Are We There Yet?

Van Buren is a historic river town spilling over with sights

At River Valley Museum of Van Buren, Bob Burns is shown in this 1919 photograph with the musical instrument he invented and named the “bazooka.”
At River Valley Museum of Van Buren, Bob Burns is shown in this 1919 photograph with the musical instrument he invented and named the “bazooka.”

VAN BUREN -- Bob Burns was an Arkansas teenager when he invented an oddball musical instrument whose namesakes helped win World War II four decades later.

Built around 1906 in a Van Buren plumbing shop from a gas pipe and a moonshiner's whiskey funnel, it made a sound Burns later likened to "a wounded moose." He called it a "bazooka," derived from the Dutch word for "trumpet." It functioned like a crude trombone, and he played it to entertain troops while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in France during World War I.

Burns' Depression era celebrity as a radio and movie personality later made "bazooka" a household word. American troops among his many fans adopted it as the nickname for the new shoulder-held weapon that became a menace to Nazi German tanks on the path to Allied victory in Europe.

The story of Burns and his bazooka is told through photographs and other memorabilia at River Valley Museum of Van Buren, located in the old Frisco Depot downtown.

A museum brochure reports that he "became famous during the 1930s and '40s as the strapping, ruddy-faced comedian who had radio audiences from coast to coast belly-laughing at fanciful yarns about his kinfolk and old pals back in Arkansas."

Like Lum and Abner, those other Arkansas radio luminaries of the time, Burns fortified the stereotype of Arkansans as backwoods rustics. He appeared in several films from 1930-45, usually playing a bumpkin. In the last years before his death in 1956, he farmed on 500 acres in California's San Fernando Valley.

The brochure quotes his homespun ambitions: "I've wanted to be a farmer all my life and farming is right in my blood. ... I've tried the life of a soldier with the U.S. Marines and I've done my share of trouping in show business. But all that couldn't take the hankering out of me to get back and dig in the soil like we used to do when I was a boy in Van Buren."

Van Buren's history -- starting with its settlement in the 1830s -- is displayed in a potpourri of other exhibits at the old depot. Built in 1901, the restored station also serves as embarkation point for Arkansas & Missouri Railroad excursion trains. The line's summer schedule includes runs between Van Buren and Winslow as well as Springdale and Van Buren.

The depot is also the uphill starting point for a stroll along Van Buren's Historic Main Street. A brochure spotlights 10 notable properties in a five-block stretch leading to Crawford County Courthouse, built in Second Empire style after its predecessor burned in 1877. It is said to be the oldest county courthouse still in use west of the Mississippi River.

Just west of downtown, Drennan-Scott Historic Site is an architectural jewel from Van Buren's early days. Opened to the public in 2011 after a six-year renovation that cost $5.2 million, it belongs to the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

Visitors get an orientation from a student intern or volunteer before touring the interior of the house, built starting in 1838 by businessman and civic leader John Drennen. Exhibits include a frieze displayed at the Arkansas House in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, a grandfather clock dating to the mid-18th century and a Steinway piano made in 1860.

River Valley Museum of Van Buren, 813 Main St., is open 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free; donations are welcome.

The Old Frisco Depot also houses Van Buren's visitor center, which offers information on other attractions in and around the city. For details, call (800) 332-5889 or visit vanburen.org.

For details and reservations on Arkansas & Missouri Railroad excursions, call (479) 725-4017 or visit amrailroad.com. Round-trip fares run from $20 to $95.

Drennen-Scott Historic Site, 221 N. Third St., is open 1-5 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Admission is free. Call (479) 262-2750 or visit uafs.edu/humanities/drennen-scott-house.

Weekend on 07/21/2016

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