El Dorado

For Little Rock Public Radio, this is Dan Boice, with Naming Arkansas.
Founded in 1843, and with almost 20,000 residents, El Dorado in Union County has a history rich in the petroleum industry, especially after the oil boom in the 1920s led to massive population growth. El Dorado certainly is the state’s largest city without a clear story behind its name. One truly awful tale is of wagon trains of migrating families calling out to each other, “Where is your El Dorado?” Newspaperman Fred Allsopp speculated that, because life was filled with trials and hardship, it was the musical sound of the name El Dorado that appealed to the pioneers. Much more likely is the story, which turns up in several places, that early store owner Matthew Rainey found the liquor trade so good that he took to calling his shop the El Dorado Bar. And in so doing he thereby answered the question from the wagon trains and gave a lovely name to the town.
For the University of Arkansas at Monticello this is Dan Boice.