Rogers Greenways & Trails
Avoca Remembers 
the “Trail of the Centuries”
as it Builds a New Walking Trail
Avoca's city park straddles Old Wire Road, a mile or two north-east of the Rogers Airport.  Avoca's new Town Hall is only a stone's throw from the Frisco Railroad and the old Avoca depot site.  The walking trail being developed at the park with a state grant will automatically feed into the Heritage Trail backbone and the "Trail of the Centuries." 
    
The Avoca Trail Project
Avoca held its 2004 annual picnic. Saturday, June 19 The location was the newly dedicated Apple Shed pavilion adjoining the town hall on the east side of Old Wire Road. The Volunteer Fire Department staged a chicken barbecue to raise money to install additional playground equipment in the six-acre park which holds the Apple Shed and the town hall. The town also owns three undeveloped acres across Old Wire Road. 
  
Mayor Tommy O'Dell commented that the town has received a $35,000 state grant (from tobacco settlement funds) especially earmarked for walking trails.  He showed a detailed master site plan, which includes gardens and trails throughout the park.   As a part of the project the winding trail will be asphalted.  Kathy Hansen is the volunteer coordinator.
 
Click for full-size photo of Mayor O'Dell and the mural.
Avoca Mayor Tommy O'Dell displays the wall-size Butterfield Trail mural in the lobby of the new Town Hall, dedicated in 2002.
Click image for larger photo.

Avoca's Strategic Location
Avoca's location straddles the "Trail of the Centuries," which largely follows Old Wire Road. Historical uses of the route are  celebrated on a three-ton granite sesquicentennial monument south-east of Avoca stoplight on Highway 62 (see photo below). The term refers to the many historical routes which pass through the town.  In fact the Heritage Trail Plan adopted by the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission features the Butterfield Coach Trail, the Cherokee Trail of Tears and Civil War Troop Movements.  And the monument is only a few yards from the Frisco Railroad, which is a centerpiece of eastern Benton County history.
   
Changes in the Map
The 1903 Benton County Atlas includes a color map of Avoca at the time.  Click here for a map from the Centennial CD edition, together with a current Mapquest version.

 
Click image for photograph of the entire three-ton granite monument.
Click here for photo of entire monument.
 Text of the inscription on the Benton County / Arkansas Sesquicentennial Monument at Avoca.  Installed by the Benton County Historical Society to mark the 1986 anniversary of the founding of the County and the State. 

Click here for photo of the monument being moved to its new pedestal as Hwy 62 was being widened last year..
Herb Hawkins and Dianne Bowen also contributed to this item.
Go to: Downtown/Eastern Trails   6/25/2004