JIT Stock

Nestled in the heart of the Ozarks of north central Arkansas, Harrison is a small city that embodies an intriguing history within the state. The seat of Boone County, Harrison was incorporated on March 1, 1876, during Reconstruction. It is named after Marcus LaRue Harrison, a brigadier general in the Union cavalry who surveyed and platted the city. Harrison is noted for its active national historic district. For over 100 years, the historic town square has featured shops, cafes, a theater, a post office, a hotel, and government offices, as well as the county courthouse, which sits in the center of the square. Harrison has been able to maintain its history through community leadership and conservation efforts. Many of the citizens in the city and in the surrounding area have been here for generations and take great pride in their history, heritage, and community.

Early Rogers settlers witnessed the Butterfield Overland Stage moving West, the agony of the Trail of Tears, Civil War soldiers heading for battle at nearby Pea Ridge, and later greeted the arrival of the railroad just 28 days before the town incorporated on June 6, 1881. Readers will encounter Capt. C. W. Rogers, the town's namesake; "Coin" Harvey's dream of a pyramid; Betty Blake, who married world-renowned Will Rogers; and William Henry Kruse's vision of gold under an old apple tree. More importantly, this book is full of everyday people who built a town, erected churches and schools, and provided a livelihood for their families. Historic downtown has remained largely unchanged, with wide, brick streets and buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Rogers is home to the Rogers Historical Museum, the Daisy Airgun Museum, the restored Victory Theater, and the first Wal-Mart store.

From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this golden age can today be considered works of art. At the turn of the century, the northwest corner of Arkansas was a remote region of small towns and farms. Today, Washington and Benton Counties are among the nation's most rapidly growing metropolitan areas. This book captures sixty years of that evolution (1900–1960) in more than two hundred carefully selected postcard images. The postcards, enhanced by the actual words penned by the senders, are accompanied by extensively researched facts that bring to life both the images and the history of the region.

Sebastian and Crawford Counties are among Arkansas's most historic areas with their location on what was once the edge of the frontier. In this book, the authors capture the transition of both the large and the small communities from the 1800s into the middle of the 20th century through historic postcards. With carefully researched interpretation of the images, the book offers a fascinating walk through time along the streets of bustling Fort Smith and Van Buren, tiny hamlets, and even a trip up historic Highway 71 to Mount Gaylor.

One of the oldest counties in Arkansas, Clark County was established in 1818 as part of the Missouri Territory and named for Missouri governor William Clark, also of the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

The presence of the Caddo and Ouachita Rivers and its location on historical travel routes—the Southwest Trail, the Military Road, and the Bankhead Highway—contributed to settlement and economic development from a frontier town to today. Arkadelphia, the county seat since 1842, has been a center of higher education since the late 19th century, with two universities, Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist. Each year the two universities compete in the famed “Battle of the Ravine,” dating back to 1895, the only college football rivalry in the nation for which the visiting team walks to the game. In March 1997, much of Arkadelphia’s main business district and several residential districts were leveled by a devastating F-4 tornado. After the process of recovery and rebuilding, the city continues to flourish as the county’s center of government, commerce, medicine, and education. 

Dr. Lisa Speer is the university archivist and a professor at Ouachita Baptist University. Speer previously served as director of the Arkansas State Archives and state historian from 2013 to 2018. She also serves as vice president of the Clark County Museum board. The photographs featured in this volume came primarily from the archives at Henderson State University, Ouachita Baptist University, and the Clark County Museum.

Recognized throughout the state as Arkansas's fastest-growing city, Jacksonville evolved from a settlement surrounding the railroad depot, eventually incorporating as a town in 1941. The population soared when the exceedingly large ordnance plant was built during World War II. The plant's footprint included much of present-day Jacksonville and employed upwards of 20,000 people. The migration northward from larger cities to this bustling suburban town has created an astounding contemporary history. With the advent of the nuclear age in 1955, Jacksonville took its place as a member of the Strategic Air Command family with its neighbor, the Little Rock Air Force Base. This book presents the town's history from the 1960s forward and showcases local accomplishments from the last 50 years.

The University of Arkansas has a celebrated history that includes not only winning athletic teams, but also academic successes.

While most people immediately think of the Razorbacks in association with the University of Arkansas, the state’s flagship educational institution has so much more to offer. First established in 1871 in Fayetteville, located in the scenic Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas, the first permanent building on campus, Old Main, is also the most iconic with its towers standing like beacons. In 1948, the University of Arkansas became the first Southern university to integrate when WWII veteran Silas Hunt enrolled in law school; like Hunt, the lives and accomplishments of individuals, such as Sen. J. William Fulbright and architect E. Fay Jones, remain intertwined with the university and the world. Students remain the lifeblood of the university though, participating in traditions like homecoming, Senior Walk, and Razorback athletics with fierce pride. The photographs in this collection tell the stories of the first 125 years of the University of Arkansas.

Containing some of the most fertile soil in the world, the Arkansas Delta is predominantly an agricultural region. In the early 19th century, however, while the land remained extremely rich, the Delta's inhabitants were suffering from severe poverty. Showcased here in over 200 vintage images with corresponding commentary are the historic efforts in the education of the Delta for the past 150 years, documenting the region's rise in national education standards.

Settled in part by the Native American tribes of the Mississippi Delta and later French explorers, the area was always an agricultural gold-mine. As seen in many farm reliant communities, education fell second to tilling the fields. As the rest of the world began its rapid ascension from agriculture to industrialization, the farmers of the Delta, poor and uneducated, were left behind the rest of the nation. This new book, featuring remarkable images of the one-room schoolhouses, teachers, and students of the many communities of the Delta, spans over two centuries, as the authors trace the history of education in the Arkansas Delta from its roots in the mid-19th century to its current state in the dawn of the 21st century.

Tucked up in the rugged hills and fertile valleys of northwest Arkansas is the city of Springdale. Once a Native American community and officially settled as Shiloh, the mountainous region that would be Springdale attracted immigrant pioneers beginning in 1828 and rapidly flourished, establishing gainful agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing industries. Following the Civil War, however, the community felt the disastrous effects of the battles of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, which drained resources and stunted morale. Springdale residents struggled to maintain their livelihood, but it was not until the institution of the railroad in 1882 that their recovery caught fire. Agriculture on a larger scale once again proved lucrative, coupled with an influx of new immigrants. Springdale has diversified and expanded over time and is still drawing people to its abundant natural resources, its phenomenal scenic beauty, and its temperate climate.

Springdale: The Courage of Shiloh not only explores the extraordinary history of the city, but also highlights the lives of the families who survived the hardships of immigration and homesteading, the horrors of the Civil War, and the reconstruction and progress of Springdale. From John Holcombe, the founder of Shiloh, who envisioned a city growing from the springs surrounding his church, to the birth of the Frisco Railroad, which turned a small farming community into the Fruit Center of Arkansas, this amusing and enlightening tale traces a city's continuing evolution.

The engine's piercing whistle blast and the rhythmic beat of metal wheel upon metal rail in 1881 were the recognizable sounds of progress and prosperity for many wishing to push west across the American expanse. The advent of the railroad in the nineteenth century gave birth to hundreds of communities, and Rogers was one such town created by the extension of this iron network across a changing national landscape. Set upon the Ozark Plateau, Rogers evolved from a hunting ground of the Osage Indians into a bustling railroad stop, attracting scores of new people and industry into the northwest corner of Arkansas.

With over 100 black-and-white illustrations, Rogers: The Town the Frisco Built documents the development of the community from its Native American roots to the present day and remembers the many people and events that shaped the town's unique identity and heritage. Exploring the downtown streets, residences, and businesses of yesteryear, readers will meet men like Charles Warrington Rogers, the general manager of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad and the town's namesake; W.H. "Coin" Harvey, a Liberty Party 1932 Presidential candidate and somewhat eccentric, local entrepreneur; and local resident Betty Blake, who was the wife and biographer of humorist and political satirist Will Rogers. Their contributions, combined with other stories of celebrated families and distinguished citizens, bring to life many elements of Rogers' remarkable history: a world of saloons, one-room schoolhouses, churches, resorts, apple orchards, chicken farms, the Daisy Manufacturing Plant, and Wal-Mart.

Until recently, the footprints of history fell softly on Jacksonville, Arkansas. Situated 12 miles northeast of Little Rock and the Arkansas River, the Jacksonville area's first white settlers came to the Arkansas Territory in the early 1800s. Most traveled by the rough Southwest Trail from Missouri or the Military Road from Memphis, which also saw many Native Americans passing on their Trail of Tears. In 1836, Arkansas was admitted to the Union as a slave state. Registered as a town June 29, 1870, the coming of the railroad brought more people to Jacksonville. However, little changed here from 1870 to 1930, except women's hemlines, the arrival of automobiles, the telephone, and electricity. The rural community of about two hundred people built homes, raised cotton, and established churches and schools. Businesses prospered, and family names grew. Still, Jacksonville's main street remained unpaved. Improvements and growth began when a Civilian Conservation Corp camp was established during the Depression. Later, the Jacksonville Ordinance Plant employed thousands during WW II, and in 1955 the Little Rock Air Force Base was built, eventually swelling the population to almost 30,000 today.

Arkansas's booze scene had a promising start, with America's biggest brewing families, Busch and Lemp, investing in Little Rock just prior to Prohibition. However, by 1915, the state had passed the Newberry Act, banning the manufacturing and selling of alcohol. It was not until sixty-nine years later that the state welcomed its first post-temperance brewery, Arkansas Brewing Company. After a few false starts, brewpubs in Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Little Rock found success. By 2000, the industry had regained momentum. An explosion of breweries around the state has since propelled Arkansas into the modern beer age.

Professional baseball in Little Rock dates back to 1895. Fans in Arkansas' capital city have been entertained by Travelers' baseball for parts of three centuries. Using only one team name and playing on just two home fields, the Travelers have displayed stability unique in minor league baseball. The team is fan owned, another rarity in professional sports. Baseball in Little Rock follows the team's long diamond history, from the struggles of the Southern Association through the triumphs of the Texas League.

Hattie Caraway unexpectedly became the first female U.S. senator in 1931 by filling the seat of her late husband. What her colleagues viewed as an honorary position was in fact the start of a distinguished career. Despite strong male opposition, Hattie won reelection and loyally and effectively served her constituency for twelve years through the difficult times of the Great Depression and World War II. Join Caraway scholar and historian Dr. Nancy Hendricks to witness Caraway's historic career through previously unseen letters and photos and see how Caraway effected change in the U.S. political landscape.

Up and down the Arkansas Delta, food tells a story. Whether the time Bill Clinton nearly died on the way to a coon dinner or the connections made over biscuits and gravy or the more common chicken and dumpling feuds, the area is no stranger to history. One of America's last frontiers, it was settled in the late nineteenth century by a rough-and-tumble collection of timber men, sharecroppers and entrepreneurs from all over the world who embraced the traditional foodways and added their own twists. Today, the Arkansas Delta is the nation's largest producer of rice and adds other crops like catfish and sweet potatoes. Join author Cindy Grisham for this delicious look into Delta cuisine.