May is Arkansas Heritage Month. Since 1982 the Department of Arkansas Heritage has sponsored a celebration of Arkansas' history and culture during May. The theme this year is "From the Delta to the Hills: Different Landscapes, a Common Heritage," a nod to the Delta region in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Delta Cultural Center in Helena.
The poster for this year features a painting by John Ruskey of canoeists on a Delta river, taken from the Center's collections. The Delta Cultural Center offers exhibits, numerous music events and festivals, school programs, and a host of other activities documenting and celebrating the people and heritage of Arkansas' portion of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain.
For a history enthusiast like me, the challenge of Heritage Month is deciding which events I can manage to attend. A visit to the Heritage Department's website (www.arkansasheritage.com) discloses far more events than one could possibly attend.
I am, however, hoping to be present for a program at the White River Museum State Park in Des Arc at 2 p.m. May 23 dealing with the fascinating but little-recognized topic "Shelling on the White River." This does not pertain to military bombardments, but to the economic exploitation of freshwater mussels--first in a mad rush to discover pearls, and later to harvest shells for the button industry.
While the White River was the center of the shelling industry, it was the 1897 discovery of a pearl on the Black River near the town of Black Rock that set off a literal "pearl rush." Within weeks, thousands of people from all over the state and region flocked to northeast Arkansas and began opening mussel shells. Pearl rushes were not new to America, the first having taken place in early New Jersey.
The rush was bolstered when searchers began making fantastic finds. In July 1901 the papers reported a large pearl had just sold at Black Rock for $1,500, while one found near Alicia had fetched $1,250. One poor Independence County farmer sold a White River pearl for $336, enough to purchase a fine team of mules.
The pearl rush lasted only a few years, but the White River and its tributaries soon evolved into a national center of mussel shell production for making "pearl buttons." By the 1920s northeast Arkansas was home to numerous button factories with an especially large one located in Newport.
If I can manage the logistics, I plan on going from the museum in Des Arc to the Old Independence Regional Museum in Batesville where an exhibit and program on "Living with the White River" will open at 2 p.m. May 24.
Batesville, which has a fascinating history, should take real pride in the Old Independence Regional Museum--which documents and interprets the history not only of Independence County, but also of those surrounding counties which were originally part of it. By highlighting the fragile White River and its history, Old Independence Regional Museum is prodding us to give more attention to protecting our quite remarkable water resources.
A number of Heritage Month activities pertain to the sesquicentennial commemoration of the American Civil War. I hope to attend the re-enactment of the battle of Marks Mill on the weekend of May 16-17 at Hornday Farm near Fordyce in Dallas County. This fierce engagement, involving a Confederate attack and capture of a federal supply train on April 25, 1864, was part of the failed Red River Campaign. More than 500 re-enactors are expected for the event, which will include several pieces of period artillery, including some which are horse-drawn. A full roster of weekend events includes dining, period dance, a medicine show, and live period music.
At 7:30 p.m. May 28 I plan on attending a Heritage Month program on Arkansas and World War I. Sponsored by the Bob Herzfeld Memorial Library in Benton, the speaker will be Mike Polston, staff historian for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture and co-editor of a new book titled To Can the Kaiser: Arkansas in World War I.
One of the important outcomes of World War I was a realization that many Arkansas draftees were in terrible medical condition. Almost one-half of the Arkansans drafted during the war failed the physical examinations, with many cases of malnourishment, infection with tape worms and other parasites, and high rates of venereal disease. The war helped convince Arkansas authorities to undertake meaningful public health efforts.
Heritage Week is a good time for us not only to celebrate our heritage, but also to contemplate how far we have come--and how far we have yet to go.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com.
Editorial on 05/10/2015