Arkansas has many treasures to celebrate. The bounty you’ll find in the southern section of our state is celebrated with a unique museum that takes visitors back in time to the early 20th century, when a rush to profit from vast natural resources transformed the region.
The Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources lies along Scenic Highway 7 in Smackover, to the northwest of El Dorado. It showcases the history of three natural resources — petroleum, brine and timber — and how they changed daily life for the people who lived in south Arkansas.
Museum origins
“The focus of the museum is on the 1920s south Arkansas oil boom and the subsequent changes brought about by the discovery of oil in 1921 to south Arkansas,” says museum director Jonathan Plant. “Formerly known as the Oil Heritage Center and the Arkansas Oil and Brine Museum, the museum began in 1977 when Rep. Bobby G. Newman collaborated with local families in a grassroots effort to preserve the story of the state’s oil and brine industries. Newman and state Sen. W.D. Moore worked for the passage of the legislation to start the planning and development of the Arkansas Oil and Brine Museum.”
A local family donated the nearly 20 acres where the museum sits today. The first version, which was designed to resemble a 1920s gas station, opened in 1986. The current facility, a 25,000-square-foot, two-story edifice, opened to the public in 1989, and it was renamed in 1997.
The center is a great place for a summertime visit, thanks to the expansive array of galleries and exhibits inside and covered picnic areas outside. The interactive exhibits make learning about Arkansas’ gifts accessible to people of all ages.
Plant shares some of what visitors experience, starting with the geology gallery, which includes a simulation of an exploratory oil shaft and a walk-in globe that shows the locations of the brine fields throughout the world. “Here, they will discover how petroleum and brine developed over hundreds of millions of years ago,” he shares.
The next area is a time machine, where a narrator shares a journey down into the earth. “Visitors embark on a journey from the prehistoric seas to witness the formation of oil, and then end their trip in the industrial revolution,” Plant says.
Boom town
Leaving the time machine, a staircase takes guests down into an exhibit hall featuring a city street at night in 1923, complete with a representation of what Smackover was like when thousands of men, eager to make their mint in the oil business, descended upon the town. The discovery of oil in these parts led to a boom that exploded the population of Smackover from around 100 people in 1920 to more than 25,000 in 1925! The nearly 40 square mile oil field played host to one of the fastest mineral booms to ever hit North America. There were over 1,000 wells drilled, and production that once swelled to more than 69 million barrels a year.
“You can walk through the Horseshoe Café, the Republic Supply Store, and even the Smackover jail,” Plant continues. “You can also explore a room in Mrs. Murphy’s Room and Board, as well as peek into the Lease Office, where deals were made inside the Rogerson Hotel. Watch a movie about the oil boom in the American Theater. Then, acquaint yourself with the story of the ‘Goat Woman of Arkansas,’ and see her original mobile home inside the museum.”
Ongoing legacy
Even after the boom ended in the 1940s, oil has continued to be pumped from the earth here, and there are active wells in 10 south Arkansas counties.
More interpretation covers the history of logging in the area, and how the piney woods of south Arkansas provided not only the structures and furniture of those who lived there but the income brought into the area by commercial wood harvesting and sales.
A further collection of galleries offers a more contemporary view of the area’s oil industry. There’s also an exhibit showcasing the South Arkansas bromine industry and some of the substance’s numerous uses. Since 2007, all brine produced in the United States has come from this brine field. Bromine has been produced in Arkansas since 1957.
Outside the museum, walk through Oil Field Park, which includes several pieces of machinery used during the oil boom and a reconstruction of a 112-foot-tall wooden derrick.
About 10,000 people visit the museum every year, and admission is free. The museum is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call (870) 725-2877 or visit AMNR.org.
