Pioneer Village I: Pangburn drunk tank

The Pioneer Village is a hidden hamlet nestled in the middle of Searcy's industrial area. The White County Historical Society started putting it together in the late 1960s and now they have a bunch of old, quirky buildings collected from around the county, as well as a lot of historic trinkets and artifacts.

Here's one of them:



Up until around 1960, this was the Pangburn jail. It's not much more than a tin-and-wood shack, with one room and a few tiny windows. There's a hatch on the gable for who-knows-what, but the guide suggested it might have been to help cool the building in hot summers.

But she did note that the building was an oven in the summer and a freezer in the winter. It was also reserved almost entirely for drunks. So don't get drunk in Pangburn, folks, or you'll end up in this thing, like my beautiful wife Jenna (pictured) did. Shame, Jenna, shame!

Also, hanging in the building are a pair of chaps said to have belonged to Jesse James at one point. Take with a grain of salt.

-Jonesy