History of
Bismarck, Arkansas
| Bismarck has 2 restaurants: DJ's and Pizza Shack. Our main gas station are at the intersection of hwy 84 and hwy 7. |
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Created by: Josh Clark and Mitchell Jordan
Table of contents
1) Who discovered Bismarck? 3
2) The Railroads 5
3) History of Degray Lake 6
4) How we became the Bismarck Lions 8
5) Civil war
and post-civil war activities 9
6) History of Highway 7 10
Who discovered
Bismarck?
After the Louisiana Purchase, the government had sold the
land around the Arkansas area to the Rail Road Company. At the time, the Rail
Roads owned pretty much everything. The only thing was, they had nothing
mapped. So, they sent out a German explorer, “Bismarck”, to go map out the
newly bought “Arkansas” area.
The discovering and naming of Bismarck was a complete
accident. Mr. Bismarck wrote his name on the map towards the corner which
happened to be where HWY 84 and HWY 7 intersected, and when the government got
the map back and read it, they wrote a final copy of the map thinking that Mr.
Bismarck’s name was a city and was permanently called “Bismarck” as we know it
now.
The Rail Road’s began going into debt and decided to sell
some of their smaller lands, such as Bismarck. They sold it to another large
industry, the Timber Industry. The Timber Ind. took advantage of our land and
stripped up almost completely clean of all trees.
The government had originally sold the land to the Rail
Roads for them to develop the land but when they had to sell, and the timber
company bought the developed land and stripped it of trees, they sold blocks of
it to individual farmers. Many of Bismarck’s earliest inhibitors were farmers,
and, there are still large populations of farmers here who contribute to our
small businesses such as BCM and some even opened their own small businesses
and stands to sell their own home grown produce.
The Highways have a really important role in our history as
well. Without the highways, we would never have a post office and would have to
drive to Glenwood or Amity or even Hot Springs to get our mail. It also
provided a quicker way for us to travel and get food and farm supplies around.
The Rail Roads
The Rail Road’s where a large part of our history. They
were the ones who developed our land, brought passengers to live on the land
they bought themselves, delivered our mail, and helped bring food.
Without the help of the Rail Roads, our little town would
never have been developed or tilled to be farmed and none of us would be here
the way we are. Or, if some other company did develop the land, we most likely
would not be living the same way we live now.
It was built to the well-known city of Hot Springs in
Garland County and eventually spurred off into Dallas and Little Rock. The
railroads tracks ran through parts of Jack Mountain and you can still find
parts of the tracks still intact in certain areas. The roads even ran through
central Bismarck.
History of Degray Lake
“The US Army Corps of Engineers started to build Lake Degray in
1954. It was built for flood control, electrical production and recreational
purposes. It took them until about 1967 to start building it because of all the
survey work to do and land they had to buy and condemn.
Many old-timers said the lake would never fill up but they were wrong.
Many people had their homes moved by house movers to new property they bought.
They built the dike on old HWY 7 but it was located right on the ridge that
separated the Caddo valley watershed from the Ouachita valley watershed.
HWY 7 was moved to the foot of the dike and the dike was built where
the highway was and then builds the road back on top of it. The actual dam was
nowhere near a road at the time but they build a road over it when they were
done.
I was born in 1953 and watched them build the lake. They actually
bought 20 acres of land that my grandpa Shuffield owned just south of my house
for $125.00/acre.
I then worked for construction company’s’ different times during
summers when I was going to college building some of the parks and roads. My
dad worked for a company that cleared all the shoreline. (They took giant
chains and hooked them between huge bulldozers and cleared the trees that were
growing there.) The jobs and money that was spent building the lake changed
this really backwards country drastically. The land values around here were
increased from $100/ acre to $3-5000/acre.” –Glen Shuffield
As you can tell, not very many people believed in the
building of the lake. There probably were a lot of people against it! But,
again, it drastically changed the way we can buy land and get our water.
Not only does it have an interesting back ground, it’s also
used as a day use recreational area! People love going there to swim, fish,
ski, inner tube, float, or just to hang out with families and have bar-b-ques!
HOW WE BECAME THE BISMARCK
LIONS
In 1946 Bismarck Schools consolidated with Lambert
Schools and there were several little one room schools scattered across the
communities. So, Lambert had a basketball team, and when we cons. With
Bismarck, they brought their jerseys with them. At that time, we didn’t have a
basketball team. At that time, all they had were jerseys with a big ‘L’ on
them. They thought of the name Lions to explain the “L” on the jerseys!
Civil war and post-war
Everybody knows about the civil
war. There were many battles in
Arkansas, but the closest one was the Battle at Devils Hallow by the Devils
Post office. The post office was holes in the side of a mountain that people
left notes in to communicate with each other.
A more morbid side of Bismarck is one
of the most well-known groups of people in America…the KKK. Bismarck does have
many members still alive but as for an active chapter, that is a negative. (As
far as we know.) There have been very few reports of hangings in Bismarck but,
there are pictures and evidence of the KKK being stationed in Bismarck. Some of
the pictures are posted below. None of the members can or will be identified.
History of Highway 7
HWY 7 is an old
road. One of the first going to Hot Springs. It was an old Indian
trail. These trails followed the easiest way to get from place to
place. The divides between watersheds offered ways for trails to go
that didn't have to cross rivers and streams. It just so happens that where
the DeGray dike was built was the same place HWY 7 followed the watershed
between the Caddo River and the Ouachita River. HWY 7 was moved to below
the dike in order to build DeGray Lake. It seems hap-hazard but there
were many good reasons for HWY 7 to be placed were it was. It is totally amazing
that the Indians were able to find the best ways to travel, not crossing
streams and climbing mountains. (I think they followed game trails.) Hernado
Desoto got to Hot Springs in the 1400’s by river following the Ouachita up
stream by raft. But near Malvern at Rockport the river became too shallow
and rocky to travel well. They waded up from Rockport till they found the
creek (Hot Spring Creek) that flowed with warm water from the hot springs
there. It was thought to be a fountain of youth. However it was
later found that the Indian trail (now HWY 7) from Caddo Valley was the easiest
way to get to Hot Springs (The Indians knew this all along). The Indians
had used the trail to get to Hot Springs for the water and but more importantly
for the novaculite stones nearby that were used as wampum and made the toughest
arrowheads available. The Indians traveled hundreds of miles just to get the
novaculite stones that were mined by hand on the mountains around Hot Springs and
passed through Bismarck to get there.
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