Technology and Life in Arkansas – Object #6

Playgrounds in Arkansas

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<p>The page heading, printed in red ink, reads “Playgrounds in Arkansas.” Below the heading are 8 black and white images of “some catches from lake and stream” and “Blue Hole of Sugar Creek” showing nearby fishing.Two columns of text fill the bottom third of the page, describing Bella Vista.</p>

Description of Bella Vista in a pamphlet about vacation spots in Arkansas, 1920s.

Excerpts

Bella Vista

Located four miles north of Bentonville; Frisco Railroad, automobiles meet all trains; good automobile roads to Joplin, Tulsa and Springfield; elevation 1300 feet.

Nature’s Gem of the Ozarks, is a term affectionately applied by the common consent of thousands of visitors to Bella Vista, a homelike summer resort …. The two hundred or more private cottages and the central hotel, known as The Lodge, are provided with running water, sewerage and electric lights, the water supply coming from a large spring in the mountain side and the electric power being generated by a dam across Sugar Creek. A lake some 80 acres in extent affords boating and bathing, and there is excellent fishing in nearby streams.

Questions:
Why might this tourist brochure include a description of available running water, electricity and sewer system in Bella Vista?
Who do you think might take a vacation to Bella Vista in the 1920s? Why?

Citations

Arkansas. Bureau Of Mines, Manufacturers And Agriculture. Tourist Division. Playgrounds in Arkansas; a tourist’s guide to the mountains, lakes & streams of a nearby vacation land. [Fort Smith, Ark., Calvert-McBride printing company, 192-?, 1920] Pdf.