Five decades ago small towns such as Pea Ridge were thriving, vibrant. Many, many small towns had at least one newspaper, and some two or more. The presence of newspapers was one way to measure the town's success.
While many small towns around our country have dried up, Pea Ridge has -- thankfully -- escaped that drought.
Ownership
Jan. 1, 1966 — Mr. and Mrs. Jim Edgemon found the Pea Ridge Graphic
Jan. 1, 1967 — Earle & Billie Jines buy the Pea Ridge Graphic
1972 — Pea Ridge Graphic renamed Pea Ridge Graphic-Scene
February 1976 — Howell and Donna Treat Medders but the newspaper from Earle & Billie Jines
September 1978 — Jack and Mary Lou Beisner buy the newspaper and named it The TIMES of Northeast Benton County
Fall 1988 — Mike and Barbara Freeman buy the newspaper
April 1, 1999 — Community Publishers Inc. buys The TIMES; Rebecca Tyson becomes editor
August 2001 — CPI forms an alliance with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
October 2005 — CPI’s assets in Benton and Washington counties, including The TIMES, sell to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
January 2006 — Annette Beard becomes managing editor of The TIMES
October 2009 — Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (which owns The TIMES) and Stephens Media combine to form Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC — which operates five daily newspapers and 11 weeklies
Jan. 5, 2015 — NAN LLC merges five dailies into the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The face of Pea Ridge has changed. The school has grown from one campus to four with more students than what was the town's population 50 years ago. More houses have been constructed. Businesses have opened. Old businesses have changed hands and remodeled.
For the past 50 years, the pages of this newspaper have been filled with the life and love, joy and dispair, failure and success of the people who call Pea Ridge -- and all of N ortheast Benton County -- home.
The succession of editors, through their efforts to chronicle life here -- in this singular locale that is so similiar, yet so different, than anywhere else -- have all been a part of writing the history of us.
Today, with the first edition of our 51st year, we pause for a short look back at from where we've come. Some of us have been here less than a year, while others can look generations into their past to find ancestors who called Pea Ridge "home." Together, we share a common link and form a unique tapestry of Pea Ridge of 2016.
Where we've come from is important, and as Americans we look back at our history with a sense of pride, a sense of place and a sense of success. But where we're going, that's the thing that drives us into the future -- in search of the possible, what can be and what might be.
We hope you enjoy looking back at the first edition of our first year. Take a few minutes, reflect on where Pea Ridge was.
Once finished, use those snippets of the past as the building blocks of Pea Ridge's future.
We look forward to being with Pea Ridge on our joint quest in search of the possible, what can be and what might be.
General News on 01/06/2016