Plans Made For State Police Museum
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
Retired and active state police with help
from the widow of a state police director are reviving plans for an
Arkansas State Police museum.
Their nonprofit organization hopes to open a museum in two years
to tell visitors the story of the agency since its beginnings in
1935 under superintendent Gray Albright and his 13 state police
"rangers."
The agency was created to combat moonshiners. Now, the Arkansas
State Police has 500 troopers who handle a wide-range of law
enforcement work.
Retired Major Jim Elliott says he will NOT let the idea die.
In a dimly lit storage room at the State Police Association
building are the beginnings of a museum collection. There`s a dress
uniform jacket from about 1937, long and blue with shiny buttons.
Among some dated plaques is a 1942 death mask, a cast of
death-row inmate Ben Adams` face after his execution for killing
the owner of "Mr. Bowie`s Whiskey Store." Masks like this once
lined a hallway leading to a room where troopers took tests for
promotions at the old state police headquarters.
