In paying tribute to four generations of her Benton County ancestors, Maggie Aldridge Smith, b. 1913, has written extensively, publishing eighteen volumes of poetry and prose along the way. . .

Maggie Smith was Benton County's director of both the National Bicentennial, in 1976, and the Arkansas and Benton County joint Sesqui-centennials, in 1986.  Six volumes of Sesi Facts kept up with all officers and communities and their celebration plans. 

All memberships received helped erect "The Trail of the Centuries" monument, which stands at Avoca.  Made of Georgia-blue granite, in the shape of Arkansas, and weighing 5,700 pounds, its inscriptions list all the trails and groups that entered Benton County down what is now Highway 62. [See photo below for inscription text; for an update on the story of the monument, see Benton County Pioneer, Vol. 47, No. 3, 2002, cover photo and article.] 

Of particular interest to the resurgent Heritage Trail movement, though little remembered today, the Bicentennial Bike Trail began here.  The route follows the Cherokee Trail of Tears, Highway 72, west across Benton County.