Turkey Scratch

Not much is known about Turkey Scratch, except that it was the home of Levon Helm, who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the vocalists for “The Band.” The three-time Grammy winner went on to a successful music and film career and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 with other members of The Band. Turkey Scratch, though a tiny unincorporated community, also was home to Robert Lockwood Jr., a Grammy-winning blues guitarist. Lockwood was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989 and had seven wins at the W.C. Handy Blues Music Awards.

The community straddles the Lee/Phillips County line, eight miles north of Marvell. It is just over 100 miles southeast of Little Rock and about 70 miles southwest of West Memphis. There is a marker for Levon Helm in Turkey Scratch, but his childhood home there has been moved to nearby Marvell and restored.  

One can only guess at how Turkey Scratch got its name. Chances are it was a literal reference to a large number of turkeys in the area (who scratched around in the dirt for food), or it was a figurative reference to farmers in the area struggling to work the soil and scratch out a living for their families. Either way, it is one of Arkansas’s more colorful names.