Jackson County seat blends nostalgia, innovation
An alcove in Newport’s Walmart Supercenter displays a mini-museum devoted to the retailing genius who operated his first store here in 1945 as a prelude to revolutionizing America’s shopping habits.
A photograph shows Sam Walton kneeling next to a display that details his time at the Ben Franklin store near Newport’s Jackson County Courthouse. As he ran the outlet, “his knowledge of retail grew significantly over those five years and would shape him into the retailer he became.”
Five-and-dime stores are now nearly extinct. Today’s courthouse neighbors, in this Farmers Electric Cooperative headquarters city located along the newly designated Interstate 57, include Tech Depot, 209 Hazel St, a job-training center for information technology. Tech Depot is cited by Newport Economic Development Commission Director Jon Chadwell as an example of the city’s recent growth.
“One of four things that stands out is our pride about (Newport’s) history.” The other three are “the roaring days of being a steamboat and railroad town from 1875 to 1925, when we were wide-open and bustling. Also the proud tradition of our high school in both academics and sports: Greyhound pride. And ASU-Newport, one of Arkansas State University’s two-year colleges and one of the fastest growing.”
For a primer on local history, Chadwell highly recommends stopping at Jacksonport State Park , 111 Avenue St., five miles northwest of Newport off Arkansas 69. Jacksonport served as the Jackson County seat from 1854 until the courthouse was moved in 1892 to Newport, which by then boasted a population 10 times that of its rival.
In today’s Newport, The Angry Possum, 306 Front St. is a popular eatery with music and karaoke on weekends. Its logo sports a snarling cartoon opossum.
Another spot can boast of historical credentials. Postmaster Spirits Craft Distillery, 200 Hazel St., occupies the city’s former U.S. Post Office. The 7,300-square-foot building was completed in 1915, with terrazzo floors and soaring arches. The distillery serves food as well as adult beverages.
An offbeat attraction, open by appointment only, is Jackson’s Funeral Home Museum, 1900 Malcolm Ave. A staff member explains the exhibits date back to a time when many visitations were held at home. A prime display is an ornate funeral carriage that was drawn by horses.
The Jackson County Courthouse 200 Main St. is the most stately of the city’s 10 listings on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1892 in Late Victorian style, it is one of the state’s oldest courthouses still serving its original purpose.
On a blue-sky day, Lockwood Park , on Newport Lake off Malcolm Avenue, offers varied family attractions. They include two playgrounds, picnic pavilions, a fishing pier and a trail for walking or jogging. Farmer’s Market Park, near the lake, maintains a spacious dog park.
April 5 will be a day of celebration, as Newport marks the sesquicentennial of becoming a city in 1875. The mood figures to be much less raucous than was true in “the roaring days” of that decade mentioned by Chadwell. In the 1870s, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas: “Newport attracted a rough cadre of loggers, trappers, boatmen and farmers whose boisterous activity was reflected in a news article in the 1879 Jacksonport Herald. It reported whimsically that ‘latest statistics show one pint of Newport whiskey contains four fights, three knockdowns, one stealing of the ballot box and one contested election.’”
Rock ‘n’ Roll Highway 67
In Newport’s Front Street Park, a mural displays a Rock ’n’ Roll Highway 67 logo along with portraits of Elvis Presley, Sonny Burgess and several other musical luminaries.
The highway’s name “is derived from the rockabilly music performed at nightclubs and other venues located on the highway by legendary progenitors of the genre,” according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “The designation by Act 497 of the 87th Arkansas General Assembly in 2009 has spawned music festivals, museum exhibits and plaques in communities along the highway.”
Newport, near the midpoint of the four-county route, has scheduled this year’s Delta Arts Festival and Music Jam for June 6-7. In the 1950s and ’60s, music venues in the city and surrounding Jackson County bore such jaunty names as Rainbow Tavern, Bloody Bucket, Porky’s Rooftop and Jarvis Bamboo Club.
Newport’s Rock ’n’ Roll Highway Museum is closed for now, with exhibits in storage at the ASU-Newport campus. A new museum location is being sought.