RECOLLECTIONS
50 Years Ago Pea Ridge Graphic Vol. 3 No. 49 Thursday, Dec. 5, 1968
An important town meeting is being called for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12, in the Pea Ridge School cafetoria. The purpose of the meeting is to give local residents an opportunity to hear Tom Ogden, a consultant for the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, discuss a town’s requirements for cooperating with prospective industries for that community. Local Chamber officials and other civic leaders have long anticipated attracting some light industries to Pea Ridge for the purpose of providing employment to local residents and offering work here that might encourage some of Pea Ridge’s young people to remain in their hometown after completion of school.
Old fashioned stack cake — the old hill recipes of dried apple-molasses stack cakes are said to have been the reason why modern footed-cake plates were designed. It seems that a hill custom called for each guest attending a wedding to take another layer for the bride’s cake. All the layers were put together with cooked dried apples. The taller the cake, the surer sign that a bride had many friends. One manufacturer felt sorry for brides with short cakes, so he began producing a cake plate that stood tall on a pedestal, so that every bride could have a tall cake. Many recipes abound here in the Arkansas Ozarks for the stack cake. This one belonged to the late Mrs. Newt Cook of near Huntsville: One cup sugar and one cup sorghum, one cup shortening, two eggs, one-half cup milk, one teaspoon soda, one teaspoon baking powder, dash of salt and enough flour to make the dough easy to roll out like cookies. Mix and divide into six equal parts. Bake six layers in round, eight-inch cake pans. Place a layer, then spread a helping of cooked, sweetened dried apples. Continue alternating the cake layers and dried applies. Wrap in aluminum foil or plastic wrap for 24 hours before serving for best results. Freezes well.
40 Years Ago Pea Ridge Graphic-Scene Vol. 13 No. 49 Wednesday, Dec. 6, 1978
A Pea Ridge Police patrol car, driven by patrolman Billy Peters, was wrecked early Saturday morning when chasing a speeding vehicle. The speeder was first sighted at the intersection of Arkansas Highways 94 and 72. When Peters took up the chase, the car sped weest on 72, then north on Weston Street to State Hwy. 94. The chase turned west on Hwy. 94, then down an unpaved county road at high speed. About three-quarters of a mile down the road, the police car missed a curve and went through a barbed-wire fence. Damage to the police care was estimated at $1,000. The speeder got away, but police are still investigating and watching for him.
When the lab report was received on the latest mutilated animal (a steer found between Bentonville and Rogers near Arkansas Highway 71) a new drug was reported in the body. Sheriff Lt. Don Rystom, who has been investigating the mutilations, said that so far, in the 22 mutilations investigated by Nov. 30, residue of the following drugs have been found: PCP (angel dust), mescaline and san tonin.
It’s been a disappointing week for Pea Ridge basketball. Eight losses and one victory is the record in nine games reported in today’s paper. The winning team was the Junior High boys who beat St. Paul here Nov. 30. Three of the losses came Monday evening in the county tournament and resulted in the elimination of all of Pea Ridge’s teams except the Senior High boys who will have their first tournament game Wednesday night against Gentry.
30 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 23 No. 49 Thursday, Dec. 8, 1988
There’s another pavilion under construction at Pea Ridge City Park, thanks to the Trades and Industry Class at Pea Ridge High School. T&I Instructor Dan Johnson said that the pavilion should be completed by the Christmas holidays. He estimated the value of the pavilion at $5,000, if built by a contractor. “We’re going to build it for about $3,000, so we’ll be able to save the city about $2,000.” Johnson said. The pavilion is the first the T&I class has built, he said. “Bob Harp (city park chairman) contacted us to see if the boys would be interested.” Johnson said. Johnson said the city is furnishing all of the materials.
The Pea Ridge Area Ministerial Alliance launched a campaign to collect food for needy families during the Christmas holidays. Alliance president Charles Womack said the campaign will be in cooperation with personnel at the Pea Ridge Post Office. Postmaster Stanley Buttrey said that the Post Office will serve as the repository for the food. The food, Womack said, “will be for individuals and families in our area that have a need this season.”
Do you recall questions raised about that critter that’s been marking the trees in Pea Ridge City Park? As it turns out, it’s not one critter but several. Speculation was that it was large buck, or even a bear or a mountain lion. The critters were nothing that exotic at all. Park Board chairman Bob Harp said that he has learned that the marks on the trees were caused by several dogs that had treed squirrels. The marks that looked like they had been caused by a rack or by claws, he said, were caused by one of the dogs that only likes to tree squirrels, but also likes to chew on bark. Another mystery solved.
20 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 33 No. 49 Thursday, Dec. 10, 1998
Building permits in Pea
Ridge this year through last week totaled $2.2 million, said building inspector Darrel Van Roekel. Van Roekel said there were a total of 41 building permits purchased during the period. He said 24 of the permits were for construction of new houses, plus two multi-family residences. Van Roekel said that the total value of the permits “is maybe a third down from 1997.” Van Roekel said that the only commercial construction projects this year involved the renovation of Pea Ridge Car Wash and the construction of Wright’s Car Wash. He called this year’s construction conservative.
If you have seen the Christmas star and tree atop the 130-foot-tall water tower, I’m sure you, too, are please and proud of that decoration. Water superintendent Robert Button says Mayor Jackie Crabtree is the one who inspired the project, when he expressed the wish that the city had more holiday lighting.
Season’s greetings to everyone from Beta Alpha Sorority. Some of you might not know that the Christmas tree in the Emergency Services Building is put there by the sorority and decorated by the Pea Ridge Head Start children for anyone having a Christmas party. One of the ladies who works with Bentonville and Pea Ridge and Benton County told us that some of the decorations from Pea Ridge were taken to the Capitol in Little Rock so we should be very proud of our Head Start children.
10 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 43 No. 49 Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008
A tornado safe room may become a reality for Pea Ridge. The concrete room would withstand winds of up to 250 miles per hour, according to Mike Van Dyke, Pea Ridge School superintendent. Van Dyke said a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the state Department of Emergency Management, along with money from the Pea Ridge School District, would be used to construct the 100x50 building which would sit south of the high school along the tree line.” It would serve our middle school and primary kids,” Van Dyke said, adding that it was also available for community use.
Shots resounded in the quiet, dark, cold night Wednesday, Dec. 3. At approximately 9 p.m., two men — one wearing nothing but a T-shirt, the other wearing a dark-blue uniform and a badge — fired handguns behind the house at 511 McCulloch St. One left in the front seat of a state trooper’s car; the other, in the back of the coroner’s vehicle.
The students at PRHS raised $244.43 for the Arkansas Rice Depot. Tim Pate, teacher, was instrumental in helping the students raise the money. Pate’s first-hour class raised the most pennies per pound and those students will get a trophy for the class, celebrations snacks and Pate will receive a school supply treasure box. In 1995, a school nurse in Little Rock called the Arkansas Rice Depot and asked for help providing food to hungry children in her school. Because of that first phone call, the Arkansas Rice Depot created the Food For Kids program.