Peppersauce Alley

Roughly 25 miles from Blanchard Spring Caverns along the Scenic Sylamore Byway through the Ozark National Forest and between Mountain View and Mountain Home sits Calico Rock, Arkansas. I specified what state even though I haven’t found another city, town or community in the United States named Calico Rock, emphasis on rock because it’s definitely rocky. On your way there, there’s an overlooking bluff called City Rock Bluff (GPS pulls it up out on Culp Road) overlooking the White River and an old fire tower if you want a bird’s eye view of Calico Rock.

Calico Rock earned the name when most of the travel was via the waterway of the White River and from the viewpoint of the river; the first thing you notice is the big bluffs all around that are uniquely multi-colored and resemble the calico which is a landmark to help identify where on the river you were arriving.

In the 1800s, steamboats and the ferry came upon Calico Landing; it was a booming place. The railroad tracks brought people in on land in the early 1900s. With tons of people arriving via train, boat, on foot, horseback, and eventually automobiles, it was by all definitions a Boom Town circling with promise of silver mining, steamboats and the railroad. Eventually, work dried up, fires, floods, and folks moved and left to make money..because though we can make most things by hand in the Ozarks with the abundance of natural resources; money is still the hardest thing to make. It became a ghost town, on one side of town, anyhow.

Now we know why a place with a population of 900 people has so many historic buildings. I counted twenty-something buildings and there might be more. Calico Rock is notoriously known as the only town in The United States that has a ghost town within its city limits. One side of town is accommodating with shops, places to stay, museum, a speakeasy and excellent trout fishing.

The East Side of Calico Rock is called Peppersauce Alley. The East Side (go over the neat little bridge) of Calico Rock has lots of old businesses and buildings, mostly remnants and shells of the structures; since nature is taking back Peppersauce Alley.

Each building has detailed signs that explain deeper details of the history.

You don’t need reservations or ticket money in a Ghost Town.

You can drive through but I preferred walking the free-self guided tour.

What’s Peppersauce? No peppers in this recipe.

You’ll need: a bootlegger, spring water, grain (typically corn, barley or rye), a still in the woods someplace, a barrel to let it age, and preferably a mason jar to drink it out of.

Peppersauce is good ole fashioned Moonshine. The man-made whiskey that you make at night by the light of the moon to avoid going to jail. This all got started when alcohol was outlawed. Moonshine was big business and in high demand. High proof spirits and is flammable so stick to moonlight instead of lanterns or campfires that would alert the lawmen. “White Lightning” because it’s a white whiskey by Ozark standards.

Yes, Calico Rock has a wild backstory and all kinds of shenanigans went on, primarily on the east side known as Peppersauce Alley - the ghost town…where the historic jail is too, naturally!

The historic district is on the National Register of Historic Places and is thought Calico Rock is much older than even the district displays due to all the wooden structures being destroyed from fires and floods (more than once).

There’s a prison in the Calico Rock area out by the airport and the guards still sit atop horses, surrounded by a couple thousand apple trees, with honey bee boxes, a vegetable garden to feed the inmates and even grow hay to feed their livestock. Big contrast of the cement box jail that is still there over in Peppersauce Alley.

Trains, prison, moonshine, ghost town and rivers— almost have a song going. We love singing and storytelling and usually songs are telling a story. Check out Peppersauce Alley and write a song so I can listen to it while roaming the beautiful area.