The Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

and Arkansas state park in Smackover,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The museum was formed in the 1980s to tell the history of the

petroleum industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The large ...

and later the brine industry as key economic movements spurred by natural resources in

South Arkansas South Arkansas lies within the southernmost portions of Arkansas Gulf Coastal Plain and Delta regions. It encompasses the lower 15 counties of the state. History In the 1920s, nationwide attention focused on South Arkansas when the Smackover ...

History

Prior to the 1921 discovery of oil in nearby El Dorado, Smackover was part of the declining timber and cotton industries. With the discovery of oil in El Dorado on January 10, 1921, the area boomed with

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

s looking for more. The search for oil was then directed north towards the small town of Smackover, near the

Ouachita River The Ouachita River ( ) is a river that runs south and east through the U.S. states of Arkansas and Louisiana, joining the Tensas River to form the Black River near Jonesville, Louisiana. It is the 25th-longest river in the United State ...

fault line. On July 29, 1922, the Richardson Number 1 well on the land of Charles Richardson, four miles north of Smackover erupted with new-found oil. Within a year of this discovery, the sleepy town of 100 had boomed to over 25,000. Though not a leader in oil production, the ten-county area is still producing oil today.

Features

The museum contains a main exhibition center, operating replicas of oil machinery, a re-created boom-era street scene in Smackover, and a collection/archive center.

References

External links

Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources
Arkansas State Parks {{authority control State parks of Arkansas Industry museums in Arkansas Museums in Union County, Arkansas Petroleum museums Museums established in 1986 1986 establishments in Arkansas Smackover, Arkansas Energy in Arkansas Petroleum in Arkansas

History

Features

See also

References

External links