Plans Made For State Police Museum

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.