BELLA VISTA -- Leah Whitehead received a lake lot on Loch Lomond for her birthday one year. Living in Orange County, Calif., the move to Bella Vista took some adjusting, but she's a native of Arkansas and still had family in Pea Ridge.
She has lived on Loch Lomond since 1993.
She studied art and architecture in college and left Pea Ridge for a career in museums, but there weren't any jobs. She ended up in broadcast journalism in California where she met her husband.
Whitehead gave up her career to raise her children and help her husband who had a corporate job. They moved from the west coast to the east coast and back.
She always spent time volunteering, first with hospital auxiliaries and church. When they moved to Bella Vista, she started to get interested in history and joined the board of the Benton County Historical Society. She's been on the board "longer than I remember." For the past eight years, she's been president of the board.
"I've always loved history," she explained. She realized when she was in her early 40s and started to miss her roots.
The Benton Country Historical Society is one of the oldest in the state. The group accepted responsibility for county records compiled between 1836 to 1900. The county keeps the records after 1900.
But the paper records are deteriorating, so the organization is looking for grants to pay for scanning each page. Once the pages are scanned, the books will be safely stored away and the scans will be available for researchers.
And there are many researchers, she said.
"One positive of the covid era," she said, is a renewed interest in history and genealogy. People staying at home because of the pandemic suddenly have time to think about the past. It's very important, she said, because of the way Bentonville is growing. History could easily be lost.
"It's our heritage and our culture and what makes what we are today," she said.
She can help people who would like to see their homes on the national register. She calls that, "large scale recycling."
She also worked at the Peel House which is a combination of a museum and an event center. The Peel family has "a wonderful story," and the house is "a beautiful place."
As a child, Whitehead attended a 4-H camp at the Sunset Hotel. She can remember sliding down the hill on her bottom and crossing the highway to swim in the pool near Lake Bella Vista. Both the hotel and the pool are gone, but she remembers the coldest water she ever felt.
She still has family in Pea Ridge. Her grandfather had nine children and he left each of them 40 acres, so there are still Wilkerson's living in the area. Her youngest son moved with them to Bella Vista. He's now married and has a 15-year-old at Bentonville High School.
Lynn Atkins may be reached by email at latkins@nwadg.com.