Bauxite helped win World War II
BAUXITE — This is now a placid Saline County community, population around 600. But Bauxite bustled with as many as 7,000 workers and their families while playing a key role from 1942 to 1945 in the defeat of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan.
Those pivotal World War II years are revisited at Bauxite Historical Association Museum. Wartime memorabilia is displayed among the wide-ranging exhibits about the longtime company town, founded in 1896. It was named for the ore mined locally that became essential to produce the aluminum for building America’s fleets of bombers and fighters.
Operated by volunteers from the Bauxite Historical Association, the museum is housed in the old community center built in 1926 by Aluminum Company of America. Until Alcoa ended its ownership of the town in 1968, the two-story building was enlivened by dances, dinners, graduations and other festive events.
Mining continued on a smaller scale after the war while Bauxite incorporated as a city in 1973. Most buildings were abandoned or sold and their occupants moved to Benton. But the community center remained, along with Bauxite High School and Pine Haven Elementary School.
Displays in one museum room evoke the mining heyday. Objects include chunks of bauxite, a restored “dinkey” rail car used to transport ore, and the jacket of a miner honored for having worked 2 million hours without an accident.
Another room is filled with donated items from families, schools, clubs and town buildings. A collection of vintage soft-drink bottles stirs memories of brands like Orange Crush, Grapette, NuGrape, Sunburst and Whistle. A 1937 movie poster advertises “Damaged Lives,” billed as “positively adults only.”
Many exhibits reflect daily life in Bauxite. Two hundred or so snapshots of teenagers are taped to a soda machine. A sizable collection of milk glass is displayed. A jar of Butch Hair Wax recalls the time when flattops were the haircut of choice for boys.
One display focuses on so-called “Bauxite teeth.” Streaked with brown, they were common here during the mining decades. Studies in the 1920s determined that along with discoloration they had harder enamel and lower incidence of cavities. The reason was the presence of fluoride and other minerals in Bauxite’s water — a natural precursor to fluoridation.
The museum’s most eye-catching exhibit is preserved behind glass on the second floor. It is an apricot-hued evening gown woven after World War II from 18 yards of aluminum thread. Valued at $20,000 or more, the gown is displayed on a mannequin. A photograph shows a former Miss Arkansas wearing it.
On the museum lawn stands a sculpture by Gary Alsum, installed in 2008 and titled “Unsung Heroes — Bauxite Miners.” It depicts a father in overalls carrying a lunch pail, a mother in her apron, a daughter clutching a doll and a son about to launch a model airplane.
Museum visitors intrigued by bauxite can head to neighboring Benton and tour the Gann Museum, 218 S. Market St. It is housed in the world’s only building made of the ore.
Dr. Dewell Gann Sr.’s patients, unable to pay him during the Depression of 1893, dug the bauxite stone from a nearby quarry. They cut it into blocks with a handsaw, let it harden for six weeks, then built his new office.