Arkansas Trivia & Tidbits - Page 9

Looking for Arkansas trivia? Try our list Arkansas little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Lt. Stokeley Morgan of Camden (pop. 13,154) reportedly fired the first shot in the Spanish American War at Manila Bay in the Philippines on May 1, 1898.

first appeared: 2/8/2004

The Quapaw Quarter in Little Rock features some of the city’s oldest structures, including Victorian and antebellum homes, churches, MacArthur Park, and the Old Arsenal. It is named after the Quapaw Indians who once occupied the area.

first appeared: 2/1/2004

The community of Mountain View (pop. 2,876) preserves the pioneer way of life and puts it on display for visitors at the Ozark Folk Center State Park from March through October.

first appeared: 1/25/2004

Located just outside of Murfreesboro (pop. 1,764), Crater of Diamonds State Park allows visitors to search for precious gems such as diamonds, amethyst, garnet, jasper, agate and quartz.

first appeared: 1/18/2004

The official state musical instrument is the fiddle, and the state’s American folk dance is the square dance.

first appeared: 1/11/2004

The old folk tune, Arkansas Traveler, depicts a fiddler explaining to a passing traveler that he can’t fix his leaky roof because it’s raining outside, and won’t fix it on a sunny day because it doesn’t leak then.

first appeared: 1/4/2004

In 2002, the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation gave $300 million to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville (pop. 58,047). This is the largest private contribution ever made to American public higher education. Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer headquartered in Bentonville (pop. 19,730).

first appeared: 12/28/2003

Since 1955, clever critters such as piano-playing ducks have entertained at the I.Q. Zoo in Hot Springs (pop. 35,750).

first appeared: 12/21/2003

With graves from the 1700s, Scull Cemetery near Gillett (pop. 819) is the state’s oldest documented cemetery and is near the site of Arkansas Post, a 1686 trading post founded by Frenchmen.

first appeared: 12/14/2003

Ida Brooks, the state’s first female psychiatrist, opened a private practice in 1906 in Little Rock.

first appeared: 12/7/2003

When the Christmas display at Jennings Osborne’s home in Little Rock brightened from 1,000 lights in 1986 to 3 million in 1993, neighbors lost their holiday spirit and took him to court. The lights now twinkle at Disney World and in 32 Arkansas communities, where Osborne sponsors light displays.

first appeared: 11/30/2003

The 7,000-acre Village Creek State Park on Crowley’s Ridge near Wynne (pop. 8,615) is the largest state park in Arkansas.

first appeared: 11/23/2003

In 1947, Vincent “Jimmy” Bruno at Bruno’s Little Italy restaurant in Little Rock reportedly introduced a new food to the state—pizza.

first appeared: 11/16/2003

The names of every graduate since 1876—more than 120,500—are etched into the five-mile-long Senior Walk at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (pop. 58,047).

first appeared: 11/9/2003

The nation’s oldest parking meter manufacturer, POM (Park-O-Meter) in Russellville (pop. 23,682), descended from the Magee-Hale-Park-O-Meter Co., which first manufactured Carl Magee’s 1935 invention.

first appeared: 11/2/2003

Robert E. Lee Wilson founded Armorel in 1899 and named the town by combining the first two letters of Arkansas, the abbreviation for Missouri, and the initials of his own name.

first appeared: 10/26/2003

Entrance to the mountainside 1909 St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Eureka Springs (pop. 2,278) is through the bell tower.

first appeared: 10/19/2003

Lowell (pop. 5,013) got stuck with the nickname “Mudtown” after a stagecoach driver took a tavern break, returned, and found his coach mired in mud.

first appeared: 10/12/2003

Architect Edward Durell Stone, born in 1902 in Fayetteville, designed the Museum of Modern Art, which opened in 1939 in New York City, with Philip Goodwin.

first appeared: 10/5/2003

In 1897, Dr. J.H. Myers created a boom along the Black and White rivers after finding a pearl in a mussel shell near Black Rock (pop. 717).

first appeared: 9/28/2003

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