Helena-West Helena, Arkansas
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| Helena-West Helena, Arkansas | |
 |
|
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Arkansas |
| County | Phillips |
| Founded | 2006 (Helena established 1833) |
| Incorporated | 2006 |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | James Valley |
| Area | |
| - City | 13.3 sq mi (34.6 km²) |
| - Land | 13.3 sq mi (34.6 km²) |
| - Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km²) |
| Population (2000) | |
| - City | 15,012 |
| - Density | 1,128.7/sq mi (433.9/km²) |
| Combined figure based on pre-consolidation numbers | |
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
Helena-West Helena is the county seat and largest city within Phillips County, Arkansas. The current city represents a consolidation, effective on January 1, 2006, of the two Arkansas cities of Helena and West Helena.
Contents |
[edit] History
The city's roots trace back to the founding of the city of Helena in 1833, along a port on the Mississippi River. Prior to consolidation, Helena was comprised of 6,323 people within 23.1 km². Neighboring West Helena had 8,689 people in 11.5 km². In a March 2005 vote among citizens of both cities, with some proposals extending back at least to 2002. the merger was completed. The surrounding county is typically one of the poorest of Arkansas's 75 counties. Proponents of the consolidation had stated that combining the cities would strengthen the bargaining power for its surrounding region in competing for projects to improve the overall economy and standard of living. Among the combined city's council's first tasks was the hiring of a new police chief, Vincent Bell.
[edit] Population
Based on U.S. Census reports for both cities prior to the merger, the 2000 population of the area comprising Helena-West Helena was 15,012.
[edit] Economy
One potential advance for the combined city, as reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on July 12, 2006,[1] is an ethanol fuel refinery to be built by Las Vegas-based E-Fuels. Whether the consolidation had any bearing on the decision is not certain. Should the project come to fruition, the addition is expected to bring a significant increase in traffic to the region's port on the Mississippi River as well as several new jobs.
Another more recent development is the effort to reopen the city's regional landfill, from which Helena-West Helena could also potentially reap economic benefit. Closed on June 30 in deference to a landfill in Hazen, the facility could reopen by September 2006, according to a local newspaper report in The Daily World [1] noting city negotiations with the East Arkansas Regional Solid Waste Management District.
Helena-West Helena's chief economic influence continues to be agriculture, specifically cotton cultivation. Barge traffic at the city's port on the Mississippi River is another significant factor, in addition to retail and tourism.
[edit] Musical history
It has been said that Helena was a little Chicago back in the 1940s and 1950s because, much like Chicago, blacks from rural Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta were arriving. They were drawn to Helena because they could make money there. By then Helena was 70% black and wild music joints employed blues pianist such as Sunnyland Slim, Memphis Slim and Roosevelt Sykes.[2]
In November 1941, a white businessman put together the staff for the town's first radio station KFFA. A group of blues musicians were given a one hour radio spot on the condition that they sign a sponsor, which King Biscuit Flour agreed to do. Thus was born King Biscuit Entertainers and the beginning of King Biscuit Time, eventually leading later to the popular King Biscuit Blues Festival, renamed Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival in 2005, one of the largest free blues festivals in the world.[3]
[edit] Famous Residents
- John Hanks Alexander - second African-American West Point graduate
- John Allin - presiding bishop of Episcopal Church
- Fred Childress - all-star football player in Canadian Football League
- Patrick Cleburne - Confederate Civil War General
- Ken Hatfield - college football coach at Clemson, Air Force, Arkansas, and Rice
- Alex Johnson, Major League Baseball player[4]
- Mary Lambert, music video director
- Blanche Lincoln, U.S. Senator from Arkansas
- Robert "Junior" Lockwood, blues musician and stepson of Robert Johnson
- Robert Lee McCollum, blues musician
- John Stroger, Jr., longtime president of the Board of Comissioners of Cook County, Illinois
- Roosevelt Sykes - blues pianist
- Conway Twitty (born Harold Lloyd Jenkins), country music star and his family moved to Helena from Friars Point, Mississippi when he was 10 years old
- Ellis Valentine - former Major League Baseball player
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ethanol refiner sets sights on Delta. Delta Regional Authority. Retrieved on October 31, 2006.
- ^ Palmer, Robert (1981). Deep Blues, 1rst, Penquin Books Ltd.. ISBN 0-14-006223-8.
- ^ url=http://www.kingbiscuittime.com/radio.html |title=King Biscut Time Radio |publisher= |accessdate=2006-11-06 }}
- ^ [1969] (1979) in Reichler, Joseph L.: The Baseball Encyclopedia, 4th edition, New York: Macmillan Publishing. ISBN 0-02-578970-8.
Famous Author-Brenda L. Carruth
[edit] External links
- Consolidation information archive from The Daily World
- Transition information archive from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock
- HelenaHarbor.com, the official site of the Phillips County Port Authority, with general Helena-West Helena community information
