Junk Hunt Adds Over 500 Miles of Yard Sales to October Event
RISON - The Hwy. 79-63 Junk Hunt is entering its eighth year with a major expansion/re-branding into the Great South Arkansas Junk Hunt, organizer and founder Jennifer Via has announced.
The massive route will take place Thursday, Oct. 12 through Saturday, Oct. 14 with multiple routes across the southern part of Arkansas featuring more than 500 miles of yard sales.
While the original Hwy. 79-63 sales route initially followed those two highways with a loop on Hwy. 8 and some extensions were made over the years to Morro Bay and Strong on Hwy. 275. This year’s route will include all of those plus further extensions to El Dorado, Magnolia and more.
“I had requests from interested businesses wanting to set up hubs for vendors, and the general public asking me to run the route through their towns,” Via said.
Via said she collaborated with Douglas Boultinghouse, one of the key members of the Rison Shine Community Development organization who has assisted with social media for both the Hwy. 79-63 sale and its sister sale, the Hwy. 35 Junk Hunt, to draft a new map and overall plan for the Junk Hunts.
“We’ve collected a lot of feedback over the past eight years of Junk Hunts,” Boultinghouse said. “Some want more routes, some want different times of the year, some wanted the sales flipped.”
Boultinghouse said he thinks they have crafted a plan that will combine all of those requests.
If the Great South Arkansas Junk Hunt expansion this fall is successful, the Hwy. 35 Junk Hunt will merge into this hunt for Spring 2024, with additional paths - therefore creating one large route of sales to be held twice a year.
Via said the Junk Hunts have grown significantly each year in sales and traffic, so it was only natural for us to grow the route as well.
“Many people hold their junk for months just for this event,” Via said. “If we merge them, people will not be storing junk for more than six months at a time.”
Via noted that this would also double the traffic and revenue brought into towns along the routes.
“What the past eight years have shown is that people travel from all over the state and other states just to shop these sales,” she said. “But they’re stopping at restaurants, gas stations, booking hotel rooms and more, boosting tax revenue in many towns, helping out small businesses.”
She encourages any businesses along the route to take advantage of the traffic by having sidewalk sales or special events.
Rison’s Pioneer Village, Star City’s Country Village, Everybody's Antiques in El Dorado, and Ann Tee Keys in Strong all plan to host vendor hubs.
Via said she anticipates more hubs to pop up between now and October.
Boultinghouse added that while the new Junk Hunt has three central routes to create a loop, there are several offshoot paths that connect them, but the sales do not stop there.
“If your road is off of one of these paths, feel free to put a sign at the end of the road to alert travelers of more sales your way,” he said.
The Junk Hunt has always had a strong presence in Rison and Cleveland County, and that will not change with the expansion.
This year’s path encompasses many of the main roadways of the county and incorporates Rison, Kingsland, New Edinburg and Woodlawn.
The routes begin/end in Pine Bluff, depending on the direction you start or end.
To best explain the route expansion, Via said they have extended Hwy. 79 from Fordyce to Magnolia, extended Hwy. 63 from Moro Bay to El Dorado, and added in a third leg to the path on Hwy. 425 that runs through Hamburg.
All three of these legs connect and “loop” on Hwy. 82 which brings the route back around to Magnolia.
With all of the connecting routes, other new towns not mentioned above included in the Junk Hunt are Bearden, Camden, Smackover, Norphlet, Hampton, Wilmar, Fountain Hill.
The central route/loop is depicted on the map in orange, while the connecting paths are labeled in blue.
“This expansion may take time to get used to, some paths may be slow to catch on,” Via said. “But we are excited to see the response and see everyone on the sales route this fall.”
Boultinghouse said those who follow the Hwy. 79-63 Junk Hunt on Facebook should note name changes and rebranding in the coming days to both the facebook page and sales group.