The Life of an Ozarks African-American Frontier Industrialist Unearthed

Published April 20, 2022 at 1:31 PM CDT

The only known photograph of Aaron “Rock” Van Winkle, standing behind Peter Van Winkle’s spouse, Temperance, outside a Roger’s home circa 1899.

The little-known history of Black pioneer Aaron "Rock" Van Winkle — who was instrumental in operating one of the first and most productive lumber mills on the Arkansas Ozarks — is chronicled in the latest edition of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly, coauthored by historian Christopher Huggard and sociologist Jerry Harris Moore.