Salado community has varied history dating back to 1800s
Located in the Ozark foothills about seven miles southeast of Batesville, Salado is one of the oldest communities in Arkansas, with history going back to territorial days.
The most colorful account of the town’s name stems from the oft-told tale of how a young woman named Sally was washing clothes in a creek when a doe suddenly appeared. She attacked it and brought it home for supper, hence “Sally killed a doe,” or “Sallydoe.” Most likely, however, the name is of Spanish or French origin. The French term “sal d’eau,” roughly translated as “salty water,” appears on early maps of the region. The town derives its name from nearby Salado Creek, which was originally called Bayou Saladore. The name Salado is pronounced with each “a” being short as in “salad,” unlike its counterpart in Texas.
Where Salado Creek empties into the White River is the location of the first post office in Independence County: White Run. The post office opened on Dec. 29, 1819, with Peyton Tucker serving as the first postmaster. The name White Run at the time referred to the entire area along the mouth of Salado Creek, including Salado. The Salado post office opened on Sept. 29, 1884, with John M. Robertson as postmaster.
One of the pioneers of the White Run region was Robert Boyd Engles from Harrison County, Ky., who was sent to medical school but dropped out to run keel boats on the White River from Jacksonport to Norfork. In 1858, he was one of four pilots on the steamship William M. Lawrence, which traveled from Batesville to Jacksonport and back in four days. Engleside Landing and Plantation on the north side of White River, upriver from the mouth of Salado Creek, was named for his brother, Henry Engles. The plantation was built in 1828–1829 and burned in 1915.
The old highway between Salado and neighboring Rosie is labeled Rock Bridge Road, as it once had a Gothic-style rock bridge that was built in 1870 across Salado Creek. The bridge collapsed during a flood in January 1958. At the time, it was considered to be one of the oldest bridges west of the Mississippi.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Salado was a small but bustling community. In addition to running the post office as part of a general store, brothers Will and Jim Totty had a blacksmith shop. Bob Shelpman ran a two-story general store, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows lodge holding meetings upstairs. The Wheeler store was another of the general stores in Salado in the early 1900s. Dr. Lawrence E. Reves was a noted physician of Salado at the time.
One of the most publicized criminal cases in Independence County history involved the murder of William Everett Wheeler of Salado when he was serving as chief deputy for Sheriff John Raymond “Jake” Engles, also of Salado. Wheeler was killed while the men were pursuing fugitive Robert L. Rose in the Brock Mountain area on Jan. 2, 1935. Rose was executed on Feb. 23, 1935, at Tucker Prison Farm for the murder. One of the three children Wheeler left behind, Gerry Wheeler, became a television kids’ show star, beginning his career on KARK in Little Rock as Lorenzo the Tramp in 1959.
Salado had its own school until consolidation with a new school, Southside, in the 1948– 49 school year. The original two-story wooden school was remodeled around 1930. The top story was eliminated and the bottom was enlarged, with a rock veneer added. The rock building still stands in the 21st century, although it has fallen into disrepair. Efforts in the 1990s to turn the building into a museum failed.
Salado entrepreneur Oran McBride began selling sandstone that he quarried using handmade tools. Over the years, the company that he and his wife, Evelene Branscum McBride, started in 1948 became a multimillion-dollar enterprise selling Arkansas stone all over the world. Nelse and Ruby Davis had a grocery store on Arkansas 14 in Salado in the 1950s. Their daughter, Vandyne, and her husband, Owen May, built and operated a dairy bar across the street from the grocery store. The McFadden Grocery was also located in Salado in the 1950s. Throughout most of its history, Salado had only two churches, first a Methodist, and then a Baptist, although a nondenominational church later took over the old post office building.
The hill land of Salado is not conducive to large-scale farming. A few people raise cattle, but most work in Batesville or Newport.