Reprinted here by special permission of the author, Cindy Beckman, a retired Conway High School history teacher who writes local history.

Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred and ninety-two. Today is Columbus Day, a federal holiday since 1937 but commemorated as far back as 1792 when New York celebrated the 300th anniversary of his arrival in the New World.

Many people now know, thanks to the efforts of their history teachers and the History Channel, that Columbus most likely did not discover Continue reading →