The crew for the television series "TrueSouth" is trying to figure out what makes the Grand Prairie of Arkansas unique. I tell them the best place to start the day is the Museum of the Grand Prairie in Stuttgart. I get to spend 12 hours with these professionals at the invitation of my friend John T. Edge, the nationally known food and Southern culture expert who hosts the show.

"TrueSouth" was launched in 2018 as a partnership between ESPN and the Southeastern Conference. The program isn't about sports, even though it airs on the SEC Network with reruns often showing up on ESPN2 and ESPNU. This is the ninth season, and the episode about the Grand Prairie is scheduled to debut at 7 p.m. Tuesday on the SEC Network.

It's early on a Friday morning, and staff members at the museum have plenty of coffee and pastries on hand. This is one of the better local museums in the state. Founded in 1974 by lifelong Arkansas County residents Bennie Burkett and Jack Crum, it was previously known as the Stuttgart Agricultural Museum and the Arkansas County Museum.

The original building covered 1,500 square feet. Four additions through the decades increased the size of the museum to 20,000 square feet. There also are five furnished exterior exhibits.

The museum is the home of the Arkansas Waterfowler Hall of Fame. As you might imagine, there's a lot of information about rice production and duck hunting.

The waterfowl wing features various species, mounted and displayed as if they're flying to a pond. There's a duck blind, guide boat, duck call shop and even Native American duck effigy pottery from the 1100s. Much of the museum's square footage is taken up by farm machinery. It dates back to the era when Adam Buerkle moved to the area.

Buerkle and his wife, Barbara von Roth, were married and had the first of 15 children in their native Stuttgart, Germany, before moving to Lancaster, Pa., and then Woodville, Iowa. They brought a group of German settlers with them to the Grand Prairie in 1878.

With the television crew properly educated on the history of the Grand Prairie, we head for DeValls Bluff.

Jacob DeVall and his son Chappel found a high spot along the lower White River in the 1840s and established a mercantile........

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