After stuffing ourselves, as usual, at the Ozark Cafe. Brian and I headed for the next stop Liles Falls.
Unfortunately, as we had seen earlier in the day, the water just wasn’t running. However, it wasn’t a complete waste of time, we found some pretty amazing scenery hidden away on the quiet Erbie Campground Road.
One of the first stops we made on Erbie Campground Road was at, none other than, Erbie Campground. It’s a neat little place tucked away next to what might be the laziest part of the Buffalo National River. The river was just drifting along and at times even turning against itself to laze away in the sun. On a hot summer day this would have been a fantastic place to swim or just jump into a raft and float away.
The river shots that I took at the campground didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked. However, I did get a lot of shots of the wildflowers that were growing nearby.
After making the quick stop at the campground and deciding we would definitely have to return and camp. We headed on down the road to a neat little hidden location in the Ozarks. Before arriving, Brian decided to stop for one of his trademark “road into the distance” shots.
Shortly after that shot we arrived at the Parker Hickman Farmstead. This place was an amazing little farmstead nestled in a grove along the Buffalo River. I could feel the solitude that the people would have received living here. Overall, the farmstead was a very relaxing place to be. That is of course until I walked out the back door into a huge Hornet nest. Luckily, no stings were received, and no hornets were squashed.
Brian and I were pretty amazed with this place. We had no idea it was here and it was really a surprise to us. We decided that we would have to return in the fall when the colors were changing. It would make for some amazing photos for sure.
The inside of Parker Hickman Farmstead was open to the public. It was a neat way to see what the older style of housing along the Buffalo River looked like. One of the more interesting things of note is the use of old newspaper to insulate the homes. This has always been something that fascinated me. The newspapers are pretty well preserved and it’s always fun to read what they have to say.
This one in particular was advertising the need for Stave Makers. Hopefully those Stave Makers had some kind of equipment to make the Staves, because at $8.00 per thousand I think I would have definitely passed that up! I’d be whittling sticks for the rest of my life for a measly 8 bucks! Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a date on the newspapers; something that we searched for a good 5 minutes. Hopefully, this newspaper dated waaay back. 8 dollars back then would have been a lot of money and the Stave Makers would have been proud to be in business.
One thing that I thought was interesting was that this farmstead had electricity. Brian did some research and found out that the farmstead had occupants up until 1978. I can’t blame them though, the solitude in this grove was just amazing and I would have liked to stay for longer as well.
Brian and I “vowed” that we would return during fall to check this place out. Hopefully, at that time, we will be able to make the small mile trip up to the graveyard that lies down this road. I’m sure it would have been a fascinating place to visit as well.
After our short visit at Parker Hickman Farmstead we headed back down Erbie Campground Road and towards our last destination for the day, Boxley Valley.