Carl Stark and the Vinola Wine Ranch
By James F. Hales
Many barber shop discussions have explored the phenomena of why so many world class businessmen emerged from NW Arkansas. The list is long and includes such notables as Sam Walton, J.B. Hunt, Red Hudson, John Tyson, Charles George, Willis Shaw, Harvey Jones, and many others. These dynamic leaders made their impression on Arkansas and the entire world. However in the late 1800s, we had predecessors here who were outstanding and did much to form Rogers and NW Arkansas to make it one of the most outstanding and desirable places in the country.
After the Civil War, NW Arkansas was devastated with almost every building, animal, and crop destroyed, not to mention the terrible toll of humans. It is a mystery how our local ancestors survived this hellacious ordeal. However, some did survive and they rebuilt and restored our area. Early leaders such as the Van Winkles, Blackburns, Sikes, and others worked to bring the railroad here and found Rogers in 1881. Rogers became a booming community hub for NW Arkansas and attracted notable entrepreneurs, builders and visionaries like the Strouds, Coin Harvey, A.O. Clarke, the McNeils, Applegates, Felkers, and many others.
In the late 1800s J.A.C Blackburn was the “lumber king” of NW Arkansas at War Eagle. Just a short distance away at what is today Monte Ne, another giant of industry was excelling in a different field. Carl Starck came to Rogers in 1888, just seven years after the founding of the new town. Carl and his brother, Arlie, and their sister, Emmy, along with their mother, Mrs. Emilie, acquired 640 acres just southeast of Rogers near Silver Springs. This land today is just across the road from the Highway 94E Fire Department just past Monte Ne. Mrs. Emilie Starck was a widow and a native of Germany and appeared to come from a family of great wealth and refinement. The local hill folks were amazed when the Starcks arrived with two grand pianos, a fine library, beautiful paintings, fine artworks, fine china, glassware, and even gold dinnerware. (Dorothy Mitchell, Our Family magazine, Oct. 1965)
Before coming to Arkansas, Carl was a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, and Arlie was a lawyer in Philadelphia. The boys retired from their former jobs and set out to find the perfect location and weather to raise grapes for fine wines. They considered locations in California and Florida, but chose a hillside overlooking the White River near Rogers. In 1890, the Starck brothers named their place the Vinola Wine Ranch and planted one acre of grapes. They are credited with introducing grape growing to Benton County. Unfortunately, siblings Arley and Emmy suffered premature deaths, but Carl an accomplished lawyer, scientist, philosopher, and horticulturist, went on to make significant contributions to the formation of Rogers and NW Arkansas.
Carl Starck experimented with several varieties of grapes, and cross-bred and created new varieties before deciding that Cynthiana, an American native grape, produced the best wine. He conducted scientific tests and was convinced that these grapes were the finest wine grapes in the world. His wines won major awards in this country and abroad, and in 1899, he was appointed by the Governor of Arkansas as the state’s first wine inspector. Starck was a pioneer in wine production in the state, and predicted that $1,000,000 per year could be made in Benton County on the uncultivated land alone. In 1900, the Vinola Wine Ranch had grown to 1,235 acres and cultivated over 8500 grape vines, 1000 Arkansas black apple trees, and considerable corn, clover and fodder . (It is interesting to note that the Arkansas Black Apple was developed in 1870 near Bentonville). In addition to his own farming interests, Starck tested 41 different varieties of grapes as a United States experiment station. (Rogers Democrat, March 2, 1900)
About 1902, Carl Starck built a new home of local limestone on a hill overlooking the White River Valley with 20-foot-wide porches on three sides. The cellar was lined with stone and filled with wooden barrels for aging wine. On the hill near his home, he built a tower for weather observation. His home and Vinola Ranch was the showplace of the area and attracted thousands of tourists every year. He especially welcomed faculty and students from the University of Arkansas to do horticultural experiments.
The Starcks and their ranch was so popular in the area that the local postmaster at Silver Springs petitioned to rename the area Vinola. Due to a misreading of the name by a government official, the name came back as Vinda, instead of Vinola. The Vinda post office operated from 1900-1906 when it was changed to Monte Ne.
Coin Harvey, and eccentric entrepreneur, arrived in Rogers in 1900, and began building his famous resort at Monte Ne. Harvey always aligned himself with rich influential people, so he immediately befriended his neighbor, Carl Starck. Starck was a primary investor in several of Harvey’s ventures including the Monte Ne Railway. No doubt, he lost all of his money invested in Harvey’s schemes.
The Starcks were very kind and hospitable folks and welcomed all to tour their ranch, handing out liberal samples of their products. Their generosity is displayed in this humorous column from the Rogers Democrat, Jan. 14, 1903 – “The Rogers Journal of last week contained a ‘write up’ of Carl Starck and his Vinola Wine Ranch. Judging from the flow of language in the article, Dave Adams, the sporting editor, had been out to Vinola and sampled everything on the mountaintop.”
Carl Starck was happy to give visitors free samples, but he also sold it by the barrel, jug, bottle, or glass. Tables were available in a German garden setting and many visitors enjoyed the excellent wine while listening to music by Johann Straus.
During Starck’s wine making career, he continually struggled with prohibition type laws that inhibited his business. At times he advertised his wine “for medicinal purposes only” and for “family use and physicians and hospital purposes.” Starck was said to have sold little of his wine locally, instead shipping it to other states. Finally in 1915, when statewide prohibition passed, Starck gave up, lost all interest in wine making, and abandoned his vineyards. He was ahead of his time, for when prohibition was defeated in 1933, the “golden age” of wine making (1935-1965) began in Northwest Arkansas. (Rogers Historical Museum web site, Benton County Wine Bottles, 7-30-09)
After giving up making fine wines, Starck continued his many other interests including his hobby of being a weather observer for the U.S. Government. Before his death in 1939, he received official recognition and awards for reporting the local weather. From 1894, he reported the average temperature, rainfall, and frost dates for 45 years without missing a single day. His reports were an indispensable service to the farmers of NW Arkansas. (Dorothy Mitchell, Our Family magazine, Oct. 1965)
About 1927, Carl Starck sold his home and the Vinola Ranch to Jack Dur, a wealthy businessman from Oklahoma City. Carl bought another farm east near Horseshoe Bend Park and moved his family and belongings to their new home. However, prohibition agents refused to let Carl move his treasured barrels of fine aged wine from the cellar of his old home to his new home. Instead, they poured 30 barrels of wine down the holler near the present Highway 94E Fire Department.
To get the “rest of the story” of the history of the Vinola Wine Ranch, I recently contacted the present owners, Joe and Betty Baker. The Dur home and land was acquired by local businesspersons, Joe and Betty Baker in 1990 and they live there today. Joe and Betty are avid historians and collectors of historical stories and objects. They graciously let me ask questions and filled in the story of Vinola since it was sold by Carl Starck. Here are excerpts of the story:
Jack Dur intended to use the former Vinola ranch as his summer home, and he tore down Starck’s old house and built a new home on the site preserving Starck’s wine cellar as his basement. Dur used the stone from Starck’s house to build the elegant stone and wrought iron fence that you see today along Highway 94 E across from the fire station. In the 1930s, between WWI and WWII, the Great Depression was in progress and the future was uncertain. Dur was afraid of being bombed, so he built his home with 18 inch thick concrete walls – essentially bomb proof. The home has been upgraded through the years but is still basically as Dur built it and is still known today as the Dur place.
The Dur family sold the place about 1971, and it had several owners before it was acquired by Jerry Haskins about 1881. Haskins was a talented gunsmith and inventor and installed a shooting range in the basement of his garage. (Joe Baker, current owner and occupant of the Dur home and former Vinola Ranch, 1/6/17)
Further research revealed that Haskins had a truly brilliant and innovative mind and developed specialized guns and ammunition that received world acclaim. He designed .22 caliber rifles for Daisy to be used by the military, a .50 caliber sniper rifle for the U.S. Navy Seals, and bolt action rifle which was one of the best built in this country. (Field and Stream magazine, March 1988) Haskins worked with Daisy here in Rogers to design and build the sniper rifles which successfully hit targets at 1500 meters, just short of one mile. (Daisy, It All Starts Here by Joe Murfin, pg. 105)
The development of Rogers included many fascinating leaders and their achievements, and one of the foremost was Carl Starck and his Vinola Wine Ranch. Hopefully, now travelers who pass the beautiful stone and cast iron fence on the way to Horseshoe Bend Park will notice it and think of the amazing stories that happened there.
By James F. Hales
Many barber shop discussions have explored the phenomena of why so many world class businessmen emerged from NW Arkansas. The list is long and includes such notables as Sam Walton, J.B. Hunt, Red Hudson, John Tyson, Charles George, Willis Shaw, Harvey Jones, and many others. These dynamic leaders made their impression on Arkansas and the entire world. However in the late 1800s, we had predecessors here who were outstanding and did much to form Rogers and NW Arkansas to make it one of the most outstanding and desirable places in the country.
After the Civil War, NW Arkansas was devastated with almost every building, animal, and crop destroyed, not to mention the terrible toll of humans. It is a mystery how our local ancestors survived this hellacious ordeal. However, some did survive and they rebuilt and restored our area. Early leaders such as the Van Winkles, Blackburns, Sikes, and others worked to bring the railroad here and found Rogers in 1881. Rogers became a booming community hub for NW Arkansas and attracted notable entrepreneurs, builders and visionaries like the Strouds, Coin Harvey, A.O. Clarke, the McNeils, Applegates, Felkers, and many others.
In the late 1800s J.A.C Blackburn was the “lumber king” of NW Arkansas at War Eagle. Just a short distance away at what is today Monte Ne, another giant of industry was excelling in a different field. Carl Starck came to Rogers in 1888, just seven years after the founding of the new town. Carl and his brother, Arlie, and their sister, Emmy, along with their mother, Mrs. Emilie, acquired 640 acres just southeast of Rogers near Silver Springs. This land today is just across the road from the Highway 94E Fire Department just past Monte Ne. Mrs. Emilie Starck was a widow and a native of Germany and appeared to come from a family of great wealth and refinement. The local hill folks were amazed when the Starcks arrived with two grand pianos, a fine library, beautiful paintings, fine artworks, fine china, glassware, and even gold dinnerware. (Dorothy Mitchell, Our Family magazine, Oct. 1965)
Before coming to Arkansas, Carl was a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, and Arlie was a lawyer in Philadelphia. The boys retired from their former jobs and set out to find the perfect location and weather to raise grapes for fine wines. They considered locations in California and Florida, but chose a hillside overlooking the White River near Rogers. In 1890, the Starck brothers named their place the Vinola Wine Ranch and planted one acre of grapes. They are credited with introducing grape growing to Benton County. Unfortunately, siblings Arley and Emmy suffered premature deaths, but Carl an accomplished lawyer, scientist, philosopher, and horticulturist, went on to make significant contributions to the formation of Rogers and NW Arkansas.
Carl Starck experimented with several varieties of grapes, and cross-bred and created new varieties before deciding that Cynthiana, an American native grape, produced the best wine. He conducted scientific tests and was convinced that these grapes were the finest wine grapes in the world. His wines won major awards in this country and abroad, and in 1899, he was appointed by the Governor of Arkansas as the state’s first wine inspector. Starck was a pioneer in wine production in the state, and predicted that $1,000,000 per year could be made in Benton County on the uncultivated land alone. In 1900, the Vinola Wine Ranch had grown to 1,235 acres and cultivated over 8500 grape vines, 1000 Arkansas black apple trees, and considerable corn, clover and fodder . (It is interesting to note that the Arkansas Black Apple was developed in 1870 near Bentonville). In addition to his own farming interests, Starck tested 41 different varieties of grapes as a United States experiment station. (Rogers Democrat, March 2, 1900)
About 1902, Carl Starck built a new home of local limestone on a hill overlooking the White River Valley with 20-foot-wide porches on three sides. The cellar was lined with stone and filled with wooden barrels for aging wine. On the hill near his home, he built a tower for weather observation. His home and Vinola Ranch was the showplace of the area and attracted thousands of tourists every year. He especially welcomed faculty and students from the University of Arkansas to do horticultural experiments.
The Starcks and their ranch was so popular in the area that the local postmaster at Silver Springs petitioned to rename the area Vinola. Due to a misreading of the name by a government official, the name came back as Vinda, instead of Vinola. The Vinda post office operated from 1900-1906 when it was changed to Monte Ne.
Coin Harvey, and eccentric entrepreneur, arrived in Rogers in 1900, and began building his famous resort at Monte Ne. Harvey always aligned himself with rich influential people, so he immediately befriended his neighbor, Carl Starck. Starck was a primary investor in several of Harvey’s ventures including the Monte Ne Railway. No doubt, he lost all of his money invested in Harvey’s schemes.
The Starcks were very kind and hospitable folks and welcomed all to tour their ranch, handing out liberal samples of their products. Their generosity is displayed in this humorous column from the Rogers Democrat, Jan. 14, 1903 – “The Rogers Journal of last week contained a ‘write up’ of Carl Starck and his Vinola Wine Ranch. Judging from the flow of language in the article, Dave Adams, the sporting editor, had been out to Vinola and sampled everything on the mountaintop.”
Carl Starck was happy to give visitors free samples, but he also sold it by the barrel, jug, bottle, or glass. Tables were available in a German garden setting and many visitors enjoyed the excellent wine while listening to music by Johann Straus.
During Starck’s wine making career, he continually struggled with prohibition type laws that inhibited his business. At times he advertised his wine “for medicinal purposes only” and for “family use and physicians and hospital purposes.” Starck was said to have sold little of his wine locally, instead shipping it to other states. Finally in 1915, when statewide prohibition passed, Starck gave up, lost all interest in wine making, and abandoned his vineyards. He was ahead of his time, for when prohibition was defeated in 1933, the “golden age” of wine making (1935-1965) began in Northwest Arkansas. (Rogers Historical Museum web site, Benton County Wine Bottles, 7-30-09)
After giving up making fine wines, Starck continued his many other interests including his hobby of being a weather observer for the U.S. Government. Before his death in 1939, he received official recognition and awards for reporting the local weather. From 1894, he reported the average temperature, rainfall, and frost dates for 45 years without missing a single day. His reports were an indispensable service to the farmers of NW Arkansas. (Dorothy Mitchell, Our Family magazine, Oct. 1965)
About 1927, Carl Starck sold his home and the Vinola Ranch to Jack Dur, a wealthy businessman from Oklahoma City. Carl bought another farm east near Horseshoe Bend Park and moved his family and belongings to their new home. However, prohibition agents refused to let Carl move his treasured barrels of fine aged wine from the cellar of his old home to his new home. Instead, they poured 30 barrels of wine down the holler near the present Highway 94E Fire Department.
To get the “rest of the story” of the history of the Vinola Wine Ranch, I recently contacted the present owners, Joe and Betty Baker. The Dur home and land was acquired by local businesspersons, Joe and Betty Baker in 1990 and they live there today. Joe and Betty are avid historians and collectors of historical stories and objects. They graciously let me ask questions and filled in the story of Vinola since it was sold by Carl Starck. Here are excerpts of the story:
Jack Dur intended to use the former Vinola ranch as his summer home, and he tore down Starck’s old house and built a new home on the site preserving Starck’s wine cellar as his basement. Dur used the stone from Starck’s house to build the elegant stone and wrought iron fence that you see today along Highway 94 E across from the fire station. In the 1930s, between WWI and WWII, the Great Depression was in progress and the future was uncertain. Dur was afraid of being bombed, so he built his home with 18 inch thick concrete walls – essentially bomb proof. The home has been upgraded through the years but is still basically as Dur built it and is still known today as the Dur place.
The Dur family sold the place about 1971, and it had several owners before it was acquired by Jerry Haskins about 1881. Haskins was a talented gunsmith and inventor and installed a shooting range in the basement of his garage. (Joe Baker, current owner and occupant of the Dur home and former Vinola Ranch, 1/6/17)
Further research revealed that Haskins had a truly brilliant and innovative mind and developed specialized guns and ammunition that received world acclaim. He designed .22 caliber rifles for Daisy to be used by the military, a .50 caliber sniper rifle for the U.S. Navy Seals, and bolt action rifle which was one of the best built in this country. (Field and Stream magazine, March 1988) Haskins worked with Daisy here in Rogers to design and build the sniper rifles which successfully hit targets at 1500 meters, just short of one mile. (Daisy, It All Starts Here by Joe Murfin, pg. 105)
The development of Rogers included many fascinating leaders and their achievements, and one of the foremost was Carl Starck and his Vinola Wine Ranch. Hopefully, now travelers who pass the beautiful stone and cast iron fence on the way to Horseshoe Bend Park will notice it and think of the amazing stories that happened there.
The entrance to the Dur/Haskins/Baker home and what was once the Vinola Wine Ranch. This stone and wrought-iron fence was built by Jack Dur about 1927. The Vinola Wine Ranch was on Highway 94E across from the Fire Station near Monte Ne. (Photo by James Hales, 1/7/2017)