The Arkansas State Fair was blessed with good weather and big crowds this fall. I never attend the fair without gazing at old Barton Coliseum and thinking about the events I've attended there through the decades.
For many Arkansans, the memories are of concerts they attended at Barton. Everyone from Elvis Presley to Elton John played at the facility, which opened in 1952.
My family was more into sports than music, so most of my memories revolve around sporting events--state high school basketball championship games in March, the annual Arkansas high school all-star boys' basketball game each August, the NAIA District 17 Tournament to determine which Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference team went to the NAIA national basketball tournament in Kansas City, University of Arkansas at Little Rock home basketball games back when head coach Wimp Sanderson had the Trojans rolling, University of Arkansas Razorback basketball games during the Christmas holidays.
We would attend the rodeo at Barton when my parents would bring me to the fair. I've also seen professional wrestling and minor-league hockey there.
A lot of Arkansans thought the opening of what's now Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock in 1999 would mean the end of Barton. Doug White, who took over as president and general manager of the Arkansas Livestock Show Association in June, believes there's still a place for the 7,150-seat arena. White touts the fact that there are thousands of secure parking spots inside a fenced area. He also notes that Barton is a venue that can attract event organizers who consider the North Little Rock arena to be too large. He would like to see more historic exhibits that celebrate the rich history of the arena, which was named for business leader Thomas H. Barton of El Dorado.
"In 1937, the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service conducted a study of the state's resources and concluded that raising livestock would be profitable," writes Dennis Schick, the former head of the Arkansas Press Association. "A number of Arkansas educators, businessmen and agricultural leaders decided that holding a livestock exposition would help educate farmers that raising livestock would be a sound venture. Prominent among those leaders was M.W. Muldrow, an Extension Service livestock specialist who spearheaded the movement to hold a state livestock show. These leaders formed the Arkansas Livestock Exposition."
Barton was selected to head the organization. He devoted time and financial resources to the Arkansas Livestock Show Association. The association listed its objectives as increasing the income of farmers, providing them with year-round work, reducing the importation of food into the state, improving the volume and quality of livestock, reducing the dependence on cotton as the main cash crop, rebuilding soil fertility, ending soil erosion, enabling profits on previously unprofitable land, and increasing the wealth of Arkansans.
What's now Barton Coliseum began as an open-air arena in 1948. Walls were added in 1950, and the decision was made the next year to add a roof. A major renovation took place in 1974.
Barton had been born at Marlin, Texas, in September 1881. He entered the Army in 1901 and was discharged three years later. He found his way to Arkansas and worked in the lumber business in Dallas County for a time. Barton was commissioned with the temporary rank of captain in the Arkansas National Guard in 1906.
"With the advent of World War I, he was transferred to the 141st Infantry, 36th Division, as a captain in the regular Army," Don Lambert and John Ragsdale wrote for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "Although his unit was shipped to France, he was sent to Camp Stanley in Texas to assist in organizing cavalry regiments. He was discharged in 1919 with the rank of major. Barton remained in the Army Reserve from 1920 until discharged as a colonel in 1936."
From then until his death in 1960, he was referred to by Arkansans as Colonel Barton.
Barton went to El Dorado in 1921 after the discovery of oil. He organized a company known as the El Dorado Natural Gas Co. By 1924, it was Natural Gas & Fuel Corp. Barton sold his business to Cities Service Co. in 1929 and used the proceeds to become the principal stockholder in Lion Oil Refining Co.
"Within three months, Lion had purchased producing leases in the Smackover oil field, which was literally overflowing with a colossal output of petroleum," Lambert and Ragsdale wrote. "The company continued to expand and in 1935 discovered the third major producing geological zone in the Smackover field. In 1937, Lion drilled the wildcat discovery well in the Shuler Field, 15 miles west of El Dorado. Barton leased 7,000 acres and initiated development in a field that ranked second only to the Smackover discovery. By 1955, the company employed 3,000 people, and Lion products were sold by 2,000 service stations across the South."
In 1941, Lion organized a subsidiary to operate the federal government's Ozark Ordnance Plant near El Dorado. Lion purchased the plant in 1948 and used it to produce ammonia for use in fertilizers.
Despite having become an oil and gas man, Barton had an interest in livestock that had begun when he was growing up on the family farm in Texas. That interest led him to become involved in the Arkansas Livestock Show Association and eventually resulted in the naming of that Arkansas classic known as Barton Coliseum.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 10/26/2019