Conway couple seek ‘curiosities’ for book

By Carol Rolf

LITTLE ROCK — “Curiouser and curiouser!” Alice said as she began to change sizes during her visit to Wonderland.

Conway authors Wyatt and Janie Jones may find themselves relating to that comment by Alice as they seek input from the public about Arkansas’ unusual, odd and quirky people, places and things for their new book aptly titled Arkansas Curiosities.

The husband and wife team have linked up again with Globe Pequot Press to publish their second book. Their first book published was a trail guide called Hiking Arkansas.

Among the entries the Joneses, whoare both natives of Conway, included in their proposal for Arkansas Curiosities was the sightings in the early 1950s of the Lake Conway Monster in Faulkner County.

“Sometime after the lake and dam were built, there were reported sightings of something like a giant salamander weighing up to 70 pounds,” Wyatt said. “There were a rash of sightings reported in the local newspaper, and a wire service picked up the story. After the story went national, there were traffic jams leading up to the spillway.

“Frank Robins Jr., publisher of the local paper, put a halt to the stories, say-ing ‘no more stories without a photograph,’” Wyatt said.

Wyatt said it was not long after these local sightings that the movie Creature from the Black Lagoon was released. “Some think that creature was based on sightings of the Lake Conway monster,” Wyatt said.

“We are asking that people send us stories about any unusual or weird people, places or things,” Wyatt said.

The couple has broken down the writing duties for the book. “He’s handling anything dealing with history or science, and I’mhandling the anecdotes about odd people, places and other stories as well as those about little critters,” Janie Jones said. “I’m a big animal lover.”

Among the animal stories Janie is trying to track down is that of Boots, the cat with the fishing license, from the Heber Springs area. “I can’t find any verification of that at all,” she said. “I even contacted the (Arkansas) Game and Fish Commission, and they all had a good laugh.

“In 1931, Jack ‘Daredevil’ Allen set some sort of endurance record by driving a Ford car for 76 hours,” Janie said. “I think Westmoreland & Sons may have sponsoreda contest to see who could guess the number of miles Allen would travel. He was to sleep in the show window at Westmoreland’s here in Conway. I read about this in the Log Cabin Democrat’s Yesterdays column. If any readers have information about this event, we would appreciate hearing from them.

“Also, I would dearly love to find out about a motorcycle wreck that happened in Conway around 1959,” Janie said. “I have tried to track this down for years, and it isn’t really for our book, but then again, it might turn out to be that. One day, when I was a little girl, my family and I were visiting a friend onWashington Avenue. When we left, we passed a wrecked motorcycle that was on fire. This was around the curve from Washington, as you turn to go toward what is now Lowe’s.

“The image has stayed with me all this time,” she said. “More intriguing was a human interest article that was in the Log Cabin Democrat sometime in the early 1970s. It was about that motorcycle wreck, and there was something very odd about it, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was. I do so hope that a reader can tell me about this. It has been a mystery to me all these years.”

Some of the other stories from the central Arkansas areathat the Joneses would like to learn more about include Fannie Turner, who passed her driver’s test on her 104th try in Little Rock, and an individual from Sherwood who had the world’s longest eyelash several years ago. “The story about Fannie Turner was supposed to have appeared in 1978 in the New York Times, but I can’t find anything about it,” Janie said.

The Joneses said they hope to have a total of 300 anecdotes for the book. “That would include 250 longer stories and 50 sidebars,” Wyatt said.

“The stories will be 200 to400 words long,” Janie said, adding the target publishing date in 2009. The hope to have photographs to accompany most of the entries in Arkansas Curiosities. The book will be divided into several sections: Northwest Arkansas, Northeast Arkansas, Southeast Arkansas, Southwest Arkansas and Central Arkansas.

Those with ideas for the Joneses book may contact them by e-mail, joneses@cyberback.com, by telephone at (501) 327-7527 or by mail, 10 Sherwood Drive, Conway AR 72034.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 65, 66 on 06/05/2008