By: Suzi Parker
LITTLE ROCK (REUTERS).- It’s not every day that a 3-million-year-old natural sandstone bridge hits the auction block. But on Friday morning about 20 people gathered at the base of the 120-foot-long bridge for the sale of a legendary Ozark tourist stop between Little Rock, Arkansas, and Branson, Missouri. The first bid, from an unidentified woman in the crowd, was for $100,000. Less than 15 minutes later, it was Jack Smith, an elderly Navy veteran from Conway, Arkansas, who bought the bridge, gift shop, log cabin museum, moonshine still, and 101 acres of forest for $207,900. The attraction, about 65 miles north of Little Rock, has been called a natural wonder because of its arching rock formation that was used as a wagon bridge by pioneers. For years, and even today, barn roofs along Highway 65 are painted with advertisements luring tourists down a winding road into Little Johnnie Cavern to see the “world wonder where nature is still the boss.” A covered wagon gr