Mena (Arkansas)
| Mena | |||
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Location in Arkansas
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | September 18, 1896 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Arkansas | ||
| County : | Polk County | ||
| Coordinates : | 34 ° 35 ′ N , 94 ° 14 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 ) | ||
| Residents : | 5,737 (as of 2010) | ||
| Population density : | 327.8 inhabitants per km 2 | ||
| Area : | 17.6 km 2 (approx. 7 mi 2 ) of which 17.5 km 2 (approx. 7 mi 2 ) is land |
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| Height : | 357 m | ||
| Postal code : | 71953 | ||
| Area code : | +1 870 | ||
| FIPS : | 05-45170 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 0072626 | ||
| Website : | www.visitmena.com | ||
Mena is a city and the US state of Arkansas and the administrative seat of Polk County . About 5700 people live in an area of over 17 square kilometers.
Mena is part of the Ark-La-Tex socio-economic region that includes several cities in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana , Oklahoma, and Texas .
history
Mena was founded in 1896 by entrepreneur Arthur Stilwell during the construction of the Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Gulf Railroad , which ran from Kansas City , Missouri to Port Arthur , Texas . The train service operated Mena from 1896. The name of the city was derived from Folmina Margaretha Janssen-De Goeijen , the wife of his friend and financier Jan de Goeijen, who was nicknamed Mena . The official founding day is December 18, 1896, since the city has been officially listed as the city of the state of Arkansas since that day.
In 1897 the Bank of Mena was founded. In 1898 the county seat was moved here from neighboring Dallas . Already in 1900 the population was 3423. The city's largest branches of industry were the production of timber, agriculture and the extraction of minerals. Despite all that, Mena was advertised primarily as a resort town in a healthy environment. In 1906, the founder, Stilwell, donated more land to the city, and parks and campsites were also built.
In the east of the city, the black community of Little Africa emerged , which had 152 inhabitants by 1900. In 1901 a black man was lynched after an argument with a white man . No one was imprisoned for the crime, and xenophobia and violence against black people emerged in the years that followed. This and dwindling job opportunities prompted many blacks to move out of the city. By 1910, the population of Little Africa had dropped to 16.
The city's boom was halted for the time being in 1910 when the railroad operator moved its sales facilities to Heavener , Oklahoma , and around 800 jobs were lost. In addition, the city was hit by a strong tornado in 1911.
In the March 18, 1920 issue, Mena was advertised as being "100% white" in The Mena Star newspaper . Two years later, a local group of the racially motivated Ku Klux Klan was founded for the first time . From 1927 onwards, the Mena Commercial Club designed advertising posters which, in addition to the "pure, pleasant water" and the "beautiful landscape", also advertised the fact that there were "no Negroes" in the city. Like many other cities at that time, Mena became a so-called sundown town , i.e. a completely white city.
In the 1950s, a government program was published aimed at hoarding manganese . This led to the fact that numerous old mines, some of which had been closed since the 1890s, were reopened and operated. However, the program was terminated in 1959 and the mines closed again.
In the early 1980s, drug smuggler and former CIA agent Barry Seal used the city as a base of operations. He carried out extensive money laundering activities and owned the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport regional airport , where his numerous planes and helicopters took off and he kept sophisticated radar equipment.
On April 9, 2009, Mena was hit by a tornado that injured or killed 30 people. Many homes and businesses were destroyed. Arkansas National Guard ground and air forces have been dispatched to Mena. With wind speeds of up to 266 km / h, the cyclone was classified as EF-3 on the Extended Fujita Scale .
Demographics
According to the 2000 census , there were 5637 people in Mena at the time. These were divided between 2,431 households and 1,546 families. This corresponded to a population density of around 323 people per square kilometer. 96.9% of the residents were white, 2.2% Hispanic or Latin American, 0.9% American Indian, 0.3% Asian, 0.2% black and 0.1% Pacific islander. 0.5% of the residents came from other ethnic groups, 1.2% had two or more ethnic groups. The median age was 41 and the per capita income was about $ 14,700.
The 2010 census showed a population increase from 100 to 5737 inhabitants.
Parks
An estimated 1.2 million visitors come to the city every year just because of the parks. Many of the parks still consist of almost untouched nature, such as the Talimena Scenic Drive or the Queen Wilhelmina State Park . The Cossatot River is part of the National Wild and Scenic River system . Lake Ouachita and a total reserve are in the immediate vicinity of the city.
traffic
The city is served by regional air traffic via the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport . In addition, the US highways 59 and 71 run on a common route from the southwest to the northeast of the city.
Personalities
- Olin E. Teague (1910–1981), former American politician and war veteran
- T. Texas Tyler (1916–1972), former country singer
- Dennis L. Montgomery (* 1953), software designer
- Nate Bell (born 1969), politician and MP in the Arkansas House of Representatives
Web links
- The city of Mena website (English)
- Information and statistics to the city (English)
- City profile on arkansas.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heise : Arms and Drug Trafficking in the Service of the US Government , July 24, 2003, loaded October 6, 2017