Subscriber Exclusive
OPINION | REX NELSON: Prairie County memories
My grandparents lived at Des Arc when I was boy, and there were few things each summer that I enjoyed more than spending time with them. The flatlands of Prair…
Stories by Rex Nelson
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Building a diocese
Just two years after becoming the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock in 1843, Andrew Byrne oversaw construction of the diocese's cathedr…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The Irish bishops
The man who would become the first Catholic bishop in Arkansas, Andrew Byrne, was born in 1802 in the Irish community of Navan, about 40 miles from Dublin.
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Subscriber ExclusiveA planter’s life: Although Arkansas is becoming more urbanized, agriculture drives the state’s economy
I'm enjoying my visit with John King as he drives slowly across his farm south of Helena. In a state that's rapidly becoming urbanized, King believes it's part…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Cranes over Pine Bluff
It was the fall of 1970. I was an 11-year-old member of Boy Scout Troop 24 in Arkadelphia. We headed to Pine Bluff early on a Saturday morning to hike what was…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Catholics in Arkansas
I was only 7 or 8 years of age, but I remember clearly the visit to St. Joseph's Hospital in downtown Hot Springs. I was there to see my sister. She had wisdom…
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The Southern Fried Podcast: Economic growth and fostering community across Arkansas with Graham Cobb
On this week’s episode, President of Paceline Strategies and former President and CEO of the Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce, Graham Cobb, joins Rex to di…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The legend of Saracen
There are several ways to spell the name of the Quapaw legend. It can be Sarasin, Sarasen or Sarrasin. I'll go with Saracen in this column (the book I quote or…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The downstream people
One isn't going to stump Wena Supernaw, who chairs the Quapaw Nation Business Committee (the modern equivalent of a chief), when it comes to Quapaw history. To…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: A southeast Arkansas spark
In the fall of 2019, a year before completion of the Quapaw Nation's casino at Pine Bluff, I took a trip to Oklahoma with a relatively new casino employee, Car…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Stuttgart’s special vibe
In a recent cover story for this newspaper's Perspective section, I wrote about the special vibe one feels in Stuttgart. Though the rice and duck hunting capit…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The Arkansas tornado
Where does one even start when it comes to Tommy Robinson, the larger-than-life Arkansan who died Wednesday night at age 82? He was a tornado wrapped inside a …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Johnny Morris in Arkansas
Hunters across Arkansas were surprised in May when it was announced that the iconic Mack's Prairie Wings in Stuttgart and giant retailer Bass Pro Shops had ent…
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The Southern Fried Podcast: Steel, aerospace, and economic developments in Mississippi County with County Judge John Alan Nelson
On this week’s episode, Mississippi County Judge John Alan Nelson joins Rex to talk about economic and industrial developments in Mississippi County, including…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Italians in Arkansas
Recent columns have been devoted to famous Italians in Arkansas history. There was Henri de Tonti, the man who sometimes is described as the "father of Arkansa…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The Fordyce I know
Like most towns in the pine woods of south Arkansas, Fordyce has struggled the past four decades. A place that had 5,175 residents in the 1980 census had dropp…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: An Italian in Arkansas
I've written in recent columns about the Italian immigrants who were led by a Catholic priest, Pietro Bandini, from the Sunnyside cotton plantation in southeas…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Father Bandini’s journey
Pietro Bandini was born into the Italian upper class at Forli in March 1852. The future Catholic priest and founder of Tontitown in Washington County is the su…
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Subscriber ExclusiveHunters and harvesters
Like most towns in the eastern half of Arkansas, Stuttgart has experienced population loss for the past four decades. In the 1980 census, the city that's consi…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Visiting Experiment Corner
Not many Arkansans realize what's at the intersection of Arkansas 130 and Arkansas 153 east of Stuttgart. This is row-crop country. It's not a place that one h…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The town Bandini built
If you believe population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, nowhere in Arkansas is growing more quickly from a percentage standpoint than Tontitown. A tow…
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The Southern Fried Podcast | The Arkansas Travelers and professional baseball with Rusty Meeks
On this week’s episode, Arkansas Travelers’ CEO Rusty Meeks joins Rex to talk professional baseball and the changes in Minor League Baseball in Central Arkansa…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: A Tuesday in Tontitown
Mama Z's Cafe in Tontitown is busy at noon on this Tuesday. I'm here to interview Larry Foley about his new documentary on the Italian families who founded the…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The Italians of Sunnyside
Lunch is being served at Mama Z's Cafe alongside U.S. 412 in Tontitown on this Tuesday. As they've done since Edna Zulpo opened the place in 1988, people are c…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Bang for the buck
In a series of recent columns, I've decried the lack of attention given to higher education by our governor and the 135 legislators. In the knowledge-based eco…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: A campus transformation
Corey Alderdice was intrigued by the school in downtown Hot Springs when he saw a 2012 job listing in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Arkansas School fo…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The seniors are coming
Under the leadership of Pine Bluff native George Makris Jr., Arkansas-based Simmons Bank has moved heavily into the sponsorship of professional athletes, sport…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Reopening the Park Hotel
The year was 1930, and downtown Hot Springs was booming. On Fountain Street, a short walk from the city's famed Bathhouse Row, the Park Hotel opened. It was de…
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The Southern Fried Podcast | More on Little Rock’s Master Plan and the city’s neighborhoods with Gabe Holmstrom
Gabe Holmstrom, Executive Director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, joins Rex on this week’s episode to discuss various aspects of the downtown Little …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Along Bathhouse Row
The sidewalk in front of Bathhouse Row at Hot Springs is crowded in these early days of the summer tourism season. That's a good sign for a town that depends o…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Ghost on the hill
It looms over historic downtown Hot Springs like a ghost. Built by the federal government as the Army-Navy Hospital, it once was among the top employers in the…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The Travelers’ new owner
Minor league baseball is hot in this summer of 2024.
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Subscriber ExclusiveA history-rich franchise
Warren Stephens had a simple explanation for why he named a ballpark along the Arkansas River in North Little Rock for his father Jack Stephens, his uncle Witt…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: At the ballpark
Memorial Day has passed, and it's unofficially summer in Arkansas. For me, that means lazy weekday nights and Sunday afternoons watching baseball at Dickey-Ste…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Conflict at Plumerville
I wrote in a recent column about the long history of colorful and sometimes violent politics in Conway County. As I researched that column, I became interested…
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The Southern Fried Podcast | Little Rock’s new downtown Master Plan and reviving the city center with Jimmy Moses
Jimmy Moses of Moses Tucker Partners joins Rex on this week's episode to talk about the details of Little Rock's recently released Master Plan, which calls for…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Bouncing back in Wynne
I walked quickly through the door of the KWYN radio studios in Wynne early on that Good Friday morning several years ago. Bobby Caldwell, an owner of East Arka…
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Subscriber ExclusiveHot Springs rebound: After years of deterioration, renovations are happening in the Spa City that will help restore its former glamour
The 10th anniversary of the fire that destroyed much of the Majestic Hotel came and went earlier this year with little notice in Hot Springs. But that inferno …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: A unique education location
It was 1990, and the state's first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had an idea. Ron Hart, a brilliant scientist at the National Center for Toxicological Research n…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The master politicians
Several columns in recent weeks have focused on the long history of colorful politics in Conway County. Two of the most notable politicians to hail from the co…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: The timber barons
My friend Ross Whipple of Arkadelphia, an owner of timberland in south Arkansas, likes to refer to this part of the state as the timber basket. If the Delta is…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: David Pryor’s Camden
Camden seemed like the big city to me when I was a boy in Arkadelphia. It had two high schools (Camden and Camden Fairview) after integration. The Panthers and…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Visiting Randolph’s grave
We're headed down the Kansas Road in the pine woods of southern Clark County, and Mark Karnes is at the wheel. Karnes, a Monticello native, knows this area bet…
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The Southern Fried Podcast | The current state of Arkansas' economy with Randy Zook
On this week's episode, Randy Zook, the president and chief executive officer of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and the Associated Industries of Arkans…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Back to Africa
A large number of Black families from Conway County applied from 1890-92 to relocate to Liberia. They were part of what was known as the Back-to-Africa Movemen…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Dumbing us down
A puerile video was sent out by Gov. Sarah Sanders following the release of a state audit of the governor's controversial lectern purchase. That video was the …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Keeping the Travelers
After attracting fewer than 68,000 fans during a 77-game home schedule in 1958, the Travelers professional baseball team moved from Little Rock to Shreveport f…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Our Agricultural Wheel
On Feb. 15, 1882, a group of farmers led by William Suit and W. Taylor McBee gathered in a log schoolhouse eight miles southwest of Des Arc in Prairie County.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: A starvation diet
Charles Ambrose knew the situation was dire within days of arriving on the campus of Henderson State University at Arkadelphia in 2021.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | REX NELSON: Wild Conway County
In some places, the Reconstruction period in Arkansas was almost as violent as the Civil War. In certain counties, in fact, Arkansas remained a wild frontier p…
