Photos of the Day

Beaver Dam, which creates Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas, is a 2,575-foot-long dam, consisting of a 1,333-foot-long concrete section keyed into a limestone bluff, 1,242 feet of earth and rock embankment, and three small earth and rock dikes that fill gaps between adjacent hills. Maximum height of the dam above the streambed is 228 feet. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held in 1960, with the overall project completed in 1966.

Saline County native Francis Irby Gwaltney was a scholar, professor, and author of significant novels dealing with the South. Gwaltney wrote eight novels, with his most critically acclaimed and commercially successful being The Day the Century Ended (1955). Drawing on his World War II combat experiences, he crafted a gripping story about the relationships between poor and rich Arkansas soldiers in the South Pacific. The book was made into the movie Between Heaven and Hell. Gwaltney died in 1981.

President Harry Truman (center), a 35th Division veteran, marched in the unit’s Reunion Parade held on June 11, 1949, in Little Rock (Pulaski County). He later spoke at the dedication of War Memorial Stadium. Shown here marching with him are Defense Secretary Louis Johnson (left of Truman) and Governor Sid McMath (right of Truman) .

The St. Louis Southwestern No. 819 (SSW 819), constructed in 1943, was the last 4-8-4 locomotive steam engine built in Arkansas. At a cost of $143,607, the engine, which was built in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), was officially placed on active service on February 8, 1943. After ten and a half years of service and 804,000 miles traveled, it was retired. In 1955, it was presented to the City of Pine Bluff by Cotton Belt officials. The engine has been restored and is part of the collection of the city’s Arkansas Railroad Museum in Pine Bluff. This photo was taken at the Fordyce on the Cotton Belt Festival in 1986.

For over three decades, Earl Bell of Jonesboro (Craighead County) was the premier pole vaulter in the United States. As a member of the Arkansas State University (ASU) track team in 1976, he set the world record at 18’ 7.25”. Bell achieved many honors, including twelve NCAA championships, five NCAA records, and many national titles. A three-time Olympian, he won the bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles games. In 1991, he founded his own training facility near Jonesboro, Bell Athletics, which in 2004 produced one-half of the U.S. Olympic pole-vaulting team.

The Peel House in Bentonville (Benton County) is one of Arkansas’s best surviving examples of Italianate architecture. Built in 1875 by Confederate veteran and lawyer Samuel W. Peel, the house was part of a working farmstead surrounded by 180 acres of apple trees. The house, which is shown here in about 1900, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Today, it is part of a tourist attraction called the Peel Mansion Museum and Heritage Gardens.

Doctor M. V. Mayfield arrived in Mena (Polk County) around 1918 and quickly became a respected physician. Approximately eight years after arriving, the seventy-nine-year-old doctor was found ill at home. While Mayfield was being bathed, it was revealed that the respected doctor had the anatomy of a woman. Mary Victor Mayfield’s story briefly became something of an area sensation. Mayfield died about three years after the secret was revealed and is buried south of Mena in the Gann Cemetery.

The Calhoun County Courthouse, located in Hampton, is just one of the many Arkansas seats of government that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by E. L. Koonce and Frank Gibb, the structure was built in 1909 and was added to the National Register in 1976. The courthouse archives the county records dating back to the county’s creation in 1850.

The Miller County Historical and Family Museum was founded by the Miller County Historical Society as part of the state’s sesquicentennial celebration in 1986. The museum opened in 2001 in this 1919 church building located in Fouke (Miller County). It is dedicated to the location, collection, preservation, and presentation of artifacts, photos, documents, and other items that help present the history of the county and its people.

The Lonoke Cemetery, which was located just across the road from the World War I pilot school, Eberts Field, was used as a motivation by instructors for their young pilots in training. The pilot school, established in 1917 and named in honor of Arkansas pilot Captain Melchior McEwen “Ike” Eberts, boasted a record of routine crashes but no deaths. One of those lucky pilots was flying this plane, a type lovingly called a “flying coffin,” when it crashed in 1918.

Capital punishment, with the exception of a few years in the 1970s and 1980s, has been a part of Arkansas history since the late 1700s. Until 1913, when electrocution became the preferred method, hanging was the most common means of execution. The electric chair known as “Old Sparky,” two models of which were used over the years (the second is pictured here), was located at the Tucker Unit until 1964, when it was last used. Over 100 executions were carried out in these chairs.

One of the most popular exhibits at the Arkansas State University Museum in Jonesboro (Craighead County) is the skeletal mastodon model known as Mona. Cast from authentic fossilized bones, it was named after retired museum educator Mona Fielder, who was instrumental in its acquisition. Authentic mastodon bones placed in surrounding display cases complement the model.

On June 24, 1823, Acting Governor Robert Crittenden of Arkansas Territory met with a group of Arkansas Cherokee leaders at the home of Cherokee agent David Brearley on the south side of the Arkansas River in the vicinity of present-day Dardanelle (Yell County). It is believed that the resulting Treaty of Council Oaks, which ceded Cherokee rights to all land south of the Arkansas River, was signed under this tree.

When Boone County was created in 1869, local postmaster Henry Frick became determined to create a new town as the county seat. He convinced Colonel Marcus LaRue Harrison (shown here), who was in the area surveying a railroad route, to lay out a new town. Harrison soon surveyed an area of wide streets and a courthouse square. In return for his work, the town was named Harrison in his honor.

Forrest City (St. Francis County) native Don Kessinger played major league baseball for sixteen years in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly for the Chicago Cubs. After graduating as a star four-sport high school athlete, he enrolled at the University of Mississippi in 1960. In 1964, he was signed by the Chicago Cubs organization and, the following year, became a regular on the team. After his playing days, he managed the Chicago White Sox for half a season in 1979, becoming the only Arkansan to have both played and managed in the major leagues.

As part of the “rails-to-trails” provision of the National Trails System Act, the Delta Heritage Trail State Park began development along seventy-three miles of abandoned Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way in eastern Arkansas. Beginning in Phillips County, the trail continues through Arkansas County and ends in Desha County. Along the trail are some fifty-eight bridges, one of which, the bridge near Helena-West Helena (Phillips County), is shown here.

Theressa Hoover worked for human rights and unity through the United Methodist Church for nearly fifty years. Born in Arkansas, she represented those who, in the words of her 1974 monograph, were in “triple jeopardy”: female, African American, and Christian. Hoover worked for justice and empowerment for women and children around the globe. Her influence has been far-reaching, as she provided inspiration for others through her words and actions. She was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 2000.

A small number of the 10,000 civilians employed by the Chemical Warfare Arsenal established near Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) in 1941 worked on one of the many devices produced at the arsenal. The over 14,000-acre facility, which was renamed the Pine Bluff Arsenal in 1942, produced millions of incendiary munitions and chemical compounds during World War II. After the war and into the 1960s, the arsenal produced biological compounds. It later began producing smoke, incendiary, and pyrotechnic devices.

Much effort in the early twenty-first century was expended on the banks of the Arkansas River in Little Rock (Pulaski County) to develop a scenic park around the famous “Little Rock.” Excavations in 2009-2010 to uncover the “Little Rock” led to the discovery that little of the rock still exists. Instead, a large piece removed years ago that had been on display at City Hall has been moved to the new park. This postcard shows what remained of the rock in the early twentieth century.

By the time the United States entered World War II in late 1941, all of the Arkansas National Guard units had been mobilized. One of those units, the 153rd Infantry Regiment, is shown here, likely at Camp Forrest, Tennessee, before being shipped off to Washington State and then to the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska. The regiment served in several other Alaskan locations before the war came to an end in 1945.

Trout Fishing in America (TFIA), based in northwest Arkansas, is a musical performance duo consisting of Keith Grimwood (left), who plays bass and sings, and Ezra Idlet, who sings and plays acoustic guitar and banjo. The name of the duo comes from the seminal 1960s experimental novella by Richard Brautigan. Trout Fishing in America has been nominated for four Grammy Awards and has released at least twenty albums.

Arkansas has produced wine since the early 1800s. Italian immigration to northwest Arkansas in the late 1800s and the area’s fertile soil led to that part of the state becoming a leader in wine and juice grape cultivation. Many area wineries developed with Tontitown (Washington County), which still holds an annual grape festival. Shown in this 1930s photo are workers at the Granata Winery, one of the area’s wineries.

From November 1818 to February 1819, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft explored land from Potosi, Missouri, southwest to the White River, northwest to near Springfield, Missouri, then south by canoe on the White River to present-day Batesville (Independence County), and finally northeast again to Missouri. In 1821, his Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansaw, describing Arkansas Ozarks geography, vegetation, wildlife, and inhabitants, was published in London, England.

The American Colonization Society (ACS), founded in the 1820s with a mission to relocate ex-slaves and freedmen to Africa, became well known for the creation of the nation of Liberia. The years following Reconstruction saw a surge in the number of African Americans desiring to relocate to Africa. In the 1880s and 1890s, approximately 650 Arkansas emigrants, more than in any other state, left for Africa. By the mid-1890s, the ACS dropped its resettlement program, which was taken over by private companies. Shown in this 1895 photo are some 200 passengers, of which half were from Arkansas, boarding the ship Horsa bound for Liberia.

In 1964, the Beatles made a brief stopover at the airport at Walnut Ridge (Lawrence County). To draw attention to the historic event and to attract tourists to the town, a sculpture was created. Unveiled on September 18, 2011, the eye-catching sculpture, which is located downtown, reproduces the street crossing depicted on the Abbey Road album cover.

The first recorded mining of gypsum in Arkansas was in 1922 in open pits located in Pike County. A long gypsum belt was discovered running through parts of Howard, Sevier, and Pike counties, with the thickest single bed located near a place called Plaster Bluff in Pike County. The pile of gypsum shown in this 1961 photo was mined at Highland Park (Pike County) and then stored at a nearby plant for processing. In that year, Arkansas produced almost 170,000 tons of gypsum.

During the 1957 desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock (Pulaski County), this Magnolia gas station, located across the street from the school, was a central gathering place for many segregationist demonstrators. The National Park Service restored the building in 1997 and used it as a visitor center and museum until the 2007 opening of the Little Rock High School National Historic Site Visitor Center.

When construction began on Norfork Dam in Baxter County in 1941, approximately 4,000 observers arrived in the area to view the initial blast, shown here, to remove a cliff. Because the local media had hyped the blast, many of the witnesses were disappointed when only a small part of the cliff crumbled.

The Arkansas Forestry Commission (AFC) was established by Act 234 of 1931 and amended by Act 48 of 1939. Its initial responsibilities included fire control, education in fire safety, and forest management. In this early 1940s photo, a commission employee is shown with a fire plow, creating a furrow to help prevent the spread of fire.

A major issue during the early-twentieth-century Progressive Era was the passage of the initiative and referendum. In the summer of 1910, Governor George Donaghey (shown here) and populist William J. Bryan made a five-day, 1,750-mile whistle-stop train tour through the state to support the passage of the measure in Arkansas. Before the tour was complete, fifty-five speeches had been delivered to an estimated 100,000 citizens. The measure passed by popular vote later that year.

In 1949, fifteen-year-old Sue Kidd of Van Buren County became a member of the Springfield Sallies, a team in the professional All-American Girls Baseball League. She had considerable pitching success with three different teams in a career that lasted approximately five years. As a pitcher for the South Bend Blue Sox, in whose team uniform she is shown here, she was instrumental in helping the team win the 1951 and 1952 league championships.

Millwood State Park is located in southwest Arkansas near Ashdown (Little River County) on the shores of Millwood Lake. The 29,550-acre lake was created in 1966 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed the longest earthen dam in Arkansas, stretching some 3.3 miles. In 1976, the Corps signed a lease with the state parks system leading to the creation of the state park. The lake, with its trademark standing timber, is well known for its excellent bass fishing.

James Bales, a professor of Bible and theology at Harding University in Searcy (White County) in the mid-twentieth century, gained a national reputation as a debater and author on theological and political issues. He was especially known for his anti-communist debates and activities. He published more than seventy books and numerous articles during his long career.

Since Ouachita County was founded in 1842, its government has occupied several different courthouses in Camden. The first two were destroyed by fire, a common occurrence in Arkansas, and the third, shown here in the 1890s, was almost completely destroyed by a tornado in 1931. It was rebuilt (completed in 1933) and that structure is still in use today.

Maryland native William Savin Fulton was the last territorial governor of Arkansas. Fulton, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the first Seminole War, was appointed territorial secretary in 1829 by his friend, President Andrew Jackson. Jackson then appointed him territorial governor in 1835. When Arkansas achieved statehood in 1836, he was elected one of the state’s first two U.S. senators. Reelected in 1840, he served in the office until his death in 1844.

The goal of the Walton Arts Council, formed in the 1980s, was the construction of an arts center for the Fayetteville (Washington County) area. A donation from the Walton family to the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville, combined with $7 million raised from private donations, was used to build the Walton Arts Center, shown here in 2008.

U.S. district judge William Ray Overton is best known for his 1982 ruling in McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, which held the teaching of creationism to be unconstitutional. The plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of Act 590 of 1981, which required Arkansas public schools to have a “balanced treatment” between creation science and evolution. Overton ruled that “no group, no matter how large or small, may use the organs of government, of which the public schools are the most conspicuous and influential, to foist its religious beliefs on others.” 

Perhaps the most notorious incident of racial violence in Arkansas occurred on the streets of Little Rock (Pulaski County) on May 4, 1927. Citizens had been upset in late April when an African-American man accused of the murder of a young white girl had been moved out of the city for his safety. Less than one week later, John Carter was accused of assaulting a white woman and her daughter. A mob tracked him down and shot and hanged him. Carter is shown here hanging from a telephone pole before the mob burned his body and dragged it in a caravan of cars through the streets of Little Rock. No charges were ever filed against those involved in his lynching.

African-American lawyer Scipio Africanus Jones, shown here working at his desk in 1915, 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 African-American men sentenced to death following the Elaine Massacre in 1919.

Celia Alta Haskins married Orval E. Faubus in 1931. The newlyweds moved to Huntsville (Madison County), where Orval was elected circuit clerk and recorder. While he served in World War II, Alta fulfilled his elected duties. Alta Faubus became the state’s first lady in 1955. As first lady, she was involved in a number of activities, including volunteering at the Training School for Girls and serving in an advisory position on the state Board of Mental of Health. She also was a leader in the development of Arkansas Head Start. She and Orval were divorced in 1969.

Twila Paris was one of the twentieth century’s most successful singers, songwriters, and pianists in the area of contemporary Christian music. During the peak of her career, she received ten Dove Awards and three American Song Writer Awards. She has charted more than thirty number-one hits on the Christian contemporary charts. She continues to compose, record, and tour from her home base in Washington County.

Bayou Bartholomew, which begins in Jefferson County and runs some 359 miles through five other Arkansas counties before entering Louisiana, was the major waterway for transportation through the interior Delta during much of the nineteenth century. With a million-acre watershed, it is the longest bayou in the world.

When Arkansas’s third territorial governor, John Pope, engaged architect Gideon Shryock to design a capitol building in 1833, he envisioned a structure that “would command the admiration and respect of the passing stranger, and have moral and political influence on the whole community.” The building, which is shown here in the 1930s, was abandoned in 1911 when a new capitol was occupied. The building has served many purposes since then. Today, it is the home of the widely respected Old State House Museum.

The Clark County Library, one of the oldest library buildings in Arkansas, is representative of early efforts to establish libraries in the state. On November 11, 1897, about thirty Arkadelphia (Clark County) women formed the Women’s Library Association with a goal of establishing a public library in Arkadelphia. After the library had occupied several locations, a library building fund was created in 1899. In 1903, a loan was secured and construction of a library building, shown here, began. By 1913, the debt was fully paid.

Augustus Hill Garland of Hempstead County was prohibited from practicing law due to his service in the Confederate Congress during the Civil War. Garland contested the 1865 law that debarred him, arguing that the law was ex post facto and therefore unconstitutional. Garland’s argument was confirmed when, in 1867, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor in Ex parte Garland. The decision opened the door for him to serve as governor, U.S. senator, and as U.S. attorney general under President Grover Cleveland.

Augustus Hill Garland of Hempstead County was prohibited from practicing law due to his service in the Confederate Congress during the Civil War. Garland contested the 1865 law that debarred him, arguing that the law was ex post facto and therefore unconstitutional. Garland’s argument was confirmed when, in 1867, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor in Ex parte Garland. The decision opened the door for him to serve as governor, U.S. senator, and as U.S. attorney general under President Grover Cleveland.

The Dean B. Ellis Library is centrally located on the campus of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro (Craighead County), occupying this eight-story building. The library is the educational center of the university community and includes a collection of more than 1.5 million items.

Benjamin Joseph Altheimer Sr. of Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), shown here with his niece in 1945, was a lawyer and philanthropist known for promoting innovative agricultural research and education. Altheimer became vitally interested in agriculture and helped develop and promote some of the latest technologies in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1942, he created the Ben J. Altheimer Foundation, which provided funds to build a clerical and machine trade school, a technical school building, and a Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts building in the town of Altheimer (Jefferson County).

The suspension bridge built at Tumbling Shoals (Cleburne County) over the Little Red River was one of three such bridges built in the area by Henry Churchill in about 1912. Measuring some 440 feet in length, the bridge was salvaged before the waters of Greers Ferry Lake covered its location in the 1960s. One of the other bridge sites was also covered by the waters; however, the third bridge remained in use until 1989, when it collapsed, killing five people.

Diamond Cave, located near Jasper (Newton County), was a major tourist attraction starting in the 1920s, with its several rooms, mineral formations, and crystal-clear pools. During the attraction’s heyday, the area surrounding the cave consisted of campgrounds, a hotel, a restaurant, and a skating rink. The cave and the area continued to attract visitors until the cave was eventually closed in the mid-1990s.