Van Buren, Arkansas - a whole lotta history...

 

The Art of Victoria Morgan is operating a booth on the historic Main Street at the Old Timer’s Day Festival in Van Buren, AR on May 11 and 12, 2013. The seventy + buildings along Van Buren’s Main Street are all listed on the National Historic Register. The Blue and The Grey, the TV mini-series was filmed on this street. I can just imagine the street that I walked down today a hundred years ago in its heyday.

 

Van Buren and its sister city, Fort Smith, were wild frontier, border towns in the late 1800’s on the edge of the Oklahoma Territory. Separated only by the Arkansas River, these two towns had it all.

 

Fort Smith’s Front Street was home to the infamous red light district, The Row. One of the most famous bordellos in the Southwest, Miss Laura’s, is still standing and in use today as the Fort Smith Visitor’s Center. Ft. Smith is, also, home to many other examples of  beautiful historic architecture like the Immaculate Conception Church pictured below.

 

Van Buren’s Main Street has been home to numerous banks, an Anhueser-Busch brewery, and the King Opera House.  Wyatt Earp even spent time in the Van Buren city jail on charges of horse theft before he became famous at the OK Corral.

 

 

History just oozes down this street and it is amazing to be walking along the same path. Watch for more news from this trip and pictures, too!