100 years ago
Oct. 24, 1921
PARAGOULD -- A barn and storage room belonging to the Joseph Gin Company was destroyed by fire yesterday morning. A team of mules in the barn were cremated. One hundred and ninety bales of cotton and 5,000 pounds of hay were also consumed. The loss is estimated at $15,000. The cotton was insured. The hay belonged to Will Cummings and was not insured. Insurance to the amount of $500 was carried on the bar.
50 years ago
Oct. 24, 1971
EL DORADO -- C. G. Davis, preparing for completion after testing 200 barrels of oil a day in No. 2 Carter-Moore, indicated a deep oil discovery in Spirit Lake Field of Lafayette County. Oil was tested from the interval 7,070-7,100 feet after bottoming the well at 7,103 feet. Completion will be attempted in this interval. The operation lies about one-eighth mile north and east of Davis' No. 1 Carter-Moore, which was completed last month flowing gas and condensate from 7,051-61 feet. These wells are north of the older, shallower producing wells of the Spirit Lake Field.
25 years ago
Oct. 24, 1996
• Nothing was ordinary about a Salem teenager's plan to run away from home except the note he left. He headed for North Carolina instead of a friend's house. He headed there in a stolen school bus. And, along the way, he injured two people as he drove into four cars, a stop sign, several lawns and one embankment in Little Rock. The embankment stopped him 20 miles into the trip. Bryant School District bus 17-3-9 "was the quickest means of transportation I could get," he said afterward. The 16-year-old Bryant Junior High School student, who doesn't have a driver's license, found the bus with the keys in the ignition about 10:30 a.m. near Bryant High School. Police didn't know where the bus went between 10:30 and 11 a.m., when a caller reported it "driving erratically at Mabelvale West and Nash roads," said Capt. Charles Holladay, a Little Rock Police spokesman.
10 years ago
Oct. 24, 2011
• A ride at the Arkansas State Fair was shut down Sunday after an object flew off it and struck two people on another ride, the fair's general manager said. General Manager Ralph Shoptaw said an object from the Zipper, a Ferris wheeltype ride that carries passengers more than 50 feet in the air, flew off and hit two people riding the nearby Avalanche. Shoptaw described the injuries as "not real serious" and said both people were taken to a hospital in a private vehicle. A dispatcher with Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services said the accident happened about 5:12 p.m. Deggeller Attractions, which operates the ride at the fair, shut down the Zipper as a precaution for the remainder of the fair's final day, Shoptaw said.