35°05′23″N92°26′28″W / 35.0898°N 92.4411°W
Toad Suck Daze is an annual community music, arts, and food festival in Conway, Arkansas. It takes place every year in downtown Conway and has been celebrated for over 30 years.
The Toad Suck Daze festival attracts an estimated 160,000 visitors each year. Notable attractions at the event include music, arts and crafts, a variety of food, carnival rides, and toad races. For these races, visitors enter toads that they have brought from home or that were bred in the community for this purpose. The festival raises money to provide educational scholarships to Faulkner County citizens. Over the past 28 years, the Toad Suck Daze committee has awarded over US$1 million in scholarships and toward scholarship endowments.
First organized in 1982 in Perry County (Toad Suck Park), the festival is held annually in downtown Conway, Arkansas (Faulkner County), during the first weekend in May. Originally held in Toad Suck at Toad Suck Park on the Perry County side near the Toad Suck Ferry Lock and Dam, the festival was moved to the downtown location in 1990 due to flooding at the river, and it has remained in the downtown area ever since. The festival is run by volunteers from Conway and Faulkner County, including the local police and fire departments.
The legend behind Toad Suck refers to the time when steamboats traveled the Arkansas River. When the water was not deep enough, the steamboats tied up where the Toad Suck Ferry Lock and Dam now spans the river near Conway. While the captain and crew waited, they loitered over refreshments at the local tavern. People living nearby commented, "They suck on the bottle 'til they swell up like toads."
Perry County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its population was 10,019 at the 2020 United States Census. The county seat is Perryville. The county was formed on December 18, 1840, and named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, naval hero in the War of 1812. It is an alcohol prohibition or dry county.
Faulkner County is located in the Central Arkansas region of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 123,498, making it the fifth most populous of Arkansas's 75 counties. The county seat and largest city is Conway. Faulkner County was created on April 12, 1873, one of nine counties formed during Reconstruction, and is named for Sandford C. Faulkner, better known as Sandy Faulkner, a popular figure in the state at the time.
Conway County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Created as Arkansas's 11th county on October 20, 1825, Conway County has four incorporated municipalities, including Morrilton, the county seat and most populous city. The county is also the site of numerous unincorporated communities and ghost towns. The county is named for Henry Wharton Conway, a politician from a powerful political family who served as the delegate from the Arkansas Territory to the U.S. Congress from 1823 to 1827.
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Lake Conway is a 6,700-acre (27 km2) lake in Arkansas. Lake Conway is the largest lake ever created by a state wildlife commission and the first to be created by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Lake Conway is located directly east of Mayflower, Arkansas, and just a few miles southeast of Conway, Arkansas. Lake Conway is home to many major sportfish such as bass, bluegill, crappie, blue catfish, and flathead catfish. Lake Conway's average depth is 4.5 ft and at its deepest point 16 ft. Lake Conway was constructed in 1948.The lake was created by damming Palarm Creek. The lake is currently being drained as of November 2023 for silt remediation and modification of the aging dam spillway gates. The lake is currently slated to be empty for 5 years.
Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) is a public library system headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Toad Suck is an unincorporated community in Perry County, Arkansas, United States. It is the location of Bigelow Rosenwald School, which is located at the junction of Arkansas Highway 60 and Bethel AME Road and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A total of eight special routes of U.S. Route 65 exist, divided between the U.S. states of Arkansas and Missouri. Currently, they are all business loops, although a spur route in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and bypass routes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Springfield, Missouri both existed in the past.
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