"Sunshine" Sonny Payne

I am amazed at the quality of the museums that are available in the small towns along the Great River Road. Today we visited Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, population 12,282, and were treated to the Helena Museum of Phillips County, also known as the Delta Cultural Center. 

Diving from Memphis to Helena we passed many cotton fields. Most have had their crop already brought in, but we were told that this is a good year and it is taking some time to get all the cotton harvested.

We didn't know what this machine did when we took the picture, but when we stopped at the Arkansas Welcome Center outside of Helena, we asked. We were told that is is a "sprayer" and can be used for any number of crops. It looks like the Mars rover.

We were also told that these structures are called "modules" and hold harvested cotton ready to be moved to market.

The modules, pictured above, have been in use for quite a while, but in the past 3 - 4 years, the harvester has begun to produce these circular "bales" that are becoming more common as farmers are able to afford the new machines. A bale contains 500 pounds of cotton; a module holds the equivalent of 16 bales, or 4 tons of cotton.

The lovely Arkansas Welcome Center - Helena. Helena, one of the state's oldest cities, was settled in 1797 by Sylvanus Phillips. He named the town after his daughter, Helena. The historic town was occupied during the Civil War by 30,000 Union Troops and claims to be the home of seven Confederate generals. It is located on Crowley's Ridge Parkway. Mark Twain once said that "Helena occupies one of the prettiest situations on the Mississippi River."

Please meet Barbara. With great patience she provided us with information about cotton harvesting, farming in general, and the state of Arkansas. She also provided us with information about parking at the various sites in Helena and places to camp further along the Great River Road. Every state should have someone as knowledgable and helpful as Barbara!

In addition to providing information about the rest of Arkansas, the Welcoming Center also is the starting point of an impressive Historic Tour. There were a number of stops that we just drove by because our goal was the Delta Cultural Center. The Delta Cultural Center comprises two sites: The Visitors' Center and the Depot (1915). The Visitors' Center has several exhibits, a gift shop and a radio station.  There was a small, rather personal exhibit on slavery with a focus on the importance of music to the slaves. There were some personal reminiscences by former slaves and a couple of hands-on opportunities to experience some of the daily life of a slave.

The most important piece of specialized equipment needed by someone for cotton picking was the cotton sack. The cotton sack was a long, white denim-canvas, tubular bag. It came with a 4" wide strap that you put around your neck to pull the sack along behind you to collect your pickings. A good adult cotton picker could harvest around 400 pounds of fiber a day. We were invited to try dragging the loaded cotton sack - very heavy.

With their parents in the fields from sunrise to sunset, slave children were often left alone to tend to themselves and younger children. Before they were old enough to perform real work, slave children were expected to perform such tasks as caring for younger children, carry water to the field slaves, clean up the yards, gather wood, tend the garden and feed livestock. Again we were invited to lift the two buckets and imagine carrying these the length of two football fields.

Frederick tried and declared that they were heavy.

This ominous exhibit is a whip, ca. 1850. It was found in Southwest Arkansas. The handle of the whip is wrapped in leather. The lower section of the whip, 44 1/2" in length, is braided, but a section at the tip is left unbraided and allowed to flare, creating two tassels.

Helena has played a vital role in blues history for artists from both sides of the Mississippi River. Once known as a "wide open" hot spot for music, gambling, and nightlife. It is also the birthplace of county music singer Harold Jenkins, better known as Conway Twitty. Helena is also the birthplace of "King Biscuit Time", the record breaking KFFA radio show that began broadcasting blues to the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta in 1941. The program has logged over 17,000 broadcasts  and inspired Helena to launch the renowned King Biscuit blues Festival in 1966.

At 12:15, Tuesday through Friday, "King Biscuit Time' is produced and broadcast live from the studio at the Delta Cultural Center's Visitor Center. The show has been running continuously for over 70 years and has been hosted for over 60 of those years by its current host, Blues Hall of Famer "Sunshine" Sonny Payne. 

Here he is today, producing show # 17,034. It is broadcast around the world on www.kffa.com. He will also talk to visitors who drop by his studio. There we are, telling him about our travels and marveling that he has an uncle, who will be 94, who lives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The young man who took our picture also video taped the show and said he would post it soon on the station website.  It was great fun to be part of the broadcast!

There's the Airstream, parked across the street from the Cultural Center Visitors' Center, in the shadow of the pavilion where the King Biscuit Blues Festival is held annually over Columbus Day weekend. This festival attracts 80,000 to 100,000 visitors to one of the largest celebrations of blues music in the country. 

We also climbed up on the levee for a view of the town. The picture really flattens the levee which is quite high.

Helena's Civil War story is unique in Arkansas. Phillips County and Helena, the county seat, were overwhelmingly pro-Southern. Even before Arkansas joined the Confederate States of America in May 1861, several militia units, organized in Phillips County, had left to join the Confederate army.

The war brought little change to Helena itself. That changed in July 1862, when 12,000 Union soldiers marched into Helena, and just as shocking, 2,000 fugitive slaves -- Freedom Seekers -- followed them. Helena was transformed. The army seized homes abandoned by Confederates and other buildings to house officers and men. Regimental encampments surrounded the city. Citizens' rights were suspended. Union pickets guarded the roads. Helena became a Union stronghold and haven for Freedom Seekers in Confederate Arkansas. 

On July 4, 1863, immediately after the Battle of Gettysburg and the day that Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, 7,600 Confederate soldiers under the command of Gen. Theophilus Holmes attempted to retake Helena. The Confederates hit Batteries A and D at first light. After hours of bloody fighting, the attack ground to a halt. At sunrise, when the other attacks were stalling, the assault on Battery C began. After three frontal attacks, the battery fell. Shortly afterward, an attack on Fort Curtis made from Battery C failed in the face of Union heavy artillery and small-arms fire. By 1 p.m. the battle was over. The Confederates retreated and never threatened Helena again.

Reconstructed Fort Curtis.

An  historic photograph of the original fort during the Civil War.

The parade ground. In the background is the Centennial Church, the only African American church in the State designed by an African American architect - Henry James Price. The church is a National Historic Landmark. 

We also visited the Delta Cultural Center's Depot (1915). It covers the history of the river, the people that settled in this area, and the part Helena played in the Civil War. The exhibits were outstanding and we learned so much about logging, share cropping, transportation on the river, the role of women, the flood of 1927 and so much more.

We left Helena and travelled about 40 miles to St. Charles and the Campers Refuge RV Park. 

St. Charles is the site of the most deadly single shot of the American Civil War. On June 17, 1862, at the Battle of Saint Charles, 8 Federal vessels including the ironclad gunboat USS Mound City attempted to pass Confederate shore guns here, on the banks of the White River. A single shot from a Confederate cannon entered the Mound City and penetrated her steam drum. The resulting explosion and release of scalding steam killed most of her crew, approximately 129 men. This moment, in the center of town, commemorates all the lives that were lost.

 Unfortunately, the Campers Refuge has zero internet access and very weak cell coverage. We have had to drive 13 miles to DeWitt and to the Catfish Shack. They have excellent Verizon coverage (3 bars)  and without their help we would not have been able to publish today's blog. 

We are so grateful to Becky Horton. She was so gracious and provided us with coffee so that we could  have a warm, friendly place to write this blog.