LITTLE ROCK — 100 YEARS AGO July 28, 1912 MURFREESBORO - A building contract was let this week by the Ozark Mining Company for the immediate erection of buildings and installation of diamond washing machinery on the company’s property, two miles out from this place. Work of washing 2,000 loads of dirt will begin by September 1. Over 2,000 genuine diamonds have been recovered from the peridotite crater here since its discovery.
50 YEARS AGO July 28, 1962 BENTON - The Benton School Board last night formally accepted the new 10-room annex to the senior high school building.Supt. Howard Perrin said the annex will be occupied by 286 pupils of the 9th grade when school opens in September. Classrooms formerly used by the 9th grade in the junior high building will be taken over by 7th and 8th grades. Three or four teachers will be added to be faculty, Perrin said.
25 YEARS AGO July 28, 1987
In “a gesture of frustration,” Pulaski County Sheriff Carroll Gravett took 50state inmates he had housed in the county jail to the state Department of Correction’s Diagnostic Unit near Pine Bluff Monday and chained them to pine trees, then left. A convoy of nine vehicles led by Gravett arrived at the prison unit, adjacent to the Correction Department central offices, about 3:15 p.m., and deputies quickly herded the 37 male and 13 female inmates past protesting guards and chained them to trees near the unit’s front gate, making good on a threat Gravett made April 16 to deliver the inmates and leave them there.
10 YEARS AGO July 28, 2002 EL DORADO - Arkansas’ original boomtown is booming again. Oil made El Dorado a destination in the 1920s. Now, electricity is sparking a new rush. A $1.1 billion electric plant, believed to be the secondlargest construction project in Arkansas history, is rising five miles north of the city, bringing nearly 2,000 construction workers and a monthly payroll of $7.5 million. Now at its peak, the work force will soon shrink. But for now, the Union Power Station construction is creating rare opportunities.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 07/28/2012