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Toad Suck
Town not known for anything except its strange name
Category Cultures and Civilizations
Toad Suck, Arkansas. (Random Factor/Flickr)
Source www.flickr.com
An unincorporated community in the middle of Perry County, Arkansas, Toad Suck is known for nothing more than its name. But the residents of this little sub-town have no problem capitalizing that. A drive through Toad Suck will bring visitors past dozens (if not more) signs that proudly declare the name: Toad Suck!
"What does 'Toad Suck' mean anyway?," the town's official website asks - before telling you. "Well, the answer is quite simple.... Long ago, steamboats traveled the Arkansas River when the water was at the right depth. When it wasn't, the captains and their crew tied up to wait where the Toad Suck Lock and Dam now spans the river. While they waited, they refreshed themselves at the local tavern there, to the dismay of the folks living nearby, who said: 'They suck on the bottle 'til they swell up like toads.' Hence, the name Toad Suck. The tavern is long gone, but the legend and fun live on at Toad Suck Daze."
Toad Suck holds an annual fair to draw new visitors in and to raise money for scholarships for local kids. First organized in 1982, the fair is actually held in the downtown area of Conway, a nearby town, the first weekend in May. The fair used to be held in the unincorporated community of Toad Suck, but after eight years, severe flooding at the river led organizers to move it to Conway's downtown, where it has remained ever since.
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- Hours All.
- Address Toad Suck, Arkansas, United States
- Cost Free.
- Roadside America: Conway, Arkansas - Toad Suck: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/44
- Wikipedia: Toad Suck, Arkansas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toad_Suck,_Arkansas
- AR HomeTownLocator: Toad Suck: http://arkansas.hometownlocator.com/ar/perry/toad-suck.cfm
Toad Suck, Arkansas, sits just south of I-40, west of Conway on Hwy AR 60 near the river.
Comments
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I used to live not to far from here. I hate to disagree with the Toad Suck website, but there's a much simpler (though less romantic) explanation for the name. Toad Suck grew up around a ferry situated just south of a bend in the Arkansas river. In the map above the Ferry is at that the point marked by the "Route 60" marker on the river. In those days a "suck" was a low patch of marshy ground on the banks of a river - so called because if you grounded a boat there it could be very hard to get it off the soft earth. The rivermen noticed an unusual profusion of toads at that particular marsh, so it came to be called the "Toad Suck." After the riverboats passed and the rivermen's jargon was forgotten, a cottage industry was born.
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