Information Sheet

 

 

R         Missouri Pacific Railway Company.

459                  Missouri Pacific--Iron Mountain Lines, booklets, ca. 1911.

                                    One folder.

 

 

 

These are illustrated promotional booklets advertising railroad lands for sale in north­east­ern and central Arkansas.  The booklets include descriptions and photographs of twenty‑one counties, with information on agricultural production, stock raising, and railroad connections in the region.

 

The Missouri Pacific and St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern rail­way companies pub­lished these booklets to advertise 500,000 acres of land in Arkansas.  The booklets were pro­duced by the agricultural, immi­gration, and industrial departments of the railroads and was designed to be mailed upon request to prospective buyers.  They bear the logo “Mis­souri Pacific ‑ Iron Mountain Lines” and the return address of J. N. Anderson, Immigration Agent, 103 Missouri Pa­cific Build­ing, St. Louis, Missouri.  The material is not dated but the text indicates that it was written after 1911 and before the merger of the railway lines in 1917 which formed the Missouri Pacific Rail­road Company.

 

One booklet covers northeastern Arkansas and includes information on Clay, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Green, Lee, Monroe, Phillips, Poin­sett, St. Francis, and Woodruff counties.  The other, for central Arkan­sas, treats Garland, Grant, Hot Spring, Jackson, Lawrence, Lonoke, Pu­laski, and White counties.  The advertising format is the same for both booklets.  Each contains photographs of farms and agricultural scenes, and a brief narrative for each county which includes statistical informa­tion, notes on the principal towns, and statements on the advantages of Arkansas lands for farming and stock raising.  Also included are maps of the rail lines in the Missouri Pacific ‑ Iron Mountain system, and the addresses of railroad repre­sentatives who supplied timetables, guides, and maps to homeseekers.

 

The rail lines hoped to stimulate immigration, develop markets and business, and raise capi­tal through land sales.  They offered tracts to suit the purchaser at seven to fifteen dollars per acre, available at one quarter down with the balance at six percent interest.  The oppor­tunities for devel­opment are highly touted.  One photograph of cropland in Arkan­sas bears the caption, “With land like this you can't help but make good.”  For an example of similar adver­tising produced by the Missouri Pacific, see WHMC-Rolla #R156, “The Arcadia Country,” a booklet published in about 1920.

 

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