When I first arrived in Fayetteville to work, 1995, I lived in Heather Ridge Apartments on Ramsey Street. In the mornings as I traveled down Ramsey Street on my way to work, I would pass a Pizza Hut and next to it was a Taco Bell. They were in one corner of a large wooded area and the woods came almost up to the drive around next to the buildings.

I don’t recall when, but at some point this large area of woods was cut down and the Walmart was built with a large parking area in front of it. In my mind it is as if the Walmart has always been where it is currently located, but that’s not the case.

It hasn’t been that many years ago that the I295 Extension was built from I295 on its way to the southeastern side of Fayetteville. It now takes about twenty minutes to travel the 18 miles on the Extension. There is another Walmart over there.

When they first cleared the thickly wooded area near the location where the Ramsey Street overpass would be located I recall that there was a small house or hut that must have been in the middle of these woods. It had been isolated and now it was starkly in the middle of an open field.