The Center of Arkansas

                The bustling Saline County city of Bryant's story begins with the old stagecoach road that connected southeastern United States to the former Mexican territory of Texas. According to common local legend, the first white settlers along Hurricane Creek were traveling to Texas, but the high rushing waters of the flooded creek stopped them from continuing their journey. While waiting for the water to settle, the travelers decided to stay in the area, create their own settlement and forgo plans of moving to Texas.

                This settlement was originally known as Dogwood Springs. Around 1835, the community’s name was changed to Collegeville. There was a small engagement at Collegeville during the Civil War in October 1864. In this action, commonly known as the Skirmish at Hurricane Creek or the Skirmish at Hunter’s Crossing, federal forces scored an easy victory over the ragtag band of rebels. Union records show that 11 Union soldiers wounded and 28 killed in the action. 

                The dead were buried by local women in nearby Bryant Cemetery. The only known Confederate burial from the skirmish is that of William Anderson Penn of Company C, Second Texas Cavalry. A historical marker commemorating the Civil War action is located at the cemetery on South Reynolds Road near the new Bryant Junior High School.

                The town that became modern-day Bryant began to prosper after the end of the Civil War in 1865. The St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad connected Bryant with Little Rock in 1871. The Bryant Township was officially created in 1878. The township was officially incorporated as a town in 1892, and was later designated as a city of the first class in 1946. Bryant’s first mayor was Conway Ashley.

                Bryant and the railroad that ran through the city were successful during World War II, with trains carrying aluminum made in nearby Bauxite to the country’s aircraft plants. Interstate 30 was built through Bryant during the 1950s, which led to a new period of population growth that has continued today. Alcoa and Reynolds Roads — two main thoroughfares through the city — are a reminder of Saline County’s mining past.

                In the mid-1980s, Bryant’s population grew as people looked for homes outside the hustle and bustle of the metro. The Bryant School District with its high school, junior high, two middle schools and six elementary schools attracted new residents then and continues to do so today. 

                The school system is Bryant’s largest employer and a source of pride for the city. The Bryant High football team has won five state 7-A championships within the past six years. The annual Salt Bowl, between Bryant High and Benton High Schools, has been played at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock since fall 2000 and brings in thousands of football fans from not just Saline County but from across the state. The name was chosen in honor of Saline County’s nineteenth-century salt works.

                And if you happen to like photo-ops, you may wish to stand near the exact center of Arkansas. 

                While you can’t visit the exact spot, but you can come close. In 1936, the Arkansas Society Daughters of American Colonists placed a monument near the geographical center of Arkansas. The marker consists of a concrete base with a monument on top of the platform that bears a large embossed plate on its front. The marker rests fifteen miles from Little Rock alongside Pinecrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Bryant and near the unincorporated community of Collegeville.

                I hope all of you have a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday season!

The Bauxite Historical Museum

                

                Years ago, when I worked for Arkansas Parks & Tourism, we ran an ad campaign that featured the slogan, "Go play in your own backyard." 

                Today, I live in rural Saline County. But thanks to a new job, I spend a lot of time in Bryant. As a result, the city of Bauxite is my "backyard." But until recently, I’d never visited the small town. So, during my lunch break last week, I decided to take the short, five-minute drive to Bauxite and, in particular, the Bauxite Historical Museum. The museum, located in the former Bauxite Community House, is truly a hidden gem in the Natural State.

                The beginning of the Bauxite Historical Museum starts in 1887, when bauxite was first discovered in Saline County. Mostly made of aluminum hydroxide minerals, bauxite was desperately needed by the U.S. military in both World War I and II, and as a result, the small central Arkansas community became a boomtown. 

                In 1903, the Aluminum Company of America (later Alcoa) built an ore-drying plant in the Bauxite area. The company-owned town grew in population, and in 1926, Alcoa built the Bauxite Community House for community events. Alcoa employees funded the project, contributing 25 cents per paycheck until the company recouped the building's cost.

                The community house had a library, reading room, game room and full-service kitchen. It was also home to the town’s Masonic lodge. Clear Lake was built nearby to serve as a recreational area for Alcoa employees and their families.

                But with the end of World War II, Alcoa found it most cost-effective to mine bauxite ore overseas, and as a result, the company-owned and operated town of Bauxite nearly went from a boomtown to a ghost town. On June 19, 1967, Alcoa officially notified Bauxite residents that as of July 1, 1969, the company would no longer financially support the town. 

                Having been run by Alcoa, Bauxite never incorporated. But that changed on Jan. 16, 1973. And as of the 2020 Census, the town had 629 residents.

                The Bauxite Historical Museum is operated by the Bauxite Historical Association. The group began as the Alcoa Employees Descendants Association, which began in 1986 as a nonprofit organization charged with the maintenance and preservation of the Bauxite Community Hall and other properties deeded to the organization by Alcoa. 

                The museum features exhibits and artifacts about the history of bauxite mining and about the lives of those who worked in the mines. One artifact of particular note is made of woven aluminum fabric created by world-renowned Paris designer, Jean Desses. The $25,000 dress is only one of two known to exist, and it was worn by Miss Arkansas Barbara Banks at the Aluminum Bowl game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock on Dec. 22, 1956. 

                There are also rooms in the museum dedicated to the history of the Bauxite school system, World Wars I and II, as well sports memorabilia from local athletes who went on to have collegiate and professional success. Those include Leon “Muscles” Campbell, a football standout at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville who played for the NFL’s Baltimore Colts and Chicago Bears.

                In early 2008, the H. Tyndall Dickinson Family commissioned a large bronze statue titled Unsung Heroes–Bauxite Miners to be placed on the museum’s grounds. The statue depicts a father, dressed in overalls, saying goodbye to his family as he goes to work in the mines. The sculpture was unveiled on the front lawn of the Bauxite Community Hall in October of that year.

                The Bauxite Historical Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.Wednesdays and from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Sundays. Admission is free, and donations are appreciated. The museum is located at 6706 Benton Road in Bauxite. For more information, call 501-557-9858.