Photo by Jesse Evans (more photos below)
More than 500 attended Saturday’s Fall Festival and Open House at the University of Arkansas Community Division of Agriculture Southwest Research and Extension Center. Young and old participated in a variety of activities including a skeet shoot, BB gun shoot, shooting simulator, archery, youth fishing derby, horseshoe tournament, bounce house, games, tours and displays.
The event marked 150 years of agricultural education, research and extension activity made possible by the Morrill Act of 1862 was part of the statewide Division of Agriculture Day during which the Division’s research and extension facilities hosted their local communities.
The Morrill Act provided federal lands to each state to be used toward the establishment of land-grant colleges at which agricultural studies would be offered. The University of Arkansas was founded in 1871 as a land-grant college. The UA also became a host institution for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station that was founded through passage 125 years ago of the federal Hatch Act. The university’s Arkansas Forest Resources Center resulted from passage 50 years ago of the federal McIntire-Stennis Act that provided support for forestry education and research.
