ARKANSAS: Dirt Poor Rural Towns That Are Full Of Surprises

all right everyone I am in rural Arkansas let me show you where you can see the state of Arkansas there if you were to split it up into four sections I would be in the south Western section uh right now I am in the town of delight now you're probably wondering about the name Delight nothing complicated uh early settlers said to themselves it is such a delight to live here uh that's what we're gonna call it Delight uh Peak population was in 1950 there were 574 people here today there are 293 so it's lost close to half its population uh median age here is 46. it is definitely an older town um gender breakdown's interesting 59 female uh 41 male okay I'm just gonna kind of go real slow here so you can see everything now you look at those numbers even further uh 20 of them are widows and 11 of the men are widowers poverty rates pretty high 23.9 percent median home value is 56 500. now that's pretty low let's see here's the race breakdown ninety percent White four percent black one percent Asian one percent Hispanic and then four percent other now uh this town had a really famous person of significance who grew up here Glen Campbell I'm sure those of you who are older know exactly who I'm talking about of course if you uh listen to music in the 70s and 80s you probably heard songs like Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern nights and uh Wichita alignment I was a big fan of him I listened to him a lot when I was a kid and he is buried here too the Campbell uh Family Cemetery is right near here it's actually a town called Bill's town that's where he was born very near here a little more than a wide spot in the road though all of you or a lot of you are always wondering about gas and groceries let's see looks like there is a gas station here and uh the price is 319. I think you can see that probably right Easy Mart and Family Dollar most likely the place people here get groceries okay I'm arriving in Bill's town birthplace of Glen Campbell like I said it's just barely a wide spot in the road this is pretty much it right here I do know his cemeteries close by though so I'm gonna head there next give you a little look I saw a mailbox with the name Campbell on it so I'm wondering if he still has relatives here hmm yeah but this is the town uh the Family Cemetery is down this road so I'm gonna head there now the Campbell family Cemetery yeah this is it right here all right uh yeah I'm gonna get out and take a closer look well guys I'm here um this is the Campbell Family Cemetery Bill's Town Arkansas so Glenn is buried here let's go check it out uh let's see hmm here we go Glenn Travis Campbell legendary singer guitarist Glenn Campbell was born in billstown Arkansas April 22 1936 he died in Nashville Tennessee 2017 after a battle with Alzheimer's Campbell brought country music to the mainstream as the genre's first crossover star with hits like Rhinestone Cowboy Wichita Lineman and Southern Nights all great songs he made history by winning Grammy Awards in both the pop and country categories in a renowned career that spanned more than six decades and sold more than 50 million records camo created and indelible mark on American pop culture as a beloved Mission or a musician singer actor television personality incredible ah which one do you think is his let's see if I can find it whoa did you hear that [Laughter] [Applause] wow so it's got a motion sensor on it and it triggered I was triggered when I came over here [Music] you got to be impressed by that there's a speaker in a tree right there [Music] oh wow this is too cool yeah here it is right here [Music] Glenn Travis and uh [Music] huh is that his wife I'm assuming really she might still be alive yeah that's what's going on there isn't it and somebody put some golf balls down here I guess he liked to play golf [Music] and the cowboy boot with flowers in it [Music] well this is pretty cool [Music] I don't know for sure if this is Glen Campbell singing this but I'm guessing it is uh If someone knows that for sure go ahead and post it in the comments but I'm thinking that's what's going on here let's see began his career groundbreaking groundbreaking guitars for Elvis Presley Frank Sinatra Beach Boys yeah I've seen video of him playing with the Beach Boys amazing wow wow how about that I'm not gonna lie I'm impressed all right everyone I'm entering the town of Murfreesboro population 1980 was 1883. today there's a little over 1400. downtown now it's pretty nice I got a County Courthouse right there yeah it's a pretty town uh there's something here in this area in this town that no other place in the U.S can claim but I'll get to that in a second let's tell you or I'll tell you the numbers first about the town it's pretty sweet downtown though isn't it that looks really nice I like it looks like we have a hotel here uh they get some visitors here and I'll again I'll tell you why in a second let me tell you about the place first uh let's see Pike County Courthouse Art Deco I'm thinking what do you guys think it's pretty awesome let's see let me head this way tell you more about the town um the gender breakdown 51 male 49 female but here's something interesting uh 10 percent of the men are widowers nine percent of the women that is the first time that I have seen this where there are more men who have been widowed than women first time uh age of the Town median age is 44. let's see there's a gas station right here so let's uh let me show you how much gas costs here real quick uh 329 or a gallon of gas here in Arkansas rural Arkansas I'm gonna turn down the street here take a quick look at residential well I'll tell you more uh poverty level is really high here 30.9 percent that's almost three times higher than a US average um race breakdown 79 white 14 black uh four percent Hispanic the rest is other median home value 79 500. so you could get a house here pretty cheap crime is low though uh 20 lower than the US average all right I'm out on foot uh there's that County Courthouse again I see that signed Diamond Insurance that's a bit of a clue for what I'm about to tell you but first I want to show you this here looks like uh they took an old gas station and uh preserved it picnic area that's really nice isn't it anyway um you know when a kid out on these road trips I learn a lot and I learned something about Arkansas when I was researching this town did you know that Arkansas is the only state where diamonds are produced and they are produced right here in this town or nearby the place is called let's see Crater of Diamonds State Park yes the area that diamonds are produced is owned by the state of Arkansas but it gets better I said State Park that means anybody can go to that State Park and dig for diamonds and the policy is Finders Keepers so if you find a diamond there you can keep it and uh don't think they don't find them over 75 000 diamonds have been found there including one of significance it is called the straw Wagner diamond it is the world's most perfect diamond it is Flawless a one in a billion as it's described it was found here right here near this town all right I'm showing you quickly where I'm at in town basically right there in the middle of town you can see the Crater of Diamond state park right down here what do you guys think let's go check it out I saw a sign driving in that said that this is the eighth largest Diamond Reserve in the world anyway they have a visitor center over here let's see if they have that diamond I would like to see that that was a big sign in here Diamond search area yeah so I'm right here and uh that's it right there go out this way is where you go hunt for diamonds out there all right here it is the strong Wagner diamond nature formed this gym before humans transformed it into a Flawless one in a billion diamond 1.09 carat round brilliant Diamond certified perfect ideal cut colorless Flawless by the American gym Society a diamond of this exceptional grade weighing over one carat is estimated to occur one time in a billion and it's right here that's it [Music] you guys take a look at it come on camera Focus well there's the diamond I don't know if the camera's really focusing but that's it right there amazing let's see I was driving down the road and I saw this money house a Petting Farm I don't know about that but what struck me is this house wow uh I don't know about you guys this is crazy it is awesome how awesome this is give you a good look see I'm still in town here I haven't seen a grocery store but there you go they got a Dollar General at Family Dollar and a Dollar Tree so they got the full Trifecta here all right I'm arriving at the town of Glenwood uh 2010 there were 2200 people here a little more 2021 a little over 1800. so the town has been losing a little bit of population there's downtown um let's see gender breakdown interesting 56 percent female 44 male 19 19 of the females are widows I'm just going to kind of hang out in this downtown a little bit um that is so high uh all these towns have a high percentage of widows and they've got widowers too four percent of the men the widowers that's downtown's got some business though I'll say that let's see uh let's see what the race breakdown is it's 74 white 23 Hispanic three percent black why don't I just drive down into uh residential real quick see what's down here as I tell you some more um per capita income 21 600 median household thirty two thousand three hundred uh so those numbers are pretty low and poverty is high 23.7 percent so that's uh over twice the national average you really see it out here the poverty uh here's a shot that I took in between towns this right here you see a lot out there or out in the country roads in between these towns this right here a lot of it median home value 78 600. crime note uh it's low 20 percent lower than the national average so uh there's that yeah High poverty but low crime I'll tell you what it is pretty in places though now look at this I'm on a residential street here in Glenwood wow it's pretty cool um let's see there is a famous person from this town pretty famous anyway his name is uh what's his name Clark Duke um as soon as I saw his picture I recognized him instantly he's a young guy but uh he's been in quite a few movies uh six drop a sex drive kick ass a movie I really like and a hot tub time machine and that was pretty funny too yeah you could just see uh poverty everywhere very poor area but there's the cats I was looking for him finally I found cats two of them how about that it's getting really late in the day I'm about to lose Sun so I've got one more town I want to show you real quick uh so how about if I do that right now before we head to that other Town another quick drive through downtown oh Billy's House of guitars yeah I forgot about that that's pretty good Museum from what I understand it's got guitars that uh were played by geez George Harrison The Beatles Johnny Cash Elvis Presley anyway I wanted to show you gas station there it is 319 for gas and um there is a grocery store here awesome and there it is rights Wright's Food Center I think it says their motto yeah Priced Right at rights so those of you who are wondering where they get groceries there it is all right I've arrived in the town of Amity um let's see 1980 Peak population 859 people today there's a little over 600 let's see um median age is uh 32 gender breakdown 57 percent female 43 percent male 11 of the female are widows so a lot of widows here again yet another town uh race breakdown 89 percent White eight percent Hispanic three percent other per capita income eighteen thousand six hundred median household income thirty eight thousand seven hundred uh poverty twenty seven percent almost three times higher than the national average so again uh another town with very high poverty I'm out on the main drag I'm gonna head into downtown median home value ninety two thousand nine hundred that's a little higher than what we've seen in these other towns uh crime is a little bit higher here twenty percent higher than the national average forehead into downtown not sure what that was once a gas station obviously anyway um this town like the others has a famous former resident Billy Bob Thornton now he wasn't born here he was born in Hot Springs which is pretty close um but he grew up here in this town in the graveyard here the cemetery his father and his brother are buried he has bought two lots for that same graveyard one for him and one for Angelina Jolie now it's hard to say if Angelina will actually end up buried there are two lots or a lot for her there if she wants now this is downtown it just has like a you know one of these roundabouts that you just swing around I'll go down there in a second get a good look at this downtown it's actually uh kind of a cool downtown isn't it let's see there's a gas station but it's not open it doesn't look like so I'm gonna swing around this way um head down that other residential street real quick that was a brewery there huh that's pretty cool you know you just see a lot of this here though yeah those trees wow that's pretty crazy uh yeah a lot of stuff Arkansas is kind of famous for this lots of stuff in the yards well for those of you who wonder about groceries there's a Dollar General um it's the only place I can find haven't found gas yet let's see let's see what's up this way well this appears to be the only gas station uh and it's open can't really tell what the price is though because uh the sign is not on but anyway yeah Jeremy's Sports Stop all right everyone I'm gonna end the video here uh next video we are I will be going into North East Arkansas so uh be looking for that see you then foreign

Channel: Joe & Nic's Road Trip

Views: 95,630

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Id: LVcddBQSg6o

Length: 26min 47sec (1607 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 06 2023