Before John Cooper, Sr., came to northwest Arkansas in the early 1960's and started buying up farms for the recreational/retirement village he wanted to establish, the farmers in the area raised a variety of crops and sometimes had dairy cattle. They sold their milk to the milk plant in nearby Rogers. One of those farmers was Christopher C. Cooper (no relation to John), who built the Settler's Cabin circa 1912 that was moved to the Bella Vista Historical Museum grounds in 2019.
To be successful, the dairy farmers needed milk plants to buy their milk. The Rogers milk plant was built at 216 West Birch in Rogers in 1928, and the building still stands today. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. The following information was obtained from the National Register application submitted by India Olson and Callie Williams in September 2018. Their document states:
"In the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, fruits such as apples, peaches, pears, plums and grapes grew with such abundance that Butler County acquired the title of 'Apple Orchard of America' .... However, apple production began to steadily decline ... as a result of tree diseases, bad seed mixing, insects, extreme weather conditions, the Great Depression, and changing market demands.
"As the apple industry began to decline, dairy and poultry products became the new economic leaders in Benton County .... In June of 1927, it was reported in the Journal-Advance newspaper of Gentry that a field representative of the Carnation Milk Company in Mt. Vernon, Missouri, was in the area looking over dairy production. The paper noted that a new milk plant or condensery could be a great economic prospect for the region. ...
"By early 1928, the Barnes Dairy Products Company of northwest Arkansas positioned itself to take advantage of the burgeoning local dairy farms, and the ever expanding market for fresh milk sparred by local population growth, by starting construction of a large milk plant in the City of Rogers, Arkansas. On December 29, 1928, it was reported ... that the new Milk Plant ... would soon be ready to process 40,000 pounds of milk. The ... building ... was completed at a cost of $40,000. In January 1929, the first milk was received by the Barnes Dairy Products .... The plant workers would make sure the accepted milk was clean and fresh and would check the milk for any bacteria before combining it with other accepted milk to be either sold locally or sent for canning at other companies. By April of 1929, it was stated ... that the ... plant reported 21,778 pounds of milk received in just one day with $5,467.83 paid to local farmers in just the first 10 days of operation in April.
"It seems that the ... plant was sold or ... renamed during its first year of production, as the plant was shut down in September of 1929 so that the Mid-Continent Diary Products Corporation that controlled the plant could reorganize. This was a huge blow to the local agricultural economy as the plant had been paying out nearly $50,000 per month for whole milk. The reorganization ... was unsuccessful and the ... company was sold in bankruptcy in February of 1930 to a new local company known as the Rogers Dairy Products company. This new company took over the building and installed new equipment in March and April so that the milk plant could reopen in mid-1930 .... (However) by 1931, the plant was again closed due to the bankruptcy of its controlling company.
"A new group of local investors again formed a new company, the Dairy Products Company, to take over the idle plant. Due to various ... issues, this group wasn't able to open the plant until January of 1933. Although successful, ... by late 1934, the Dairy Products Company ... was in discussion with the Carnation Company to lease the building and milk processing business in Rogers.
"In April of 1935, the Carnation Company was advertising in Northwest Arkansas newspapers that ... (it) was interested in buying all of the 'clean milk, of acceptable quality' that the local dairy farms could produce. In September of 1935, it was reported by the Fayetteville Daily Democrat newspaper ... that this purchase by a well-established milk company (Carnation had started in 1899 in Washington state) would assure permanent operation of the milk plant as a buyer for the more than 600 farmers in the region who had agreed to patronize the Carnation plant.
"In the early 1940's, the Carnation milk plant was buying $700,000 to $800,000 a year worth of raw milk from local farmers .... Also the company had contracts with up to 31 'haulers' who transported milk from local farms to the Rogers plant .... (After being checked for bacteria, the milk) would be cooled and put into large scale storage tanks for transport to the Carnation Company condensery plant in Mount Vernon, Missouri . ...
"There were several factors that influenced the expansion of dairy farming in Northwest Arkansas. Railroad agricultural departments transported dairy products and recruited farmers to supply cream, milk, and butter .... (There were) the growing towns in the area ... (and) by the late 1930's Northwest Arkansas had many milk processing companies, including the one in Rogers and a new Pet Milk Plant in Siloam Springs. In 1939, Benton County marketed almost half a million dollars' worth of whole milk, cream, and butter.
"By 1956, Carnation had ... 26 haulers who picked up cans full of milk from 1,200 area dairy farmers across Benton, Washington, and McDonald Counties .... In addition to picking up the milk, drivers would offer transportation for farm children needing to go into town ... . The Rogers plant maintained this function until the early 1960's when it was bought by Standard Milk Company. After the purchase ... the milk plant continued to buy and process milk for only a few more years.
"On July 15, 1967, the Empire Seed Company began operations in the plant where they processed 400,000 pounds of seed from area farmers in the first month. In 2006, the plant ceased production and was bought by Kent Jenkins and occupied by Wildwood Industries, a company that provides oil filters and other items to Walmart. Historic Ozark Properties purchased the property in 2017."
Note: Another source of income for the dairy farmers in the area was the Kraft cheese plant in Bentonville, which was built in 1947. Dairy farmers from around northwest Arkansas sold to Kraft their milk that was then used to make cheese. The plant closed in 2013. The building is now occupied by The Momentary, a satellite to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and a contemporary art space for visual, performing, and culinary arts.
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Xyta Lucas is co-president of the Bella Vista Historical Society which operates the Historical Museum on Highway 71 (1885 Bella Vista Way) in Bella Vista. Hours are Wednesday-Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information call 479-855-2335 or visit the website at bellavistamuseum.org.