WWW arkcity.net

By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer

The forerunner of Arkalalah was a giant flower parade that was part of the 14th annual reunion of the Southwestern Soldiers and Sailors in the fall of 1900 at Riverside Park on the banks of the Walnut River at East Madison Avenue. According to a front-page Traveler story on Oct. 26, 1955, the parade was "the greatest event of the kind ever witnessed."

It ended with a "grand flambeau" illuminated from start to finish with thousands of Roman candles and skyrockets. Earlier, thousands of visitors who gathered for the reunion attended four days of talks presented by visiting dignitaries on the "burning issues of the times," the article, written by Margaret Flick, said.

"Visiting bands had paraded, maneuvered and competed with the music of the carousel and ... the small midway with its various booths," the article stated. "The children were competing in all types of sack, running and three-legged races for coveted treasures..."

The description of that event sounds familiar generations of Arkansas Citians who have experienced Arkalalah -- a giant parade, reunion and fun and games.

The carnival games and rides in the 1950s were on the side streets, just off Summit Street, downtown. Children and adults spent the day wandering around. When they got tired, they'd stop for a cotton candy or caramel apple, or to sit and play bingo under a tent.

It's more controlled now, with the carnival boxed into a parking lot. Nevertheless, as the Traveler editorialized on Nov. 4, 1957: "In some ways Arkalalah never changes. There is always the atmosphere and tiny tots who cry while others laugh. Youngsters balk and bawl when their parents lead them along the street or they go along grinning..."

In her book "The Lust for Land," Lucy Neumann writes that the originators of Arkalalah were three businessmen: John Floyd, an insurance man; Clyde Boggs, president of the Kanotex Refinery, and Pat Somerfield, local tire merchant. They reportedly came up with the idea while they sat around a table at the old Arkansas City Petroleum Club, located over the former Dye Drug Store.

However, others -- besides the three men -- undoubtedly were involved in organizing the first Arkalalah festivals. One was Edith Joyce Davis, who had worked two summers in traveling chautauquas -- educational and entertainment events held in towns throughout the Midwest. Davis, who lived to be over 100 years old before her death several years ago, was a longtime teacher in Ark City. She remembered touring on the chautauquas with William Jennings Bryan.

A main purpose of Arkalalah, she said, was to entertain and engage the town's kids, keeping them out of trouble during Halloween.

The first Arkalalah queen, crowned in the fall of 1928 in the elegant Fifth Avenue Opera House (which stood where the Ark City Recreation Center is now, at Fifth Avenue. and B Street), was Dorothy Moore. According to the Traveler, "It was a colorful and beautiful presentation. Snow fairies, heralds, special dancers and singers performed in a gorgeous setting prepared by Mrs. E. F. Day... There were queens sent from 21 neighboring cities."

In the Traveler's Oct. 25, 1955 edition under the headline "Hard Decision on Arkalalah," the paper reported: "The town was slightly divided in 1953 on Coronation Eve with hard decisions made by everyone as to whether to see the ceremony or go to the high school football game in Wichita.

"All those who decided to stay here were in a tense state, wondering what the score was, how the team was playing and who was winning. Just before the coronation finale, the master of ceremonies sent the crowd into wild applause and excitement with the announcement that the Bulldogs were leading Wichita East 13 to 0... With the announcement of the final score -- 52-0 -- the roar that went up from the crowd was heard several blocks away. The win gave the Bulldogs top Ark Valley and state prep rating, shattering Wichita East's hope for the same."

In the same special Arkalalah issue of 1955 (Oct. 25), the Traveler also reported that Channel 5 in Enid, Okla., presented a 25-minute program on Arkalalah the year before (1954). The show included interviews with local city and Chamber of Commerce officials, visiting queens and Queen Alalah I, Mrs. Russell Harbaugh, of Enid, the former Miss Dorothy Moore.

The Arkalalah theme in 1955 was the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad. It was in 1880, exactly 10 years after the Ark City townsite was laid out, that the Santa Fe completed its north-south line into Arkansas City. And Ark City became the southern railroad departure point into Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

A float in the 1957 Arkalalah parade -- labeled "From Injuns to Engines" (a phrase that today might appear insensitive to Native Americans) -- celebrated Oklahoma's 100th anniversary of statehood. It became a state in 1907.

Writing about that float -- and her entire Arkalalah experience in 1957 -- Virginia Ranney, a fourth-grader from Roosevelt School, said: "On Arkalalah our parade was just wonderful. There was a beautiful black stallion that was my favorite but there were many beautiful floats and bands and other horses that I liked a lot, too.

"There was one float that had a little ball on it that was supposed to be sputnik. And the queen's float was just beautiful. The Indians were wonderful. That band of Indians from Arizona and the beautiful Chilocco Indians with their lovely costumes and that cute float "From Injuns to Engines." And then we went to the carnival. It was a lovely day."