The Plantation Agriculture Museum in Scott, Arkansas, is a local museum showcasing the agricultural history of the area. Located near the Pulaski County and Lonoke County line, approximately east of Little Rock, Arkansas (Pulaski County), the museum park sits in the Arkansas River lowlands, near the north shore of Horseshoe Lake.
The General Store and Post Office buildings are constructed in the Prairie Style of architecture.
History
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase added vast expanses of uncharted land west of the Mississippi River, attracting planters in search of new opportunities. Some of these settlers were drawn to the fertile lands along the Arkansas River in central Arkansas. The area now known as Scott was first settled in the mid-1800s, with Chester Ashley among its early founders. Conoway Scott Sr. arrived in the 1830s, eventually establishing several successful ventures, including a large plantation. Scott’s landholdings were later intersected by the St. Louis Railroad, also called the “Cotton Belt,” and “Scott’s Station” or “Scott’s Crossing” became a regular stop. Damaged signage at Scott’s Station eventually shortened the name to simply “Scott,” giving rise to the town's name.
By the early twentieth century, Scott had developed into a thriving community dominated by cotton plantations. As these plantations expanded, local merchants opened several general stores. One of the most notable structures, a large brick building constructed in 1912 by Conoway Scott Jr., served as a general store. Although he commissioned the store, Scott never operated it himself.
Over the years, the store was run by various proprietors, though the exact dates and ownership details remain unclear. The earliest known operators included Brown, or possibly Brown/Pearson. At one point, the store was known as the Steele-Dortch store. Later, the Foster family operated the establishment as Foster’s Store, which continued into the early 1960s. A post office was added to the northwest side of the building in 1929 and remained in use until a new post office was opened in the early 1960s.
In 1948, Robert L. Dortch, a prominent plantation owner and cotton seed breeder in Scott, Arkansas, built a Cotton Seed Warehouse to support his expanding seed business. His previous cotton seed warehouse #4 (built ) was inadequate for the volume of seed he intended for sale and planting. Dortch selected this new location for its convenient access to the highway and the Cotton Belt Railroad line, with a spur line running directly beside the warehouse. The warehouse design included an auger system and sloping sides to accommodate large piles of seed, incorporating improvements Dortch had developed from his experience with earlier warehouses.
Plantation Museum The general store remained in use until the 1960s. The building became the Plantation Museum in c. 1966. Dortch and his daughter Floride Dortch Rebsamen purchased the building and operated a museum documenting Arkansas's cotton farming life until Mr. Dortch’s death in 1972. The Plantation Museum featured most of the artifacts still in the museum’s collection. The collection was amassed by Mr. Dortch and Mrs. Rebsamen. Floride started a “key club” by which local people could drop off artifacts in the museum during Mrs. Rebsamen’s absences to Arizona. Plans for the "Plantation Museum" were impressive, including designs for a living history compound of more than 20 structures the Dortches believed illustrated an everyday Arkansas cotton plantation. Although those plans were never fully realized, the museum did grow to include thousands of artifacts ranging from blacksmith tools and kitchen appliances to a pair of huge steam traction engines and tractors.
Bearskin Lake Railroad Dortch established the Scott and Bearskin Lake Railroad as a tourist railway as part of the Plantation Agriculture Museum near Scott, Arkansas, in the 1960s and after his death in 1978, his son closed it and began moving steam locomotives, rolling stock and trackage to the Victorian tourist destination Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and reopened it as the Eureka Springs and North Arkansas Railway.Plantation Agriculture Museum - Encyclopedia of ArkansasNews & Featured Releases: Arkansas Media Room
Plantation Agriculture Museum On December 7, 1984, Jo Luck Wilson, Executive Director of the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism, Greg Butts and Bill Paxton from the Planning and Development Section met with Representative Bill Foster and the Dortch family Lawyer, John Edwards at the museum. A January 24, 1985 memo said. "The visit was made at the request of Representative William "Bill" Foster of District 71, son of the last owner of Fosters General Store. Representative Foster had previously suggested that the following resources could possibly be purchased by the state from Mr. Robert Dortch and be utilized as a museum administered by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism." The memo goes on to describe the property as being two parcels of land that included the museum building and the cotton gin across the street from the museum, about five acres total. The memo notes, "A very large collection of farm machinery, tools and related agricultural equipment used in the Scott area during the first half of the 20th century." Mrs. Wilson added recommendations to the memo which indicated a plan to proceed with creating a museum from the property. She pointed out the need for financial strategies to be formed to support operations and salaries as well as capital outlay. She said that long range plans for growth needed to be formulated that would lead to accreditation by the American Museums Association. All of Mrs. Wilson's concerns were addressed in a master plan document created by Wesley Creel, the Division Director of Historical Resources and Museum Services and Representative Foster saw to the funding and resources needed to begin the museum. Representative Foster then convinced the Arkansas Legislature to approve funding for land and building acquisition and renovation.
The Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism entered into negotiations with the Dortch Gin Company to acquire the Plantation Museum in 1985. The warranty deed was filed in Pulaski County on April 14, 1986, giving the museum to Arkansas State Parks for the sum of one dollar. When the museum was finally purchased, the Dortch family allowed the artifacts to remain in the building as a donation. Scores of large artifacts that were displayed outside were included. The state also acquired the Seed Warehouse #5 beside Highway 165. Personnel to begin operations at the museum were not hired until 1987. The years until 1989 were spent remodeling the building and storing the collections. All of the museum’s collections were moved into the Seed Warehouse #5 using inmate labor. It housed the collections until the museum structure was refurbished.
The Main Gallery and Post Office Gallery Phase I construction was completed in summer 1989. On June 25, 1989, the museum was dedicated and a ribbon cutting was held. The Director of Arkansas State Parks, Richard Davies gave the welcome address. Speakers included Representative Doug Woods, Senator Max Howell, Representative W.F. "Bill" Foster and Jo Luck Wilson, Executive Director of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism. Plantation Agriculture Museum's new mission was listed to “collect, preserve, record, and interpret the history of cotton agriculture. The museum opened with the post office wing only as exhibit space. The main gallery was used as office space and collection storage”. Phase II construction saw the completion of the main gallery and an expansion of exhibits. The exhibits were designed to show the processes of growing cotton "from the field to the gin," and included glimpses into plantation life with a kitchen and blacksmith exhibit. The second opening was officially held September 29, 1990. The MOF set aside for exhibits was a little over $5,000.00.Swadley, Ben, and Joan Ellison. “Pulaski County State Parks: The Plantation Agriculture Museum.” Pulaski County Historical Review 57 (Winter 2009): 139–144.Allin, Richard. “Old Plantations Never Die—In Arkansas.” Arkansas Gazette, June 25, 1967, p. 5E.
Collections Management Facility The museum's collection management facility (CMF) was built in 1993 by J&D Construction Company. It houses the museum's collection of artifacts and is the conservation and exhibit construction area. The museum director, Ben Swadley, planned out the basic layout from other examples of collection facilities.
Dortch Cotton Gin The idea for the cotton gin building had its inception in 1993 when one of the museum founders and charter Plantation Agriculture Advisory Commission members, J. William Bevis Sr., heard that the Dortch Family was clearing land near Bearskin Lake and needed to tear down the Dortch Gin. Bevis approached the owner, Polly Dortch, and requested that the ginning equipment be donated to the museum. The museum and Mr. Bevis acted swiftly to put together a crew of inmates from the Wrightsville unit of the Arkansas Department of Corrections to disassemble the Munger System ginning equipment and move it to the museum grounds. The structure could not be saved in the time the owner allowed the museum to salvage what it could from the Bearskin Lake property, but all of the equipment numbering in the hundreds of pieces were salvaged.
In February, 1999, a North Little Rock architecture firm owned by Gary Clements was contracted to research and draft biddable plans for the construction of the gin on the museum property in Scott. Clements & Associates Architects drafted blueprints and researched the configuration of the gin equipment. Clements’ Project Manager Chris Dimon, worked with Jim Watson of J.W. Equipment, Inc. from Chandler Arizona to identify each of the hundreds of pieces and draft blueprints of how the ginning equipment would piece together in the new structure. Parks & Tourism and the architect settled on a design that would be much like the original structure, yet accommodate tour groups and persons with disabilities. The gin structure construction bid was awarded to HYDCO Construction, North Little Rock on Tues, Oct. 29th 2002. HYDCO finished construction by April, 2003.
All the gin parts were transported to the museum and placed in storage until 2003, when Conservation Solutions Inc. (CSI) was hired to conserve and install the ginning equipment. CSI transported much of the equipment that needed specialized conservation to their studios in Washington DC. The conservation work was concluded on site and installation began. CSI subcontracted with Jim Watson of J.W. Equipment, Inc. from Chandler Arizona who had been in the business for over 30 years and knew the layout and details of older ginning systems. Conservators and technicians remained on site to blend in the look of new components, such as ductwork missing from the original. The conservation team also had to supervise the installation and treatment of some artifacts in the gin building.
The project was completed in 2003. Exhibit funding from ANCRC remained until 2007, when the museum and Arkansas State Parks Exhibit shop added the final interpretive panels to the structure and wayside.
Seed Warehouse #5 Seed warehouse No. 5 was acquired by the Arkansas Dept. of Parks and Tourism in 1985 as part of the Plantation Agriculture Museum site. The first professional assessment of the warehouse was submitted on May 21, 2003, by Roy Eugene Graham during an on site visit to Seed Warehouse #5 at Plantation Agriculture Museum. On his visit, Graham consulted with Gaskin, Hill & Norcross Architect Richard Taylor, museum staff and planners about the warehouse stabilization plan. He also made recommendations about the structure’s preservation and conservation for long term care and development.