GUARDING THE BOOZE—Deputy Sheriff Ardis Alford, Sheriff Guy Hickman, Deputy Reese Gilbert and Constable Cecil McCarley inspect a haul of 100 gallons of whiskey captured in the Solo community, north of Hector, Pope County. (1949)

Most Americans learned that Prohibition ended in 1933.

It did.

But prohibition did not.

When the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, it repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and ended national Prohibition. It did not, however, require every place in America to begin selling liquor again. Instead, much of the authority to regulate alcohol returned to the states, and many states allowed counties, cities, and other local jurisdictions to decide for themselves.

That is why, nearly a century later, America still has dry counties.

And Arkansas has more of them than any other state.

Dry America Is Older Than Prohibition

The idea of a dry county did not begin with national Prohibition.

Long before the Eighteenth Amendment took effect in 1920, the temperance movement had been working town by town and county by county. States adopted “local option” laws that allowed communities to prohibit liquor sales without requiring the entire state to do the same.

The movement was remarkably successful. By 1906, more than half of the counties in the United States and about 60 percent of its towns were under some form of prohibition. The Anti-Saloon League deliberately pursued this strategy, drying up communities one election at a time before turning its attention toward statewide and eventually national prohibition.

So when national Prohibition arrived, much of America was already dry. [continue reading…]

The following article from the January 21, 1906, Arkansas Democrat describes the condition of the contents of the Bank of Russellville’s vault after the surrounding building burned and hot bricks buried it in the Russellville fire of January 15–16, 1906.

BIG BANK VAULT UNHURT IN FIRE
Contents at Russellville in Perfect Condition.
DEFIED HARDEST TEST
Institution Resumes Business in the Old Postoffice Building—Will Rebuild.

Russellville, Jan. 20.—(Special.)—The center of interest in the burned district of Russellville since the fire of Monday night has been the great vault of the Bank of Russellville, which stands in the midst of the ruins. The heat around this had been intense, and the walls were white with heat. As the vault began to cool, many conjectures were heard as to whether the contents had been injured.

Cashier W. G. Neal, in the presence of a great crowd of curious and anxious spectators, yesterday turned the combination on the outside door, which worked easily, and then with little effort, the bolts were drawn back, and the great door swung open.

On the inside everything was just as when the vault was closed on Monday night. Not a paper indicated that a large two-story brick building had burned over the contents, and that the vault had been buried for hours beneath tons of red-hot brick.

The inside doors of the vault unlocked as easily as though no fire had occurred, and the safe was as in fine condition as when it was placed there years ago.

The vault and safe were built especially for this bank, and placed in position in 1890. The test was severe, but the condition of the contents was perfect.

The Bank of Russellville is one of the soundest banking institutions in the state. It was reopened in the old post-office building at the usual hour on Tuesday morning, and did not miss an hour from business, although it had lost everything in the way of fixtures and furniture, besides a $10,000 building.

Before noon on Tuesday the bank officials had wired to Ft. Smith for material, and were figuring with local contractors for the erection of a better and larger bank building on the same site. Men are now at work clearing away the debris preparatory for rebuilding.

Background:

Other contemporary accounts reported that shortly before midnight on Monday, January 15, 1906, fire was discovered in the Chronister Brothers grocery in downtown Russellville. Fanned by wind and confronted by a town with no waterworks system, functioning fire department, or firefighting apparatus, the blaze swept through nearly two blocks of the business district and burned until daylight. Contemporary estimates placed the loss at between $150,000 and $250,000. Residents formed bucket brigades, even releasing prisoners from the county jail on their honor to help fight the flames. Every prisoner reportedly returned to the jail after the danger had passed.

The photograph above did not accompany the Arkansas Democrat article. It shows the vault described in the article almost exactly as the newspaper’s readers would have imagined it—standing essentially intact while the Bank of Russellville building around it had ceased to exist.

After initially publishing this account, I discovered that the original newspaper page also carried a photograph on the far left, while the vault story appeared on the far right. The newspaper identified the man as Col. T. M. Neal, president of the Bank of Russellville, standing beside the vault that survived the fire.

THEY WENT UNSCATHED THROUGH BIG FIRE

(Photograph Taken By J. H. Ganner.)

This picture shows Col. T. M. Neal, president of the Bank of Russellville, standing beside the vault which defied the flames. The vault saved all the bank’s most valuable property.

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An old photograph labeled “Southern Anthracite Coal Mines — Webb Photo — Russellville Ark.” preserves a view of one of the most substantial early coal-mining operations in the Russellville area.

The photograph shows a substantial wooden tipple and headframe, railroad facilities, mine buildings, and the disturbed landscape surrounding the workings. Although identified simply as Russellville, the mine was at Bernice, south of town in the Shinn Basin.

Southern Anthracite operated more than one mine there. A 1907 U.S. Geological Survey report places a company slope in the north half of Section 21, Township 7 North, Range 20 West, and a much more substantial 480-foot shaft in the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 21. USGS Bulletin 326

The deep shaft was later identified as Bernice Mine No. 1. An Arkansas mineral report described it as a 486-foot shaft about three and a half miles southeast of Russellville. J. G. Puterbaugh of McAlester, Oklahoma, was the company president, and E. W. Hogan was superintendent.

The photograph shows the size of the operation. This was not a small opening driven casually into a hillside. Coal hundreds of feet underground had to be brought to the surface by cage, processed through the tipple and loaded for shipment. [continue reading…]

Trump Taj Mahal Boardwalk Nightlife (generated using ChatGPT)

When Trump Tower opened on Fifth Avenue in 1983, Donald Trump was already a successful New York developer. Trump Tower made him something else.

It made him a celebrity.

The 58-story building was inseparable from the man whose name was attached to it. Bronze-colored glass, pink marble, a multi-story waterfall and expensive shops were part of the package, but so was Trump himself. He gave interviews, showed reporters around, and made sure that the building and its owner were presented together.

That turned out to be important.

Trump had discovered—or at least demonstrated—that the appearance of success had value of its own. A building could be real estate, but it could also be advertising. His name on the building suggested wealth, luxury, and success, and the building in turn reinforced the value of the name.

That feedback loop would become increasingly important over the next 16 years. [continue reading…]

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A little over a week ago, Luke Heffley, VP of the Pope County Historical Association, asked if I would be willing to give a presentation at their September meeting, scheduled for September 1 at Brangus Steakhouse.

They had been holding their meetings at the Check H Grill & Buffet and, after it burned, had to find somewhere else.

They held their August meeting at Central Christian Church on Independence Avenue.

I called Luke the next day and agreed to his proposal. We talked about ideas for what I might discuss.

I had a week to get ready for a 45-minute presentation.

I had spoken in public only twice before. Both were to the quorum court, and I was limited to just a couple of minutes.

Of course, I had been an instructor at the nuclear plant and had plenty of presentation experience.

I planned to cover a fairly wide range of topics, but I wanted to frame them around my use of AI and Wikipedia for research and writing, often on local history. [continue reading…]

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