Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 08/01/12
SUMMARY
The Campbell Station Cabin #2 is located in Jackson County, in the Northeast region of the state. The Campbell Station Cabins provided needed housing during World War II in the Newport, Arkansas area to support both the construction of and staffing of the Army Air Force Training School at Newport Airfield, which is located between Arkansas State Highway 14 and 18. Located just three miles from the front gates of the Newport Airfield along US 67,one of the only highways from Detroit, Chicago and St. Louis to Dallas, this location was ideal to add cabins to alleviate the need for housing in the Newport area caused by the influx of construction workers and later military personnel. Throughout all of 1942, both the military and the citizens were creating an outcry for more housing and creating rent ceiling on apartments and houses rented by military personnel and their families. Do to this small gesture used to alleviate the need for housing by originally constructing ten cabins, more of a need was averted for smaller rental homes near the base. However, only one of the ten cabins remains from this period. Therefore, [1] Jackson County was organized in the Arkansas Territory on October 20, 1820, and encompassed all of what is currently Woodruff County. Woodruff County would be cut off from Jackson County in 1862.[2]
The community of Campbell Station was originally known as Campbell by 1889. However, since the Campbell was located adjacent to the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, Southern Railway, and there was only a train station, the community would later take on the name Campbell Station. Campbell Station was officially incorporated in 1956, and is still the youngest town in Jackson County.[3]
With the railroad being the center of commerce in Campbell Station through the 1940s, the small community was gradually growing. This growth was also spurred by the community’s location to the new US Highway 67, which was built adjacent to the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railway. With the construction of US 67 in the late 1920s to early 1930s, and that it was the main route between St. Louis and Little Rock, and later Dallas, “meant that it was also a highly traveled road for both automobile and truck traffic.”[4] With an increase in traffic, both rail and automobile, through this early 20th century, there became a need for more tourist courts and cabins in the area. This need would become even greater as the United States moved closer entering World War II.
As the United States moved closer to combat readiness, so did many of the towns located throughout Arkansas including Fort Smith (Camp Chaffee), North Little Rock (Camp Robinson) and Oakhaven (Southwestern Proving Grounds). These areas were either already escalating their preparedness or were being pushed to be completed in early 1942 especially with the need for munitions which would be arriving via the Southwestern Proving Ground in Hempstead County, Arkansas. With the need for munitions, there was also going to be a need for pilots to fight in combat or escort bomber runs. This area was also beginning to escalate its production as early as June of 1940, whether anyone knew it or not.
By 1940, the State of Arkansas had a non-college civilian pilot training unit in Pine Bluff, with at least the hope of another unit in the Hot Springs, Arkansas area[5]. Yet, there was also a larger contingent of college-level pilot courses being taught throughout the state in 1940. Colleges such as Henderson State, Hendrix, Ouachita, and the University of Arkansas already had at least 10 students taking the course, which included “72 hours of ground instruction and from 35 to 45 hours in the air- sufficient to qualify students for private pilot’s licenses.”[6]
The military also took notice of the program by early 1941, as military engagement into World War II became imminent. By July 6, 1941, the War Department had already approved a proposal for a pilot training program in Helena.[7] The new training school would be able to administer to 100 men with the expectation that enrollment would reach 200 cadets. This flying school would also have “two auxiliary fields [that] will be made available in a radius of from five to seven miles of the base.”[8]
This system of creating airplane-training facilities throughout the United States, with one or two auxiliary fields, was typical of the pre- World War II build up. It became an even bigger system once the war was brought to the shores of Hawaii on December 7, 1941, with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Arkansas would become “one of the army’s major centers for the basic training of aviation cadets.”[9] By the middle of May, Arkansas had already had two contract schools in Pine Bluff and Helena for training cadets, with a third one under construction in Camden. At this same time the filing of condemnation proceedings were taking place to acquire land north of Stuttgart, Arkansas, as well as area between Tuckerman and Newport and then another site near Lake Village, to be used for new army flying schools.[10]
There remained one problem with all of the sites condemned for the flying schools. All of the sites lacked sufficient housing for both cadets and instructors. This could already be seen in the newspapers around Newport, Arkansas when an article discussing the planned base was already trying to solve the housing shortage that would follow due to the “increased population.”[11] This is a problem that would plague the Newport Army Air Field throughout the first couple of years of the war. The initial discussion of the housing shortage or “problem” was to have been taken care of by “R.P. McCuistion, C.E. Neighbors, Carl Lindsey, R.C. Biggadike, and S.L. Burkett.”[12] Even with their work to attempt to solve the housing shortage, little progress was ever made to fix the housing shortage. The problem of the housing shortage was foreseen as far back as March when price ceilings were created, on a local level, for rental property. Property owners saw the possible income brought on by the increased population and the need for rental property. With this foresight, property owners were evicting current occupants, so that they could increase the rent. However, once Jackson County was declared a National Defense area, the federal government frozen the income potential in March 1942, and anyone who caught raising the rent was subject to federal prosecution with one year in prison and a fine of $10,000.[13] However, the price ceiling was subject to local and state enforcement.[14] Throughout this time period, the Newport Chamber of Commerce was calling for another “100 new homes to be approved”[15] in the Newport, Arkansas area. This was in part due to the recommendation of “John Dutel, of Dallas, representative of the regional office of the Federal Housing Authority. He stated that upon initial consideration there would have to be considerable “building before dwellings could be made available to the increased families who will come [to Newport] to work at the base.”[16] Many of these building that need to be constructed for the base would have housed the construction workers that helped construct the base.
With construction work on the base set to begin on Tuesday May 26, 1942 the housing shortage was about to become more of problem. This is why the Jackson County Democrat went to a near by training base in Greenville, Mississippi to ask for suggestions about how to take advantage of the situation both communities are facing. The executives interviewed from Greenville, said that the first problem you will run into is housing. Their suggestion was to do a detailed survey of all property, “listing all available houses, apartments, rooms and future building space and next get ready and build.” [17] It is with these words that Keeter Wilson used his carpentering skills and sought to make use of his property 3 miles from the Newport Air base. It is here that Wilson Keeter decided to construct a small travel court featuring ten small cabins, to be rented out to cadets located at the training base. The cabins would be five miles from Newport but only 3 miles to the front gate of the air base. The small cabins consisted of a one-room, open floor plan, with a single metal framed bed. A small toilet was located behind a small partitioned wall at the foot of the bed. These cabins provided enough space to accommodate the cadets and their limited personal belongings before their deployment overseas. A small shower room was also located on the property.
This small cabin would have also been subject to the housing prices that were set to keep rents at a minimum during the time of war. It is unclear what the rent was at the cabins during wartime. However, this small space was adequate for a single cadet or even a married cadet, since through at least June 1942, families were being told there still was not enough housing to cover the enlisted men. Even with this shortage, there was a strong appeal by the local citizens to do their part and list any vacant room in their house in the chamber of commerce pamphlet, as thousands of cadets were about to arrive at the base and other area around Jackson County.
As the airfield began to host and then roll out cadets in to the air force by early October 1942,[18]the housing problem remained an even large hurdle to try to overcome. It was essentially listed as the one problem that held the airfield back, according to Col. Daniel Cooper, in October 1942. If the base would ever gain a permanent standing, the housing problems would need to be addressed in a larger fashion.[19]
However, as housing remained an issue at Newport the problem was never fixed. Housing remained limited throughout World War II, but it is thanks to people like Mr. Keeter who constructed small cabins to be used as housing for the cadets, the problem was scaled back. Following the end of World War II, the cabins that once housed the cadets of the US Army Air field in Newport, were turned in to a genuine travel court for tourist as they passed along US Highway 67 from St. Louis to Dallas. Even with the need to travel US 67, which is also known as the Rock n’ Roll Highway through Arkansas, for this many clubs that featured famous rock stars like Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. It just so happen that two of those clubs sat within 2 blocks of the Campbell Station Cabins. Due to it locations people would stay at the cabins to watch these icons perform at the many clubs in the area. The tourist would maintain their trips on US 67 until the interstate system become more active. When this change occurred, the Interstate Highway System was still slow in moving through Arkansas. Interstate 55 came along in the 1960s, while Interstate 30 was started in late 1950s, had a majority of construction completed by the 1960s with the final unfinished segment being completed by 1971.[20] With these two interstates coming along so late in the interstate system history, most tourist traveling to and from the Dallas/Fort Worth area would have driven along US Highway 67 and may have stopped a similar tourist courts along the way.
Nevertheless, with all of the tourist that stopped in at the Campbell Station Cabin, the majority of its history lies in providing a place to call home for soldier. Throughout the brief history of the Newport Army Air Force Base, housing cadets and civilian workers was a problem. Through the first two years of operation, the housing shortage consistently sited as the number one problem for the base and the City of Newport. Though a small addition to the housing market, Mr. Keeter’s ten small cabins in Campbell Station, Arkansas, provided a needed housing opportunity for construction workers (who worked the construction of the base) and cadets. With Campbell Station’s close proximity to the Army Air Field, 3 miles, it provided a well-deserved separation from base life before being deployed overseas. This one-bedroom cabins located along US Highway 67, was built to as part of the home front effort here in Arkansas to treat the cadets of the Army Air Field well before seeing what could be the horrors of war. With the deterioration and removal of nine of the ten cabins Campbell Station Cabin #2 is now, the final cabin left to show the history of the community in the 1940s. Therefore, the Campbell Station Cabin #2 is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion A for its association with the military during World War II in rural Jackson County. It is also being listed as part of the Historic Context “We’ve Gotta Get Tough”: History of World War II Home Front Efforts in Arkansas, 1941-1946.
[3] Larry Pankey and Kaneaster Hodges, JR, 1988 Follies Jackson County Proud. (Newport, Arkansas: n.p., n.d.), 95. Newport, Arkansas: Jackson County Library.
[4] Ralph Wilcox, “Old US 67, Alicia to Hoxie,” National Register Nomination (Little Rock: Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, 2003), 8-4.
[5] “Air Training Unit for Pine Bluff,” Arkansas Gazette, 28 June 1940, 1.
[6] “180 Arkansas Students in Pilots Courses,” Arkansas Gazette, 1 August 1940, 5.
[7] “Pilot School at Helena Approved,” Arkansas Gazette, 6 July 1941, 2.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “Arkansas to be Center of Flier Training,” Arkansas Gazette, 15 May 1942.
[10] Ibid.
[11] $12,000,000 Flying Field For Newport,” Jackson County Democrat, 14 May 1942.
[12] Ibid.
[13] “Landlords Warned of Price Ceiling on Rental Property,” Jackson County Democrat, 21 May 1942.
[14] “Federal Officers may Enforce Rent Ceiling,” Jackson County Democrat, 9 July 1942.
[15] “100 New Homes May Be Approved for Newport,” Jackson County Democrat, 18 June 1942.
[16] Ibid.
[17] “That Newport Get Busy to Get Full Advantage of Air Base is Message from Greenville Business Men,” Jackson County Democrat, 21 May 1942.
[18] “Newport’s First Opportunity For Role as Host,” Jackson County Democrat, 8 October 1942.
[19] “ Housing Now Major Problem to Future of Newport,” Jackson County Democrat, 1 October 1942.
[20] Oscar Slotboom, Old Road Maps of Texas, 1942-73,http://www.dfwfreeways.info/pages/oldroadmaps.aspx (accessed January 12, 2012).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pankey, Larry and Kaneaster Hodges, JR. 1988 Follies Jackson County Proud. Newport, Arkansas: n.p., n.d. Newport, Arkansas: Jackson County Library.
Slotboom, Oscar. Old Road Maps of Texas, 1942-73. http://www.dfwfreeways.info/pages/oldroadmaps.aspx(accessed January 12, 2012.
Wilcox, Ralph. “Old US 67, Alicia to Hoxie,” National Register Nomination. Little Rock: Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, 2003.
Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeastern Arkansas, The. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.
Jackson County Democrat Newspaper