calsfoundation@cals.org
Armorel High School
Project Link Coming Soon
Project Name: History of Armorel
Project Team: Kaitlyn Walters, Adleigh Rouse, Lilly Miller & Lauren Lloyd
EAST Facilitator: Lindsey Rouse
Armorel High School Young Historian Journal
Armorel is a small, quaint town whose historical importance is in jeopardy of becoming obsolete like many small towns in Arkansas. As rich as the history of Armorel is, there is very little documentation of this for others to find. At best, first-hand accounts from lifelong residents and a yearbook are the best resources for developing an appreciation for the area. We wanted to be able to provide an accurate and rich account of Armorel’s history for generations to come in a centralized location that is accessible to everyone. We decided the best approach, for now, would be to create a documentary that can be shared in numerous ways across many platforms. We are using these resources to create the storyboard for a printed book as well. The sources we have used for this project are local citizens, limited online resources, and old yearbooks. We plan on sharing this with the community through a printed book, our social media pages and it will be made available on our school’s website. We view our work as being a resource for teachers in the classrooms as well as community partners looking to attract new industry and individuals.
Armorel has a strong industrial presence and has experienced tremendous growth on this front, but inconsistent with this type of growth, Armorel has also experienced a decline in population in recent years. Documenting the history from previous years while writing the history as it continues to be made will provide an awareness and appreciation for the town we are members of and spur growth. Something we would do differently on a project like this is our team would have meetings more often to discuss what we gathered and we would work harder to meet our deadlines. We had limited time in the EAST classroom and this made it difficult to find a time to work together. We did utilize time outside of class and worked through our lunch for several days. It was challenging to get in contact with business owners and find a way to make our schedule work alongside theirs. We had to search through our school’s libraries to find documents and yearbooks, which was time-consuming and didn’t always produce the information we were searching for. The next question that could be answered is why has there been so little documentation and how can we prevent this undocumented past moving forward.
The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System is dedicated to preserving the heritage and history of the communities we serve and to collaborate with other groups to build strong community-wide information resources. To assist us in accomplishing this goal, we are challenging EAST programs to collect, archive, and share local history that is important to your community. The most successful entries will use a variety of sources and media types to find and analyze historical evidence and to tell the compelling stories of their town using media technology in creative ways.