August 23, 2007

Searcy County entered a mining boom in the early 1880s, resulting in the incorporation of the town of Marshall in 1884. Growth was encouraged when the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad opened a line in 1902, connecting the town to Seligman, Missouri. This 1917 photograph shows one of the early businesses that opened in the growing town. The gasoline pump in the foreground was somewhat unique to the mountain towns of Arkansas at the time.