LITTLE ROCK — 40 Years Ago

The Pea Ridge National Military Park set a new record for visitation - three days in which no visitors showed up. Park historian Robert Holmes said only 34 visitors registered at the Visitor Center during the week and that on Jan. 4, 6 and 7 no one visited. The park was officially closed the previous Sunday due to icy roads.

The Pea Ridge Fire Department, in their regular monthly meeting, issued a warning to local and area residents to be extremely cautious while the present water emergency existed in Pea Ridge. Fire Chief C.W.

Chadwick said the town did not have enough water in reserve to fight a large fire due to the broken standpipe to the local water tower.

Ralph Bolain of Pea Ridge announced he would seek the office of Benton County judge on the Republican ticket. He was currently serving his second term as county assessor.

30 Years Ago

Pea Ridge got a full time on-the-scene dentist in February when Robert Whitehead, D.D.S., from Texarkana, moved his practice to Battlefield Center.

Dr. Whitehead was a graduate of the University of Arkansas and the University of Tennessee dental school.

An ordinance establishing the Pea Ridge Library was approved by the Pea Ridge City Council. The library was the first item of business, prepared by Merlene Dryden and based upon the statutes of the state and the Rogers ordinance. It was passed unanimously.

Pea Ridge High School’s senior girls basketball team advanced past the first round of the Greenland tournament by defeating St.

Paul 51-27. Their next opponent had not yet been determined. The team was led by Cheryl Clark, Andrea McKinney and Jan Lookadoo.

20 Years Ago

Benton County and the state Highway Departmentbegan improving an intersection at Brush Creek on Arkansas Highway 94 to improve safety. The project was prompted by letters from residents concerned about the hazardous intersection.

Of 39 members of the Pea Ridge Chamber of Commerce who responded to a survey conducted the previous November, 21 identified economic development as the chamber’s most important activity.

10 Years Ago

After flying through the air almost 60 feet, the vehicle 3-year-old Sydney Lehr was riding in landed and rolled side to side twice before flipping end over end four times. The child, strapped securely in hercar seat, received only minor scratches. Her mother, Mary Lehr of Garfield, was thrown from the vehicle and suffered major injuries.

Etheridge Kneece, the man accused of hiring two people to kill his estranged wife and her former husband, Pea Ridge residents who disappeared from their homes then were found dead just across the Arkansas-Missouri border, was extradited to Arkansas and made his first court appearance.

Michele McCool opened Teshia’s Discount Corner, offering low-price milk and bread and a variety of discount name brand grocery items, in the former location of Tanfastic in downtown Pea Ridge.

Church, Pages 2 on 01/13/2010