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!
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