History of Siloam Springs Told Through Photographs

Nov. 12, 2012 - PRLog -- The newest addition to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is Siloam Springs from local author Don Warden. The book boasts more than 200 vintage images and memories of days gone by.

Siloam Springs was established in 1880 and is known for the beauty of the parks lining Sager Creek as it winds through the downtown. Eight of the springs feeding into the creek were once considered medicinal, which brought health seekers and summer visitors to the town for many years. Visitors and residents also enjoyed Chautauqua programs, concerts in the parks, and dramas in the opera house.

White settlement along the creek dates back to the arrival of Simon Sager and family by 1839. The first town along the creek was Hico, which was established around 1845 by Caldeen and Nancy Ward Gunter.

Today, Siloam Springs is home to John Brown University, the corporate headquarters for Allens, Inc. and Simmons Foods, Inc., and plants for several industries. This town of more than 15,000 is an Arkansas Main Street Community with three National Register Historic Districts.

Highlights of Siloam Springs:
•   Pioneering sagers and town-building gunters
•   Civil war and reconstruction
•   Siloam city from boom to bust
•   Saved by the railroad
•   The New Deal
•   From World War II to the bypass
•   Downtown versus the bypass

Don Warden has been director of the Siloam Springs Museum since 1991. In Images of America: Siloam Springs, he has drawn upon the museum’s extensive collection of photographs and documents to illustrate the history of Siloam Springs.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com or
(888)-313-2665.  

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.