During my weekly sojourn from Crowley's Ridge to central Arkansas, I tend to vary my route to provide a better view of the world than that afforded by a four-lane divided highway. I recently drove down Arkansas Route 17 in Jackson County, south of Newport and discovered some great old communities and the remains of several structures that I knew I needed to photograph before it was too late. This is the old Murray Gin located in Shoffner, which now mainly consists of the Shoffner Farm Research facility, a privately owned 1,500 acre farm that specializes in Delta row crops.
I learned from a friend that these great old buildings are disappearing at the rate of several a year in Arkansas and this one looks to be on its way out. These gins used to be the center of life in these small communities with wagons full of cotton pulled by mules sat waiting to weighed while their drivers chatted about prices, weather, boll weevils, and life in general. Now they have been replaced by mega-gins that process much faster and without the advantage of community life outside the doors.
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