US Forest Service “Float” for Agriculture Day Parade of Arkansas Tech at Russellville – Ozark National Forest.

Note the upper portion of the “Old Bank” building to the right and above the lady on the left.

National Archives Identifier: 7029584
Local Identifier: 95-GP-3319-289503

At Thursday’s (4/20/23) Russellville City Council meeting, a vote on the first reading (of three) of an ordinance for a November 2023 vote on annexation was passed by the council.

The boundaries are the same as those discussed in October 2019 in Resolution 1777 passed by the council.

This map of annexation (pdf) is from 2019 and is the city planner’s proposed annexation boundaries, dated October 3, 2019. Resolution 1777 is mentioned in the reading “by title only” of the proposed ordinance. The proposed ordinance, which I have not seen, has the legal description of all the properties included.

A February 20, 2020, ordinance extended the city’s exclusive territorial jurisdiction beyond the corporate limits to properties within one mile of those limits.

In the early 1950s, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers completed a new channel for the Arkansas River that cut off the 6-mile “bend” of Holla Bend, a project that was part of the long-term development of the river for flood control and mitigation and future use of the river for navigation.

Pope County’s Holla Bend was now a 4,000-acre island on the south side of the river, accessible by land only through neighboring Yell County.

The land having been acquired by the federal government in advance of the project was seen by many as an ideal refuge for migrating wild birds. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC), seeing the potential for a refuge, asked the Corps about acquiring title of the island. They were told that the process of acquiring the land could begin after the Corps turned the land back to the General Services Administration (GSA).

When the island was turned over to the GSA, they were advised by the Corps that the land was surplus and the Arkansas AGFC applied for it.  The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Department of the Interior, was also contacted and saw immediate merit in the establishment of a federal refuge.  AGFC, delighted with that, withdrew in favor of the federal service.

At this point, local interests intervened.  The Russellville Chamber of Commerce protested the transfer for refuge purposes, saying that the Pottsville school district would lose the potential for $74 a year in taxes that would be due if the land were sold to farmers adjacent to Holla Bend.

The practice at the time, according to the GSA, was that the area would have to go on private sale. Private agricultural interests and local opposition “clouded” the Wildlife Service’s chances for a time.

However, rule changes in the Department of the Interior and work to convince opponents eventually won out.

In August 1957, title to the Holla Bend lands was officially transferred from the General Service Administration to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rural public roads in this part of Arkansas in the very early 20th century left a lot to be desired. Most of the roads we use today were already in place, but, for the most part, they weren’t even what we would consider today a decent dirt road.

This photo, from For The Trees, is of a public road in a creekbed on the mail road to Mt. Levi, which was located in Johnson County just to the west of Hwy 123 about 10 miles north of Hagarville.

Forest Service Photo No. 18924A, by Ralph Huey, 1914

(For the Trees is a 1980 National Forest Service publication)

Caraway Hall, Women’s Dormitory, Arkansas Polytechnic College, Russellville, Arkansas
1942 postcard

Arkansas Historic Preservation Program
Walks Through History
Tour of Arkansas Tech University:

Caraway Hall is a brick building with Colonial Revival styling, built in 1934 with funding from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), later known as the Public Works Administration (PWA). It is roughly H-shaped, with a central three-story section with a gabled roof and end chimneys, which is flanked by two-story flat-roofed wings, one longer than the other. Caraway Hall was… built during the period covered by the historic context of The Evolution of the Public School System in the Arkansas Ozarks, 1920-1940 by William D. Baker. It stands as an outstanding example of a large brick masonry dormitory building with an irregular “HW-shaped plan designed in the Colonial Revival style (mainly the absolutely symmetrical composition of the front facade and the semi-circular, columned Classical central entrance portico, including its four Doric columns that dominate the composition).

Senator Hattie Caraway dedicated the building on October 18, 1935, during the campus’s annual “Dad’s Day” celebration. The Russellville Courier-Democrat twice reported in error that the new residence hall was to be named in honor of Hattie, whom according to one of the reports, “aided Tech officials in securing funds for construction.” While a logical assumption, it could not have been more wrong. College officials had indeed considered naming the building after her, but chose instead to name it after her late husband, Senator Thaddeus Caraway, who had also been a faithful friend to Tech.

Built at a cost of $87,000 ($2,100,458 in 2017 dollars), it was a three-story, 100-bed dormitory with a spacious 98-by-38
foot reception area that accommodated student activities. In the summer of 1945, Caraway Hall had become so overcrowded that the faculty apartments and part of the Girls’ Domestic Science Building were converted into girls’ dormitories. In the spring semester of 1972, in response to a decline in college enrollment, Caraway Hall was closed, and was not reopened until an enrollment surge in 1982. The building underwent major repairs and upgrades in 1995, and in the fall of 1996, Caraway Hall became a sorority dorm with 24-hour visitation, and currently houses 88 women.

Caraway Hall was placed on the National Register on September 10, 1992.

Caroway was renovated again in 2005.

See current info at the ATU Caraway Hall page.

In 1929, a new steel bridge replaced the pontoon bridge that had been used for 38 years across the Arkansas River at Dardanelle.

The 1929 bridge was replaced with the current bridge in the early 70s.



(Above) The current Dardanelle Bridge under construction in 1971, next to the steel bridge it replaced.

Note the bridge work on the right side of the above image from the late 1920s. Downstream of the 19th-century pontoon bridge, this is where the 1929 bridge would go. It’s a temporary construction used during the building of the piers that would support the new *free bridge.

*The pontoon bridge was a toll bridge. The new steel bridge completed in 1929 was free.

(Above) Note the pontoon bridge in the background!

I didn’t recognize the viewpoint in this “Greetings from Russellville, Ark.” postcard, so I did a little bit of research to try to figure it out.

It turns out that this “Greetings from Russellville” card is a generic card that was used back in the 1930s for “Greetings” from a bunch of different places. An online image search found the same image on postcards for:

• “Berkshire Camp Lake Mountain Near Torrington CT”
• “Cherry Valley, N.Y.”
• “Farmer City, Ill.”
• “Worthington, Minn.”
• “Clinton, Massachusetts”
• “Mountaindale, N.Y.”
• “Hudson, Mich.”

This particular “Greetings from Russellville, Ark.” postcard was postmarked on November 21, 1937.

Text/message on the back of the card:

(to) The S. L. Parkers
%Methodist Hospital
Des Moines
Iowa

Ark. Tech., Russellville
Sunday a. m. nine o’clock
Dear Folks: Nelson just got the call from Des-Moines at the Turners but Central told him the call had been canceled; that you had received a telegram. That must have been from you, Bessie, and you must have missed the connection at Kansas City. Too bad! Hope you didn’t have to wait too long for another and will be with your Mother and Dad soon. Heaps of Love, and Best of Luck to you, Mother Parker.
We’ll all be rooting for you!