Dyess Colony Visitors Center and Johnny Cash Boyhood Home

 The Dyess Colony was a subsistence homesteading colony, one of President Roosevelt's New Deal programs. The federal government bought 15,144 acres of Arkansas cut-over forestland and swamp that had a thick layer of rich topsoil and recruited 500 farming families to establish a community. The families were destitute sharecroppers and tenant farmers who had to pass an eligibility screening to be approved for the program. Each family received at least 20 acres, a farmhouse, and a barn, smokehouse, outhouse, mule, cow, and chicken coop. 

The most famous resident of Dyess Colony was a little three year old boy whose first name was just initials - J.R. When he joined the Air Force he was required to have a name and became John R. Cash. Johnny Cash's family moved to Dyess Colony 1935 when he was just 3 years old and lived there until they sold the house in 1953.

 Like most of the homesteading colonies Dyess Colony's success was limited but it did give the families a fresh start. Many of the families sold out and their land was combined into large rice, soybean and cotton farms. The Cash house sits surrounded by fields, one of the few colony houses still standing. It has been completely restored and furnished with period pieces including some furniture owned by the Cash family. It is open by guided tour but first visitors must  go to the Dyess Colony Visitor Center to buy tickets. There are a few exhibits and a short video in the visitor center. The building next door was the Dyess Colony Administration Building and has exhibits on the founding of the colony and the Cash family. 

All of the buildings are accessible. An accessible shuttle bus goes to the Cash house. We were the only visitors and were given a choice of driving there in our RV. 

RVs can be parked along the circle driveway at the Administration Building. There's a gravel lot at the Cash house that is large enough for any vehicle. Dyess Colony  35.59026, -90.21437