A downtown stroll |
In December 1843, a 160-acre tract in the pine woods of south Arkansas was named El Dorado. Matthew Rainey had set up a retail store there, and area settlers thought the name was appropriate. They couldn't have imagined just how appropriate.
Jan. 10, 1921, changed El Dorado forever. Dr. Samuel Busey, a physician and oil speculator, finished drilling a well a mile southwest of El Dorado on that day. What was known as "black gold" had been found in Union County.
"The discovery well touched off a wave of speculators," historian Kenneth Bridges writes for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "They were seeking fame and fortune from oil. The Busey No. 1 well produced oil for only 45 days, but El Dorado changed from an isolated agricultural city of about 4,000 residents to the oil capital of Arkansas. By 1923, El Dorado boasted 59 oil contracting companies, 13 oil distributors and refiners, and 22 oil production companies.
"The city was flooded with so many people that no bed space was available, leading to whole neighborhoods of tents and hastily constructed shacks. The city's population reached a high of nearly 30,000 in 1925 during the boom before dropping to 16,241 by 1930. Oil production, after plummeting by the early 1930s, recovered later in the decade."
I leave my room at The Haywood, one of the state's finest hotels, and go for a morning walk. If you love Arkansas history as much as I do, there are few more interesting walks than downtown El Dorado. Money flowed into the city during the 1920s, and the citizens of El Dorado decided to show off their wealth by constructing impressive government buildings, churches and commercial structures that still stand.
In the middle of the square is the Union County Courthouse, constructed in 1927-28. The county's original courthouse was built in 1844 at a cost of $200. A second courthouse was built on the site of the current facility in 1848. The site once had a pond. Pioneers recorded incidents of deer and bears coming to drink from the pond. Hunters shot ducks there in the early 1800s.
The 1927-28 courthouse has 40 ionic exterior columns that span four stories. Inside is a two-story atrium with Art Deco accents and........