After 21 years, one might think Don Warden knew everything that could be known about the history of Siloam Springs.

Not true, said Warden, director of the Siloam Springs Museum and author of a new book in the Images of America series.

Working on “Siloam Springs” for most of a year, Warden found photos he didn’t know existed and in others saw details he’d never seen before.

In a photo on Page 37, for example, a crowd has gathered on St. Nicholas Avenue - now Broadway - in the early 1900s.

Everyone’s attention is focused down the street - where a male lion is caged.

“The picture has got to have captured the moment of reaction to a roar,” Warden said. “Even the horse has turned its head that way.”

In a postcard image on Page 38, postmarked Oct. 7, 1913, a family of fi ve has been photographed during a day trip. On the back, Ida (last name unknown) tells the recipients of the card that the photo was taken after a drive from Siloam Springs to the nearby towns of Bloomfi eld and Cherokee City.

“The wind had blown us to pieces,” she wrote, “but it’s us anyway.”

Warden used his vast knowledge of the community’s history not just to choose the photos but to outline the book.

The chapter titles he proposed to Arcadia Publishing, which has chronicled several other Northwest Arkansas communities in photos, remain in the fi nished volume:

Pioneering Sagers and Town-Building Gunters: 1839-1860

Civil War and Reconstruction: 1861-1878

Siloam City From Book to Bust: 1879-1893

Saved by the Railroad: 1894-1929

The New Deal: 1930-1941

From World War II to the Bypass: 1942-1962

Downtown Versus the Bypass: 1963-Present

While Warden was looking back to the fi rst white settlement along Sager Creek in 1839; the first town, Hico, in 1845; andthe establishment of Siloam Springs in 1880, he was also looking forward to the future of the Siloam Springs Museum.

Raised in Michigan and educated at Michigan State University and the University of Arkansas, Warden has seen the museum grow during his tenure to the point where the city of Siloam Springs has voted to make it a city department and to acquire the 1937 post offce for a new museum.

The location at 101 S. Broadway St. would mean increased visibility and half again more space, giving the museum 6,000 square feet on just themain floor, up from 4,000 square feet (including the half-basement) at 112 N. Maxwell St.

While he’s waiting for progress, Warden is planning - options like setting up a forge, drill press and trip hammer from a machine shop and having space to design exhibits.

“The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of our downtown historic district,” Warden said, “and it still has the original mural over the postmaster’s door and the vault.

“But it needs a lot of work. There’s no way of knowing when we’ll get into it. But it will be great when we do.”

Life, Pages 6 on 12/26/2012