Kellams: This is Ozarks at Large. We are listening to another Monday song about Arkansas. Randy Dixon.
Dixon: You know I'm a sucker for a song about Arkansas.
Kellams: Now, the last three times we've met, because we're going through this bicentennial documentary that was made 50 years ago.
Dixon: Yes, by KATV.
Kellams: By KATV.
Dixon: We started with a song. One was an official — this isn't an official anything, but it's a great song, right? It's Chris Stapleton's version, which came out a couple of years ago, but it's called "Arkansas." So we're doing the last of this four-part look at a bicentennial 1976 documentary produced by KATV. Just to look at the history of Arkansas.
Kellams: Last week, we kind of focused on the governors of Arkansas, especially of the 20th century. What's kind of the focus of part four?
Dixon: Well, this is just sort of picking up a few interesting facts about the state. How some of our communities started. What makes the state tick financially, I guess you'd say. So let's go ahead and check in with our host.
Kellams: Yes. Bob Gregory, and he's going to give us this lovely essay about the Ozarks.
Bob Gregory: The Ozarks are among the oldest mountains in the world, and the only large high area between the Appalachians and the Rockies. They spread over 50,000 miles in southern Missouri, eastern Oklahoma and northern Arkansas, and it was the 21 counties in the Ozarks that led the way in Arkansas's population growth in the 1960s and '70s. One hundred and twenty years earlier, in the 1840s, the population increased significantly, only to stop because the area was too remote, too isolated. Another discovery was made of the Ozarks in the early 1900s, after the impact of Harold Wright's book "Shepherd of the Hills." People were so impressed by it that they wanted to see the book's setting, and they came to the Ozarks by the thousands. Aside from these instances, life here went pretty much undisturbed as population migrations marched west on California, south to Florida, north to industrialized cities. That did not change until the 1960s. Construction of highways, specific tourist attractions, rural electrification and lakes development, along with its intrinsic natural beauty, plus the pressures and hectic lifestyles of the cities, brought people to the Ozarks to live. All kinds — retirees, the young, all seeking a better way of life. And they found it here. And from 1971 to 1976, the population grew more than 15%, compared with the national average of 4%. So to this day, Northwest Arkansas is the fastest growing part of the state.
Dixon: Well, you know, so I'm thinking 1976, Fayetteville was probably about 33,000, 34,000 people.
Kellams: Yes.
Dixon: You know, and Bentonville is probably 7,000 or 8,000. I mean, it's grown a lot. Now we're looking at a million.
Kellams: In not that long from now.
Dixon: Right. Just in the Northwest Arkansas area.
Kellams: Right. So let's look at a couple of towns, communities in Arkansas, and how they got their start.
Dixon: Here's one of the, I guess you'd call the biggest resort towns in the state. It was once known as the Valley of Many Vapors.
Gregory: And one early settler wrote, this has always been considered sacred ground. Hostile tribes of Indians meeting here embrace as brothers. As early as 1804, Thomas Jefferson, hearing of the curative properties of the springs, sent a team to investigate the area, and if finding it of value, to map the region. Well, the men were so impressed that they recommended that the United States government immediately secure title to the hot springs and the lands surrounding them. Congress did not act until 1832. Then it set apart four sections of land, including the springs, as exempt from private ownership. These 900 acres were dedicated for all time to the health and pleasure of the American people. Nothing more was done until 1877. During this 45-year period, the growth and development of the springs had been slowed due to several different claims on the land. Despite the congressional action of 1832, there were three principal groups involved in these disagreements. A commission was authorized by Congress to settle it. The commission also laid out the city and had the Hot Springs reservation surveyed. Some people consider that the real date of Hot Springs becoming a national park: March 3, 1877, when Congress approved the survey.
Dixon: And I will mention that we have gone into depth about Hot Springs in an earlier visit, so you can go online and find us talking about the history of Hot Springs.
Kellams: Right. The springs, the gambling, everything. Bill Clinton's childhood home. Babe Ruth hitting a tape measure home run.
Dixon: That's right. They had the original spring training.
Kellams: Yeah. Boys of summer.
Dixon: Yeah. So let's look at another community up here in Northwest Arkansas that got a start and an attraction because of its springs.
Gregory: It was first known by hunting parties, but by 1879, word of mouth advertising had brought over 400 persons to the town, and its name was selected at a town meeting. The word chosen was Eureka, meaning "I have found it," and Eureka Springs boomed. One factor was the interest of Powell Clayton, who promoted the town and induced the railroad to build a branch line. After this, there were as many as 8,000 visitors to the area. Over 50 hotels were built in the town in its first 50 years, but one of the most outstanding was the Crescent, or as it was called, the Castle in the Wilderness.
Dixon: And of course, Eureka Springs remains a wonderful place to be. Love to go there.
Kellams: Yeah, it's kind of like going up into some European village in the Alps.
Dixon: Right. So we've talked about some of the resort areas and the growing areas. What about some of the economic engines that were really propelling Arkansas, other than tourism?
Kellams: Other than tourism in the mid-19th century?
Dixon: Right. And it's all agriculture. Let's start off with — this is early, early, when cotton was king.
Gregory: This is middling grade cotton, considered the finest, richest cotton grown in the world, both today and in 1850, when Arkansas grew over 65,000 bales. Ten years later, the number of bales harvested jumped to 367,000. And so did the number of slaves jump. From 1840 to 1860, the figure rose from 20,000 to 115,000. The value of cotton was in large measure determined by England's industrial revolution. Huge garment factories abroad had tremendous demands for mass-produced cotton, and those demands could be answered by the American Deep South because of its large number of slaves. England could get fairly good cotton in Egypt, in India, but it was not comparable to the thick, long, rich plants grown in the South. Profits for the English factories and the Southern planters totaled in the hundreds of millions of dollars. So moral questions about the English factory worker or the American Black slave were ignored quite easily by both profiting parties.
Dixon: And of course, that's what made one part of the state so rich. At one point, you know, when it was hardscrabble in Northwest Arkansas, the Ozarks, the Delta was booming and promoted slavery.
Kellams: Yes. And sharecropping.
Dixon: Yes. But they also introduced over time rice and soybeans, which eventually overtook cotton as one of the major crops. But let's don't forget, to the south, we have timber.
Gregory: One other major industry related to the land and natural resources in Arkansas that had grown enormously in the postwar years was forestry. It had reached such importance that there were 700 manufacturing plants related to forestry, and it accounted for 23% of the state's total employment. That's personal income of $1.217 billion. The forests of pine and hardwood covered 18 million acres, 55% of Arkansas's total land area. And the forecast was that unless there was stringent conservation, the demand for Arkansas timber would be greater than supply by the year 2000.
Dixon: And of course, timber remains a big part of Arkansas's economy.
Kellams: That's right. Weyerhaeuser. Moving into architecture, you know, an emphasis on timber architecture here at the University of Arkansas.
Dixon: That's right. Look at Thorncrown Chapel.
Kellams: Right. What about El Dorado and oil? That was a big boom.
Dixon: Started in the 1920s. It was the discovery of oil.
Gregory: In April 1920, the Hunter discovery well coming in near Stephens in Ouachita County. But the real boom started with the El Dorado field on January 10, 1921. An Oklahoman, Bruce Hunt, was very important in the El Dorado field in 1919. He borrowed $250 and leased more than 12,000 acres of land. Then, in April 1920, he found a large amount of natural gas and some oil. This well yielded 3,000 to 10,000 barrels of oil daily. Then on March 9, another well came in with a flow of 15,000 to 20,000 barrels a day. Wildcatting and prospecting spread with the customary speed. One field reporter said derricks are blooming throughout the state, regardless of geologists and mapped formations. Hope is rampant. By August, Arkansas was seventh in the nation in oil production, and the volume continued to rise through 1925. Discoveries were made at Erma, Woodley, Stephens, but the largest field became Smackover. Before the first well, in April 1922, there were only 60 persons in the community, but within days there were more than 2,500. Within the year, 1,000 wells had been completed, and in this field one well was described as the largest oil well in America, filling a 1,000-barrel tank in about 20 minutes.
Kellams: Okay, so again, we're listening to this four-part documentary, highlights of this four-part documentary that aired 1976, the bicentennial year.
Dixon: Yes. And now we're in the semiquincentennial.
Kellams: And we wanted to take a look at those. So let's just go ahead and put this to rest. We'll tie it up with a bow and have Bob Gregory close this out here.
Gregory: The 30 years from 1946 onward were overwhelmed by the urge toward progress — in the environment, in race relations, in work, in leisure — and enough was accomplished to excite imaginations about the future and even greater progress. There were years of winning, sometimes losing, years to begin and finally to quit. Historically, they were very good years.
Dixon: So that was when the United States turned 200.
Kellams: Now, obviously this year, 250.
Dixon: Right. And the Pryor Center has its own project that's going on to celebrate the 250th anniversary. And as a matter of fact, with us, we have the Pryor Center's research coordinator, Paige Gross. Hi, Paige. How are you doing? Are you related to Terry at all?
Gross: I am not. I don't think so.
Dixon: Okay, well, just thought we'd check.
Kellams: Yeah. So tell me about the 250 Project.
Gross: Yes. The 250 Project is an interview series being conducted by the Pryor Center in partnership with the Arkansas 250 Commission. It's sort of about democratizing oral history. We're looking at interviews done by people from different areas of Arkansas, different backgrounds, different economic situations. Kind of reflecting on the last 250 years, taking the temperature of what they think of the country now, and what Arkansans are looking forward to in the next 50 years for both our state and our country at large.
Dixon: And what does someone have to do to participate in this?
Gross: So if you go over to the Pryor Center, there should be an email for — I think John Davis is the one that's listed.
Kellams: Yes. He's your executive director?
Gross: Yes. You just shoot us an email, and you can get in contact with me, and we can do interviews over Zoom. We can do them in person. However someone might want to contribute. But we're really looking to get as many as possible, so future Arkansans can look back and see the real opinions and the realities of people in this time. As a matter of fact, we were at the farmers market this past weekend and gathered probably 10 to 12 interviews. So look for us in front of the Pryor Center building, which is right on the square.
Kellams: Yeah. But if someone is from Oil Trough or Bull Shoals or Texarkana, just shoot us an email. Say, "Hey, this is my name. I would love to be part of the 250 interviews."
Dixon: Yeah, Google Pryor Center. Let's get someone from Oil Trough and someone from Bull Shoals interviewed.
Kellams: Exactly. All right. So we've wrapped this up.
Dixon: Yes.
Kellams: Are we going to wrap up with a song? What do you think?
Dixon: I think yes. And this is actually — this may be my favorite one now. I just came across it yesterday. It's by a blues singer guitarist from Magnolia named Larry McCray. And he has a song called "Arkansas," and I love it.
Kellams: Okay, we'll end with that. Paige Gross, Randy Dixon, thank you very much.
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.
