NPR Affiliate since 1985
Ozarks at Large

The Life of an Ozarks African-American Frontier Industrialist Unearthed

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio

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

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.

Stay Connected
Jacqueline Froelich is an investigative reporter and news producer for <i>Ozarks at Large.</i>