One of Arkansas' greatest modern entrepreneurs, Patti Upton of Heber Springs, died late last month at age 79. Upton began mixing Arkansas sweetgum balls, acorns, hickory nuts and other items with spices and oils back in 1982, leading to a company named Aromatique that sold its products nationwide and had some of the country's most famous celebrities as customers.
The media coverage of Upton's death focused on her accomplishments at Aromatique. Upton also should be remembered for joining forces with her husband Dick to save an Arkansas icon, the Red Apple Inn.
When the Uptons purchased the Red Apple on Eden Isle at Greers Ferry Lake in 1995, what once had been on lists of the finest resorts in the South had fallen into disrepair. For several years, the inn and country club had been under the ownership of Melvyn Bell. Bell expanded his real estate holdings too quickly and eventually fell millions of dollars into debt. Bell died in July 2006 at age 68 following a long battle with cancer.
The inn and restaurant had opened in 1963, burned in 1964 following a kitchen fire, and reopened in 1965. The Red Apple was something Arkansans could take pride in at a time when there weren't a lot of things bringing positive recognition to the state other than winning Razorback football teams. My father, an avid quail hunter, would have his bird dogs trained by a man at Rose Bud. We would drop off dogs at Rose Bud on Sundays and then head to the Red Apple for dinner. The word "brunch" wasn't used in those days, and "dinner" on Sunday meant the middle of the day.
Years later, I met my wife in Washington, D.C., and I moved back home to Arkansas in late 1989. I delighted in taking my Texas-born spouse to favorite places across the state. In October 1991--during the week when the newspaper war between the Arkansas Democrat and the Arkansas Gazette ended--we headed to the Red Apple Inn to celebrate our second anniversary. I raved about it on the drive to Heber Springs, but I was embarrassed once we checked in. The door to the room wouldn't shut properly, the commode was broken, and there were numerous other problems. It wasn't the place I remembered from my childhood.
The Uptons spent $4.2 million in 1995 to buy the Red Apple and then spent millions more on improvements to a facility that even had a leaky roof by then. Dick Upton once said in a deposition for a lawsuit involving the marina at the complex: "I had so much money invested in the Red Apple Inn, I might have been in the middle of a divorce if I had invested more." The truth, though, was that Patti Upton also took pride in bringing back the Red Apple.
Eden Isle and the Red Apple were the creations of Herbert L. Thomas Sr., an Arkansas business titan in the 20th century. Thomas, born in rural Ashley County in 1899, formed a life insurance company known as the Mutual Assessment Co. in 1923. By 1925, there were more than 10,000 policyholders. Thomas later incorporated the First Pyramid Life Insurance Co. of America and set up shop in the Southern Trust Building in downtown Little Rock. He purchased the structure, which still stands, in 1937 and renamed it the Pyramid Life Building. He contributed heavily to political campaigns and was close to U.S. Rep. Wilbur D. Mills and U.S. Sens. John L. McClellan and J. William Fulbright.
Thomas and his wife Ruby fell in love with the part of the state around Heber Springs. Soon after Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1938, engineers began surveying for a dam on the Little Red River in that area. Appropriations to build the dam didn't come until years later, and Greers Ferry Dam wasn't completed until 1962. Speculators had purchased land in hopes that they could sell it to the government for the lake or, even better, have lakefront property when the lake was filled. None of those speculators knew exactly what the water level would be, but Thomas had his political connections on Capitol Hill. He bought property known as Estes Hill. Maps leaked to Thomas showed it would be an island in the lake. The problem was that islands in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' lakes cannot be privately owned. Knowing this, Thomas built a causeway to his land before the lake was filled. Technically, it was no longer an island. Once the lake filled up, 400 of the 500 acres that Thomas has purchased were above water. That land became Eden Isle.
Thomas was a perfectionist when it came to Eden Isle. He hoped to make it the nicest vacation destination in the state and also began selling lots for homes. Construction restrictions ensured that the homes would be built of native stone, wood and glass and thus blend in with the surrounding landscape. Herbert and Ruby Thomas were personally involved in the construction of homes, making sure that native trees and plants were protected. Thomas resigned as the First Pyramid chairman in 1980 and focused on the development of Eden Isle during the final two years of his life.
Ruby Thomas, meanwhile, supplied the recipes used in the dining room at the Red Apple Inn, even writing a book, Feasts of Eden: Gracious Country Cooking from the Red Apple Inn. The inn still uses her recipes, and the 16th century wrought-iron gate that the couple brought back from Spain is still there. Following the decline of the Bell years, the Uptons were worthy successors to the founding Thomas family. If you pay a visit to the Red Apple Inn, you can bet that you'll smell the Aromatique products in the lobby.
------------v------------
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 06/07/2017