School Memorabilia to be Displayed a Museum

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The Randolph County Heritage Museum on the square in Pocahontas will be displaying school memorabilia from schools past and present in Randolph County.

The exhibit will be on display from September 15 through October 31.

Even if your school has been closed or consolidated, we want your participation in this exhibit of our schools. Please drop off your items at the museum now thru September 5. If you would like to set up your own display, we have cases available for you. Don’t miss out on this stroll down memory lane.

For more information call the Museum at 870-892-4056 or come visit at 106 E. Everett on the court square.

Salt & Pepper Shakers on Display at Randolph County Heritage Museum

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The Randolph County Heritage Museum is hosting the 2nd exhibit of Violetta G. Dickson and Eugenia I. Dickson Parker salt and pepper collection.  This collection of over 2500 salt and pepper shakers was donated to the Museum by their grandson and son, Michael Parker.  With such a large collection, the Museum will host several exhibits each different from the others. 
 
The Museum also has a new exhibit of feather crowns.  These are found in feather pillows and beds after a person dies.  Superstition says this if a feather crown is found the person has gone to heaven.  The feathers go in one direction forming a cluster or crown.
 
Come by the Museum at 106 East Everett and see our new exhibits.  Open 10-4 weekdays and 10-1 Saturdays.  Closed Wednesday.

Civil War Camps At Pocahontas

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General William Hardee

General William Hardee

Camp Shaver was established in 1861 in two locations. Located along Mill Creek in south Pocahontas, the Army of Northern Arkansas was commanded by General William Hardee (the force was later moved to Pitman’s Ferry in NE Randolph County).  The men there prepared fortifications along the creek.  Some 800 are said to be buried there (we don’t know exactly where), victims of a measles epidemic.  The other part of Camp Shaver was Arkansas’s first and primary basic training camp.  That was located in the area behind radio station KPOC in north Pocahontas.

General Sterling Price

General Sterling Price

When the Confederate Army of Missouri under General Sterling Price was run out of that state by Union forces, they relocated here.  Constant disputes between Price and the Confederate generals here led the Confederate government in Richmond to create the Army of the West under Major General Earl Van Dorn early in 1862, headquartered here in the old St. Charles Hotel on the court square in downtown Pocahontas.  Our City became headquarters for all Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.

General Earl Van Dorn

General Earl Van Dorn

All together, between 30,000 and 35,000 Confederate forces were stationed here at various times.  All these forces were moved east of the Mississippi in 1862 to face Grant at the Battle of Shiloh.

Later in the war, thousands of Union troops were stationed here, at various times.