Blackhawks Water Tower - Pea Ridge, AR
N 36° 26.448 W 094° 07.050
15S E 399843 N 4033421
Large water tower serving the growing town of Pea Ridge in Benton County, Arkansas
Waymark Code: WMT151
Location: Arkansas, United States
Date Posted: 09/07/2016
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The town of Pea Ridge is named for the land form on which it sits -- Pea Ridge! The ridge continues roughly east and west for quite a few miles. The historic Civil War Battle of Pea Ridge took place several miles east of the town on the same ridge -- nearer to "ghost" settlements that have disappeared since the Civil War: Lee Town and Twelve Corners. The town has grown from a sleepy village in the 1980s to a thriving city, mainly because of the influence of Bentonville and the headquarters for Walmart not far away, for which Pea Ridge has become a sort of bedroom community.
In the mid-2000s the developers were gearing up to expand Pea Ridge, but the home market collapsed, leaving behind mysterious roads and streets with nothing on them. In the mid-2010s the market had rebounded enough that whole new areas of Pea Ridge have sprung up -- oddly enough, with the old empty roads and streets being the last areas that are still (at the time of this posting) being built on.
This large water tower, which shows on historic satellite imagery prior to 1996, replaced the small, ancient
Old Municipal Water Tower from the early, sleepy days of the town. In fact, as the town grew -- mainly toward the west and Bentonville --
a new water tower had to be built in 2009. This large, older tank has both the name of the town on it (of course) and
Home of the Blackhawks to honor the school sports team.