Mena Street
Mena, Polk County Arkansas
This photo of downtown Mena was taken before the tornado hit the town, and since this is the south side of town, which had limited damage, it shows little change today.
Rich Mountain can be seen in the background. This is where the Queen Wilhelmina State Park is located, only about 13 miles from the downtown Mena area. Many people miss this beautiful drive, because they reach the mountain from the back side, on Highway 270. It is a beautiful drive from Mena to the top of the mountain.
Mena was added to the Main Street Arkansas program and the new light post, flags, and brick insets on the sidewalks were added as part of that program. These light posts were designed using old photos of the town showing such posts in the early 1900s.
Following articles from The Mena Star
Feb. 24, 1897-- The City Council appointed a committee to report on question of granting franchise for lights, water and a street railway.
June 11, 1900--New electric light plant turns on lights for first time.
The town of Mena was a boom town, built by ad for the railroad, in order to harvest the virgin timber in the Ouachita Mountains.
July 28, 1897--The firm of Williams & Watson shipped three car loads of fine walnut timber to Germany last Friday night. The cars go to Port Arthur and the logs are transferred to the vessel at that point.
March 3,1897--DOWN THE ROAD TO JANSSEN
[name changed to VANDERVOORT]
A new country and new town with bright prospects
ahead.
A few days ago a representative of the Star, in
company with several others, took a ride on the construction train down the
line to Janssen and Hatton Gap.
The road leads south from Mena through a picturesque section of country,
winding along by gentle curves through valleys and by the side of creeks with
occasionally a deep cut through some rocky hillside where one sees demonstrated
the costly work done in building the road, and realizes something of the
obstacles its projector had to overcome.
Occasionally as we rounded a curve or immerged form a deep cut nice
farms with thrifty orchards and comfortable buildings would greet the eye,
showing what had been done in other days prior to the advent of the railroad,
and giving at the same time a prophetic idea, as it were, of what the country
would be and look like when the other stretches of valley lands, hillsides and
table lands were cleared and planted to farm crops, small fruits and orchards
now that the markets of the world have been opened for these products by the
building of this great railway from the ice bound north to the sunny and
fruitful south by the gulf and sea.
At present stately pines and other valuable timber
covers the tillable lands as well as the rock ribbed hills, and at various
points along the line huge piles of walnut logs and cedar, ready for shipment
to Europe, are to be seen, also large quantities of pile timbers for building
approaches to bridges and roads across swamps as well as millions of feet of
fine lumber turned out by the saw mills, all bringing cash to the owners and
showing that the lands are being gradually cleared for other products.
Twenty two miles from Mena the train makes a long
halt at Janssen, the new town now attracting some little attention as the next
town south of Mena on the Port Arthur route and in this country. Here is also a pretty place for a town,
the site being high and rolling and the streets regularly laid out and cleared
of timber. The company is building
a neat little frame depot here an it is understood that it will also build a
hotel in the near future. A few
businesses houses have been erected and two mercantile stores are open for
business with indications that others will be built soon, also that a saw mill
will be in operation in a short time.
One point of interest connected with Janssen is the close proximity to Hatton, a town attempted to be built near the gap in the mountains bearing that name and where the road passes, it being only two miles distant and of course a rival, if a town can be called a rival that, though on the road, has no station and is not to have any. Hatton has a hundred or more houses and business places, a few built many years ago, all built in a hap-hazard way along a cow path or to conform to the contour of the hillside and the curve of the railroad instead of any laid out streets, yet the people realize that without a station, and one at Janssen two miles away, the name of the town has been changed from Hatton to “Dennis.”
That a nice little town will be built at Janssen to
supply the requirements of the country surrounding and being opened up no one
doubts, and yet all admit that the logical location for a town, other things
being equal, was at Hatton’s gap, it being the only point for many miles in
either direction that a wagon road or a railroad could be built or people pass
through a long range of mountains.
As it is the road is having a hard task to cut its way through to a
proper grade, the job not being completed yet, a track having been laid up over
and around the cut for temporary use and to carry material to the front.
Shirley Manning webmaster & site owner
