Bobby Hopper died last Friday at age 89. He not only became a close personal friend, but what he did for Eureka Springs and how he did it almost defies belief.
When Dave Drennon had the Pine Mountain Jamboree, and was on the City Council, we only had a one-lane street to the top of Planer Hill where you had to wait to turn right for everybody to turn left, Bobby widened that intersection for us to relieve the problem. And again, where Highway 62 meets Highway 23 south to Huntsville, there was the same problem holding up traffic for those turning right from 23 to 62, waiting for those turning left. He cured that problem, as well.
But his crowning achievement for this town, on a past visit by Mr. Hopper, I told him my grandfather, third term Mayor Claude A. Fuller, was responsible for the paving of 5 miles of city streets for the first time, at a great savings to the residents of the city. At that time, a state law was in force that permitted the State Highway Department to build highways through cities and towns if the community would pay one-half of the expense.
And through Fuller’s knowledge of state law, and his personal persuasion politically, the state ended up paving the streets of Eureka Springs. 6% Improvement Bonds of Eureka Springs Paving District #1 in $500 amounts, aggregating $10,000, were signed by Mayor Claude Fuller on the 1st day of October 1929. But after they were issued, the state paid for everything, and I have those bonds in our museum at the downtown bank.
Bobby Hopper was appointed by Governor Bill Clinton in 1983, and served on the Arkansas Highway Commission until 1999, a period of 16 years. He was also the first commissioner to serve two terms as Chair of the Commission.
Main Street was getting in bad shape, and something had to be done. I had told Bobby that he couldn’t just do a cement over-lay on the existing cement on Main Street from the top of Planer Hill to the depot, but that he had to pull up the old concrete so the new concrete addition would be the same level as the old, so as not to flood the town, because flooding of the courthouse, auditorium and other buildings on the east side of Main Street would be inevitable.
This gave the city enough time to put new water and sewer lines down Main Street.
And, Bobby Hopper did another thing that was of great benefit to the city, and that was, since we are a tourist town, he ordered the Highway Department to only work on the project seasonally, from November to March of each year. It took them three or four years to finish the project. Generally speaking, when the Highway Department comes into a town, they stay until they get it done, but for Eureka Springs, they made an exception.
Friends like that are hard to find. He has received one of our calendars every year since he finished the “Great Eureka Springs Project.” But the intersection of Spring and Main, up past the Crescent Hotel and out to the Inn of the Ozarks, is still that 1929 historic highway that was put down by my grandfather Fuller.
John Fuller Cross