ARKANSAS: The Bleakest Towns I've Ever Visited - The Dying, Forgotten Delta

all right everyone I am in rural Arkansas here's a look at the map uh there I am right there that is the Mississippi running through the middle of frame all right last video I was over here in the Mississippi Delta today I will be on the other side of the Mississippi in the Arkansas Delta now these towns I'm going to show you have all lost tremendous amount of population um they are all high in poverty especially children's poverty the rate of poverty for children is really high in all these towns they are declining hard there's no other way to look at it now as I drive into the town of Hughes the first place I'm going to visit I'll tell you the numbers as I make my way towards the downtown uh Peak population here in Hughes was in 1960 there were almost 2 000 people here today there are a little less than 900. it's lost over half its population let's see the gender breakdown kind of sticks out a little 58 male the other 42 female of course here's the race breakdown 55 black 36 percent White nine percent Hispanic it's a pretty diverse town now we'll get into the incomes uh per capita 18 900 that's 363 dollars a week median household income is twenty two thousand six hundred a year that's 435 dollars a week that is incredibly low uh here's poverty 36 percent for children 17 and under it's 37 percent and in this town for 65 and older it's pretty bad too 32 percent of people 65 and older live at or below the poverty line crime is uh pretty low though uh 15 per 1000 people U.S average is 23. so the crime here is lower than the U.S average anyway I'm heading into downtown now um let's see one more number to give you real quick that is median home values 64 700. so it look a lot of these other towns in this part of the country homes are very inexpensive let's see uh well a couple things real quick there's the fire department people asked to see that and uh looks like a pretty good police presence doesn't it anyway uh here is downtown look at this uh old Dollar General store when I was pulling up to it I thought it was the Dollar General but it's not they just it just has a similar name here let me show you what's over here there's another little part of downtown there we'll get over there in a minute but uh yeah let's look around here first I got old Pepsi sign you think that's worth anything of course the store is long gone you can see inside the window there the roof has collapsed ah the Decay is just incredible isn't it I do a slow swing around so I can show you everything wow I got a couple dogs over there running loose yeah just uh I gotta tell you guys just the feeling of Despair here um yeah like here uh let's see looks like a restaurant of some sort I don't think it's in business now but I like this lunch we deliver but no loitering another store there but I don't think that's open either why don't I head into some residential real quick take a little bit of a look around um as expected a tremendous amount of abandoned homes wow look at that it's interesting because across the street here those apartment buildings look pretty modern but um yeah there's definitely a lot of Decay here and poverty and it's everywhere I'm just going to keep driving here but um I mean Everywhere I Go yeah this is what you see you can really see the massive population drop all these empty homes wow this is crazy huh let's see a couple of churches here are uh I'm not sure if they are holding services that one maybe not even though the lights are on House of or prayer House of Deliverance there's another one over here but this one yeah it's it's disintegrating you see the roof is collapsing the cross is a jar let me see if I get back in that downtown and look at the condition of the stop sign one more look here [Music] coming from this direction wow let's get a closer look at this Dollar General shall we maybe this was one of the first ones an abandoned trailer there's a lot of people not a lot but I've seen about a dozen people just Milling around the streets First Baptist Church [Music] that's in pretty good shape yeah like I said uh yeah there's another person up there this is kind of a lot of people just wandering around the streets here um honestly seemingly aimlessly it just kind of adds to the uh the overall despair that I mentioned earlier yeah I'll stop sign again really bad shape um yeah I wonder what that was let's see another abandoned mobile home foreign got a handful of those all right now I'm back out on this main road all right guys I'm gonna head to the next town well everyone I am entering the town of Mariana hey there's a store right here get some Hunt Brothers Pizza anyway I am making my way downtown and as I do that I'll give you the numbers the statistics of the city they help paint a picture of what you're about to see let's see the median age is 41. at 57 of the town is female and 13 of those females are widows this is an older town uh you can already tell race breakdown is 78 percent black 20 percent White and remaining two percent is mixed now let's talk about the population in 1980 there were 6 200 people here today there are a little over 3 500 so the town has lost close to half its population um per capita income sixteen thousand two hundred dollars a year that's beautiful isn't it median household income uh this one's a bit of a shocker is 18 000 a year that's 346 dollars a week poverty really high 39 percent for children 17 and under it's 60 percent that is really high that's bad people 65 and older eight percent it's not that's not near as bad at least as bad as the last town crime is high uh 44 incidents per 1000 people U.S average is 23 almost twice higher violent crime I broke it down 8.4 per 1000 the U.S average is 3.9 so uh violent crime is twice higher let's see I'm right into downtown um you know it's not an abandoned downtown there's some shops and things open here give you a look at the other side as a fire department over there now the town is the county seat for Lee County and I read that the county courthouse built in 1936 was a mix of colonial and Art Deco and I'm thinking how's that even possible but honestly you can kind of see it am I right it's a beautiful building all right let's see let's head into a residential area near downtown and take a look a little bit before I do that I'll give you the median home value here 75 700. what I'm seeing is pretty nice stately homes up look at that guys cat sighting acquired hey Cat there you go look at us you're going to be famous cat anyway yeah let me look around a little bit more here but uh so far the homes are beautiful um look at this one right here I love it that's really nice yeah I'm not sure what this was uh but I like it needs to be fixed up huh let's see by the way it's a Thursday March 23rd it's about 11 A.M you can see the sun is coming out weather's nice 68 degrees Fahrenheit that's 20 degrees Celsius very comfortable here in rural Arkansas let's see I'm going to look around the town see if I can find a gas station see how much gas is uh I haven't seen a terrible amount of abandoned homes there's one there I really expect two though because with half the population gone there's got to be some abandoned homes here but right now most of them look pretty nice it's like a little shop here I don't think that's open though hot food cheeseburgers 100 ground beef we accept EBT there's another one here now this has been long empty whatever it is [Music] yeah look at this barbecue Diner oh wow you can smell it too it smells great you can you can smell them smoking the meat I'm a bit of an expert smoker myself it's become my hobby or it was before I started on this long trip an abandoned house and smoking meat is an art let me tell you guys but I love it anyway that's going to keep looking around well I found the gas station here but it's not open there's another one across the street here too that isn't open either but there are people there not sure what they're doing see a Family Dollar over there all right here's the gas station double quick uh 319. for a gallon of gas here well I'm seeing lots of mom and pop joints here places they sell food and they take your photo it looks like and they refill USB drives and they install install car audio now that is a One-Stop shop there and a recording studio it says well you got to be impressed by that uh let's see there's an elementary here I'm pretty sure that kids aren't going to school in this Elementary most likely another one has been built and this just sits here empty looks like since 2009 let's see there's a train depot over here I want to take a look at um train depots right over here it looks like I believe it's setting empty yeah there it is I hate to see it in that condition that is something that should be uh renovated it just sits there decaying well all right guys um I think I've seen enough here a few more sitting here empty [Music] okay well let's head out to the next town okay everyone I am in the town of Brinkley that's a pretty serious Enterprise right there anyway uh let's see Let's uh get some statistics out first uh population of the town in 1970. uh let's see how to roll the window up yeah 1970 the population was 5300. today 2700 so it's lost close to half its population median age is 46 so it's an older town for sure [Music] let's let this uh ambulance go by we got they got some excitement going on here all right so uh race breakdown 61 black 37 White two percent mixed kind of expected to see this uh with this much population loss uh what's this say no drinking on outside that the law you can be arrested by police well I don't think anybody's doing any drinking there anymore okay a little bit more per capita income twenty thousand six hundred a year that's 396 dollars a week median household income 34 500 a year that's 663 dollars a week like all these other places poverty is high 27 overall children 17 and under it is 59 percent that is so high that means if you see six or if you see ten kids here six of them live at or below the poverty level uh let's see what else sticks out um crime is pretty high 34 incidents per 1000 people U.S average is 23. let's do one more median home value 75 900. so with all that done let's go to take a look around a bit let's explore the town a little bit I'm going to try to keep the length of this video under control someone and I've got one more town after this our city actually that I really need to show you that post office that's impressive let's see why don't I find some residential Let's uh look around a bit there I just don't know what to say remember anyway okay this town is a big duck hunting area ducks flocked to the rice fields in the area and people come from all over to go duck hunting here there is a historic district here called lick Skillet Railroad that's pretty significant see if I can find it now this looks like it might be it yeah the lick Skillet railroad workstation historic district so it's a train depot they've restored I think an old hotel anyway you definitely like to see this yeah this I think was an old hotel right next to the train depot it's pretty sweet abandoned homes here expected to see this here's one that burned down I'm surprised they just leave them sitting there you see it often I went on ahead over in this direction see what's over here now this is quite a railroad crossing wow foreign guys I think I've seen enough here got one more town to show you so I'm gonna head that way now [Music] all right everyone I am in the town of Forest City now let's see Peak population was in 2010 there were 15 400 people here today there are just over thirteen thousand so that's a pretty significant population drop about 2 400 people some of the other numbers 59 of the town is male 41 is female but 14 of those females are widows so the ladies here have some options uh per capita income 16 000 a year that's a little over 300 a week median household income 33 200 here at 638 a week I'm heading into downtown now I will take a look a little bit of traffic this is a bigger Town though let's see uh race breakdown 71 black 21 white six percent Hispanic two percent other poverty rate again High 33 percent overall children 17 and under it's 37 percent and I'm going to turn into uh a residential area real quick also look around downtown some more and of course there are some things I'm going to tell you about this town that are interesting that is a pretty big Dollar General they have in this town look at the sign though looks like the wind knocked it over it's a little windy now you can really hear these church bells too hear those [Music] wow that's pretty cool all right let's see uh another statistic I didn't give you yet and that's crime crime in this town is really high um overall crime 67 per 1000 people that is uh three times higher than the US average which is 23. violent crime is worse uh 18.4 incidents per 1000 people U.S average is 3.9 so that is what four and a half times higher than a U.S average for violent crime wow you can still hear those bells here and it's almost like they got a PA system here in town [Music] huh anyway uh property crime 48 per 1000 U.S average is 20. that's over twice higher so those are pretty astonishing numbers let's see the median home value here is 68 700. the town was named after a guy named Nathan Bedford Forrest he was a confederate general he was instrumental in the founding and development of the town something that really stun to me when I read it is they had their first racially integrated High School prom here in 1988 1988 prior to that the proms the High School proms were kept separate black and white they had separate prompts it was not until 1988 that they became integrated that's stunned me that's that's crazy anyway okay so uh a musical Legend was born in this town I've been looking around for some sort of acknowledgment of that I haven't seen it but anyway r b Soul Musical Legend like I said Al Green was born here the guy is in a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame won 11 Grammys Rolling Stone ranks him as the 14th greatest singer of all time I agree I can't tell you guys how many times I've listened to Al Green yeah he came from here this is where he was born all right let's see kitchen Community Center game room no loitering no longer no longer than five five minutes okay that's what it says menu barbecue rib tips cheeseburgers fish plates hot dogs I didn't have breakfast today so that sounded pretty damn good I'm not gonna lie to you guys hey I'm just kind of looking around a bit look at this in front of me that's one of the biggest potholes I have ever seen so go ahead they put these cones up you guys see that let me see if I get a better look at it that is huge am I right wow that that will mess your car up if you hit that uh let's see yeah I kind of expected to see a bit of this 2400 is uh people is a lot and that's what they've lost in the past what 12 years yeah I'm probably done here wow they got a lot of stuff there that's got to be an abandoned house this one perhaps as well all right well I think I'm done here all right everyone so that's the end of this video uh we're gonna head back to Dallas for a few days check the mail get my hair cut get the oil changed on the Bronco it's about to hit 80 000 miles and eventually making our way over to the Florida keys so stay tuned for all that

Channel: Joe & Nic's Road Trip

Views: 965,794

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Id: Ba3itBPqGo4

Length: 37min 57sec (2277 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 05 2023