Later this month, we'll mark the anniversary of the deadliest maritime disaster in American history. On April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded and burned on the Mississippi River near what's now Marion. More than 1,100 of the 2,100 passengers and crew were killed.
The steamboat was designed to carry 376 passengers plus crew. Corrupt practices that included bribes paid to high-ranking Union officers led to overcrowding as the Sultana carried freed Union prisoners of war back home. Because of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the search for his murderer, the tragedy didn't receive the attention it otherwise would have gotten in the nation's newspapers.
John Fogleman of Marion, who was a circuit judge for a quarter of a century, is president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society.
"The soldiers had survived the war and the worst prisoner-of-war camps in our history," he says. "The focus of the museum we have planned for Marion will be those soldiers and the price they paid."
There's scandal, political intrigue and heroic efforts to save passengers--the stuff of a major Hollywood production. This story has everything. I have little doubt the museum will draw visitors from across the country. The society acquired the 1938 Marion High School gymnasium to use as the museum.
Architects, planners and exhibit designers from the acclaimed Haizlip Studio in Memphis have been working on plans for the 17,000-square-foot facility. Previous Haizlip work in Arkansas includes the Scott Family Amazeum at Bentonville and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center at Fort Smith.
Earlier this year, state government's Division of Arkansas Heritage presented the society $750,000 from its Arkansas Cultural Institutions Trust Fund. That grant brought the fundraising total to $8.1 million, close to the $9 million needed by May 31 to obtain a $1 million challenge grant from FedEx. The $10 million total will allow the society to complete the museum.
Two years ago, then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that his office would provide $750,000. At that time, Fogleman announced that the Fogleman and Barton families were pledging $100,000. Ancestors of both families helped save people from the cold waters of the Mississippi River. Other donations announced at the time included $500,000 from the Marion Advertising and Promotion Commission, $150,000 from Premier Bank, and $100,000 from Fidelity Bank.
"I come from the Ozark hills," Hutchinson said. "I grew up on Spavinaw Creek. And going to school in Gravette and then to high school in Springdale, we studied, with great imagination, the history of the Mississippi River. It was with nostalgia and romance that you read about the river and all that it means to our country."
Last year, the society received a $1 million federal grant from the American Rescue Plan.
The "nostalgia and romance" of the Mississippi River and Delta that Hutchinson talked about could soon attract thousands of new visitors to the Interstate 55 corridor in northeast Arkansas. The Sultana Museum will be a piece of that tourism puzzle. Another key piece is the 20-story hotel at Southland Casino in West Memphis. It's the tallest building in Arkansas outside Little Rock.
The sleek hotel (I stayed there Thanksgiving week and was impressed) speaks not only to the tremendous growth in business at Southland in recent years but also symbolizes a bright future for the heritage corridor running north up Interstate 55 from West Memphis to Blytheville.
It won't be long until some of the visitors from around the world who fly into Memphis will cross the Mississippi River to spend the night at Southland. They will then visit the Sultana Museum, the model Delta town of Wilson, the Johnny Cash boyhood home at Dyess and the National Cold War Center at Blytheville (which received $400,000 from the state on the same day in February that Marion got its $750,000).
A few might stay at The Louis, a boutique hotel on the square at Wilson. The hotel, which will open later this year, has been advertising in the nation's top lifestyle magazines. Gaylon Lawrence Jr., one of the nation's largest landowners, continues to spend millions of dollars to transform Wilson into the jewel of the Delta.
The hope is that well-heeled visitors will come to shop, eat, drink and participate in outdoor activities. There's already the highly touted Wilson Cafe and upscale retail shops. An 18-hole golf course is being added to the mix.
After seeing Wilson, visitors can head to Dyess, an Arkansas State University heritage site. ASU renovated the five-room house that Ray and Carrie Cash called home beginning in March 1935. The family arrived from Cleveland County in south Arkansas with their five children. J.R. (who would go on to be known as Johnny) was 3 at the time. The Cash family lived in the house until 1953.
The home was acquired and restored with private contributions and proceeds from the annual Johnny Cash Music Festival. Interactive exhibits at the nearby Dyess Colony administration building focus on the history of the colony and what life was like for its residents.
In Blytheville, which is already the Barbecue Capital of Arkansas, the National Cold War Center has opened its Blytheville Air Force Base exhibition at the former base. Future phases include an interactive alert center, B-52 bombers, self-guided tours and an expanded museum. It will be the country's first facility of its type.
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.