Ray Hanley

Established in 1829, the largest county in Arkansas is Union County, sprawling 1,000 square miles along the state line with Louisiana. In between the county's pine forests and wilderness are little hamlets and winding roads that anchor the "city of black gold," El Dorado, the county seat. The history of Union County is about the land and its people, from the first settlers to those who marched off to war. It is also about a seismic shift from a sleepy small town supported by farming and timber to a great boomtown with the striking of oil in 1921. Thousands of people poured in, and the area would never be the same again, with the impact spanning the next century. Even after the great heady days of the oil boom were in the past, Union County and El Dorado would diversify their industry for the future.Author Ray Hanley is a retired health care and IT executive. He is one of the most published historians in Arkansas, with over 21 books published and a daily newspaper feature, Arkansas Postcard Past, in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, appearing since 1986. El Dorado and Union County's history is told here in vivid postcards and historic photographs with the assistance of the South Arkansas Historical Preservation Society.

"Jack, please come quickly. I need you " This is the call a restless Arkansas physician receives from an old friend on a rainy day in 2011-a frantic message that leads to a tale of murder and mayhem a century earlier, and a time-travel mission to a reunion of thousands of Confederate veterans in Little Rock, Arkansas, in May 1911. Dr. Jack Kernick must travel a hundred years back in time-attempting to prevent a murder, keep the new capitol building from being destroyed, and stop two men who time-traveled ahead of him from altering a little-known chapter in Arkansas history.Reunion in Time is a fictional tale based on real events, illustrated with historical photos taken around the 1911 reunion of the United Confederate Veterans, which brought 100,000 visitors to 1911 Little Rock, a city with a population of 45,000 at the time. The book features real politicians-ranging from Governor George Donaghey to Governor Mike Beebe-and tells the stories of real Confederate veterans who returned to Little Rock to commemorate the Civil War fifty years later. The weaving together of true history with the narration of a time-traveling physician sets this riveting novel apart.

While little has been written about the USS Arkansas, this battleship carried the state’s name through two world wars, a Mexican invasion, and into the atomic age. The USS Arkansas, measuring almost the length of two football fields, went to sea in 1911 and sailed the world until 1946 when it served as a target for the atomic bomb tests in the South Pacific.In between, the ship participated in the invasion of Vera Cruz, Mexico; served in World War I; helped Arkansas get an official flag; and assisted in the World War II battles at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Highlighting the narrative with previously unpublished photos, the authors tell the fascinating story of the ship and its men by referencing handwritten journals penciled in the midst of service and combat.

A century ago Hot Springs, Arkansas, was a world-renown resort city. Today, the town remains the most unique city in Arkansas but with much of its Victorian-to-1950s views nearly unrecognizable. Hot Springs: Past and Present shows vividly the before and after of hundreds of sites, answering questions such as “What used to be on this corner?” and “What was here before it was a parking lot?” The answer to those questions is often an opulent hotel, a theater, a bathhouse, a gambling house, or a mansion. Fire destroyed many buildings, even more were demolished, and some sites remain not so unlike they used to be. Hot Springs: Past and Present makes a perfect walking companion for anyone visiting the town and wishing to learn more about this one-of-a-kind place through not only the photographs but also the informative text that provides a good overview of the town’s history.

This is a postcard and photographic tour of every section of Arkansas. In this visual history - the Hanley brothers' most extensive book yet - readers will trace many towns' humble beginnings, with wooden-frame structures lining rutted dirt streets teeming with wagons, horses, and mules. The evolution of towns such as Walnut Ridge, Bentonville, Little Rock, and Lake Village, as well as tiny hamlets such as Black Rock and Ponca, unfolds before readers' eyes. Scenes from the 1950s feature stores such as Ben Franklin, OTASCO, and Western Auto. Success stories of Main Street preservation and revitalization in El Dorado, Siloam Springs, Conway, and Harrison show how local elders have set an example for other towns.

From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this golden age can today be considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in America's history. This fascinating new history of Carroll and Boone Counties showcases more than two hundred of the best vintage postcards available.