A Road Trip on Arkansas’s Great River Road
Yancopin Bridge – Photo Credit: Arkansas Dept. of Parks & Tourism
Arkansas’s Great River Road region is one of the most beautiful collections of landscapes you’ll find in the South. Comprised of 10 counties located along The Natural State’s eastern border, the Great River Road of Arkansas features some of the richest history in the region. Music is the proverbial heartbeat of the region, with musical legends Johnny Cash, Louis Jordan, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Conway Twitty, Charlie Rich, Al Green, William Warfield, Albert King, and Sonny Boy Williamson once calling the region home.
The historic byway traverses the state from the Missouri line to the Mississippi and Louisiana borders. Along the way, road trippers will come across a myriad of attractions and historical sites.
Established in 1886 as a sawmill, the town of Wilson (named after founder R.E.L. Wilson) is home to Hampson Archeological Museum State Park, White’s Mercantile, and the great Wilson Café. Less than a 15-minute drive west is Historic Dyess Colony: Johnny Cash Boyhood Home.
Following the byway south, find Marion, home to the Sultana Disaster Museum. The Sultana sank on the Mississippi River near the community in April 1865 and is America’s worst maritime disaster.
Continuing south, travelers can explore West Memphis, home to Southland Casino Racing and Big River Crossing (the longest public pedestrian bridge across the Mississippi River as well as the country’s longest active rail/bicycle/pedestrian bridge).
Marianna is home to Jones Bar-B-Q Diner, Arkansas’s first James Beard award-winner and, according to the Southern Foodways Alliance, the oldest continuously operated African American restaurant in the South. Don’t miss a trip through the nearby St. Francis National Forest and Mississippi River State Park.
Historic Helena is the only downtown located on the Mississippi River for 300 miles between Memphis and Vicksburg. Helena has an array of attractions, including the Delta Cultural Center, Freedom Park, and the Helena Museum of Phillips County. The town is also home to the King Biscuit Blues Festival, an award-winning and world-renowned event held each October.
Continuing south, visitors will find more great attractions and historic sites, including historic St. Charles (the site of the “single deadliest shot fired during the Civil War), Arkansas Post National Memorial in Gillett and the World War II Japanese American Internment Museum in McGehee. You can get an up-close view of the Mississippi River at the Choctaw Island Wildlife Management Area in Arkansas City.
Lake Village lies on the curving shore of picturesque Lake Chicot, a 20-mile long abandoned channel of the Mississippi River that is Arkansas’s largest natural lake and the largest oxbow lake in North America. The historic Lakeport Plantation near Lake Village is the only remaining Arkansas plantation located along the Mississippi River that has not been significantly altered. Just north of downtown, a marker records the site where Charles Lindbergh landed in April 1923 after completing history’s first night flight.
There’s no better way to experience beautiful Arkansas than with a road trip along the state’s section of the Great River Road National Scenic Byway.
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