CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas

Happy Relaxation Day, coming to you from the men’s bath hall at the Hale Bathhouse in Hot Springs.

The oldest surviving bathhouse on Bathhouse Row, the Hale was constructed in 1892–93 as the first bathhouse with any modern conveniences. The Hale ceased operation in 1978. Read more here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/bathhouse-row-437/

And RELAX! 😴

On this day in 1958, the town of Waldenburg (Poinsett County) was incorporated. Originally known as the German Settlement, then Bern, and later Youngville, Waldenburg was a small milling community predominately settled by German immigrants whose descendants still make up the majority of the population. The construction of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (commonly called the Cotton Belt) in 1881 established a firm foundation for the town, and many businesses began to appear. Various hunting clubs and lodges routinely draw visitors from around the nation and the world to experience Waldenburg’s excellent duck hunting. Pictured here is the town's Zion Lutheran Church. Read more here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/waldenburg-poinsett-county-7280/

Check out the Arkansas literary finds, including some links to the EOA!

A Literary Road Trip Across America Literary Hub and Wildsam present: a literary road trip across America. Happy travels! Illustrations by Mike McKeogh Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Del…

On this day in 1925, what is considered to be Arkansas’s first giant watermelon, Hugh Laseter’s 136-pounder, was harvested. The excitement generated from this giant watermelon led to Arkansas’s first watermelon festival, celebrated in Hope (Hempstead County) in 1926. The first five festivals drew large crowds; in 1928, for example, the crowd numbered 30,000, compared to the town’s population of 6,000. (Pictured here is an even bigger specimen, from 1935.)

Read more about the Hope Watermelon Festival here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/hope-watermelon-festival-2121/

Photo Friday!

Velvet James (Jim) “Bad News” Barnes was an American basketball player and Olympic gold medalist originally from Tuckerman (Jackson County). He is shown here scoring for the Cameron Junior College Aggies, circa 1960.

Jim Barnes enjoyed great success in his collegiate career, which later led him to be the first pick in the 1964 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft. Barnes played for the U.S. men’s basketball Olympic team in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which earned him a gold medal.

Regarding the nickname “Bad News,” Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach said he was so named “for the damage he did to opposing teams and players.”

Read more here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/jim-bad-news-barnes-4350/ and browse our thousands of other images here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/

The Arkansas Golf Trail just turned 20 years old! Have you played one of the courses?

The Arkansas Golf Trail, originally known as the Natural State Golf Trail, is a public-private partnership created to showcase the scenic golf courses of the state. The trail, which was officially established on July 13, 2004, consists of more than a dozen courses across Arkansas. Read more about it here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/natural-state-golf-trail-6867/

📷: Big Creek Golf and Country Club in Mountain Home (Baxter County), one of only twenty-four courses in the United States to receive a five-star rating from Golf Digest’s Places to Play, 2004-2012.

Some Arkansas Olympics history!

Earl Holmes Bell of Jonesboro is one of the most renowned U.S. men’s pole vaulters and coaches, a three-time Olympian, and five-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) record holder. His achievements include setting the world’s outdoor record in 1976 (pictured here); qualifying for the Olympic Games in 1976, 1984, and 1988; and winning the bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics. He was the U.S. national champion in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s—a remarkable three-decade achievement for an athlete. After turning to coaching by founding Bell Athletics in Jonesboro, he was named the 1998 National Olympic Coach of the Year by the U.S. Olympic Committee. In 2004, Bell Athletics alone produced half of the U.S. Olympic pole-vaulting team. Read more here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/earl-holmes-bell-3092/

New entry: Arkansas Living Treasure Award
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/arkansas-living-treasure-award-13910/
The Arkansas Living Treasure award is an annual recognition by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Division of Arkansas Heritage, that is presented to people who have mastered the traditional arts and crafts that exemplify the state. The lifetime award is intended to underscore the identity of Arkansas through its history and culture. Pictured here is 2004 recipient Violet Brumley Hensley, shown here appearing on The Art Linkletter Show; circa 1970.

On this day in 1917, Emily Weaver of Batesville (Independence County) died. As a young woman, Weaver was caught up in the unorganized Civil War legal apparatus. Though she was charged by the Union as a spy and sentenced to hang, her case was eventually dropped for insufficient evidence--but not before she and her cellmate escaped from prison using a skeleton key. The details of what happened after her escape are not known, but she made her way back to Batesville, and on December 20, 1866, she married Isaac Newton Reed. They had twelve children and resided at 590 East Main Street, known today as the Kennerly House.
Read more of her tale here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/ent.../emily-weaver-5480/

Some Arkansas Olympics history!

In 1984, Al Joyner made the American Olympic team and traveled to Los Angeles to compete. With a leap of 17.26 meters, he won the gold medal in the triple jump. He was the first American in eighty years to win Olympic gold in the triple jump and the first African American to do so.

Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, Joyner attended Arkansas State University (ASU), where he later returned as a coach. He married track legend Florence Griffith, who came to be known as “Flo Jo” after her marriage to Joyner. In 1997, Joyner was inducted into the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame and in 1999 the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

Read more here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/alfredrick-alphonso-3127/

Photo Friday!

You can take one look at this photo and tell it's from the '70s. 😀

Pictured here is the Soul Society, the first African American student group at the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM); 1976.

The student body of what is now UAM was integrated in 1964, and its first Black graduate was Barbara Blanks Gathen in 1967. Members of the Soul Society organized a peaceful march on the campus in 1971 and demanded that Black instructors, dorm mothers, and security officers be hired. Thomas C. Brunson and Louis Dunlap became the first Black faculty members. Read more about UAM here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/university-of-arkansas-at-monticello-uam-4137/ and browse our thousands of other images here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/

Arkansas's own Higgins Bond will be part of this exhibition at The Met! Read more about her here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/barbara-ann-higgins-bond-8163/

Met Exhibition to Explore How Black Artists Have Engaged with Ancient Egypt Over the Last 150 Years - The Metropolitan Museum of Art November 17, 2024–February 17, 2025

New entry: William Henry Townsend (1914–2005)
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/william-henry-townsend-13164/
William Henry (Bill) Townsend was the first African American licensed optometrist in Arkansas and was a leading figure in the civil rights movement. He was a founding member of the Arkansas Council on Human Relations (ACHR) and the Council on Community Affairs (COCA), and he served as one of the first Black representatives of the twentieth century in the Arkansas General Assembly.

New entry: Selma Rosenwald School
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/selma-rosenwald-school-19011/
Located in the rural community of Selma (Drew County), the Selma Rosenwald School is a well-preserved educational building that was constructed in 1924 to serve the African American children of eastern Drew County. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 2, 2006, and later came to serve as a community center.

Seen any tarantulas recently?

Much of what we now know about tarantulas in Arkansas is due to the work of William J. Baerg, the father of North American tarantula research. In 2004, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission contributed to this knowledge base with the first ever statewide citizen-science effort to map tarantula distribution: the Arkansas Tarantula Survey.

Read more about tarantulas in Arkansas here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/tarantulas-2625/ and about William J. Baerg here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/william-j-baerg-1582/

Some Arkansas Olympics history!

On this day in 1928, Lonoke (Lonoke County) native long-jumper Eddie Hamm broke the Olympic record and won a gold medal with a leap of 25′ 4 ¾” at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. After the Olympics, he was part of a track and field team that toured England and Germany, winning the long jump in every meet. Hamm graduated from Georgia Tech in 1928, served as the school’s track coach for a few years, and then spent the rest of his life in private business, much of it as an executive with Coca-Cola on the West Coast and in Alaska. Read more here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/eddie-hamm-3091/

New entry: Monticello Commercial Historic District
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/monticello-commercial-historic-district-19013/
Located in downtown Monticello (Drew County), the Monticello Commercial Historic District includes numerous structures that represent the growth of the town from 1890 to the 1950s. The district included a total of thirty-one buildings (including the Monticello Post Office, pictured here) when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 23, 2011.

New entry: The Lake
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/the-lake-19095/
The Lake is a 1983 horror novel by Ruby Jean Jensen, writing under the name R. J. Jensen, published by Tor, a noted publisher of commercial science fiction and horror. The book is set in the uplands of Arkansas and centers upon a lake that consumes people.

New entry: Couch-Marshall House
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/couch-marshall-house-535/
Located in Magnolia (Columbia County), the Couch-Marshall House is an example of what has become known as the Plain Traditional style of architecture, which in this instance took on characteristics of the Queen Anne Revival style. The “high style” of the Queen Anne Revival type of residence had become the preferred style of design and construction in Arkansas by 1880 and was to remain so until the beginning of the twentieth century. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1992.

Photo(s) Friday!

We couldn't pick just one of these...

The town of Sulphur Rock (Independence County) was the location of the nation’s last mule-drawn (also called bobtail) street car, which ceased operation in 1926. The demise of the street car line was considered so significant that it was commemorated by the United States Postal Service. Read more here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/sulphur-rock-street-car-3727/ And browse our thousands of other images here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/

On this day in 1946, the USS Arkansas (BB-33) sank during the second “Baker” test (pictured here), a submerged detonation from ninety feet below the ocean’s surface. Because of its age, the Arkansas had been selected for the atomic naval tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It had survived the first atomic naval test of “Test Able” on July 1. The Arkansas now rests in 170 feet of water in the Bikini Atoll lagoon, where it is often inspected by recreational deep sea divers. Read more here about the third ship of the U.S. Navy to bear the state’s name: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/uss-arkansas-2853/ And read more here about the Marshall Islanders displaced by such tests, many of whom have settled in northwest Arkansas: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/marshallese-5972/

New entry: Jerome Elementary School No. 22
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/jerome-elementary-school-no-22-19012/
Constructed in 1930, the Jerome Elementary School No. 22 is an example of an early twentieth-century school building in the once vibrant town of Jerome (Drew County) in southeastern Arkansas. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 28, 2005. The building was abandoned after school consolidation in the 1950s, and the Dermott School District sold it to the Jerome Improvement Association for ten dollars in 1970. Restoration efforts led to a second life for the structure, and the community uses it for various events in the twenty-first century.

New entry: Rock Island Argenta Depot
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/rock-island-argenta-depot-18998/
The Rock Island Argenta Depot at 1201 East 4th Street in North Little Rock is a single-story, Mediterranean-style brick passenger depot built in 1913 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 21, 1989. In 2023, Shorter College announced plans to convert the building into a technology hub.

New entry: Tornado Outbreak of May 26–27, 1973
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/tornado-outbreak-of-may-1973-12266/
A series of tornadoes on the night of May 26 and 27, 1973, caused major damage in five Arkansas counties and devastated Jonesboro. Three people died in the storms. In the aftermath of the tornado outbreak, acting Governor Bob Riley dispatched 200 members of the Arkansas National Guard to patrol Jonesboro, and thirty-five inmates from Cummins Prison Farm were dispatched under guard to assist in clearing storm debris. Arkansas State University made dormitory rooms available to people displaced by the tornadoes.

New entry: Miles Davis (1926–1991)
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/miles-davis-19026/
Miles Davis was one of the most prolific, innovative, and influential jazz musicians of all time. In addition to his unique trumpeting style, he played with other jazz legends and released such classic albums as Birth of the Cool, Sketches of Spain, and Kind of Blue. A native of Illinois who went on to international fame after relocating to New York City, Davis had strong Arkansas roots. Both of Davis’s parents were from Arkansas, and he credited his experiences in Arkansas with developing his unique sound and influencing recordings later in his career.

Photo Friday!

You could have both a Coke and a smile at the old Salado Post Office, pictured here in 1962.

(Left to right): Bufford May, Earl Thomas, Fred Pearce, Alford Sherrill, R. M. Weaver, and Zach Davidson.

Salado is one of the oldest communities in Arkansas, with history going back to territorial days. Salado is located in the Ozark foothills about seven miles southeast of Batesville on Highway 14 (also called Newport Road) and about a mile southwest of the White River. Read more here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/salado-independence-county-8589/ And browse our thousands of other images here: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/

New entry: Joe Bob Briggs (1953–)
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/joe-bob-briggs-4528/
Joe Bob Briggs is a Texas-based film critic, television host, and author who rose to media fame from the back pages of the Dallas Times-Herald thanks to his biting “redneck” wit and drive-in movie reviews that tallied blood, breasts, and beasts. Briggs was created as a pseudonym for columnist John Bloom, who was born in Texas but raised in Little Rock, after he became the newspaper’s film critic and discovered his abhorrence for mainstream movies and his love for exploitation cinema.