GOING TO GURDON: The Light and the Roads and the Trains

Gurdon. Who’da thunk it.

Here I am in Rector and our Cougars are headed on the long road to Gurdon for a football playoff game. I overheard a fan say, “Are y’all going to Gurdon?” That caught my attention right away. “It’s so far away,” another said. “Yep, Gurdon is quite a drive from Rector, but those miles from my hometown of Camden to Gurdon to Arkadelphia seem not so far at all. Especially in reverie.

The Gurdon Light

Most teens having grown up in the area, including me, have seen “The Gurdon Light,” It is a mystery light located near railroad tracks in a wooded area of Gurdon. It is the subject of local folklore and has been featured in local media and on Unsolved Mysteries and Mysteries at the Museum.

A more recent Gurdon memory involves I-30 and the highway to Gurdon where there is no entry or exit ramp, though you’d think so, looking at a map. My dear childhood friend and I determined to have supper together in Arkadelphia since she and her husband were on a Camden visit. They were reading a map (imagine that) to get from Camden to Arkadelphia, hoping to grab I-30 at Gurdon. That road LOOKS LIKE an entry ramp. We’ve all made that mistake, but they made it at pitch-black dark. We had supper well after our intended meeting time, with me (image that) giving directions on how to get from Gurdon to Arkadelphia.

Gurdon's train station

Camden once had a passenger train or two and one of our after-supper highlights was to “meet the 7:30” after which we’d get an ice cream cone and take the long way home. Before the passenger trains quit their runs, Mother and Daddy took my brother and me on a train ride complete with a conductor and a ticket man who walked along the aisles. Our destination:  Gurdon. Gurdon is the “getting off place. You “get off the train at Gurdon.” My grandmother met us for the drive back home.

Early morning drives to Henderson State University (formerly HSTC) in Arkadelphia after a weekend at home took me through Gurdon, making the turn at 67 North and sometimes being blessed by a summer sunrise across fields and two-lane asphalt roads I was sure I’d never see again. All rural roads in Arkansas, I’ve learned, look pretty much the same.

So, “Are y’all going to Gurdon?” I’m not, but I’ll be cheering for the Rector Cougars and hoping the experience in Gurdon is one you’ll remember, for the best reasons.