The territory of Lower Arkansas
Irecently checked the governor’s latest appointments to state boards and agencies to see if any of them live in Lower Arkansas. As usual, there weren’t any.
Although L.A. is not a territory, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. So if we’re honest we can call the area of our state that’s south of Sheridan a territory, because it’s been treated as if it’s a territory—an appendage that’s not really part of the state.
It started in the 1920s when the capital of L.A., El Dorado, was called Cadillac City. The hundreds of new millionaires created by the area’s oil boom were envied by the establishment in Little Rock, and about all they accepted was the money and clout of Colonel Thomas H. Barton, a pioneer oilman, visionary, philanthropist, and president of Lion Oil Refining Company in El Dorado, to get Barton Coliseum built.
We’ve become accustomed to living in the shadows of the rest of the state.
Back in the 1940s and ’50s there were roads in L.A. that were gravel. Some had wooden bridges when central and northern Arkansas had paved highways and wooden bridges were a thing of the past. Today, work continues on U.S. 82, the primary eastwest highway in L.A., to bring it up to the level of the rest of the state’s highways. It will probably take another decade or so to finish the worst part of the rutted two-lane road (I’m not going to dignify it by calling it a highway) from El Dorado east to Lake Village, and it took a rare Highway Commission appointee, El Dorado’s Madison Murphy, to get U.S. 167, the state’s primary north-south highway, to finally have four lanes.
A gerrymandered congressional district puts Union County (on the southern border of the state) in the same district as Madison in far northwest Arkansas in order to dilute the southeast Democratic vote; it’s another example of ignoring L.A. and keeping all U.S. representatives in the state Republican.
Take a look at the makeup of almost every statewide board or commission and you will see how L.A. has been left out. The makeup is not as discriminatory to L.A. as it is to women, but it’s there. We get thrown a bone every now and then, but anyone who can read knows L.A. always gets the short end of the stick.
It drifts down to hunting and fishing coverage. L.A. has the best of both, but it seems the majority of media coverage always touts the oversized lakes in central Arkansas. Newspaper columns either feature east Arkansas duck hunting or northwest turkey hunting. You would think the only fish in the state are trout, but you would be wrong, because the best fishing is in the same place as the best hunting, since Union County always has the highest number of deer killed.
We’re used to seeing most southern counties cut off from Little Rock TV stations when they cover the weather, and it takes the sighting of a tornado on the ground to even get mentioned. Still, we seem to be in the sweet spot as far as weather goes, since our mild winters rarely cause any grief.
We are being neglected, ignored, and belittled, as if we might as well be part of Louisiana … no, that would be even worse. Joining with Texas wouldn’t be much better, and becoming West Mississippi would be so bad I don’t want to even mention it. Reverting to territorial status would just recognize the obvious.
I read where a Texas representative wants Texas to become independent, and I guess he’s taken the tourism ad “Texas is a whole ’nother country” seriously.
If Lower Arkansas reverts to territorial status, those in what would be left of the state would collectively say “good riddance.” We wouldn’t need any border checkpoints; maybe just a few signs saying, “Welcome to the Territory of Lower Arkansas, where the official gun is the AR-15.”
But maybe I’m wrong, and the rest of the state wants to keep Lower Arkansas. If we stay, there must be changes in the way we are being treated. Considering the lack of essential services, a state income tax credit would certainly be expected.
Other conditions would mandate the Arkansas Department of of Transportation to increase the territory’s funding by 50 percent for the next 10 years, and Game and Fish would be required to remit 30 percent of hunting and fishing license fees. A recognition of El Dorado as having the best, most vibrant and most beautiful downtown in the mid-South and maybe the whole danged country would be recognizing the obvious.
Yes, wrongs must be righted, and maybe reparations should be part of the process.
A Legislative Committee to Address Lower Arkansas Inequalities is a good place to start.