner Bend which goes along part of the Mulberry was the best dogwood viewing this past weekend, especially around the Campbell Cemetery access.

The national forests are getting ready to start controlled burns here soon, so some areas will be closed to use. Turkey hunters were out at several places for opening weekend.

If you have live in northern Arkansas or have some extra time coming through the area, you owe it to yourself to check out some of these out of the way places. There’s nothing like a peaceful drive in the country.

© 2008, Scott Branyan