Bauxite, Arkansas

Strange, I can't describe what it is like when you are already in mid-age and find out things about your past or lineage, that previously were unknown to you.
While I am sure that in the many trips that were made by my parents to Arkansas in my childhood, I cannot remember ever going to Bauxite. I do remember Benton and some relatives but not this mythical Bauxite that was talked of within the Crawford/Ragan side.
April 2008, when dad was back in Lebanon, we decided that it was time to introduce me to the family that I didn't know, and see Bauxite while we were at it.








This is a plaque for my Great-Grandpa & Grandma Ragan, I never met either one; in fact the whole side of my fathers family is mostly unknown to me, that's what this trip was all about.












This shows the location of the plaque, it is the third to the left, superceded by Alcoa and Reynolds who owns Bauxite.














This house was one of the houses that bosses and high end would have lived in in Bauxite, now it is home for a caretaker. Nothing much has been changed to the exterior except for using vinyl siding. This was pretty high living back in the 30's-40's in rural Arkansas.




What you are looking at now is the community center for the workers. The story is told of what Grandpa Cass would do. After he had gotten too old to work in the mines,(I have been informed by father, that my informationis incorrect; he contracted out wagon, horses and drivers to haul the ore out of the mines) the company had given him the job of janitor/caretaker for the facility. I have cleaned up the verbage, but I am told whenever someone would be doing something reckless or even driving faster than Cass liked, he would yell from the porch, "Go on, Hell ain't half full yet!"