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Hi, I'm Secretary of State Mark Martin & welcome to This Week in Arkansas History.
By training I'm an engineer, so I thought the ArkLa Handy Wagon was especially interesting.
It was an example of ingenuity combined with simplicity.
The Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Company, or ArkLa,
needed a simple, tough, economical utility vehicle for its service technicians.
ArkLa chairman Witt Stevens asked the company's lawyer Raymond Thornton
to design such a vehicle.
Thornton and the construction engineer Ed Headon collaborated with
the Dutch auto manufacturer for components.
Ninety-seven small trucks were built — one per day — at the Razorback Boat Company in Malvern.
The trucks entered service in May of 1964. Stevens wanted more of the handy wagons,
which would have made Arkansas an auto manufacturing center.
But production costs couldn't be cut enough to meet his budget.
So the project was abandoned. The Handy Wagons were in service for over a decade before retiring.
Join me again next week for more Arkansas History.