Arkansas studies

Currently serving a 175-year prison sentence for transporting underage girls across state lines for sexual purposes, new religious movement leader Tony Alamo (b. 1934) of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries contends not only that Christian men should be polygamous but that they actually are commanded to be by Old Testament polygamy laws. Alamo bases this interpretation primarily upon Jesus’ statement in Matthew 5:17 that he came to fulfill the law, not abolish it. Numerous other New Testament passages regarding marriage and the law are likewise reinterpreted through a polygamous lens, and the Old Testament’s
‘‘Holy Men of God’’ (e.g., Abraham, Jacob and David) are provided as role models. This article examines Alamo’s unique exegetical approach to justify Christian polygamy in twenty-first-century America; further, it compares his methods of maintaining his legitimacy among his followers with those of another modern American proponent of polygamy, the also-imprisoned leader of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, Warren Jeffs.

In June, 1993, the Arkansas Archeological Society conducted its annual summer training program at the Shady Lake Campground on the Ouachita National Forest. In addition to the seven prehistoric sites and historic house site which received test excavations, a Manganese Mill, 3PL342, was recorded.  The mill is located in the West-Central Arkansas Manganese District.  Manganese was first recognized in the West-Central district about the middle of the 19th century. Manganese (Mn) is a metallic element with a specific gravity very near that of iron.  All but a small quantity of the manganese consumed in the United States is in the form of an alloy known as ferromanganese which is used in the manufacture of steel.  Relatively small amounts of oxide are used in the manufacture of glass, paint and dry cell batteries, and as coloring material in pottery, tile and brick.  The mill and bunkhouse complex was constructed in 1943 .  The mill was only operational for 4 to 5 months.  Milling operations were shut down when it was determined that the manganese mining and processing were not economically viable.  The ruins of the site consist of the foundations of the mill itself, the foundation and chimney for a two story bunkhouse, a large concrete cistern for the mill, a smaller cistern for the bunkhouse, a rock edged parking area, and several ore test pits.  The large concrete foundations probably supported machinery for a gravity type of operation with trammel screens.  A general site map was drawn and the foundations for the mill, bunkhouse, and mill cistern were mapped.

What happens when a sprightly divorcée school teacher writes a fan letter to a lonely, depressed novelist?  Will this improbable new muse somehow save his life and help him revive his career?

In this feature documentary sequel to "Stay More: The World of Donald Harington" (2013), Arkansawyer Donald Harington tells how the fateful letter from his future wife, Kim, helped inspire the “quirkiest, most original body of work in contemporary U. S. letters” (Boston Globe).  The course of true love never did run less smooth -- or more funny -- through creative (and rejected) marriage proposals, anniversary tricks, book collaborations, life-threatening illnesses, and a series of boldly and playfully experimental novels that pushed the boundaries of American literature.  Tampering eagerly with history (just never with fiction!), the Nabokov of the Ozarks spins a yarn worthy of his novels, his beloved Fate Thing peopling his own life with lovers and liars, despairs and delights that even he could hardly have dreamed up.  (100 minutes)

In this feature-length documentary, Donald Harington, ‘America’s greatest unknown writer,’ describes the origins of Stay More, the fictional Ozark village where he sets his novels. Harington shares his childhood memories of the tiny town of Drakes Creek (the model for Stay More) and reflects on his troubled relationships with his parents and the devastating loss of his hearing at the age of 12. Harrington also recounts the dubious joys of getting his early novels into print, with their sales never matching the favorable notices, blending these stories with humorous perspectives on the writer’s life (particularly the writerly penchant for liquor), religion, and sex. What emerges is a bittersweet portrait of an inspired but haunted artist, a writer deeply rooted in American folk traditions whose triumphs seemed always to be matched by deep disappointments, a novelist who not only blends comic relief into his tragedies but poignant ‘tragic relief’ into his comedies.