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| Abandoned town |
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| Pretty city sign |
Our drive to White Oak State Park took us through some
deserted
countryside, then through the similarly deserted town of Bluff City.
It was sad to see two blocks of buildings completely deserted. Shortly after we
passed through Bluff City we arrived at the park. I can’t say enough good
things about the folks who work there – friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable.
This park was laid out rather
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| Campground |
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| Campsite |
strangely – most of the time campgrounds are laid
out so the camping unit is between your awning side and your neighbor’s awning
side and at nearly right angles to the road. This place had the awning side
right along the road. After we got used to it, it was fine – of course, it
helped that it wasn’t busy and most of the folks who were staying there were
hunters and weren’t in camp most of the daylight hours.
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| What used to be the lake |
At one time, our sight would have backed up to White Oak
Lake,
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| Poison Springs |
but a couple of years ago, they blocked off that part of the lake in
order to make repairs to the dam. They have since reopened the lake but Mother
Nature isn’t cooperating. It has been unusually dry and the lake hasn’t
refilled so the lakebed is billed with weeds. Still, it was pretty in its own
way.
There wasn’t much to do out that way, but we did get to a
sister park down the road – Poison Springs. It’s certainly not a name that
inspires one to visit, but at the recommendation of the ranger, we did. Poison
Springs was the site of one of three Civil War battles in the area. There is a
kiosk with information about the battles and a pretty nature trail through the
woods.
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| Part of Nature Trail |
We drove to a little town nearby – Chidester – to see
what was there: empty buildings, a flea market, a convenience store/gas
station, and a Laundromat were all I saw. Apparently both Bluff City and
Chidester are suffering from the low lake level, which has ended the big
fishing competitions that were held at White Oak and the biggest source of
income for the two cities.
We head next over to Texarkana, TX for almost two weeks
before heading down to Tickfaw.
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