A recent historic photo submitted to the City of Imboden website peaked my curiousity and really got my wheels turning about the history of our small town. I didn’t know what year the photo was taken. Why there are small crowds of people gathered here and there in the photo. Were they posing for the photographer or was it just another day on Main Street in Imboden at the time? I wondered about the names of two ladies peaking out of the upstairs window of the two story building. When I put together the history and historic photo’s of Imboden for www.imbodenarkansas.com I found some information online, through stories that citizens of Imboden remembered, and gathered most of what I pieced together from documents, albums, and books at the Bobbie Jean Memorial Library. I learned that Imboden can boast of having the youngest mayor in the United States in the year 1912. Joe Sullivan was also paralyzed, stuggled to achieve his education due to his disabilities (his brothers carried him up the academy steps so he could sit in a classroom with his peers), and went on to author books and many of his writings were in local newspapers of the time period.
Our little town is also the current home to two published authors that I know of. Darlene Martin and Altha Murphy. Both ladies have written serveral books in recent years.
I discovered that historic Imboden once had an outdoor movie theatre, a large hotel,a ferry, and a polar bear was buried on the Sloan-Hendrix school campus.
I hope these little stories and others like them aren’t just lost or forgotten over the years. I encourage long time residents to share their tales and old photographs. If you have stories of Imboden or photographs that you would like added into the history of Imboden on the website or if you would like to have posted here on Imbodenlive.com contact me at admin@imbodenlive.com. If you don’t have access to a scanner to email the photo’s I would be happy to meet you at the library to scan any photograph’s you would like to share.
I am also interested in trying to plan a town genealogy get together. Maybe meeting at the local library on a certain date and time, open to anyone in the community interested in sharing local stories and photo’s for the purpose of documenting them to be posted on the City of Imboden website and to be displayed at the library. Leave me a comment , take the poll of the week located in the Imbodenlive.com sidebar, or email me if you think you would like to take part.
photo submitted by Michelle Wildrick
The above photo can also be found on the City of Imboden website.