The community later became a “Boomtown” in spite of the fact that there were several larger and pretty well developed communities around like Roseville with a River Port, Scranton, Morrison Bluff or even Magazine. However, after the war, around 1870, it was finally recognized that this little sparse settlement, of just a few houses East of Short Mountain, had the makings of a thriving township. That area had thousands and thousands of fertile sandy loam land, for farming, in the bottom area near the Arkansas river. Most notable was the potential for improving, expanding and extending the military road that went thru the area both to the East and West, as that route was only mildly restricted by hills and other obstacles that would make road building most difficult. Road building in the other communities that were already developed were blocked by the river, that had to be crossed by a Ferry to go North, or the high mountains to the South that would require winding roads to cross them. Luckily, this small settlement of a few houses had become part of a new county in Arkansas named Sarber around 1871 but was changed to Logan County in honor of Col. James Logan a pioneer and settler when the area was incorported in 1879. The settlement was named Paris around 1875 and selected to be the county seat because of its central location, accessibility, potential for development and growth.

Yes, it seemed to be a natural place to build an extended road connecting places like Little Rock and Ft. Smith. The cost of the roadway to finish connecting these two major towns was reported being $9,000. There was a good supply of fresh creek water, from springs and mountain run off that came together as one stream just South of the Settlement and flowed between the new development and the foot of Short Mountain. True, granted, this realization was late in happening but a few years after the Civil War a community was established and named Paris, after the city of Paris, France.

Just years earlier, in 1866, a young man named Robert Waddell, by accident, found the resource that put Paris on the map and became King in the new established area. The substance found was an “out-cropping” of a good grade of semi-anthracite coal that was desirable as fuel for heating homes because it was tagged “Smokeless Coal.” Now, there has never been a smokeless coal but this coal smoked less than other grades and had a high heat content. It was later determined, by measuring the area of the “out-cropping” that marked the coal basin, that it was shaped something like a pan and measured some 7.5 miles by 2.5 miles. It was realized that the community of Paris was setting on “Black Gold” and there would shortly be work for any and all in the community. Coal became the source that attracted settlers to the area. Fortunately, many of the new inhabitants who moved to Paris, were of German decent and were craftsman natured. They provided other kinds of industry in the community, such as builders, carpenters, blacksmith, repair services and developed new businesses, like a machine shop and later the actual Power Plant that not only provided power for the coal industry but enough power to give the community electric power. The coal industry was slow getting started but there were a number of small mines in operation in the 1880s. The German craftsmen made any of the crude tools needed to support the mines and community in the early years.

Then around 1925, a dynamic and sudden change came to mining around Paris when Heber Denman, a mining engineer, development the long conveyor system and put that crude piece of machinery in operation in his own Paris Purity coal mine. After the long conveyer system was fully implimented, it was for practical purposes, the end of the old Room & Pillar method of mining that had been used for some 50 years in Paris. Then the daily production for a man went from less than 2 tons to 12 tons a day. It was the long conveyor and a few other mining changes implemented by Heber Denman that modernized mining in Paris. These methods quickly spread to other communities in the State that had coal. Although stastics are few, in the year 1900 coal production in the area was 2,000 tons, and increased to some 40,000 by 1923. The work force climbed until, at one time, there were some 1,000 miners in the communities around Paris, and the coal production tonnage peaked after the mines were modernized to more than 400,000 tons in 1952.

Yes, a number of seemingly unconnected factors happened to bring about a coal mining community but the same mysterious happenings also made the community of Paris a place known for its schools, stores and a great place to raise a family. Lastly, a couple of statics about the coal produced during the mining era, which has been closed for some 50 years. Now, if all the coal mined in the Paris area, was collected it would be a 17,000,000 tons coal pile. If all the coal mined in the Paris, during those 90 years, was hauled in railroad boxcars, the train would stretch from Paris, Arkansas to Los Angles, California some 1672 miles. The last boxcars would end some 100 miles out in the Pacific Ocean.