Lake Wilson Painting                    by Laura Botsford

Portland, Arkansas has a beauty all of its own.   The following excerpt is from  ‘Beyond Bartholomew, The Portland Area History’  – Rebecca DeArmond-Huskey              

  “We Want 5,ooo People By 1909”

   More people, more commerce, more prosperity. In the early 1900’s , Dr. F. M. Sherrer was advertising to sell farm and timber land “from $7.00 to $25.00 an acre.” In a published pamphlet he wrote an irresistible invitation to come to the land of  plenty       

” …situated in a country where the roses bloom the whole year round, as snow and ice are seldom present, but where the sun shines warm every day. Where the mockingbirds wake you at the first peep of day by filing the soft dewy breezes with sweet music. In the Sunny South where the sugar cane and melons grow; where the cricket chirps his sweet good-night…