Back in 1921, traveling by automobile was still a great adventure. And one of the most daring adventures was driving north from Russellville to Jasper in Newton County.
Three "Pen Women," what we would call female news reporters, hired a driver to take them on the unpaved road that wound north from the river valley to the Ozarks. They recounted their adventures in the Nov. 6 1921 edition of the Arkansas Democrat. They said the last five miles between Lurton and Jasper "beggar description."
They gazed down on what some now call the Arkansas Grand Canyon, saying the "checker boxed farms" looked like miniature toys. "Here the road crept along the brow of a mountain, blasted out of sheer crags and filled with rock on the outer edge, where the turn of the wheel or a burst of speed meant death hundreds of feet below — magnificent in its grandeur, awe-inspiring in its dizzy height."
They then came to Danger Curve. There were warning signs to shut off the gas. They sped down the grade with hopes the brakes would hold. They next crept through a wonderfully beautiful stretch of woodland, and then to Hairpin Loop. Then there was another descent and more curves until they saw the "sparkling little village of Jasper."
They dined at the Murray Hotel, which was on the northwest corner of the square, before rushing off to tour Diamond Cave before returning to Russellville.
Barbara LeRoy is the author of “Which Side Were They On?,” a 302 page book listing biographical sketches of the Newton Countians who were involved in the Civil War, available for sale either in the Bradley House Museum or by purchasing online at www.newtoncountyar.com. The book sells for $33.
