May 1

We attended church services at  Memorial Missionary Baptist Church. John and Ruth know the assistant pastor, Joe Carlton and his wife Edna Mae. John went to seminary with Joe and has know Edna Mae from his college years.  Joe's son, Jason, also a Baptist minister, lead the service.

 

We don't normally walk on Sunday, but with Mondays weather forecast 80% chance of rain, we thought we might get in a few miles. So, after lunch at Papa Poblano's, we drove back to the RVs, changed into walking gear and Carol and Ruth took us out to the starting point, the outskirts of Dierks. Dierks was very quite on a Sunday afternoon as we walked through. There is a large Weyerhaeuser lumber plant here.

 

Around 1897, Herman Dierks, along with his brothers, Hans, Peter and Henry, bought a sawmill and lumber yard in DeQueen, Arkansas. Their company name was Dierks Lumber and Coal Co. Within 30 years, they had purchased more than 1.2 million acres of timber to become the biggest producer of pine lumber in the South. In 1969, 23 years after Herman Dierks death, the company sold all of its assets to Weyerhaeuser Co.

 

After a few miles, we passed by a forest tower. John thought it was a giant deer stand. We had walked 7 miles. Stay tuned ...