Just outside my hometown of North Little Rock (Pulaski County) lies the small unincorporated community of Scott, Arkansas (located in both Pulaski and Lonoke Counties). I used to visit Scott often, as my favorite burger restaurant in The Natural State was located there—Cotham’s Mercantile. Sadly, the general store-turned-restaurant burned to the ground in 2017. As a result, I don’t travel to Scott as much as I once did, but it’s always an interesting place to go to with lots of things to see and do.
The community of Scott started in 1871, when the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad (commonly known as the Cotton Belt) was constructed through the area. The new rail station was built on property belonging to Conoway Scott Sr., who was one of the sons of one of the area’s first white settlers, John Scott, who arrived in 1844. The depot was named Scott’s Crossing. A gentleman by the name of Thomas Steele built a plantation in the area in 1850. In 1912, Conoway Scott built a large brick building to house his proposed general store. The store eventually did open, but was opened by the Foster Family and was called Foster's General Store. A U.S. post office was opened in the store in 1929. Eventually, the name of the community was shortened from Scott’s Crossing to Scott.
In 1885, William Dortch married into the Steele family. By 1904, Dortch built his own plantation on Bearskin Lake, as well as an elegant mansion he named Marlsgate. The home was designed by noted architect Charles L. Thompson. Thompson designed Little Rock’s city hall, as well as several county courthouses across Arkansas. In January 1975, Marlsgate was added to the National Register of Historic Places and is open to the public for weddings, parties and receptions. In fact, yours truly has performed a couple of weddings on the grounds of the elegant estate.
While “King Cotton” was the main crop grown on the plantations in Scott, that would change, as Robert Dortch—the youngest son of William Dortch—began to experiment with other crops, such as soybeans. Dortch created a hybrid cotton seed which he marketed as “Roldo Rowden.” In 1964, he opened a small museum featuring farm equipment that had once been used on the old Dortch plantation. The museum was located in a stately brick building that had been built in 1912. William Dortch passed away in 1972, and the struggling museum closed its doors in 1978. However, at the urging of local residents and politicians, the Arkansas General Assembly voted in 1985 to fund the purchase and renovation of the property, which led to the creation of the Arkansas state park, known as Plantation Agricultural Museum. The museum officially opened to the public in June 1989. Its mission was to “collect, preserve, record, and interpret the history of cotton agriculture, with an emphasis on Arkansas plantations.” Today, Plantation Agriculture Museum’s collection consists of more than 10,000 artifacts. Its exhibits take visitors “from the field to the gin” and demonstrate how cotton was grown and harvested in the pre-mechanized era.
Outside the museum building, the Dortch Gin Exhibit building features a 1920s Munger cotton gin and cotton press that has been accurately restored and assembled in its original condition by ginning experts. William Dortch’s 10,000-square-foot seed warehouse was also restored to its original condition. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in January 2010. Other outside exhibits include a cotton pen, a variety of steam traction engines and a collection of antique tractors and farm implements.
Admission to Plantation Agriculture Museum is free. For more information on times of operation and special events, visit the park’s website at www.arkansasstateparks.com/plantationagriculturemuseum.
Also nearby in Scott is Plum Bayou (formerly Toltec Mounds) Archaeological State Park, which is a must-see if you’re in the Scott area. I’ll be writing more about that park in a future column.
Scott is indeed an interesting place especially for history buffs that enjoy learning about the agricultural aspect of Arkansas of the mid-1800s and early 1900s. But if you visit, just don’t go expecting to find a hubcap burger.
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