Photos of the Day - Starting with M

Approximately three years after Pulitzer Prize–winning poet John Gould Fletcher moved back to his native Little Rock (Pulaski County), he married fellow accomplished writer Charlie May Simon. The couple, though often traveling the world, lived in their dream home on a bluff overlooking the Arkansas River. The couple is shown here in about 1945 with their dog, Sister Sue.

The twenty-fifth governor of Arkansas, Charles Hillman Brough (1917-1921), was a strong supporter of public education in the early part of the twentieth century. As governor, he pushed for property taxes to fund schools, established compulsory school attendance, established a commission on illiteracy, and was a strong supporter of both vocational and special education.

In the gubernatorial election of 1926, John E. Martineau became the first candidate since Reconstruction to defeat an incumbent Arkansas governor running for a second term. Martineau was also the first governor to broadcast his inaugural address on the radio. During his single term, he was best known for his efforts in developing innovative funding for the Arkansas highway system and relief efforts following the devastating Flood of 1927. He is shown here in his official gubernatorial portrait as the state’s twenty-eighth governor.

Timber has always been a major business in Cleveland County. By 1900, over 350 local citizens out of a county population of less than 12,000 were employed in the industry. Sawmills began to spring up all over the county, making it possible for men such as those shown in this 1915 photo to make a living. Timber still remains a considerable interest in the present-day county.

In June 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt embarked upon a 4,000-mile tour of the Southwest to deliver speeches at three historical celebrations, one of which was the Arkansas statehood centennial. He is shown here on June 10 delivering that speech at the unfinished Centennial Stadium, located near Fair Park in Little Rock (Pulaski County). The president, while addressing the crowd of 25,000, was joined on stage by senators Joseph T. Robinson and Hattie Caraway.

Shortly after her arrival in Fayetteville (Washington County) in 1839, Sophia Sawyer founded a school known as the Fayetteville Female Seminary. Sarah Ridge, widow of Cherokee leader John Ridge, was co-founder. The school, which enrolled both Native Americans and whites, was officially incorporated in 1859, five years after Sawyer’s death, and remained in operation until it was burned after the 1862 Battle of Prairie Grove. The school is shown here in approximately 1852.

Of Arkansas’s seventy-five counties, ten have been named in honor of U.S. presidents. On November 5, 1829, the territorial legislature named the newest county then to be created in honor of the nation’s seventh chief executive, Andrew Jackson.

Lake Bennett, located near Greenbrier (Faulkner County) in Woolly Hollow State Park, was named for Dr. Hugh H. Bennett, first director of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. The 400-acre lake was constructed in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration as the first Soil Conservation System watershed project in the United States. Today it is a popular recreation lake.

Pinnacle Mountain, located near Little Rock (Pulaski County), rises more than 1,000 feet above the Arkansas River Valley. The cone-shaped peak has long been a landmark in the central part of the state. Since 1977, the mountain has been a part of Pinnacle Mountain State Park, the first state park adjoining a major metropolitan area. The park is home to many hiking trails, two of which venture to the summit of the mountain.

A quartz belt measuring up to forty miles wide runs through the Ouachita Mountains into Oklahoma. The mineral has been mined since the early 1800s, with modern mining beginning in 1930. Garland County, where the photo of this massive piece of quartz was taken in 1958, is just one of the counties through which this belt runs. In 1967, quartz was designated the official state mineral.

Walnut Ridge (Lawrence County), which was incorporated in 1880, was home to approximately 500 citizens when this photo was taken in the early 1890s. As a county seat located on a major railroad, the town has long been a center of economic activity, as shown here in this photo of the Walnut Ridge Steam Laundry.

In 1979, noted author Charles Portis published his third novel, The Dog of the South. Following his very successful western, True Grit, the new work was a comic novel telling the story of a young Arkansas man tracking his runaway wife and her lover to Belize in an attempt to recover stolen items and perhaps even the wife. The title is derived from one of the book’s characters who drives a bus with “Dog of the South” painted on the side.

Heber Springs (Cleburne County), the county seat of Arkansas’s youngest county, has always been identified as a tourist area. As the town began to develop, many of the wood-frame downtown business buildings were being replaced by more fire-resistant brick structures. Shown here is the town’s first brick business, constructed sometime in the 1890s.

Cleveland County native William Paul “Bear” Bryant was one of the most successful college football coaches in history. At the time of his death in 1983, his teams had won more games (232) than any other. During his twenty-five-year tenure at the University of Alabama, his teams won five national titles and appeared in twenty-four consecutive post-season bowls. Bryant was named the national coach of the year four times.

David Dixon Porter’s career in the navy started at age ten when he began his maritime service in the Mexican Navy. His career in the U.S. Navy began in 1829, and after many years of service, he became one of the first officers to achieve the rank of admiral. In 1863, as naval commander, he directed the gunboats that assisted in the capture of the Confederate stronghold at Arkansas Post (Arkansas County).

James P. Clarke, a native of Mississippi, served as an Arkansas state legislator, attorney general, U.S. senator, and the state’s eighteenth governor. Clarke was a strong supporter of free and unlimited coinage of silver and, as governor, unsuccessfully pushed for the regulation of the state’s railroads. After serving one term as governor, Clarke mounted an unsuccessful race for the U.S. Senate in 1896. He was finally elected senator in 1902, being reelected twice before his death in 1916.

This membership card belonged to a 1909 member of the International Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo. The order was the first national lumbermen’s association and was formed in Gurdon (Clark County) by a group of men returning from a lumber manufacturing convention in 1892. Today, the association has approximately 3,500 members worldwide.

Stamps is a small town located in Lafayette County that owes its early development to the lumber industry. The owners of one of the largest lumber mills, the Bodcaw Lumber Company, founded the First Presbyterian Church, shown here. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

In 1911, the third battleship christened with the name Arkansas was launched. The USS Arkansas (BB33), shown in this 1912 photograph, saw service in both world wars. Among its duties in World War I was serving as part of the fleet that escorted President Woodrow Wilson to France for the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Versailles. In World War II, it and the crew participated in the Normandy invasion and saw extensive combat service during the Pacific island-hopping campaign. It was awarded four battle stars for its World War II service. Shortly after the war ended, it was sunk in the atomic testing at the Bikini Atoll.

The Scott Plantation Settlement in Scott (Pulaski County) consists of twenty-five buildings and exhibits that preserve the history of the plantation system for the first 100 years of Arkansas statehood. Shown here is an aerial view of the historic site, which was established in the 1990s.

Washington (Hempstead County), founded in 1824, was one of Arkansas Territory’s early settlements. The town, which served as the county seat until 1939, was a major waystation on the Southwest Trail and was one of the last U.S. towns one passed through before entering Mexican territory. Washington prospered until the 1870s, when the railroad was constructed about nine miles away. About the time this photo of the post office was taken in the 1880s, the town began its slow decline. Today, the restored town, a historic treasure, is known as Historic Washington State Park.

Native Helena (Phillips County) bluesman CeDell Davis was stricken by polio at age nine, which crippled his right hand. To compensate, he played his guitar in a left-handed bottleneck style, fretting with a butter knife. Though he performed music most of his life, he did not sign a record deal until the 1990s, releasing his debut solo album, Feel Like Doin’ Something Wrong, in 1993.

A lifelong resident of Swifton (Jackson County), George Kell was a professional baseball player, announcer, and businessman. Born in 1922, Kell began his professional baseball career in the minor leagues before being picked up by the Philadelphia Athletics in 1944. He went on to play for four other teams, appearing in six All-Star Games and leading the American League in hitting in 1949. After the 1957 season, he retired and became an announcer, eventually becoming the “Voice of the Detroit Tigers.” In 1983, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Until 1995, visitors crossing the Arkansas state line, such as these seen in this 1960s photo, were greeted by signs touting the official state nickname, Land of Opportunity. Adopted by the state legislature in 1947, the slogan replaced the Wonder State, which had been selected in 1923. Land of Opportunity, which also appeared on automobile license plates, remained the nickname for approximately thirty-eight years.

Of the seventy-five counties of the state of Arkansas, three have been named in honor of signers of the Declaration of Independence. On November 1, 1833, the territorial legislature named the newest county then to be created in honor of Maryland signer Charles Carroll.

Augustus Kilty was the commander of the 510-ton Union ironclad USS Mound City when it was involved in what has been called the “most deadly shot” of the Civil War. While participating in the Engagement at St. Charles on the White River on June 17, 1862, the vessel took a single shot to the steam drum. Escaping steam scalded many of the crew, ultimately resulting in 105 deaths and forty-four injuries. Kilty ordered the disabled vessel abandoned and then towed to safety. The ship was repaired, and it served until war’s end, when it was sold at auction and salvaged.

Many Arkansas county courthouse lawns feature monuments commemorating historic events. Perhaps the most common are monuments dedicated to Confederate soldiers. In 1910, this Confederate monument was dedicated in the county seat of Lake Village (Chicot County). The monument inscription reads, “To the Confederate soldiers of Chicot County, the record of whose sublime sacrifice and undying devotion is the proud heritage of a loyal posterity.” It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

In its heyday, Winslow (Washington County) was reported to be the highest railroad pass on the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad line between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The elevation helped make Winslow a popular resort, with many people spending the summers there to enjoy the cooler mountain temperatures. Today, the town, which is located on Highway 71, has become somewhat isolated with the completion of I-540 about seven miles to the west.

Shown here is the design of the state flag as adopted by the Arkansas General Assembly on February 26, 1913. The approved flag was a modification of a design submitted by Willie Kavanaugh Hocker, which simply had three blue stars centered in a line in the white diamond field. The official flag, now including the state’s name, was presented to the newly commissioned ship, the USS Arkansas.

During World War II, the display of photographs of loved ones serving in the armed services became a common practice throughout much of Arkansas. The editor of Pike County’s Glenwood Herald, Charles Price, points at one such photographic display in the window of his newspaper office.

Slave auctions were a common event in the slave states in the days before the Civil War. Such events were widely advertised in the local newspapers. Broadsides, both large and small, were also commonly distributed to stimulate interest. This 1842 Hempstead County slave auction broadside advertises for sale “15 young and valuable Slaves.” Also included in the sale were cattle and plantation tools.

The Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, one of the state’s most respected local history museums, was founded in the 1960s in Springdale (Benton County). From humble beginnings, the museum now occupies a modern facility and was named the Arkansas Museum of the Year in 1982, 1991, and 2004. Shown here is one of the institution’s exhibits, chronicling the history of photography in the Ozarks.

The focal point of Powhatan Historic State Park in (Lawrence County) is the 1888 Italianate-style courthouse. Located on the foundation of the previous courthouse, the building was constructed of bricks made on site. Abandoned when the county seat was moved in 1963, the building, seen in this 1890s photo, was saved by the leadership efforts of the local historical society and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. With interior restoration completed in 2005, the building now serves as a museum.

Quitman, the oldest town in Cleburne County, was once the home of the Quitman Male and Female College, a Methodist school. Founded in 1871, the school remained in operation until about the time this Main Street photo was taken, near the turn of the century. During its existence, approximately 3,000 students walked through the doors of the two-story frame structure that served as the main school building.

The Ritz opened as an opera house on Main Street in Blytheville (Mississippi County) in the early 1900s. A popular entertainment venue, the building was renovated in 1951. The large crowd shown here at the Ritz is participating in a live broadcast of local radio station KLCN in the mid-1950s. Over the years, the building fell into disrepair, but it was restored to its 1950s look in the 1990s. It now serves as the Ritz Civic Center and is home to the local arts council.

Salt making is one of Arkansas’s earliest industries, conducted by Native Americans hundreds of years before the first Europeans entered present-day Arkansas in 1541. The area near Arkadelphia (Clark County) was one of the most productive operations, even into the mid-nineteenth century. This 200-gallon kettle is said to have been used by John Hemphill in one of the area’s early operations, even before Arkansas became a territory in 1819.

Mena (Polk County) native David Luke Myrick, better known as T. Texas Tyler, introduced a distinctive country-and-western musical style that made him a successful recording artist in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The T. Texas Tyler Tree, a large water oak named to honor Tyler, is shown here at his family’s Mena homestead.

Confederate general Thomas C. Hindman of Helena (Phillips County) survived extensive Civil War combat only to be murdered by an unknown assailant during Reconstruction. Hindman was shot while sitting near a window in his Helena home on September 28, 1868. No suspect was ever arrested, and the motive was never determined. Some speculated that his death came at the hands of political opponents or someone with a personal grudge.

Strawberries were first commercially grown in Arkansas in White County in the early 1870s. The profitability of the fruit, combined with railroad shipping, led many communities in the Ozarks, such as Marshall (Searcy County), to grow strawberries. Shown here is a Marshall strawberry field being hand picked by a small group of workers in the mid-1960s.

The city of Clarendon (Monroe County), one of Arkansas’s first European settlements, stands where the Cache River empties into the White River. Historically a transportation center, Clarendon was on the Military Road and on the Cotton Belt Railroad. Most of its history is tied to the rivers, however, including significant Civil War actions and, of course, times of major flooding. Air travel and interstate highways have led to the decline of Clarendon as a transportation hub. Pictured here is the riverfront at Clarendon, circa 1905–1910.

This Greek Revival house was built in 1845 in the important early Arkansas town of Washington (Hempstead County). It was constructed for prominent political leader Grandison Royston, who served in the 1836 Arkansas Constitutional Convention. Today, the restored house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a part of the Historic Washington State Park.

In 1896, Daniel W. Jones became the last Civil War veteran elected as the governor of Arkansas. While most of those in power leaned toward forwarding the interests of the aristocratic elite, Jones is regarded by many as being one of the first governors to exhibit progressive leanings in support of the poorer farming class. Reelected in 1898, Jones supported the construction of a new state capitol, laying the building’s cornerstone in November 1900. Jones died in 1918, being buried in a uniform of Confederate gray.

Oaklawn Park Thoroughbred Racetrack, located in Hot Springs (Garland County), officially opened on February 24, 1905, to an enthusiastic crowd of over 3,000 fans. Handle, purses, and attendance have steadily grown over the years, and today thousands just like this 1950s crowd visit the track each racing season.

Gilbert Maxwell Aronson, better known as America’s first cowboy movie star “Broncho Billy” Anderson, lived in this Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) residence as a young man in the 1890s. Between 1900 and 1926, Aronson produced, directed, or appeared in more than 600 motion pictures. In 1958, approximately thirteen years before his death, he was awarded a special Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

African-American lawyer Scipio Africanus Jones was admitted to practice law in the Pulaski County Circuit Court in 1889 and the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1900. He assisted families during the Argenta Race Riot in 1902 and later worked to free twelve black men sentenced to death following the Elaine Massacre in 1919.

This 1975 photograph of the male eastern bluebird is just one of the approximately 58,000 items created by renowned wildlife photographer Thase Daniel that are housed in Ouachita Baptist University’s Riley-Hickingbotham Library in Arkadelphia (Clark County). The Jefferson County native and world traveler shot almost a quarter of a million images in a career that lasted approximately thirty years. By the time of her death in 1990, she had become one of the world’s leading nature and wildlife photographers.

Calico Rock (Izard County), which developed as a steamboat landing on the White River, was originally known as Calico Landing. Much of the town, as shown in this early 1900s photograph, was safely constructed on a bluff overlooking the river. Calico Rock became a boomtown in 1902, when construction began on the railroad and the settlement became the headquarters for railroad construction crews. That same year, the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railway opened rail service there.

This Hot Springs (Garland County) building was once the home of the world-famous Mountain Valley Spring Water company. First known as Lockett’s Spring Water, the company’s name was changed in 1871. Many famous personalities have enjoyed the water, including Elvis Presley and thirteen U.S. presidents. The water has been served in the U.S. Senate since the 1920s. Today, company sales each year exceed 50 million gallons of water worldwide.

President Calvin Coolidge stands with Osage Indians; the White House is in the background. The Osage, who speak a Sioux language dialect, formerly inhabited what is now Missouri and hunted in what is now northern Arkansas. On June 2, 1924, President Coolidge signed a bill granting Native Americans full citizenship.

By the late 1800s, lumber production had developed into a major Arkansas enterprise. Many communities were home to a lumber mill, such as the Portia Lumber Company in Lawrence County. The company, shown here in 1894, provided much-needed employment to area residents.