Map number 7.
This one needs some annotation regarding the detours....
This is the east half of the 1940 Brinkley 15-minute quad.
It shows the section between the little village of Goodwin west to Wheatley, Arkansas.The highway crossed to the north side of the RR line just to the west of Goodwin, AR. The first half mile is disused. County Road 125 crosses the tracks, and a primitive track heads west. However, there is no bridge, and a stream floods the old highway just west of Goodwin.
One half mile west of Goodwin, a county road (913 or 127) connects US 70 to the old highway. This section on the north side of the RR is marked CR 910. Between this crossing and Blossom Road there are two culverts. County Road 910 continues west for one more mile past Blossom Road (where there was once a siding). There are 3 culverts in this one mile stretch.
The next 3/4 mile section appears disused also. There is a drainage (not a creek I think, and perhaps more modern) about half way along this stretch, and it seems there may be no bridge, though it's not visible due to trees. The road appears as just a rough track on the east side of the drainage. Most of the road west of the drainage is good road as it leads to a radio tower near the drainage.
A crossing exists to access this road and a house, marked CR 906. From Goodwin to this point the road is shown as an improved tertiary road (the 1940 topo shows it as a red and white secondary road). The highway continues west of this crossing and is marked "Old US 70" on Google Maps. The modern topo shows this road as dirt. This road does appear to be two track dirt. A rough RR crossing occurs in about 0.6 miles where there was a well, and formerly several houses or buildings. At 0.75 miles there seems to be a culvert. The road continues all the way to Wheatley. A small culvert appears just before reaching Arkansas SR 78 (that does not appear on the 1940 topo).
The highway enters Wheatley on 2nd Street. The Dunn guide almost makes it look like there was a jog north along 3rd. The main crossroads of town was evidently 2nd and Memphis Avenue, as a few old buildings exist there, and a whole block of buildings appear on the 1940 topo. The Dunn guide, Locke guide, and the Auto Blue Book may differ on the mileage point for Wheatley, but they all should be near this intersection. The road turned left (south) on Dennis St, as it does today. Where there is a crossing today, the road once continued west north of the tracks, but no road appears now. The current crossing is just east of an old RR line, and Union Street to the southeast runs along this old RR berm.
Just west of the Monroe-St. Francis county line there is a bridge over Flat Fork Creek (called Flat Fork Little River in 1940). This bridge still exists, and can be accessed from the RR crossing and a paved road west of the creek. This leads to a house and a former fish pond facility. The bridge is just to the right after the RR crossing.
The Bankhead crossed back to the south side of the tracks here and continued west.
Red = Dunn guide.
Blue = Auto Blue Book 1923.
Black mileages = Locke guide.
Orange lines = detours onto US 70.
