The essential companion to this trip is the Driver's Guide to the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, Volume One: Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma by Kirby Sanders. It's a turn-by-turn, full-color vault of Old Wire information, charting the first half of John Butterfield's goliath stagecoach route. Check any Ozark historical society or museum to get your copy. I can vouch for it's value because I failed to discover it until after weeks of hazard and error. Stopping for directions defies the spirit of freewheeling discovery, but I'll recommend the book as a matter of local interest and historical completeness. It also contains directions, if you're the kind to admit using them.
Old Wire Road at the Missouri-Arkansas border
Of course, the 2,800-mile Butterfield Trail can't be covered in one sitting. Even the Old Wire Road's full Ozark trek is too wealthy in sights for one undertaking. Let's start at the Missouri border, and follow the road's most unique stretch through the most Northwest corner of Arkansas, Benton County. Heading South, it begins as Missouri 37 tracks the general bend of the original Old Wire Road from Springfield into the Ozark hills. A spur splits from Highway 37 and marks a telling divide at the Arkansas border. Can you tell which side won the Civil War? No consulting your Driver's Guide.
Pott's Hill battle marker and other sights along the Old Wire Road
Here the pavement ends and the old Confederacy begins. In February 1862, fast-marching Union forces chased Rebels raiders Benny Hill style towards Arkansas, finally catching them near Pott's Hill on the Arkansas border. A historical marker notes this valley along Old Wire Road was the Civil War's first engagement on Arkansas soil. The brief clash ended with each side drawing back to their respective sides of the border to regroup for the upcoming Battle of Pea Ridge. No sexy parties ensued.
[Skirmish at Pott's Hill at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture]
With the days of armed battled long expired, travel along this valley on an August evening makes a solid case for endless Summer. Slow ride, take it easy. A canopy of trees shadows the road, carrying us through rustic scenes that have changed little in 150 years.
Lazy Summer scenes
These few miles of graded dirt roads lead to the edge of Pea Ridge National Military Park, where a fence bars entry into a well-preserved mile of stagecoach-era Old Wire leading to Elkhorn Tavern (as previously introduced). From the tavern, a park tour road echoes the old trail out of the park and onto gravel roads towards Little Sugar Creek.
Little Sugar Creek park and bridge over the creek into Brightwater
In March 1862, the Union Army dug into bluffs along Little Sugar Creek hoping to repel a 16,000-soldier Confederate force marching up the Telegraph Road. In the cover of darkness, the crafty rebels opted to take the scenic route around this position and begin the Battle of Pea Ridge about a mile to the North. A pleasant little park at this site marks the Thing That Never Actually Got Around to Happening. However, drama did not elude the hamlet of Brightwater that sat on the opposite side of the creek. In 1947, a tornado completely erased the town from the map, killing four.
[Brightwater, AR, on Google Maps]
Avoca railroad bridge, town offices, and stone marker
When the Frisco Railroad laid tracks along Little Sugar Creek in the 1880s, the residents of Brightwater relocated their town site to a hill just to the South in order to receive a rail station. A concrete railroad arch over the still-unpaved road serves as a portal between the original site and its successor, now known as Avoca. Today the town of Avoca embraces its history with liberal dose of stagecoach imagery and an Arkansas-shaped stone marker listing history's designations of the Old Wire Road.
Old Rogers and the former Summit Motel, once the location of Callahan Station
Leaving Avoca, the road unceremoniously parallels the railroad tracks into an aged, workaday section of Rogers. A few blocks from a metal scrap yard, Old Wire meets the site of the Butterfield line's first official stage stop in Arkansas, Callahan Station. In his Driver's Guide, Kirby Sanders identifies the current building as the 1889-vintage Summit Hotel, an antique in its own right. By default, we can figure the original coach station burned down in the Civil War. Sharp-eyed readers have probably noticed everything in the Ozarks got burned down in the Civil War.
Old Rogers continues along Old Wire Road
From Callahan's Station, our byway passes the rather well-kept Rogers downtown, then snakes Southward through the hills above Lake Atalanta and the working-class neighborhoods that lead out of town. The pavement ends past the city limits, and the road once again dips into into the tangy glaze of history in a valley known as Cross Hollow.
[Cross Hollow on Google Maps]
To defend its hold on Arkansas, the Confederate Army established Camp Benjamin in Cross Hollow near current-day Monte Ne. The army maintained a sentry point on the high ground overlooking the Old Wire Road just to the East of the camp, an important outpost against Union traffic from the North.
Old Wire Road enters Cross Hollow
The camp barracks were erected under contract from sawmill entrepreneur Peter Van Winkle, who held the land that would become Hobbs State Park. No visible trace of Camp Benjamin remains, as it was burned down by the Union Army pressing the Confederates back towards the South.
[Article: Confederate Encampment at Cross Hollow from Arkansas Historical Quarterly]
Cross Hollow does have one slightly newer relic, a decaying rock post office built during a brief period prosperity in the valley. Around the turn of the century, a railroad spur was built to Coin Harvey's now-sunken Monte Ne resort, later serving the Rogers White Lime Works, a defunct kilning operation. Lime, baby!
Derelict Cross Hollow post office, and a scenic pond in the hollow
South of Cross Hollow, the Old Wire Road straightens and returns to pavement East of Lowell, and cruises past Bethel Heights on its way to Fitzgerald's Station just past the boundary of Benton County. This drive is short in miles, but long in history.
Heritage Trail markers
Drive it yourself, and you may notice signs marking a "Heritage Trail." This is the work of the Heritage Trail Partners, Inc., a group seeking promote Northwest Arkansas history and points of interest through recreational travel along the road. The group's ultimate aim is to add bike and pedestrian trails the length of the contemporary alignment in Western Arkansas, making the road an attraction in itself.
While not a driver's delight, Old Wire Road exhibits such a varied past that you may find yourself sharing in the enthusiasm.
Traffic: everything from no cars allowed (Pea Ridge walking section) to active Ozark artery
Driving challenge: leave the sports car at home
Purty mouth: let's just say some sections still don't get a lot of visitors
Ozarkbahn rating: histor-a-tacular
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