Organization is dedicated to the preservation to the community’s history, culture and structures
One of the first things some people wonder about Cane Hill, Ark., is “how do you spell it?” That may seem ridiculous, considering we just told you the town’s name.
But throughout nearly the last two centuries, there have been a lot of different ways to spell the unincorporated community that now only about 100 people call home.
The United States Post Office calls it Canehill. Others have called it Boonsboro or Boonesborough. Many in town, including the board members of Historic Cane Hill Inc., call it “Cane Hill” … two words, both capitalized.
There’s so much more to the town than a minor controversy on how to spell its name (or what to call it). Cane Hill is located approximately 20 miles southwest of Fayetteville and 6 miles east of the Oklahoma border. It has a long history of being both an education and agricultural hot spot in the state. According to the Historic Cane Hill website, it’s the location of one of the first four-year colleges chartered by the state of Arkansas, the site of the Civil War Battle of Cane Hill in 1862, and home to 17 sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
That history is celebrated yearly during the annual Cane Hill Harvest Festival, with the next scheduled for Sept. 21. The festival started in the mid-1980s by a volunteer committee as a fundraiser to maintain the college building. A nonprofit named Cane Hill College Association was started in the early 2000s to maintain the college, as the organization was renamed with an expanded mission in 2013, and the festival continued under volunteer committee leadership. The festival responsibilities were assumed by what is now the non-profit organization Historic Cane Hill, Inc. in 2023.
“For decades, members of the community have put countless hours into remembering and celebrating the history of this tiny community. The opportunity for Historic Cane Hill to assume the Harvest Festival ensured that festival tradition would continue, ” said Vanessa McKuin, executive director of Historic Cane Hill, Inc.
The Cumberland Presbyterians established the Cane Hill School that would evolve to Cane Hill Collegiate Institute before becoming Cane Hill College in 1852. It would be the first co-ed college in the state, according to the website. However, the college struggled to compete for enrollment with the nearby Arkansas Industrial University, what is now the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and the school’s charter was moved to Clarksville to become the University of the Ozarks.
Vanessa said the college missed being the first college in the state by one day and that “education was also very important to the community. People would move here to send their children to the school.”
Amanda Cothren, the nonprofit’s programs and events coordinator, agreed.
“I’m proud to brag that the community that settled here valued education enough to open one of the first colleges in the state of Arkansas, the first public library in the state, and to be the first to offer coeducational classes for men and women,” she said. “Guests’ jaws tend to drop open a bit when I mention those stats. We might look like a sleepy little community now, but in the late 1800s we were an extremely progressive sector of the state.”
Another draw to the town was the burgeoning economy. The community was built in the middle of an apple orchard, Vanessa said. The apple industry (and supporting industries) were the key to the town’s economy until the railroad decided to go through Lincoln instead of Cane Hill, she explained.
Milling of various resources, including a grist mill and a sawmill, was another major part of the town’s early economy. Cane Hill was a center of pottery production in Northwest Arkansas, with potters from various parts of the country, including the master potter J.D. Wilbur from Ohio.
The Historic Cane Hill Museum mentions the milling industry and reminds visitors of the apple industry and other aspects of life in early Cane Hill. The more than a dozen restored buildings surrounding the college building include historic homes, businesses, and, more recently, an apple barn the nonprofit plans to restore. The museum has upwards of 1,000 donated items from families who have shared from their history.
With Northwest Arkansas growing so rapidly, why is so much work this important? That growth is a part of the very reason.
“In a time when the public is leaning more and more into technology for educational and entertainment purposes, I feel it is essential to have locations like Historic Cane Hill open to the public. We offer tangible evidence of public development covering the span of more than 170 years,” Amanda said. “For me, it never gets old to experience the joy and wonder as visitors walk into buildings constructed in the 1800s. These structures have been standing since before my grandparents were born, and if Historic Cane Hill does our job correctly, they will still be standing after I have passed.”
Vanessa had similar thoughts.
“When HCH first started, the goal was to restore the college, then we started looking at several other buildings,” she said. “We have five big renovation projects going on currently. Our programs and events are bringing life back to the buildings but they will also be there for future generations.”
Preserving the history not only helps keep memories of one small community alive, but it also helps historians better understand rural communities and rural life.
For more information about the Historic Cane Hill Festival, the museum, and the nonprofit’s other programs, visit historiccanehillar.org.
