HISTORYHISTORY
Located in northeast Arkansas, Mississippi County was established by Act of the Territorial Legislature on November 1, 1833, and was named for the Mississippi River which forms the entire eastern boundary.
The City of Osceola was the original county seat. The County became a dual seat by Act 81 of 1901. This Act divided Mississippi County into Judicial Districts, the Osceola District and the Chickasawba District. The Blytheville Court House was first erected in 1902. In 1919, the present Blytheville Court House was erected.
Mississippi County's rich Delta soil still supports a large but more various farming industry; including cotton and soybeans. Additionally, the County is a strong producer of wheat and rice. The drastic move away from labor intensive methods, however, has brought new challenges to the county's people and their leaders. The move toward a more machine intensive output allows for increased productivity and capital use.
After a period of population loss, due to the closing of Eaker Air Force Base, which effected employment numbers, the county began to work to attract industry that would create a broader and more stable economic base.
Mississippi County now has Nucor-Yamato and Nucor Steel in Blytheville, and other steel processing plants which officials say, makes this County one of the top steel producers in the country. American Greetings, Creative Foods LLC, Maverick Tube Corp., Coil Tec, Terra International, Milwaukee Tool, Siegel-Roberts, NIBCO, and other businesses of various kinds thrive over Mississippi County.
Cotton Boll Technical Institute, and the first all solar-powered college in the nation, Mississippi County Community College is now Arkansas Northeastern College, offers a variety of educational experiences to upgrade the skills of the work force at every level.
Mississippi County leaders have implemented intensive grant research and application projects. Recently, the County received a $2.9million Enterprise Community Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and has received designation through the Foundation for the Mid-South (funded by Pew Charitable Trusts) as a Workforce Alliance Community to increase work force labor skills and training initiatives.
Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge, the oldest federal refuge in Arkansas, is the only comparatively large area remaining in northeast Arkansas that contains a significant amount of virgin timber. About 5,000 acres has been designated as a National Natural Landmark. It contains the 500-acre Bald Cypress Research National Area of century-old cypress trees. Evidence has been found of almost 25 centuries of human occupancy of this region.
Big Lake Wildlife Management Area is one of the last remaining large tracts of bottomland hard-woods in northeast Arkansas and offers good hunting and fishing. The southern end contains a unique cypress-tupelo brake that is outstanding for bird watching, thus making Mississippi County popular with bird watchers and outdoor sports fans.
This information was researched from This Is Arkansas, 1993; Mississippi County Arkansas: Through The Years; and The Delta Historical Review, Summer, 1993.
Sesquicentennial Facts About Mississippi County
Mississippi County was once a part of Arkansas County then Phillips County and Crittenden County, from which it was separated by the Territorial Legislature November 1, 1833, and named Mississippi County from the river that is her eastern boundary line.
The original boundary extended as far west as the St. Francis river and embraced 1,000 square miles.
The first County seat, which was located opposite the first Chickasaw Bluffs was called Cornwall.
The first white settlers in the County of whom there is any knowledge, were Carson's and William Kellums; They were hunters and lived and hunted peacefully with the Indians.
Carson's Lake Township and Kellums Ridge took their names from these men who were here as early as 1812, at which time the Country was visited by a great earthquake known as the New Madrid earthquake.
The Quapaws, for whom Arkansas is named, were a powerful nation and possessed nearly the whole of the State. They were here as early as 1720. In 1824 Robert Crittenden effected a treaty with them, which ceded the reservation and title of "Tribe" to Arkansas. They then removed to the Indian Territory that is now Oklahoma.
Mississippi County has many Indian names, such as Osceola, Chickasawba, Shawnee and Tyronza.
Osceola, one of the earliest settlements in this Territory existed for a number of years as a collection of log huts on the Mississippi River. The town was named for the then famous Seminole Chief who was at one time a visitor among resident Indian tribes here in 1832, as Florida history reveals that Osceola was one of five Florida Indian Chiefs sent to Arkansas with the idea in mind of an exchange of Arkansas land for the Seminole land in Florida.
The Indian population of Mississippi County was located about Barfield, Chickasawba, Big Lake, Little River, and Shawnee Village and near Carson Lake. Generally the same place where the white settlements were first made.
An Arkansas Journal published soon after the new Madrid earthquake gave in account of how the Indians sought to avert the danger of the shocks by reviving an almost obsolete religious rite among the aborigines in imploring the Great Spirit to avert his wrath. (Find story herein).
ARMOREL
To go to Armorel one leaves Blytheville out the Main Street East to the Armorel Road.
Armorel received its name by R.E. Lee Wilson who owned thousands of acres of land here so he named it AR from Arkansas, MO from Missouri and his own initials R.E.L. --making Armorel.
HISTORY OF EAKER AIR FORCE BASE
Eaker Air Force Base, now the site of the Arkansas Aeroplex and Arkansas International Airport, has had a long and important history. Activated as an Army airfield on June 10, 1942, the field was used as an advanced flying school in the Southeastern Training Command's pilot training program. It remained a training center until the end of World War II and after the war until its closure in October, 1945, was used to process military members being discharged. The facility was reactivated as Blytheville Air Force Base on July 15, 1955, when the 461st Bombardment Wing moved from Hill Air Force Base in Utah. By April 7, 1956, the base was fully operational with a wing composed of three squadrons of B-57 bombers.
The 4229th Air Base Squadron assumed operational control in April 1958 and remained in charge until July 1, 1959, when the 97th Bombardment Wing took control. Official dedication ceremonies held on January 10, 1960, marked the arrival of the 97th BMW's first B-52G, The City of Blytheville. In addition to the B-52G aircraft, the base was also home to a compliment of KC-135A tankers.
The base was renamed Eaker on May 26, 1988, in honor of General Ira C. Eaker, an air pioneer and first commander of the Mighty Eighth Air Force during World War II.
Official closure of Eaker Air Force Base was announced in 1991, and on March 6, 1992, the last aircraft, The City of Blytheville, left the base. The official closure ceremony was held on December 15, 1992, and the transition from military to civilian, general aviation airport began. The military still makes use of the Arkansas International Airport in flight training maneuvers, and as a landing site to pick up and drop off local National Guard Troops.
BONDSVILLE
A thriving community in the western part of the county west of Osceola where the family members operate a store and big farming interests there.
BUFFALO ISLAND
Buffalo Island is a small strip of land lying in eastern Craighead County and western Mississippi County in northeast Arkansas. It lies between Little River and Big Lake on the east and the St. Francis River on the west. It varies in width from 10 to 16 miles and is about 40 miles long.
Buffalo Island, which was once a high ridge covered with cane, got its name from the fur traders, the first white men to come into the area. Seeing the great herds of Buffalo that inhabited the Island, they spoke of the area as Buffalo Island.
BURDETTE
This was the original site of Three States Lumber Company.
This large Lumber Company was a Pioneer in the Lumber industry in Mississippi County, owning thousands of acres of wild timber in the early 1900's.
EVADALE
Originally named Idaho Landing as it was here, Lee Wilson first had a sawmill and a tramway run out to the Mississippi River, where the lumber was perhaps rafted to Memphis. In those days managing a raft of logs was an art not given to everyone.
Later Idaho Landing was named for a niece of Mr. Lee Wilson's.
FRENCHMAN'S BAYOU
About twenty-five miles south of the County seat Osceola, is a most attractive stretch of country extending for about six miles, embracing several thousand acres highly cultivated with houses and buildings above general sections of the county.
The name Frenchman's Bayou presumably came from the fact that in 1628 LaSalle on February 24th threw up a Fort and built a cabin on the first Chickasaw Bluff (the present Fort Pillow). He named the place Prudhomme after Peter Prudhomme, one of his men who was lost on the West side of the Mississippi River for eleven days while hunting, and came up in a starved condition rejoining his comrades at the Fort.
LaSalle erected a great cross on the Bluff and also the arms of France, taking possession of the Country in the name of his king.
The Fort was known to the French inhabitants of Louisiana as late as 1825 as Fort Prudhomme. We assume Prudhomme was an unpronounceable name for our settlers thus became known as the Frenchman's Bayou.
GOSNELL
Leaving Blytheville on Chickasawba Avenue one reaches the Gosnell Road upon, after traveling one and three-tenths miles one comes to the place of the famous Chickasawba Indian Mound twenty five feet high and base circumference approximately one hundred-thirty feet.
This mound must have been either a Signal or a Temple Mound as no pottery or skeleton bones have been found here.
GRIDER PARK
This Memorial Park is located on the Grider plantation south of Osceola and was named for Lieutenant McGavock Grider of the Royal Flying Corps, killed at Armentieres, France June 18, 1918.
The park is a ten acre wooded grove, outlined sharply against the flat treeless fields that surround it.
INDIAN SIGNAL MOUND
This Indian signal mound is on the John W. Edringtion farm out Highway 40. When this was a wilderness, this section was an Indian village where was one of the largest living mounds in Mississippi County.
The tall single mound was used for signaling -- here fires were lighted, sending signals of smoke skyward to be seen by neighboring tribes. The tribes were Choctaw, Chickasaw, Osage and Cherokee gypsies.
Some laws of the Lodge were: Be kind, be hospitable, always assume that your guest is tired, cold and hungry. If even a hungry dog enters your lodge, you must feed him. Protect your guest as one of the family, feed his horse, and beat your dogs if they harm his dog.
The women of the lodge are the keepers of the fire, but the men should help with the heavier sticks. Do not talk to your mother-in-law at any time or let her talk to you. She should drop her eyes, and leave the lodge in silence when the son-in-law enters.
KEISER
Among Mississippi County's Pioneers was Fred W. Keiser who lived directly south of Osceola and was the father of two sons, Fred and John and three daughters Mary, Irene, and Ive Maud.
LEACHVILLE
Leachville was named for Joshua Gilbert Leach of Holly Springs, Mississippi, who acquired the present site and much surrounding land in the 1890's.
MANILA
Manila formerly known as Big Lake Island was founded in 1852 by Ed Smith. It was in the heart of fine virgin timber consisting of red oak, cypress, gum and walnut which brought in the lumber industry.
At one time it was a fish center with 40 tons per day being shipped out, also large quantities of turtles and ducks.
Hunting and fishing was quite an industry in its early days.
Manila was originally known as Cinda, honoring the first postmaster's daughter, Sam Bunch, postmaster in 1898.
TOMATO
Tomato--Between Luxora and Blytheville, known for its odd name, received much mail because of the name, which was given years and years ago by a group of community folks seeking a name for the Post Office. When the argument was on in the little store the owner turned to her small daughter who was stocking shelves and asked her what she would call it. She happened to have a can of tomatoes in hand and she replied, " Why don't you call it Tomato?" which they did. Located next to the Mississippi River, Tomato was subject to flooding each spring as the river rose. Travel by boat was the only way in or out of Tomato during these floods.
VICTORIA AND MARIE
These two places reflect the devotion R.E. Lee Wilson held for his two daughters as Victoria was the oldest child and Marie the youngest child of this benevolent and philanthropic citizen of Mississippi County.
VIOLET CEMETERY
One of the oldest landmarks in Osceola is Violet Cemetery in the heart of the city. Here is at rest the major part of Osceola's pioneers.
WEST RIDGE
Is also an active community with a Home Demonstration Club, a school, church and other helpful organizational features supported by the substantial land owners in this fair section of Mississippi County.