COUNTY NEWS Old photos preserve Crawford County history


Visitors walking the halls of the Crawford County Courthouse in Van Buren have al- ways lived a little bit of history as they strolled through what is believed to be the oldest work- ing courthouse west of the Mississippi River. Now visitors can experience even more history in the courthouse as they wander through the halls of history displaying historic photos of business, schools, farmsteads and more. Te downstairs hallways at the Crawford County Courthouse have been transformed from dull and boring to a walk through Craw- ford County history, said Sheila Bell, who along with Crawford County Assessor Dianna Fau- cher and Crawford County Judge John Hall worked to create the historical display. “We have been working for the last two years col- lecting, cataloging and now printing historical photographs to display in the courthouse.” Construction of the Crawford County


Courthouse began in September 1842. Tough a fire on March 23, 1877, caused considerable damage, the building was considered sound and rebuilt. Bell has collected historic photos and postcards from Crawford County and Van Bu- ren for about six years. A few years ago, Faucher saved a number of historic photos from a house across the street from the courthouse that was being demolished. Among those were several photos of an old business on Main Street in Van Buren, Bell said. “We were talking about how the courthouse


walls were just blank. Tere was nothing to see in the courthouse if people were on Main Street and looking at all the history. We wanted there to be something to draw the tourists into the courthouse as well,” Bell said. “I love history, and we had these photos. We wanted a way to display them.” Te idea of a hall of history was hatched. Hall bought a mounting system, which was permanently installed and is used to display the photographs. Maintenance supervisor Junior Bing helped


Bell and Faucher get the pictures onto the walls. “Te Van Buren Advertising and Promotion Commission provided the funds for us to have these photographs enlarged and mounted,” Faucher stated.


Te photographs show buildings, schools and homes that no longer exist. Photographs also show the history of businesses in Van Bu- ren, Rudy, Dyer, Mountainburg, Alma, Mul-


COUNTY LINES, WINTER 2011


berry and Uniontown. “We have photos of all the school houses in Crawford County,” Bell said of the collection, which also includes fam- ily farmsteads, cotton gins, lumber mills and hotels.


A man in Iowa found a box of photos from


Camp Jesse Turner, a World War II camp lo- cated near present-day Summit Medical Center in Van Buren, at a garage sale and sent them to the City of Van Buren. Tose photos, which show the soldiers in a railroad operations battal- ion who trained at the camp and helped during the flooding of 1943, are now on display in the waiting area of the veterans services office in the courthouse, Bell said. “We continue to enjoy adding family photos, buildings and farms to the permanent files. We scan the photos and return them as soon as possible,” Faucher said. “We are always look- ing for photos of old business, especially ones that are gone now,” Bell added, stating it is very helpful if as much information as pos- sible accompanies the photos. “We’d like to have photos of old churches and old group family photos, really anything of historic sig- nificance.” Plans for next year include adding new pho- tographs and building storage units for the prints as they are rotated out to make way for new displays, Bell said. “We would like to rotate the display a few times a year. Have the school photos out in the fall. Have campaign photos displayed at a certain time.” For information or to contribute photo-


graphs, call Sheila Bell at (479) 629-2902 or Dianna Faucher at (479) 474-1751. – By Tina Dale


Southwest Times Record


Another aspect of the historic


display is in the Hebe exhibit. It includes the refurbished original Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth and happiness, statue that was placed on the courthouse lawn in 1908, in an oak and glass display case along with a painting and a plaque telling the story of the statue, all of which is now located in the first floor hallway of the courthouse.


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