100 years ago
Dec. 1, 1922
• Hiking 50,000 miles for a prize of $10,000, Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Baxter of Washington, D.C., stopped several hours in Little Rock yesterday. They walked here from Fort Smith. The couple, according to Mr. Baxter, have walked 11,977 miles, and have traversed 24 states and hiked 33 miles in Mexico. They began the hike December 19, 1921. Mr. Baxter, according to a certificate he carries, has been discharged from a government hospital in an unimproved condition. He said physicians advised a life outdoors. A friend of the family has agreed that if the couple make the hike of 50,000 in seven years, earning the expenses of the trip while enroute, he will give them $10,000, Mr. Baxter said. They are allowed to ride on a train through heavy swamp lands. The couple make expenses by appearing at theaters in a tight-wire performance.
50 years ago
Dec. 1, 1972
• Arkansas railroad officials meeting at Chicago Tuesday rescinded their earlier publication of a proposed $10 surcharge per car after approval by Arkansas voters in the November 7 general election of Initiated Act 1, which repealed the state full crew laws. The railroads had threatened to pursue the $10 surcharge if Act 1 were defeated, because of the allegedly higher cost of operation in Arkansas as a result of the full crew laws... The railroads had used the $10 surcharge as what opponents to Act 1 called a threat to force a favorable Act 1 vote.
25 years ago
Dec. 1, 1997
• Cy Carney is keeping his latest duty as Little Rock's acting city manager close to the vest. It's Carney's assignment to present the city Board of Directors an easy-to-swallow $15 million plan to secure the property chosen for the Clinton presidential library and roll it into a tightened 1998 budget... The last time such a presentation was sprung at a board meeting was Nov. 11, when the Destination: Little Rock package was unveiled... The city quickly backed away from that amid protests... The budget/presidential library plan is No. 42 on Tuesday's 43-item agenda.
10 years ago
Dec. 1, 2012
PRAIRIE GROVE -- Archaeologists have determined the location of five houses, a post office and a road that existed during the Battle of Prairie Grove, which took place Dec. 7, 1862. The homes were owned by Hugh Rogers, William Rogers, Josiah Thompson, the Morton family and the Borden family. Archaeologists also located the Ada Post Office and the old Fayetteville-Cane Hill Road. Some of the buildings were burned during the battle or the day after. Others stood for almost a century before being torn down. The road changed when a bridge was built over the Illinois River, north of the original ford, late in the 19th century. The locations were found using a combination of old and new technologies -- everything from ground-penetrating radar to shovel tests. Historical descriptions, a map drawn by a Union soldier and aerial photographs from 1941 also provided valuable information.