BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Longtime residents of Bentonville gathered at Old High Middle School — Bentonville High School's former home — to reminisce on the city's past.
Randy McRory of Vintage Bentonville presented "Bentonville: The Way You Remember It" to a full auditorium at the historic school on Sept. 28. His presentation put together photographs of Bentonville from the 1950s. McRory said he has collected over 10,000 Benton County historical artifacts, which are now displayed completely free on Vintage Bentonville's website.
"Trying to find the history has been rather interesting over time, being that I've been collecting for over 24 years, and have had an opportunity to pick up a lot of things," McRory said.
Saturday was a homecoming for Terry Black Coverly, an alumnus of Bentonville's old high. She remembers living in the county jailhouse as the sheriff's daughter and spending her summers in the cold spring-fed pools.
"It was just this really sweet and innocent way to grow up," Coverly said. "That's the part of Bentonville that I miss now, but it's a double-edged sword, you know? I mean, if you don't grow you die."
But, the time to reminisce is also important in Bentonville's history. It was a time when a young entrepreneur was forced out of his Newport Ben Franklin store and then decided to buy a store on Bentonville Square. Sam Walton was a name new to the area but is now well-known in Arkansas and beyond.
"I went to kindergarten with Jim, and Alice was a year behind me, and John was two years ahead of me in the class of '64," Coverly said.
Coverly also spent time as a Bentonville Mayor. Continuing her servitude in a lineage of public servants, she shared her concerns for her hometown's future.
"The infrastructure, you know, I just don't know how the water supply and the wastewater and the traffic can sustain it," Coverly said. "When I was growing up, I didn't know that Jim's daddy had more money than my daddy. the policeman, you know, but now there's a huge gap between the haves and the have-nots. That's what concerns me a lot. And housing is so expensive now."
From a population of a few thousand to nearly 60,000 and from a rural small town to a growing urban city, Bentonville's growth is still going.
"I think there needs to be a well balance between progress and history, and I think a community that's going to thrive is going to see that balance and try keeping it in check," McRory said.
"The leadership in Bentonville and Benton County are going to have to really think outside the box," Coverly said.
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