the savings of a previous crop may not
be entirely required to withstand bliz
zard severities of long winters. In Ar
kansas there is a mixture of the ele
ments, which is so agreeable to vege
table, as well as animal, life that our
climate seems the compromise of one in
terest to the other, working in harmony
their greatest composite good. The win
ters are never severe, ice rarely;. fj=«#zes
sufficiently for skating and then but for
a few days, when the Northern winds re
treat before gulf breezes. The springs
are often seasons of frequent showers /
which bring high water, owing to poor/
drainage and lack of levee protection;
but these needs -will soon be remedied
and hundreds of thousands of acres of
tillable land reclaimed from the swimp
and river lowlands. These rains are not of
the continuous kind, suffered by the Pa
cific slope during certain seasons, and are
not more excessive than visit states of
the North. March winds have no ter
rors for the Arkansas woman; they are
unknown, which is a blessing to many
sections that possess sandy; soils. The
summer is not characterized rby any more
extreme heat than in Illinois or Missouri
and our mountain resorts are accorded
temperatures that to excel, \the Rockies
or Alleghenies must be climbed. The
highest elevation between the two great .
systems is, our own Mount Magazine
with an,*l1titude of 3,000 feet. \ Autumn
is siprffar to that period in the North—
—ti<5 warmer, but ideal in its perfection.
To the voice of the climate urging
“come” is the propitious beckoning of
a development that dates back for* sev
eral years, yet points to the futurA for
more glorious achievements. It is easier
to join in the march of progress than
face the opposition when the tide of
battle is turned into retreat; the invest
uic;m ui v^apuai in ucvuupm^ uui
sources, in building railroads and estab
lishing ^industrial enterprises, is a mani
festation-of confidence upon the part of
careful, long-sighted men in the future *
of Arkansas and the endowed wealth of
our grand old state is beginning to re
ceive that attention and cultivation
which will make her people prosperous
and her realms to blossom as a flower
garden.
Since her admission to the Union in
1836, Arkansas has made gradual strides
forward. Never once has she suffered
the reactionary effects of a boom. Prac
tically all of her lands are available for .
some purpose. With 25,000,000 acres of
agricultural lands, only one-third are in
cultivation; 2,000,000 acres of fruit lands
and only one-twentieth utilized; 33,000,
000 acres her total area, most of which
was once in forest, there is still within
her confines a vast wealth of cypress,
walnut, hickory, oak, gum and other
valuable woods. With only the saw mills
at present, why not the factories soon to
employ labor and contribute their wealth ?
From the mines of the state we have
coal, zinc, lead, iron and other minerals;
granite, nrarble, roofing slate and the fin
est qualities of building stone;.clays that
are available for brick, beauxite, asphalt,
manganese, saltpeter, rock salt and gyp
sum, that serve in many useful ways, all
contributors to our natural wealth.
In limited description, it is not possi
ble to portray fully the numerous items
that make up the sum total of our riches.
“Come and see for yourselves” is the
message that Arkansas sends to people
Fruit Scene in Arkansas—Blue Ribbon Winners.
Plenty of Work Ahead in a Jackson County Field.
Penter's Bluff—White River Branch, St. L., I. M. & S. R'y. >
who seek new homes, new fields of en
terprise. Verify with your own eyes our
claims and learn from observation that
the resources specified are hers.
“Here t»y night the cotton whitens be
neath the stars, and by day the wheat
locks the sunshine in its bearded sheaf.
In the same field the clover steals the
fragrance of the wind and the corn
catches the quick aroma of the rain.”
'V -
RANKING fourth among the coun
ties of Arkansas in her assessed
valuation and with no large city
industries and concentrated wealth to
push her claims for relative position, the
County of Jackson has long gloried in
the recognition of her soil’s productive
ness. Lying in the fertile valley of
White River and bounded upon the
north by her chief tributary, Black River,
while Cache River in her southern
course follows closely the eastern boun
dary line, the county which received its
name from the hero of New Orleans,
Andrew Jackson, is so admirably located
that it becomes the heart of the rich ag
ricultural lands of Arkansas, noted for
the fineness of their cotton and their
adaptability to other crops.
Jackson County came into existence
by an act of the Legislature, November
5, 1829, being taken from the previously
established County of Independence.
Jackson, as then constituted, included a
large portion of White and Woodruff
Counties, which were later set apart in
separate countyhood. The first court of
this county was held at Wideman, near
what is now known as McLains switch;
then at Litchfield for a short time; from
here to Elizabeth, and then to Augusta,
the present county seat of Woodruff.
Jacksonport secured the return of the
seat of government from the southern
town in 1854, where the county’s busi
ness and courts were conducted until
1886, when Newport succeeded to the
heritage. Not even the ruins stand to
mark the court houses of Litchfield and
Elizabeth—a few moss-covered bricks,
perhaps, crumbling in decay, but np
other vestige of the prominence these
points once enjoyed.
Immigration in the early days was
slow, but much of that which came to
this section was from Virginia. Presi
dent Jackson, desiring to extend the
slave territory and fearing that the •
North might contribute too heavily to
our population, induced many Virginia
friends to locate in Arkansas, and thus
through his friends the county took his
name.
Grand Glaize, founded by John Saf
fold in 1850, and Jacksonport are the
two old towns of the county and flour
ished as trading points for large tribu
tary territories. Both White and Black
Rivers being navigable, it is said to have
been a common sight to see four or five
Mississippi River steamboats tied up at
the Jacksonport landing, loading or un
loading their cargoes to and from New
Orleans, as the case might be.
But passing any further historical
data, for the war and reconstruction pe
riods were as hard upon fair Jackson as