Prior to the completion of Interstate 30, U.S. 67 was the main route from Arkansas to Texas, making it one of the most important roads in this region of the country. The roads that eventually would turn into U.S. 67 in Arkansas were part of the original state highway system in 1923.
"Federal and state funding became available for highways early in the 1920s as automobile and truck traffic was beginning to take the place of railroad traffic," Steve Teske writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. "A joint commission of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads and the American Association of State Highway Officials created the first national system of highways, with nine federal highways established in Arkansas, including Highway 67. Sections of the highway were gradually improved as funds became available. Much pavement was laid for the highway from 1928 through 1931. The highway was 18 feet wide at that time. More improvements were made by federal projects such as the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s."
As we passed through Benton on a recent trip to southwest Arkansas, I urged our driver, Paul Austin of the Arkansas Humanities Council, to "take the old road." By that, I meant Highway 67. We exited onto the highway just after crossing the Saline River. As we left Haskell, we passed what had been the historic Saline County campus of the Arkansas State Hospital, which opened at this location in the 1930s. The Legislature created the Arkansas Lunatic Asylum at Little Rock in 1873, though Reconstruction delayed construction of the facility until 1881. The name was changed to the Arkansas State Hospital in 1933. Its Benton Farm Colony opened in 1936 with room for 2,000 people. Farm operations ceased there in 1957. In 1961, what's now known as the Arkansas Health Center was designated to receive all black psychiatric patients from its section of the state. Facilities were integrated in 1965. It's now a 310-bed psychiatric nursing home.
The psychiatric hospital portrayed in the 1996 movie Sling Blade, which starred southwest Arkansas native Billy Bob Thornton, is actually the Arkansas Health Center. My grandmother in Benton, who lived until age 98, always called it "the nervous hospital," the same term used by Thornton's character in the movie.
We entered Hot Spring County, continued past Glen Rose High School and then came upon the Acme Brick Co. plant at Perla. Fittingly, it was Brickfest weekend in Malvern. The festival started in 1981 and annually includes everything from a brick-throwing contest to concerts and arts and crafts displays. There were dozens of brick plants in Arkansas during the early 1900s. By the 1980s, the only plants were in the Malvern area, Jonesboro, Hope, Fort Smith and Clarksville. By 2009, there were just four plants in the state, all owned by Acme. Malvern has been home through the years to Arkansas Brick & Tile, Atchison Brick Works, Clark Pressed Brick Co and Malvern Brick & Tile. Acme began operations in Texas in 1891 and opened its first Arkansas plant in Hot Spring County in 1921. The fully automated Perla East Gate Plant opened in 1967. Meanwhile, the aging Malvern facility was replaced with what's known as the Ouachita Plant in 1980.
Though the brick industry looms large here, I consider tiny Keeney's Grocery in Malvern to be as much of a Hot Spring County landmark as the brick plants. It's where we had breakfast that day, including some of the best sausage I've ever eaten. Charles and Maureen Keeney opened the grocery store 60 years ago in a residential area. It remains at the same location. Charles Keeney is 80 but is young at heart. He even drives a Corvette. He jokingly says of his wife: "She can get old if she wants to. I'm not going to." A corner of the store has been turned into a small restaurant, and Keeney's serves breakfast and lunch every day but Sunday.
In 2000, with competition from Wal-Mart and other large retailers hurting his business, Charles Keeney thought about retiring. He decided that he needed to keep working since he only had $45,000 saved for retirement. Keeney said: "I just pushed some of the groceries back and put in a kitchen and some tables. I did it because I had to make a living. We stumbled through the menu for a while. But I was raised country so we fix things in the old home-style way."
He told us that he serves so much sausage at breakfast that he doesn't have time to make it to sell by the pound in the grocery section of the store. On Thursdays, he serves dozens of rib-eye steaks. People eat them in the restaurant for lunch while others come in during the afternoon to get steaks to take home for supper. Charles and Maureen Keeney arrive at the store at 4:30 a.m. and begin serving breakfast at 6 a.m. Charles was 20 and Maureen was 17 when they bought the store in 1956. They're a special couple, deeply loved in the Malvern area.
We continued toward the southwest on 67, crossing the old viaduct over the railroad tracks at Donaldson, going over the Ouachita River and passing the tiny Ouachita School District. We drove through Friendship, crossed DeRoche Creek into Clark County, made our way through the Caddo Valley commercial corridor and then went over the Caddo River. The Caddo was filled with tubers on this day as we made our way toward Arkadelphia.
It had been good to get off the interstate.
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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the director of corporate community relations for Simmons First National Corp. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 08/10/2016