Plantation Agriculture Museum

In preserving the state's rich heritage of plantation life and cotton agriculture, the Plantation Agriculture Museum offers visitors a glimpse of the past. Exhibits and programs interpret the period from Arkansas' admission to the Union in 1836, through World War II, when agricultural practices rapidly became mechanized. Tractors, mechanized cotton pickers, and modern chemicals forever replaced the old system of plantation agriculture and small farms.

Exhibits

Unlike farms, plantations were extremely large and self-supporting. Fifty years ago, visitors to Scott, Arkansas, would have found cotton plantations of 1,000 to 7,000 acres. Most plantations consisted of a main house and tenant quarters, mule barn, church, school, commissary, blacksmith shop and cotton gin. Many people, particularly laborers, rarely ventured beyond the plantation borders.

A rare gin (the only one known to exist in the continental United States) and a 500-pound cotton bale with traditional jute covering are exhibited in the museum's Plantation Agriculture section. This section interprets field preparation, planting and crop maintenance, as well as the cotton harvest from field to gin.

Plows, fertilizers, planters, cultivators, poisoners and historic photo murals of the implements in use, surround a visitor-activated model of a plantation. This scale model gives museum guests an understanding of typical plantation layout and the relationship between fields and structures.

The museum's Plantation Life section contains exhibits that interpret labor and nonagricultural activities. Aspects of the changing plantation labor force are documented in the labor exhibit. Other exhibits focus on equipment maintenance, food preparation and economics.

The reconstructed 1890s blacksmith shop contains a double action bellows and a wooden forge lined with clay. Tongs, grinders, a drill press, an anvil and hammers also were used by the blacksmith to keep the plantation's equipment in working order.

The plantation kitchen exhibit includes objects that many visitors are able to recognize. Before the widespread use of electricity, an ice box and wood-burning cook stove could have been found in most Arkansas homes.

All plantations included a commissary (store) where sharecroppers could charge food and merchandise against the upcoming cotton crop they were expected to raise. The commissary office exhibit contains furniture and office equipment that would have been common in the 1920s.

Step outside to see larger exhibits. The cotton pen is a movable structure built on runners. Pulled by mules or a tractor, it was positioned near the field being picked. Workers put newly picked cotton in the pen, where it was held until wagons hauled the crop to a gin.

Massive traction engines are exhibited next to the pen. These giant machines are early models and have steel lugged wheels powered by one-cylinder steam engines. Generally regarded as portable powerhouses, they were more likely to have powered threshers or cotton gins than to have pulled plows.

Modern tractors did not appear until the 1920s. Tractors became increasingly popular, to the point that sharecroppers were "tractored off" the land by machines that could do the work of several men with mules. The tractors signify the beginning of mechanized cotton agriculture in the early 1940s.

Building

The museum was originally constructed in 1912 as a general store. The smaller north wing, added in 1929, served as the Scott, Arkansas, Post Office. When the store closed and the post office moved in the early 1960s, a local planter, Mr. Robert L. Dortch, converted the building to a plantation museum. Today, after a complete structural renovation and the installation of interpretive exhibits, the museum provides easy access to Arkansas' legacy of cotton agriculture.

Programs

The Plantation Agriculture Museum welcomes visitors any time during operating hours.

Also, the museum offers special tours and programs for groups and school classes. Please arrange these tours and programs in advance by writing or calling the museum. Allow at least one hour for an organized museum tour. Outreach programs also can be presented at your location.

Location

The museum is located 14 miles from Little Rock at the junction of US Highway 165 and Arkansas Highway 161 at Scott.

Hours of Operation

OPEN:
Tuesday through Saturday - 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sunday - 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

CLOSED:
Monday (except Monday holidays), Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day

Admission is Free

For further information, contact:

Plantation Agriculture Museum
PO Box 87
Scott, Arkansas 72142
Telephone: (501) 961-1409

For more information on other Arkansas attractions, contact:

Arkansas State Parks
One Capitol Mall, 4A-900
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
Telephone: (501) 682-1191

All park services are provided on a nondiscriminatory basis. Arkansas State Parks is an Equal Opportunity Employer.