RISON - Nine years ago when Jennifer Via founded and organized the Historic Hwy. 35 Junk Hunt which consisted of a series of rummage sales along a 120-mile route that extended from Benton to Dermott, she had no idea how much it would grow.
Via followed the hunt with the Hwy. 79-63 Junk Hunt in the fall to bring even more people through Cleveland County and its neighbors.
Last fall, at the request of many “junkers” and “hunters,” Via brought a major expansion/rebranding to that hunt, becoming the Great South Arkansas Junk Hunt.
Via is excited to announce that with the expansion proving successful, she and her team of volunteers who help monitor the hunts have completed the expansion with the merger of the original Hwy. 35 Junk Hunt into the Great South Arkansas Junk Hunt.
The merger creates one large route of sales to be held twice a year, and now spread over four days instead of three.
Via said the Junk Hunts have grown significantly each year in sales and traffic, so we have been building to this greater hunt.
The massive route will take place launch its spring run Thursday, March 7 and wrap up Sunday, March 10 with multiple routes across the southern part of Arkansas featuring more than 600 miles of yard sales.
The fall run will follow the same route Thursday, Oct. 10 through Sunday, Oct. 13.
“Many people hold their junk for months just for this event,” Via said. “Now, people will not be storing junk for more than six months at a time. Also, now they have an extra day to sell or explore the route.”
Last fall, Via said, “I had requests from interested businesses wanting to set up hubs for vendors, and the general public asking me to run the route through their towns.”
Via said she collaborated with Douglas Boultinghouse, one of the key members of the Rison Shine Community Development organization who has assisted with social media for the Junk Hunts over the past nine years, to draft a new map and overall plan for the Junk Hunts.
“Jennifer, Vickie, Donna and I have collected a lot of feedback,” Boultinghouse said. “And we think this is merger and expansion simplifies a lot of the Junk Hunt.”
Boultinghouse said he thinks they have crafted a plan that will please a lot of the requests they have received.
He said people wanted more routes, so they expanded the route last year, and then they wanted more time, which they have added this year.
“Adding a fourth day on Sundays allows for more time to sell, but also gives a fun activity for families looking for something to do when church lets out. It also opens up time for Sunday flea markets to participate,” he said.
Via noted that this larger Hunt also double the traffic and revenue brought into towns along the routes, now more than once a year.
“What the past Junk Hunts have shown is that people travel from all over the state and other states just to shop these sales,” she said. “But they’re stopping at restaurants, gas stations, booking hotel rooms and more, boosting tax revenue in many towns, helping out small businesses.”
She encourages any businesses along the route to take advantage of the traffic by having sidewalk sales or special events.
Boultinghouse notes that while the new Junk Hunt has four central routes (Highways 35, 63, 79 and 425), there are several offshoot paths that connect them, but the sales do not stop there.
“If your road is off of one of these paths, feel free to put a sign at the end of the road to alert travelers of more sales your way,” he said.
Both original Junk Hunts have always had a strong presence in Rison and Cleveland County, and that will not change with the expansion.
The path encompasses many of the main roadways of the county and incorporates Rison, Kingsland, New Edinburg and Woodlawn.
The routes begin/end in Pine Bluff, Benton and Dermott, depending on the direction you start or end.
The original Hwy. 35 route remains the same a straight stretch from Benton to Dermott, but with an added connector route on Hwy. 167 that connects Sheridan down to Fordyce on Hwy. 79.
While the original Hwy. 79-63 sales route initially followed those two highways with a loop on Hwy. 8 and some extensions were made over the years to Morro Bay and Strong on Hwy. 275. Last fall’s expanded route included all of those plus further extensions to El Dorado, Magnolia and more.
To best explain the route expansion from 2023, Via said they extended Hwy. 79 from Fordyce to Magnolia, extended Hwy. 63 from Moro Bay to El Dorado, and added in a third leg to the path on Hwy. 425 that runs through Hamburg.
Continued See Great South page 3 All three of these legs connect and “loop” on Hwy. 82 which brings the route back around to Magnolia.
Now, Hwy. 35 crosses Hwy. 425 at Monticello, bringing the merged hunts together.
With all of the connecting routes, other new towns not mentioned above included in the Junk Hunt are Bearden, Camden, Smackover, Norphlet, Hampton, Wilmar, Fountain Hill and Ivan.
The central route/loop is depicted on the map in dark blue, and the Hwy. 35 route in dark orange, while the connecting paths are labeled in light blue and light orange.
“As we saw with last fall’s hunt, this expansion may take time to get used to, some paths were slow to catch on, but some really surprised us and saw an explosion of traffic.” Via said. “We are excited to see the response and see everyone on the sales route this March and October.”
Boultinghouse said those who follow the Historic Hwy. 35 Junk Hunt on Facebook should be aware of the inprogress merging of the Facebook page into the Great South Arkansas Junk Hunt page.
“If you already like or follow the ‘Great’ page, you’re good. If you only followed the ‘Hwy. 35’ page, Facebook will soon move you over to the combined page,” he said.
Boultinghouse said the connected Facebook Sales Group unfortunately operates differently than pages.
“We cannot merge the groups, so if you’re a member of the Hwy. 35 group to post and browse sales, we ask that you make sure you’ve joined the Great South Arkansas Junk Hunt group before March 1.”
After March 1, the original Hwy. 35 sales group will be deleted.
The Great South Arkansas Junk Hunt Sales group currently has over 8,000 members.
