The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗On October 10, 1851, Sebastian County was created from parts of Arkansas' Crawford, Polk, and Scott counties, placing Bonanza within the boundaries. Coal was discovered near the Arkansas-Oklahoma line about 12 miles southeast of Fort Smith, Arkansas. In 1896, the Central Coal and Coke Company developed railroads in the area as part of the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, structuring Bonanza into a company town. Mine No. 10 did not yield sufficient results, but Mine No. 12 soon had 144 workers. Mine No. 20 employed 185 workers, and Mine No. 26 employed 76 workers. When workers and their families reached a sizable number, C.C. Woodson filed a petition to incorporate, and on November 26, 1898, the town was chartered.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Bonanza’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bonanza’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewWar at, 1904: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Bonanza, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Bonanza is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Bonanza has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Jenson Tunnel in Pocola, 1.8 miles away.
Bonanza and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as War at (1904) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.