Forgotten Tales of Arkansas

Forgotten Tales

by Edward L. Underwood, Karen J. Underwood

Take a journey through Arkansas' forgotten past and find the colorful characters, unusual stories and strange occurrences left out of conventional history books. Authors Edward and Karen Underwood weave fact and fun in this offbeat, gripping and little-known history of the Natural State. Discover the Tantrabobus monster rumored to lurk in the hills of the Ozarks, meet the imposters who faked the state's first history museum and learn the story behind Arkansas' lost amusement park, Dogpatch, USA. Truth really is stranger than fiction in Arkansas, and this one-of-a-kind state has the stories to prove it

Genres: History

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2012

Reviews

[Andrew Epperson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some interesting stories in this about Arkansas’ past, including a religious war in Jonesboro started by an actor/comic-turned-preacher and a trans doctor in Mena beloved by all until his sexual anatomy was discovered. Additionally, the history of Dogpatch USA and Carry A. Nation were fun to read about.
My complaint, as a native Arkansan, is that the writers clearly tried to market this to an out-of-state audience. In doing so, their prose was thick with sarcasm and mockery about the state. Because of their self-described style, it may seem to people who are not from here that they were “kind” in how they portrayed many parts of the state. Arkansas needs to progress in a plethora of ways, but pointing out its flaws while also waxing on about the stupidity of its people will accomplish nothing and also turn them away from said progress. They’re the ones who must make the decision to make these changes, right? So, instead of using their shortcomings for literary and monetary gain, maybe changing the writing style would’ve been a better way to reflect their dignity while also noting their idiosyncrasies.
Interesting book, but it was hard for me to get past the superiority espoused by the writers. People who make fun of the intelligence of others should take care to spell towns’ names right.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting information but the writing has a condescending tone that insults Arkansans.

[Emma Lorraine Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really did not like these authors style of writing. They spoke as if they love Arkansas but they often sounded very patronizing of us Arkansans I also hated them calling it Bizzarrkansas and the fact that they are ghost tour people shows big time. There were also multiple obvious typos and grammar mistakes which is wild of them.

I learned some cool knew things that I hadn’t already known but I felt like they were highlighting stories about bad people or not so great things for almost all of the book it was refreshing when we finally got to read about a good person and that is not what I wanted when I picked up this book. When there was finally an interesting section it would be super short and felt almost like a bullet point.

[James Edward Powelk · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little fun but not many forgotten or unknown tales for me

I enjoyed this book somewhat, but it did not live up to the title. Except for one or two stories, I didn't learn many unknown or forgotten tales about my state. However, a tourist.visiting our great state,may enjoy and learn a little from this book. On the plus side, this book is an easy and quick read that will kill a few hours. Overall, if a fan of Arkansas, give it a shot, it wont cost you much time and for Prime Members, it won't cost any money.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun information about Arkansas