AR Between the Wars Infographic
By: Luke Pabst
Entertainment
- Many people listened to the nightly radio shows, they heard comedy acts, detective stories, and new sounds of jazz music.
- Many towns created baseball teams for fun and some of the ball players later became professional athletes.
Oil & Boom Towns
- Samuel T. Busey had been drilling just outside of El Dorado when a huge wall of oil shot straight into the air, this was the first big find of oil in Arkansas.
- After the El Dorado discovery, many people came to town which caused a big boom in El Dorado.
Flood of 1927
- The Flood of 1927 was very devastating because the Mississippi River flooded which broke levees, destroyed property and killed animals and people.
- In some counties in Arkansas, the water buried the land up to 30 feet deep!
Great Depression
- When the Great Depression hit, Arkansas was already in debt because they were building roads. This made Arkansas's economy go from bad to worse.
- When President Franklin Roosevelt became president, he helped end the Great Depression by creating specific agencies and government programs to help.
Post War in Arkansas
- After World War One, Harvey Couch modernized Arkansas. He brought telephone lines and 24 hour electricity service!
- Also cars became popular. One company called The Climber Motor Corporation was successful, they made five cars a day and sold for about $2,250.
Growing Education & Roads
- Before Governor Harvey Parnell was Governor, the Arkansas school system was very bad. Some schools had teachers that weren't even high school graduates! Once Governor Parnell was elected, he organized schools and started a bus system and things got much better.
- When Arkansas started building roads, they were very unorganized. They were so unorganized that they couldn't even finish the road building project.
This picture represents life in Arkansas. It shows that the boys are super dirty but the parents can't really take care of them because they don't have money. Almost everybody was poor back then.