Summertime is a time for swimming. Whether we are talking now or the 1940s, people love the water in summer. How we typically get into the water in summer today is, however, a quite different thing. Swimming in a nearby creek "in the ole swimmin' hole" has not gone away, but it is not nearly so prevalent as a way to go swimming as it once was. Today, people young and old are more likely to go to the pool, rather than to the ole swimmin' hole.
Today, many motels have nice, clean, well-kept swimming pools. That was quite an advertising point back in the days when motels first began providing "cement ponds" where their guests could swim and relax, as well as having a nice room with bed for sleeping. Having a swimming pool as a part of the motel was just about as big a deal as having air conditioning, another new thing which showed up in the mid-20th century. Of course even motels themselves were an innovation that appeared in the earlier 20th century, as the automobile came to be so widely used for travel across country. With automobiles multiplying in numbers, the traditional hotel began to evolve to accommodate the automobile trends, and "motor hotels" or "motels" were born. As time passed, motels began offering more comforts, larger rooms, larger beds, wake-up calls, continental breakfasts, connected restaurants, and, eventually, swimming pools.
Back in the day, by which I am referring to the 1940s and early 1950s, we had few motels in northwest Arkansas, and none of them had swimming pools. I do recall that when my family made a trip to California in 1947, we occasionally stayed in a motel. Other times we camped out, in a park or public place. In California, we swam in the ocean. There was also a public pool in Los Angeles where we went with my uncle's family. That was a totally strange thing to an Arkansas farm boy like me, who was accustomed to swimming in Otter Creek.
Most of our families around Pea Ridge had our favorite swimming holes in our favorite creeks or rivers. My family lived on Otter Creek, and we swam mostly in swimming holes on our home farm. We also occasionally had a picnic with swimming at the Jacket Bridge on Big Sugar Creek. Big Sugar had deeper and bigger swimming holes, some of which were widely popular. One of the favorites was at Red Bank, on the Webb Farm where Patterson Road intersects with State Line Road. Swimming holes on the creeks, however, tend to depend on the whims of rainstorms and flood waters. The shifting gravel during high water flooding can totally erase a great swimming hole, or open up another somewhere on the stream.
Our Otter Creek was especially prone to change, and our swimming holes were never in the same spot from year to year. The Jacket Bridge swimming area, while very popular, was also very cold. A large portion of the Otter Creek water which emptied into Big Sugar Creek just above the bridge was fresh, cold, spring water from the sizable spring near where Gates Lane intersects with today's Hayden Road. Swimming at the Jacket Bridge would turn you blue. It helped to get out of the water often to absorb some sunshine.
South of Pea Ridge, Little Sugar Creek was large enough to have some nice places to swim. Also, some people liked to go to White River for camping, boating, fishing and swimming. Another popular place was Noel, Mo., or on the Kings River west of Pineville, Mo. In the earlier days, of course, we didn't have places like Beaver Lake, with its inviting recreational areas like Prairie Creek or Horseshoe Bend or Rocky Branch. Going to the lake to swim was a new, 1960s thing.
The first public pool that I knew of was the pool connected to the Lakeside Restaurant at Lake Atalanta. In the days before Beaver Lake, Lake Atalanta was the city water source for Rogers, and the park and picnic area south of the lake was the major place for family outings. Of course, the swimming pool at Lakeside was a pay-to-swim pool. We were not at all accustomed to the idea of having to pay to swim, especially since we had perfectly good swimming holes on the creek at home. So, I don't remember ever swimming at the pool at Lake Atalanta's Lakeside, even though for many years it was a really popular place to swim.
Today it is not uncommon for a family to have their own back-yard swimming pool. Back in the day, that would have been a sign that they were astoundingly wealthy. Of course, time comes around to clean and maintain the pool, thus tempering the fun somewhat!
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history and vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. The opinions expressed are those of the author. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected] or call 621-1621.
Editorial on 07/05/2017