397. Des Arc/DeValls Bluff, Prairie County (AR23)

So, back in Alamogordo I mentioned that all my rumination and blathering about courthouses and what to document would be more important when I got to Arkansas. Now you can see why. Long ago, to make sure that everyone had the benefit of county administration and access, usually because of geographical issues, some counties would have two seats to ensure that there was always a courthouse nearby. Thirty-six counties in the United States are arranged this way. Arkansas has ten counties that have dual county seats, thus there might be two courthouses. It seems for the most part that there is one main traditional courthouse and one administrative center that may or may not actually be a courthouse. After long, hard thought, I decided that I would document both unless one, most likely the crappier one, would be an extreme inconvenience. Most counties aren’t really that big, so I have trouble seeing what that “inconvenience” might look like, but, again, there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in my philosophies so who knows? Here, as you can see, I got both. And I guess I needed to pick up a cache, too.

I ended up at the Lower White River Museum in Des Arc. Apparently Arkansas State Parks (which this technically is, apparently) have an informal thing with the caches they place. Each one contains a code and if you submit them all yadda yadda yadda something. It honestly went in one eye and out the other because I have no intention of going to every state park in Arkansas. Heck, there are entire regions of Arkansas I have no intention of setting foot in again if I can avoid it (sorry, razorbackgirl). This contest is, therefore, wasted on me. The code was there in the cache, a container in a wall behind the building, but I have no idea what it was. I am the reason that we can’t have nice things. With that done, I rushed off for my destined appointment in… DeValls Bluff. But after that? Destiny would take me to…