Kyle Kellams: It's another Monday. It's time to welcome in Randy Dixon from the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History.
Randy Dixon: That'll get you going on a Monday, won't it?
Kellams: That is a song that, if you are of a certain age, you used to hear a lot.
Dixon: And it actually used to be a promotional song for KATV. Along with "Arkansas," you'd hear a little "Spirit of Arkansas," which was the slogan of KATV. But that was written by Terry Rose and our own chief meteorologist, Ned Perme.
Kellams: Was it ever the official Arkansas song?
Dixon: Ish. It's hard to say. There were several. We did a segment on all of the quasi-official ones.
Kellams: But why are we hearing this again today?
Dixon: There's a lot of talk about this summer's 250th birthday of America, also known as — let me get this right — the semiquincentennial of the United States. So I wanted to go back 50 years and look in the KATV archives about the bicentennial, because that was certainly a much bigger deal. A lot of events. Every state had their own. There was even a train that traveled around the country with exhibits. Amtrak was big then.
Kellams: Do you remember 7UP had a series of cans, and on the back was every state? And if you collected them all and put them in the right order, it would make the United States of America.
Dixon: No. Did you do that?
Kellams: I was in a class — whatever grade I would have been in in 1976 — and as a class, we did it.
Dixon: You didn't do it on your own?
Kellams: No. I didn't really like 7UP, so it would have been a tough thing to do.
Dixon: One of the things that KATV did — and I didn't even realize this, of course it was before my time at the station — I found a four-part, four-hour docu-series on the history of Arkansas. It was hosted by a guy named Bob Gregory, who was actually the brother of my boss, Jim Pitcock, who we've talked about many times. He was a broadcast journalist in Tulsa, had worked for CBS News. He wrote and narrated this extended history of Arkansas. There are some fascinating stories and facts in there that I thought maybe we could listen to a little of today.
Kellams: OK. Let's listen to just the introduction of this whole series from Bob Gregory on July 4, 1976.
Bob Gregory: "This country observes its 200th birthday. The bicentennial will recognize not only the unification of the 13 original states and the beginning of a new practical form of government, but will celebrate what those states and all the others that followed them into the Union have become. In that regard, each state has its own role, its own importance toward complementing a broader, more festive objective. In 1776, as we know, Arkansas was not even an organized territory. Sixty years would pass before it became part of the United States. And yet its history in very large measure has shaped, and in many ways determines, just how far this country has come and how it got there. It is to tell that history — of rogues, of saints, of places, of things, the history of Arkansas — that we join in and observe the bicentennial celebration."
Dixon: There he is, sitting on the banks of the Arkansas River. You can hear it in the background. I just pulled a few sound clips from throughout the four hours, and we'll hit a few hot spots — the first being the discovery of Arkansas by the white man, Hernando de Soto.
Bob Gregory: "After having wandered for two years throughout the southeastern United States, Hernando de Soto and his expedition reached the Mississippi River on May 2, 1541. About 400 white men standing on the west bank of what their Indian guide called the Mother of Rivers, and what de Soto promptly called the Rio Grande. In time, that name, of course, would change to the Mississippi. What wouldn't change was de Soto's obsessive search for gold. He had found it a few years earlier in Peru. Now he was sure he would find it in Arkansas. Four huge flat boats were constructed. About 30 days later he crossed the Mississippi south of the present city of Helena. This is the land he found and explored — thickly wooded swamps where his men killed fish with tree branches. They even slept in shallow water. For a year they searched for gold down the White River, along the Arkansas and finally the Ouachita. But de Soto never found it. Then, because of illness, he gave up his search and led his expedition southward, barely reaching Louisiana. There, on the banks of the Mississippi, de Soto died of malaria, and at his request he was buried at night in the great river that he was the first white man to cross."
Kellams: I love the thought of de Soto looking for gold along the White River, going down by future Newport and Batesville. You didn't do that as a kid?
Dixon: We looked for rainbow trout.
Kellams: Which is gold of its own.
Dixon: Well, a lot better luck. So along with all these historical facts, he had different stories about the different eras in Arkansas. Let's pick up during the Civil War, where he talks about a young Confederate spy by the name of David O. Dodd.
Bob Gregory: "David Dodd was 17 years of age, and for several years during the Civil War, he was able to travel almost at will between Confederate and federal lines — until Dec. 29, 1863, when he was stopped in this general area. He was searched, and on him was found a pistol and, even more incriminating, a diary which included information that was in Morse code. He was arrested as a Confederate spy, taken back to Little Rock, and testimony at the trial revealed that the code showed the disposition of federal troops in Little Rock. Commanding General Steele offered Dodd his life if he would only tell who gave him the information. Dodd replied, 'I can give my life, but I cannot betray a friend.' The verdict of the court was guilty, and there would be a public hanging. And so on Jan. 8, 1864, a very cold day, a military formation was assembled specifically for that occasion, and young Dodd passed before it in a wagon, sitting on his intended coffin. They got to the gallows, but nobody had remembered to bring a blindfold. Dodd said, 'There is a handkerchief in my coat.' The trap door was sprung, but the fall did not break his neck. His body was so frail, so two soldiers had to pull on it. And at this ghastly sight, one spectator — a soldier in the front row — fainted. David Dodd is buried here in Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas — foremost martyr of the Civil War."
Kellams: You hear that name a lot. In eighth grade Arkansas history, we spent a day learning about David O. Dodd. When we were taught about him, he was a celebrated figure.
Dixon: He still is in certain ways.
Kellams: He was presented to us as this hero, this martyr. And then I remember getting a little older and stepping back — dude's committing treason. He's perpetuating the Confederacy.
Dixon: Yeah. It was a different time.
Kellams: I think you can have discussions about whether there should be capital punishment for a teenager and things like that.
Dixon: Oh, sure. It raises so many questions.
Kellams: And it's a grim, grisly scene — his execution.
Dixon: The way Bob Gregory describes it. It's horrific.
Kellams: So we can all agree it's horrific. But it's an interesting way Arkansas history has treated that young man.
Dixon: I don't know how it's presented these days.
Kellams: I don’t know if it is. It'd be a great Netflix movie.
Dixon: Did you know there is a lock and dam named after David Dodd?
Kellams: There is? Holy moly.
Dixon: All right, let's move on to another nice subject — the Great Depression. Arkansas, as it often is in economic times, fares worse than the rest of the country. And that was certainly the case with the Great Depression because there was so much agriculture here. Along with the droughts and the Dust Bowl, you have the system set up for tenant farming and sharecropping, which all that did was perpetuate poverty.
Bob Gregory: "The land in the Delta region of eastern Arkansas is among the richest in the world. Yet in the 1930s, the people living there were among the poorest. For these people belong to the tenancy system. The plantations of the Old South drifted naturally into it. Slowly the land of the big plantations was divided into sections, with the family responsible for what was raised on his own tract. Eventually, the method of sharing the crop was replaced by rent paid in cotton to the landowner. Under this new system, planters maintained social and economic control of their labor. Southern tenancy was a perpetuating system. And the hopeless part of it was that there was no room for improvement. The landlord's profits depended on the poverty of his tenants. Six out of 10 Arkansas farms were tenant operated in 1935, but in the Arkansas Delta area, the tenancy rate was eight out of 10 and 90% were Black. Those still lucky enough to be working on plantations were earning about $300 a family a year. School attendance was discouraged, for planters believed that this ruined good workers. In one of the few schools, a teacher asked her brightest pupil this question: if the landlord lends you $20 and you pay him back $5 a month, how much will you owe him after three months? The pupil replied, '$20.' Said the teacher, 'You don't understand arithmetic.' Said the pupil, 'You don't understand my landlord.' It was profoundly a social upheaval that scarred an entire generation. And more than one survivor has said only to have seen it, to have lived through the depression, can its cruel impact be at all realistically appreciated."
Dixon: And it gets worse. This was actually right before the Great Depression, but the 1927 Mississippi River flooding was devastating. It caused probably the most flood damage any time in the history of America. Well over half a million people were affected, most of them in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. It was called the Great Flood of 1927.
Bob Gregory: "That spring was one of the wettest years in the Mississippi Valley basin. In March, the lower Mississippi was in continuous flood, and in April there were new rainstorms and tornadoes that hit most of the Mississippi Valley. Eventually the entire Mississippi Basin was flooded — that would include one fifth of the state of Arkansas. Among the main casualties of the great flood were the railroads. Operations were suspended from 10 days to six months on more than 3,000 miles of track, and property damage was more than $10 million. More than 750,000 persons were driven from their homes. Three hundred and thirteen were killed, and the damages were placed at more than $335 million. This state was the hardest hit because it was one of the nation's chief river states. One writer commented that the march of a big flood down the Mississippi Valley is not in the form of a big tidal wave, nor even a rapid roaring stream that makes a wreck of every house it hits, but is curiously deliberate and, with an incredible volume of water, spreads slowly, inevitably over everything."
Kellams: There's a great book called "Rising Tide" by John Barry about this flood. I recommend it to anyone. It's fascinating — why the flood happened, poor Southerners, why they were ignored. Well, and it happened again in 1943, right?
Dixon: Almost 2 million acres of farmland, thousands left homeless and millions in damage. A lot of that was in Arkansas. But in this case, it prompted legislative changes in river control policies.
Bob Gregory: "Despite being shallow with an inclination to meander, the Arkansas flooded regularly. And after the flood of 1943, efforts began in earnest to urge the Congress to act. And on July 24, 1946, President Truman signed legislation — the River and Harbor Act — which authorized the development of the Arkansas River and its tributaries for navigation, flood control, hydroelectric power and recreation. To get that done required 28 reservoirs, 55 local protection works, 23 locks and dams, and extensive work on bank stabilization. More than once, the entire project was in jeopardy, only to be rescued by members of the Oklahoma and Arkansas congressional delegations. For example, in 1952, the federal budget did not include the necessary money for the project to stay on schedule. So Sen. John McClellan stepped in and had the funds restored. And he, along with Oklahoma Sen. Robert S. Kerr, repeated that procedure throughout the years. By Dec. 31, 1968, half of the project was finished — the part in Arkansas, which had cost close to half a billion dollars. Three years later, the entire project was completed. Generations yet unborn will benefit from the prosperity which this program will bring to the Arkansas River Valley. Now that this great waterway is completed and in operation, we are crossing the threshold of a new era — an era of progress, unprecedented progress, in the Arkansas River Valley."
Dixon: That, of course, is the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, and it's still in place today. Speaking of locks and dams.
Like I mentioned, you can see part one of this docu-series on our website. It'll be on the front page.
Kellams: Did each of these four parts go chronologically — like part one was de Soto to a certain point, and then part two would pick up the story?
Dixon: Yes. The Great Depression and the wars, and then I believe the final part is 1946 to 1976. But I did want to take the opportunity to mention that the Pryor Center has its own project for the 250th anniversary. I talked to my boss, John Davis, the executive director of the Pryor Center, about this project that he's set up.
John Davis: The Arkansas Commission has worked with us at the Pryor Center to collect reflections on America at 250 from Arkansans. This is an opportunity for Arkansans to take a moment out of their busy lives and consider the dreams of the framers of our government, to consider what they think were good things in our nation's history, things that perhaps we could have done differently, and also to think about the dreams of the future as America. The reason why this is such a meaningful project is it allows people to consider what America is to them. We have worked with representatives from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education and the Arkansas Archive, and reached out to presidents, chancellors and provosts at colleges and universities across the state. An open invitation to faculty and students was sent out about a year ago, and since then we've had the privilege to work with over a dozen two- and four-year colleges and universities around Arkansas. Each of those institutions has a point person whose job is to coordinate with us and with their students. In effect, we are sending college students out in the field to collect these oral history interviews of Arkansans as we reflect on America at 250.
Kellams: Interesting.
Dixon: We're going to get a lot of interviews from a lot of people. And if you'd like to contribute as an interview subject about your experiences in Arkansas, drop us an email.
Kellams: Go to the Pryor Center — there's a contact button there, right?
Dixon: Right.
You know me and my musical show closers. And boy, here's a good one. You want to talk about a state song? This is an official state song, and it's by Arkansan Wayland Holyfield. It's called "Arkansas (You Run Deep in Me)." So can we do a couple more parts on this? Here, the wonderful voice of Bob Gregory telling us about the history of Arkansas.
Kellams: All right. Well, then I'll see you next week. Randy Dixon, every Monday, brings us parts of the history of Arkansas. He's with the Pryor Center. See you next week. Thanks, Randy.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
