Gurdon, Arkansas

Gurdon is a city located in Clark County, Arkansas. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 2,276.

Interesting Facts

The town is known for the presence of a ghost light roughly five miles outside of town. The Gurdon Light, a series of natural phenomena which occur in a wooded area by railroad tracks, appears to viewers as a light or lights hovering in mid-air. Local folk legend explains the light appearances as a deceased railwayman's lantern. Scientific work on the origin of the lights has proven inconclusive.

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The town further served as the founding place of the International Concatenated Order of the Hoo Hoo. This lumbermens' fraternity was founded

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by a set of lumber industry workers stranded in Gurdon by rainstorms in the late 19th Century, who devised the social organization as a joke, complete with colorful officer designations such as the Grand Snark. The joke actually took hold as a social organization, with branches world-wide. The Hoo Hoo Museum in Gurdon commemorates the organization. A small statue of a black cat with its tail curled upward in the shape of the number 9, the Hoo Hoo symbol, is located in town.

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In 1923, blues musical artist Jimmie Witherspoon was born in Gurdon. He went on to appear on over 200 albums, establishing himself as a jazz-influenced bluesman.

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Gurdon was for many years the home of noted mail art practitioner Buz Blurr (formerly Hoo Hoo Theaters).

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The local high school sports teams are known as the Gurdon Go Devils. Their traditional arch-rivals are the nearby Prescott Curley Wolves.

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The Gurdon Pond just outside town features easy-access shore fishing for bream and bass.

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