A Chevrolet car commercial from a few years ago featured the idea "Find New Roads!"
That was a time in which driving around the country, discovering new roads and new places was being promoted as a source of excitement and adventure, and to go along with the idea was the suggestion that a good, reliable, spiffy, powerful new V8 Chevrolet could take you away from the humdrum of your everyday boredom. I have been a Chevrolet man myself over many years, but for different reasons. I have never had any trouble escaping boredom, even in everyday life, so I have never felt a need for a car to supply excitement in my life or to "take me away" from it all. Sometimes I even want my car to take me on a search for and an exploration of "old" roads. Old roads to me are often as exciting as new roads.
Since we in the Pea Ridge area are one of the older communities in Benton County, we have some roads that have some real age on them. I'm especially thinking at the moment of the Sugar Creek Road. Not only is Sugar Creek Road named after Little Sugar Creek, it actually follows the creek itself, snaking through the low hills beside the stream bed, beginning near Garfield, and ending today at its intersection with Arkansas Highway 72 in the valley northeast of Bentonville. Back before 1950, when both Sugar Creek Road and State Hwy. 72 were still gravel roads, the Sugar Creek roadbed actually extended several hundred yards farther west, along the bottom of the hill, until it made a hard left turn to the south. The bridge crossing back then was a north/south crossing, rather than the northeast/southwest bridge crossing of today, and the much smaller old bridge was downstream a bit to the west from today's bridge. Early on, Sugar Creek Road was probably the main road from Pea Ridge to Bentonville. The route would have been down the road we call Ryan Road today, turning right (west) onto Sugar Creek Road, and on to the county seat some 10 miles to the west. Sugar Creek Road undoubtedly played a big part in troop movements during the Civil War, including the movements leading up to the Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862.
The idea of creek roads was actually rather common in the early days of our area's settlement. I'll mention two other creek-based roads, one of which is still much-used today.
That is the northern stretch of Lucas Lane, north of Pea Ridge not far from the Missouri state line. Some of Lucas Lane actually used to be "in" the creek, not just beside it. During my school days, when Lucas Lane was part of our school bus route, the creek gravel actually was the roadbed in places.
The other old creek road that I want to mention was abandoned many years ago, and by the time I was born in 1940, most signs of the old roadbed had disappeared. That road was basically a horse and wagon road, coming north from Pea Ridge down Otter Creek, and following the creek to its termination in Missouri where Otter Creek discharges into Big Sugar Creek just above the Jacket bridge. The beginnings of that old road in Pea Ridge are no longer visible, but old maps of our town show that what we now call Greene Street in the little valley just west of our old downtown, in the old days used to continue on along the stream fed by the Greene Street Spring, joining with Otter Creek near its headwaters at Morrison Spring. I have wondered why creek beds were chosen as "roads" in the early days. I think possibly because the creek gravel seemed to be more stable than the muddy dirt roads where wagons could mire down in the soft mud. Also, driving through the stream may have seemed good because old wooden wagon wheels had their steel rims tightened when the wood absorbed moisture.
Since many of our area roads originated as horse and buggy roads, not automobile roads, they didn't need the smooth gradual bends that speedy automobiles prefer today. Before the road to Bentonville from Pea Ridge was improved and paved shortly after 1950, the old gravel roadway had many, many sharp corners. The roadway allowed the farm fields to maintain their square corners. The old route, turned sharp left onto what is now Dove Road, south to a sharp right onto what is now Blue Jay Road, another sharp turn south and past today's Jobe farm, sharp right and west to the area now occupied by Center Point Construction, sharp left and south to today's Jac's Ranch. Then, amazingly, we had a very gradual bend to the right which has not changed, but then came another sharp left at the corner of Jac's Ranch. That corner is still rather sharp even today, and people seem regularly to run off the corner and smash into the fence. That corner is a bit deceptive even today. Just remember, when you are passing Jac's Ranch, that this is a road that got put there in horse and buggy days, and you better temper your buggy speed as you round the corner. About 40 miles per hour usually works, unless there is ice.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge and can be contacted by email at [email protected], or call 621-1621. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 02/21/2018