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So, does anyone has any experience with Marshall? Are the local business owners honest? Is the town kept clean? How about the grocery store, does it have a good selection? IIRC, there is a Super Walmart there, I'm not a fan of their meat or produce, but I plan on having a garden (again). What about a dentist? Lumber yard and hardware store?
I found a dream property out in the county and Marshall is the closest large town. Does anybody know in real time the distance to Fayetteville from there? It looks like Harrison is 50 mins away. Maybe that's where the Super Walmart was, not Marshall. I have to go back and look. I think Mountain Home or View isn't too far either.
Anyhoo, whatever anecdotes you have, throw 'em at me
google indicates it's about 2.5 hours away. I camped out that way a few years ago. it's very rural. Cant say much about the stores and amenities.
When you are in Fayetteville or rogers, it only takes about a 10 minute drive to get rural in a hurry so I would feel safe in saying it's world's difference from Fayetteville.
put this text in a google search "walmart near marshall ar"
Marshall is a great small town. It's very clean, has a Harp's grocery store, lots of farm supply, hardware, basic doctors/dentist are there. There is no Wal Mart though, you'd have to go to Harrison for that.
I work in that area alot, judging by your other posts that you are looking for a lot of land, I'm guessing you may be looking in the area of Witts Springs?
I lived in Searcy County from '75 to '80, actually 10 miles from town, but Marshall was the commerce center...if you could call it that. It has the typical town square courthouse, surrounded by a few meager retail establishments. I recall the population being between 1500 and 1700....it had one grocery store, one furniture store, one shirt factory, one bank, one hardware store (run by old time Daniel family), one lumber yard, several tie and stave mills, one car dealer, several loooow budget motels, a couple of places that could pass for restaurants, 2 doctors (one a Daniel, and another local son of a long time family), i dentist.....and a whole lot of fruit jar baptists. Searcy was (and I suspect still is) a dry county, obtaining legal liquor was a several hour round trip....illegal not so time consuming.
I have returned to visit several times to see old coworkers, and found little has changed....I refer to it as the "land time forgot". During my time there, Marshall was a true sundown town, and I'd lay odds that it still is, just not as overt. My kids, who were not baptist and chose not to participate in the illegal bible study class held in their classrooms, were invited to wait outside under the covered breezway in all sorts of weather, while the administrators all felt this was OK treatment for grade school children and saw no reason to obey the law.
Outsiders were only welcomed as a cash infusion vehicle to the local economy, in fact the real estate broker, whose farm I bought, was still an outsider after 25 years in the community, all while his wife taught in the school system. In short, if you weren't white, a local and a baptist, you didn't belong....maybe conditions have changed, so don't take my experiences as current....go see for yourself...before you buy.
The country side is pretty, mostly hardwoods, rolling hills, some cattle, there was once a dairy, mostly retired, subsistence farmers, or Harrison commuters....local opportunities are few and far between. I worked locally, commuted to both Harrison and Little Rock at times. Satellite internet is likely your only option...if that is important.
I have addressed the humidity in another thread, not much difference from So. Indiana (or So VA for that matter), winter weather can be cold, I saw more ice storms than snow storms, but I do recall being stuck in a snow drift.
Gardening.....heh heh......more rock than soil, but it can be done. Flint is the local rock unless you are lucky enough to have sandstone. After every rain, my kids would go out to the garden to pick rocks that had freshly been unearthed by the rain....how they hated that. Flint rock is extremely hard on car/truck tires, most county roads are flint rock. Fruit trees....one of only 2 places that I've lived where I could get good apple crops without spraying for damaging insects. Water could be an issue, my nearest neighbor was 2 miles away, and had to drill 805' for 1.5 gpm, I got lucky at 465' and 25 gpm. Visit with potential neighbors to inquire about water....see if the county has available well data on line via a GIS program.
I don't want to paint a negative picture, only relay my personal experiences....others may have a different story, but you will be hard pressed to find another CD poster who has actually lived in the area...so you will really need to do your own investigation. Let me know where your proposed property is located....perhaps I can offer more info.
I lived in Searcy County from '75 to '80, actually 10 miles from town, but Marshall was the commerce center...if you could call it that. It has the typical town square courthouse, surrounded by a few meager retail establishments. I recall the population being between 1500 and 1700....it had one grocery store, one furniture store, one shirt factory, one bank, one hardware store (run by old time Daniel family), one lumber yard, several tie and stave mills, one car dealer, several loooow budget motels, a couple of places that could pass for restaurants, 2 doctors (one a Daniel, and another local son of a long time family), i dentist.....and a whole lot of fruit jar baptists. Searcy was (and I suspect still is) a dry county, obtaining legal liquor was a several hour round trip....illegal not so time consuming.
I have returned to visit several times to see old coworkers, and found little has changed....I refer to it as the "land time forgot". During my time there, Marshall was a true sundown town, and I'd lay odds that it still is, just not as overt. My kids, who were not baptist and chose not to participate in the illegal bible study class held in their classrooms, were invited to wait outside under the covered breezway in all sorts of weather, while the administrators all felt this was OK treatment for grade school children and saw no reason to obey the law.
Outsiders were only welcomed as a cash infusion vehicle to the local economy, in fact the real estate broker, whose farm I bought, was still an outsider after 25 years in the community, all while his wife taught in the school system. In short, if you weren't white, a local and a baptist, you didn't belong....maybe conditions have changed, so don't take my experiences as current....go see for yourself...before you buy.
The country side is pretty, mostly hardwoods, rolling hills, some cattle, there was once a dairy, mostly retired, subsistence farmers, or Harrison commuters....local opportunities are few and far between. I worked locally, commuted to both Harrison and Little Rock at times. Satellite internet is likely your only option...if that is important.
I have addressed the humidity in another thread, not much difference from So. Indiana (or So VA for that matter), winter weather can be cold, I saw more ice storms than snow storms, but I do recall being stuck in a snow drift.
Gardening.....heh heh......more rock than soil, but it can be done. Flint is the local rock unless you are lucky enough to have sandstone. After every rain, my kids would go out to the garden to pick rocks that had freshly been unearthed by the rain....how they hated that. Flint rock is extremely hard on car/truck tires, most county roads are flint rock. Fruit trees....one of only 2 places that I've lived where I could get good apple crops without spraying for damaging insects. Water could be an issue, my nearest neighbor was 2 miles away, and had to drill 805' for 1.5 gpm, I got lucky at 465' and 25 gpm. Visit with potential neighbors to inquire about water....see if the county has available well data on line via a GIS program.
I don't want to paint a negative picture, only relay my personal experiences....others may have a different story, but you will be hard pressed to find another CD poster who has actually lived in the area...so you will really need to do your own investigation. Let me know where your proposed property is located....perhaps I can offer more info.
Good Luck
Gemstone1
Gemstone, you lived there 40 years ago. It has changed quite a bit. There is quite a bit more infrastructure than what you listed. It's still a small town though. There do have rural water lines in town, but OP did state he was buying nearby. Regardless of your picture of it in the 70's, it's a safe, clean, small town for those who are looking for that.
Gunslinger, I can Google all day and it isn't always right, I was hoping someone who drives those roads would know if it's longer. Bloomington was only 7 miles from the main town I lived near and it took 30 mins! Single lane road with slow driving folks and not many places to pass.
Holly, I'll PM you.
Gemstone.
Yeah, I know all about small towns and exclusion. I married a southern boy and his small hometown NEVER made me feel welcome. I was always the "Damn Yankee"* that took their extremely eligible bachelor from the marriage pool. Of course I was able to make some friends and had work friends, but very insular. Never felt happier leaving that place behind.
The small town (2+k. Yeah, I used to tell the natives that it wasn't really a small town anymore) where my little farm was at in IN was not so bad. The exclusion was never really overt though and I have several friends that I still keep in regular touch. I worked as a substitute teacher for several years and I never got the "good" students. Always the behavior kids, the crappy jobs the "favored" (sister, cousin, brother, uncle's mule) subs would never have to do. They even automated the system due to complaints but the office clerks would work around that. One day I was waiting behind another sub to check in and the girl was like "I have T,W, T with this or that room and next week blah, blah blah". So I get to my classroom and get out my phone to check the system and guess how many job postings were there? Yeah, none. But, when I went to the hardware store, they bent over backwards to help me, always asked about the bees; at the grocery everyone was super nice and would even try to get products in for me etc. I have other stories but in my experience there, it was more good than bad.
As for Searcy being dry, I saw that KY is dry for COUNTIES. I would have had to drive to TN to buy. But, I lived out on my farm for 11 years, so buying in bulk is a hard habit to break. I would also over stock for winter because the ice storms there were treacherous and the sun melting the ice off the road was the only winter maintenance. And since it was Indiana in the winter, the sun rarely made an appearance...
As for internet, I'm really surprised that more people don't tether their smartphone. I've been doing this for years and I have had 3G out in the country. Yes, absolutely, I will be making phone calls etc on potential properties to make sure. Internet is my lifeline.
Holly,
I hope you are right that the town has changed for the better and progressed. Do you know if they are still doing the bible study in classrooms? I saw that mentioned on another thread and I do find that worrying. Also, I'm a she
Does anyone else have any input on the gardening? I find that troubling since it is one of the things that I can't do here and miss like crazy. Should I start another thread about gardening? Gemstone, I ruled out MO because they said you had to haul in topsoil because the ground was so awful (and rocky).
Thanks everyone! I hope I didn't get too off topic.
*Damn Yankee. That used to ***** me off so bad. I was like look, the war is long over and my parents came through Ellis Island. My family wasn't even here for the war. Didn't matter. I'd just grit my teeth and never let them see me get worked up about it. And of course my favorite: "What's the difference between a Yankee and a Damn Yankee? A Yankee comes to visit and then leaves but a Damn Yankee comes to live". So many people tell me "Move to NC!". No way in he!! would I move to a small southern town ever again.
We have camped and canoed the section of the Buffalo River near St. Joe, maybe 20 miles north of Marshall. It's a small town in a very pretty area of the Ozarks. I don't know much about it other than it is very small, surrounded by some of the very best parts of the Ozark Mountains, and rural.
Don't trust the AT&T wireless coverage maps for how well your cell phone service will work in town or rural. The map shows where I live has fine coverage and here I sit every day with 1 bar and I am in the middle of a city, not rural. Thank goodness for the wifi in my home. I have had to tether a few times for various reasons and I have found one bar yields a slow and unreliable connection.
I have family members that live in various parts of Arkansas and they all love it, though no one around Marshall.
Bad internet is likely the #1 reason I cannot see myself living in the country. I will likely always have to live in a city to be able to have fast reliable internet. I've done tethering before, but it always let me down. Such a shame since there are many nice quiet properties that are very rural I wouldn't mind having.
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KY is dry for COUNTIES. I would have had to drive to TN to buy. But, I lived out on my farm for 11 years, so buying in bulk is a hard habit to break. I would also over stock for winter because the ice storms there were treacherous and the sun melting the ice off the road was the only winter maintenance. And since it was Indiana in the winter, the sun rarely made an appearance...
