RECOLLECTIONS

PEA RIDGE — 40 years ago

R.E. Baker, Benton County supervisor of schools, was a special guest at a breakfast held for Pea Ridge school teachers before school started.

He was pictured in the Graphic with Mabel Hardy and Faith Sims, elementary teachers, and Golda Calvin of Pea Ridge Realty.

The Blackhawk football players were set to be introduced and celebrated at a watermelon feast, sponsored by the Pea Ridge Booster Club.

Superintendent Bienvenu of the Pea Ridge National Military Park announced the previous week had yielded a record high number of visitors, as 8,287 came to tour the battlefield in the previous seven days.

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30 years ago

A new building was already rising from the ashes of the Corinth Community Building that burned just weeks before. Elmer Dent, Wendell Jones and Willie Galyen were trustees of the fund to rebuild the centeron its original site.

Mayda Clanton reported there was an extra large crowd at the Shady Grove music party. She said there were several cars full of people from Springdale and Bella Vista who said they read about it in The TIMES.

“The EPA officials confirmed to me this afternoon that Pea Ridge’s EPA grant money is OK, waiting to be used,” Doug Szenher said, information officer for the State of Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology.

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20 years ago

Preliminary U.S. Census Bureau figures gave the City of Pea Ridge a 1990 population of 1,443 people, a decrease of 45 percentfrom the 1980 census.

Yellow ribbons were starting to go up in Pea Ridge and wouldn’t be taken down until the children of some area residents were back in the United States. Approximately 11 area parents had children in the military in or on their way to the Saudi Arabian border to defend that country against a possible takeover by Iraqi forces.

Approximately 35 residents attended the city council meeting to voice their opposition to the Pea Ridge annexation issue that was to appear on the Nov. 6 ballot. Despite the show of people, council members voted to pass the ordinance to put the issue on the ballot.

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10 years ago

After nearly two years of hard work and even harder planning, the city of Gateway finally broke ground for the construction of its nearly 13-acre city park.

The Pea Ridge Trackhawks fitness and running program started their season with practices at 7 p.m . Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at City Park. The program was open to youths in kindergarten through seventh grade.

The seventh grade team of Haley Bone, Dillon Carney, Jeremy Ramsey and Paul Baker won the junior title for the second straight year in the Frisco Festival’s Great Train Race in Rogers.

Their silver and black Hawk Express won best in show.