Bucktown USA to host dedication ceremony
The 75th annual “Bucktown USA” reunion at Buckville Baptist Church and campgrounds will not only welcome Bucktowners, but will host a dedication ceremony by the Sons of the Confederate Veterans. Accompanying the SCVs, the United Daughters of the Confederate will portray the “widow,” complete in vintage-era attire. Civil War veteran Marcus Anderson’s headstone will be set during this patriotic ceremony.
As family, friends and former residents gather to recall the memories of a lifestyle of days of old and decorate the final resting places of loved ones, all are aware that actually coming home is not possible for former residents of the communities of Buckville, Cedar Glades, Flea Ben, Aultville and White Plains. The fate of these communities was sealed in the 1940s when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed the Blakely Dam. These towns, as well as outlying family farms of the Ouachita River valley, met their demise in the early to mid-1950s as the river began to back up, forming Lake Ouachita.
Those attending the reunion now gather by the Buckville Church at the point where the road, now submerged, led down the hill past the Buckville Cemetery into the town itself. The church once sat on the hill in the town center. In December 1950, church members voted to use the money received from the sale of the church property to move the building to its present site. The more than 100-year-old structure found its present location in the summer of 1951. The only surviving structure of the town, it now stands as a beacon to navigators of the lake.
The area on the shores of Lake Ouachita consists of the church and five cemeteries. The upper east point is the resting place of the ancestors of the people who once lived in this area now covered by the waters of Lake Ouachita.
As the second Sunday in June approaches, Bucktowners begin planning to fellowship with friends and family, for food prepared by hands who “learned from arguably the best cooks in the South, to take cherished, nostalgic walks through the cemeteries and surrounding areas, and telling stories of a once flourishing small town,” state the press release.
The Board of trustees welcomes all to join the day’s activities on June 11. Come early, bring a favorite potluck dish or two, pick out a place in the shade, set out a lawn chair and make new memories. Business meeting will start the day’s activities at 10:30 a.m. A potluck fellowship will be held at approximately noon. The dedication ceremony will begin at 1:30 p.m.