Entry Type: Thing

Fried Dill Pickles

In 1960, Bernell “Fatman” Austin (born on February 26, 1921) leased a parcel of land east of Atkins (Pope County) from Griffin Oil Co. for ten dollars a month and began building a drive-in restaurant. The Duchess Drive In, a small pink building, opened for business in April 1960, just across the highway from Atkins Pickle Company, the pickle capital of Arkansas. As business increased, with U.S. Highway 64 being the main road to Little Rock (Pulaski County), Austin started toying with the idea of a gimmick to attract additional business. The first fried dill pickles ever sold anywhere were sold in the summer of 1963 at fifteen cents for an order of fifteen hamburger slices. They still did not …

Fulbright Industries

Fulbright Industries was a furniture manufacturing business in Fayetteville (Washington County) owned and operated by the local Fulbright family. In the early 1950s, Fulbright Industries produced distinctive modern furniture designed by a native of Fayetteville, the internationally renowned architect Edward Durell Stone. Fulbright Industries was an outgrowth of Phipps Lumber Company, also in Fayetteville and owned by the Fulbright family since 1920. U.S. senator J. William Fulbright, scion of the Fulbright family, served as Phipps’s president. Phipps manufactured farm implements, including wooden plow handles and other tool components. In 1941, the Fulbrights purchased Springfield Wagon Company and subsequently moved the operation to Fayetteville, broadening the family’s manufacturing capabilities. As demand for wagons plummeted following World War II, production dwindled at …

Fulbright Memorandum

The so-called Fulbright Memorandum was a devastating critique of the National Education Program (NEP), which was founded in the mid-twentieth century by Harding College (now Harding University) president George S. Benson to disseminate his ideas on Americanism. These included three fundamental principles: belief in God, belief in the U.S. Constitution, and belief in the free-enterprise system; the NEP wedded fundamentalist Christian religion with free-enterprise economic thought, which became foundational to the conservative movement that gained prominence with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. The memorandum was sent by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in June 1961. The memorandum mentioned by name Benson; Clifton L. Ganus Jr., who had become vice president of …

Fuller-Shannon House

The Fuller-Shannon House is located in the Parker’s Woodland Hills subdivision of Jonesboro (Craighead County). The house, completed in mid-1969, was designed by notable local firm of Stuck, Frier, Lane & Scott, Inc. The design of the house was based on the work of internationally renowned architect, and Arkansas native, Edward Durell Stone, specifically his “modern dogtrot” designs of the mid-1950s. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 14, 2020. The Parker’s Woodland Hills subdivision was created by brothers Hubert J. and Olan E. Parker Jr. and was laid out to take advantage of the hilly nature of the area. Streets were placed in the valleys to give the neighborhood natural drainage and inhibit standing …

Funeral Customs, Traditional (Ozark Mountains)

Settlers to the Arkansas Ozarks brought burial traditions with them from their home states of Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Prior to the establishment of a funeral industry with undertakers, embalmers, and factory-made caskets, every job associated with burial was handled by members of the deceased’s community. This work required practical know-how, physical strength, and access to materials, and was influenced by religious custom, folklore, and superstition. The modern death-care industry evolved from the trade of cabinet making, when stores that made and sold furniture added wooden coffins and caskets to their wares. By the late 1800s, many such businesses also offered the use of elaborate, horse-drawn hearses; burial goods (such as shrouds); and, later, embalming. The Arkansas …

Fungi

Arkansas is home to a diverse and remarkable group of fungi, which are separated by mycologists (biologists who specialize in the study of fungi, or mycology) into species representing the true fungi belonging to the kingdom Fungi (e.g., chytrids, pin molds, sugar molds, club fungi, yeasts, sac fungi, and mushrooms) and a hodgepodge of other fungus-like protists (e.g., slime molds, water molds, downy mildews). Members of the kingdom Fungi are descended from a common ancestor, while fungus-like protists, though not necessarily closely related to each other or to the true fungi, are similar to true fungi in appearance and action. Characteristics of Fungi Although the number of fungal species in Arkansas is not known, fungi are quite diverse worldwide. According …

G. A. Thompson [Steamboat]

The G. A. Thomson was a sternwheel paddleboat that struck a snag and burned on the Arkansas River near Irwin’s Landing some fifty miles above Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) in the early hours of April 9, 1869; seventeen people died in the accident. The 366-ton steamboat G. A. Thomson was built at Eureka, Wisconsin, and finished at St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1865 for Captain James Alexander Fraser of Cincinnati, Ohio, and James H. Kelly of Racine, Wisconsin. The vessel normally ran between St. Louis and New Orleans. Kelly had apparently sold his interest in the G. A. Thomson to Captain Ben F. Davidson by mid-March 1869 when the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Davidson had accepted an offer from parties in …

Gaines House

The Gaines House, located at 1702 South Gaines St. in Little Rock (Pulaski County), is home to the nonprofit organization the Gaines House Incorporated. Established in 1967 in the Governor’s Mansion Historic District, the Gaines House is a home for women eighteen years or older who are or are close to being homeless and who have mental, physical, or behavioral disabilities, including drug and alcohol abuse. It was founded by the combined efforts of the Little Rock Junior League, the Pulaski County Mental Health Association, Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, and Altrusa International of Little Rock. The house was built in 1870 and was designed by Charles Thompson. The two-story, single-family-type home could be classified as Federal style with inspiration from both …

Galatia Church

The Galatia Church is a one-room, wood-framed structure located southeast of the town of Norfork (Baxter County). Constructed circa 1900, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 8, 2020. Although adjacent to the Galatia Church, the Galatia Cemetery was created several decades before the construction of the first church building on the site. Since its creation, the cemetery has grown to include private family areas as well as additional acreage. According to local oral tradition, the cemetery was in use by members of the Lackey family in the mid-nineteenth century. In February 1886, only three years before his death in 1889, Robert Lackey deeded ten acres of land for a church and cemetery to the …

Galloway Women’s College

aka: Galloway Female College
Galloway Women’s College in Searcy (White County) was one of the longest survivors from among the schools established in the 1800s by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Arkansas. Dedicated in honor of Bishop Charles Betts Galloway on April 18, 1889, the school endured until its final merger with Hendrix College in Conway (Faulkner County) in 1933. Methodist Church leaders realized by the latter part of the nineteenth century that their resources could not support the numerous small schools they had established around the state and decided to concentrate efforts on fewer institutions to provide better facilities and sounder education. Under the leadership of Bishop Galloway, leaders decided to focus on one institution primarily for men and Galloway Female College, …

Gambling (Legal)

The 1874 Arkansas Constitution dealt with only one type of gambling: lotteries. Article 19, section 14, originally prohibited lotteries in all forms in the state. Thus, under the state constitution, gambling aside from lotteries was not originally prohibited and was a matter subject to various state laws. However, the state constitution did not define “lottery,” and this lack of definition allowed horse racing (and the gambling that accompanied it) to take place in the state. In the late 1890s, Sportsman Park was built on the southeastern side of Hot Springs (Garland County), sparking interest in bringing the increasingly popular sport of Thoroughbred racing to Arkansas. In 1902, William McGuigan, a member of the Arkansas General Assembly, bought land on Malvern …

Gann House

The Gann House is among the oldest buildings still standing in Saline County. The Gann House also reportedly had the first indoor bathrooms in the city of Benton (Saline County). It was built in 1895 in the Queen Anne style as the private residence of prominent doctor and freemason Dr. Dewell Gann Sr. and his family. Gann was born on March 31, 1863, in Atlanta, Georgia. In Arkansas, his family became well known for its contributions to history and to the field of medical science. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 2, 1976, a few months after what is now the Gann Museum, immediately neighboring it on South Market Street in Benton, was …

Garage Bands

With the arrival of the Beatles on American shores in 1964, the “British Invasion” became a national pop-culture phenomenon. Representing the second generation of rock and roll, wave after wave of English rock groups—such as the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Who—followed the Beatles during the next two years. Teenagers across the United States were inspired to form four- or five-member bands patterned after their British role models. Because they often practiced in garages, these amateur groups came to be known as “garage bands.” Like many mid-sized American cities, Little Rock (Pulaski County) witnessed a mid-1960s explosion in the number of neighborhood teenage groups, all competing for school, fraternity house, or country club engagements. Other cities and towns in …

Garland County Courthouse

The Garland County Courthouse is located at Ouachita Avenue and Hawthorne Street in Hot Springs (Garland County). The four-story brick building is recognized by the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program to be both architecturally and historically significant, with one source calling it perhaps the finest example of Renaissance Revival–style architecture in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. After the Civil War, Hot Springs grew into one of the nation’s leading health resorts. At that time, the county seat of Hot Spring County was in Rockport (Hot Spring County) near Malvern (Hot Spring County), a day-long trip for the citizens of Hot Springs. They urged the Arkansas General Assembly to create a new county, …

Garland County Public Library

The Garland County Public Library, located in Hot Springs (Garland County), has the stated goal of connecting the community with materials, information, and services that promote learning and enjoyment for all ages. Located in a spacious facility on Malvern Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares in Hot Springs, it earned a long history of civic support toward maintaining an outstanding library for the community. The earliest known reference to establishing a library in Hot Springs was in an 1833 letter written by pioneering local resident Hiram Whittington to his brother in Boston, Massachusetts. Whittington described his plan to create the settlement’s first circulating library in his log cabin home at the junction of today’s Whittington and Park avenues in Hot …

Garrett Whiteside Hall

Garrett Whiteside Hall, located at the corner of North Third Avenue and Lockesburg Street in Nashville (Howard County), is a single-story, wood-frame gymnasium built in 1940 through the National Youth Administration (NYA), a Depression-era federal relief program. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 21, 1994. The public school system in Nashville had its origins in the 1880s when the Nashville Academy opened; it had three teachers and 115 students by 1890. The original 1886 wood-frame school building burned in 1931 and was replaced a year later. As the Great Depression yielded President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal agencies, the school district sought funding for a gymnasium through the NYA. In part through the aid of …

Gars

aka: Garfish
aka: Garpikes
Gars are a primitive group of euryhaline fishes dating back to the late Jurassic to early Cretaceous Period, about 150 million years ago. Gars are one of the most recognizable fishes because of their slender torpedo-shaped bodies, ganoid scales, and long snouts with numerous teeth. Dorsal and anal fins are set far back on the body, and the caudal fin is rounded, with a condition known as abbreviate-heterocercal. Gars are unusual among fishes in that their vascularized swim bladders can function as lungs; they must surface periodically to take a gulp of air. Arkansas hosts four gar species: the alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula), spotted gar (Lepisosteus oculatus), longnose gar (L. osseus), and shortnose gar (L. platostomous). Fossilized gar specimens have …

Gastrotrichs

aka: Hairybacks
The Phylum Gastrotricha (commonly called “hairybacks”) comprises about 800 species of marine, brackish, and freshwater microscopic invertebrates. Twelve genera and fewer than 100 species of freshwater gastrotrichs are known from North America. However, in North America, perhaps 75 to 90 percent of the probable diversity of freshwater gastrotrichs species are undescribed. Gastrotrichs are widely distributed cosmopolitan organisms that are divided into two orders: the Macrodasyida (with nine families), which, except for two freshwater species (Marinellina flagellata and Redudasys fornerise), are marine, and the Chaetonotida (seven families), some of which are marine, estuarine, and semi-terrestrial forms, while others are primarily found in freshwater. The Chaetonotida can be further broken down into two suborders: the Multitubulatina (Nesodasys) and the Paucitublatina (Chaetonotus, Dasydytes, …

Gatewood House

The Gatewood House, designed in the Shingle architectural style, is gambrel-roofed home located in Malvern (Hot Spring County). Constructed in 1905, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1992. The house was constructed by Matthew and Hannah Duffie for their daughter, Annie Sinney Duffie Gatewood. Amie married Edwin Lee Gatewood in Dallas County in 1893, and the couple had three children between 1894 and 1902. Edwin died in Beebe (White County) on April 14, 1905, and Annie lived in the home with her children, Anita, Edwin, and Estell. She died on March 2, 1947, and is buried with her husband in Malvern. The home is located at 235 Pine Bluff Street and faces north. …

Gay Oil Company Building

Located at 300 Broadway in Little Rock (Pulaski County), the Gay Oil Company Building is an example of an early twentieth-century Neoclassical-style office building. Constructed in 1925 and covering three lots, the building served as the headquarters for the Gay Oil Company. The business was founded to sell kerosene and various lubricating oils but expanded into the sale of gasoline and various items related to automobiles. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 5, 2017. Thomas Jefferson Gay organized the Richardson-Gay Oil Company in Texas in 1903. Focused on refining oil, Gay sold his holdings in the business in 1905 and moved to Little Rock, where he founded the Gay Oil Company in 1907. …

Geckos

Geckos are lizards that belong to the Class Reptilia, Order Squamata, Suborder Sauria (Lacertilia), and Infraorder Gekkota within seven families, including Carphodactylidae (seven genera, thirty species), Diplodactylidae (twenty-five genera, 137 species), Eublepharidae (six genera, thirty species), Gekkonidae (fifty-four genera, 1,264 species), Pygopodidae (eight genera, thirty-five species), Phyllodactylidae (nine genera, 100 species), and Sphaerodactylidae (twelve genera, 200 species). By far, the true geckos (Gekkonidae) are the largest family of lizards. Many common geckos are members of this family, including dtellas (Gehyra), house geckos (Hemidactylus), true geckos (Gekko), and day geckos (Phelsuma). Geckos are cosmopolitan in distribution and are particularly species-rich in the tropics. At least one type of gecko is found in Arkansas. Geckos probably evolved in the Lower Cretaceous, and …

General Bem [Steamboat]

The steamboat General Bem struck a snag below Walnut Bend on the Mississippi River in 1854, losing fifteen passengers. The General Bem was a 116-ton sidewheel steamboat built at Paducah, Kentucky, in 1849. The vessel was going downstream from Cincinnati, Ohio, heading for the Arkansas River under a full head of steam on January 3, 1854. As it approached the “Grand Cut-off” near Walnut Bend, east of Marianna (Lee County), at around 9:00 p.m., it struck a snag. According to reports, the General Bem “poised herself for a moment” on the snag and then “commenced swinging, in which operation she was torn into a thousand atoms.” The crew and several passengers rushed to the upper deck after the collision, with …

General Improvement Fund

The General Improvement Fund was an account established by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1995 to allocate surplus state general revenues each year for capital improvement projects around the state. The fund, commonly called GIF, was a source of perpetual conflict for the governor, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, and it finally foundered after the Arkansas Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional three times and a number of legislators, lobbyists, and consultants were convicted on corruption charges over the spending. Historically, when tax collections for state general revenues—which fund the public schools and most state services—exceeded the state budgets, the leftover money each year was directed to capital projects such as buildings, renovations, and equipment at colleges, universities, and …

General Robert E. Lee Monument

The General Robert E. Lee Monument in Marianna (Lee County) is a commemorative sculpture erected in 1910 by the D. C. Govan Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to remember local men who had served in the Confederate army during the Civil War and to honor the man for whom Lee County was named. The Arkansas General Assembly created Lee County in April 1873 from parts of Phillips, Monroe, St. Francis, and Crittenden counties at the behest of William Furbush, an African-American Republican legislator representing part of Phillips County. It is likely that he chose to name the county after the Confederate leader of the Army of Northern Virginia to gain favor with the politically powerful Democrats in …