A closer look at Magnolia
This week the Wildcats face off against Magnolia here at Memorial Stadium. Each week we will take a closer look at the hometowns of the opposing football teams. The information below was gathered from Arkansas.com.
Magnolia, Columbia County
The Columbia County seat, about 45 minutes west of El Dorado, is a charming southwest Arkansas town with a quaint courthouse square. The town proudly displays its heritage with colorful murals on buildings around the square. Numerous shops and restaurants ringing the courthouse await visitors. Also highlighting the square are the stately trees which give the town its name.
Founded in 1909, Southern Arkansas University, a liberal arts college that calls Magnolia home, offers a varied calendar of events and tours of its 658-acre Agricultural and Horticultural Farm. At 3,000 acres, Lake Columbia is one of the largest Arkansas Game and Fish Commission impoundments in South Arkansas and is popular with both anglers and outdoor enthusiasts. The Magnolia Blossom Festival and World’s Championship Steak Cook-off draws thousands of visitors each May. At nearby McNeil, Logoly State Park is an environmental-education park that is popular with school groups and scout troops. Twelve miles south of town is the tiny community of Emerson which every June hosts the World’s Championship Rotary Tiller Race and Purplehull Pea Festival.
Natural resources have played an important role in the region. Cotton was the cash crop in the 19th century; timber, oil and gas in the mid-20th century; and later bromine became instrumental.
The first inhabitants of the area were Native Americans. Settlement of the area began after Arkansas achieved statehood in 1836, when small communities were formed. Columbia County was created from portions of Lafayette, Hempstead, Ouachita and Union counties in 1852. The county seat, Magnolia, was incorporated three years later.
Columbia is the only one of Arkansas’s 75 counties not situated on a river so transportation was an issue for the county. For early travelers, the county’s creeks and bayous were too narrow and shallow to support water traffic. The arrival of railroads created a dependable transportation option. It was not until the construction of the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railroad in 1882 that the first cotton was shipped from the county by railcar. Cut off from the planned railroad, leaders in Magnolia resolved to have a spur line built to the city. The branch was completed the next year. The Louisiana and North West Railroad was built between Magnolia and points in Louisiana in 1899.
Magnolia grew steadily after World War II. Cotton remained the chief crop into the early 20th century, and offshoots from the cotton industry provided the area with its earliest trade and manufacturing base. An important example was the Magnolia Cotton Mill in 1928, the first textile mill in southwest Arkansas.
The discovery of the Magnolia Oil Field 10 years later was another monumental turn for the town. This quickly led to the development of an oil and gas exploration industry within the county. While the importance of oil and gas drilling declined steadily, a new natural resources industry arrived in the mid-1960s as chemical companies discovered
the high bromine content of brine, an element used in many chemical and manufacturing processes, located thousands of feet beneath the earth’s surface. Columbia and Union counties sit on one of the largest brine reserves in the world. Timber also holds an important role in the area.
Check it out:
Six colorful murals that depict the history of Magnolia are located around the historic square; includes world’s only mural autographed by actor Charlton Heston.
The Cecil Traylor Wilson Garden features a scenic garden area with fountains and sitting areas open to the public.
Magnolia Arts Council was incorporated in 1963 as a nonprofit organization.
It supports as its main event the Side Walk Art Show at the annual Magnolia Blossom Festival held in May. Over the years the organization has grown to support the arts in all its forms in Magnolia and Columbia County, making the arts a vital part of the community. To do this, the corporation sponsors events throughout the year that give all members of the community a chance to express themselves through the arts, and also brings arts events
to the people of Columbia County. It also encourages and assists existing organizations sponsoring cultural and artistic activities.
Columbia County Courthouse — Domed, blond-brick building built in 1905 from a Renaissance Revival-style design by W.W. Hall. Five colorful murals can be viewed in the town’s historic downtown square nearby.
Logoly State Park is located at McNeil in
Columbia County.
Visit www.Arkansas.com for more vacation ideas, travel tools, sample itineraries and more. Start planning your next adventure in The Natural State today.