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After almost a year of work, local history researcher Maryanne Edge has provided the Baxter County Historical Society with a special Christmas gift.
The gift is her new book, Around the Square: From Rapp’s Barren to Mountain Home. Maryanne has donated her hours of research and book layout design to create the book as a fundraising tool for the benefit of the Historical Society. She is also the President-Elect of the Historical Society for 2023.
The first printing run of her book is underway, and it is anticipated that at least some inventory will be ready so the book can be purchased as a Christmas gift item.
Around the Square is a 100-page pictorial history book (a comb-bound 8.5 x 11 paperback). Maryanne has filled it with historical photos, newspaper clippings, and accounts of businesses and organizations of the past and events that have happened on or near the square since the city changed its name from Rapp’s Barren to Mountain Home in 1857.
The book sells for $20 and is available to order on the merchandise page of the Society’s website. Copies ordered for mail delivery will have a $5 shipping charge. Once inventory is received, people will also be able to pick up copies in person at the Heritage Center, 808 S. Baker Street in Mountain Home. The Center is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from Noon until 4:00 p.m. Copies may also be available at some area merchants.
Maryanne Edge is well-known in the area for her history projects and books. After the Mountain Home Historic Commercial District, comprising much of the downtown, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, Maryanne spearheaded a fund drive to place a sign commemorating the District on the northeast corner of the Courthouse lawn and another project to fund the placing Historic District Street Signs with the street name signs around the perimeter of the District.
Then she went on to lead a project to have three historic portions of the Mountain Home Cemetery added to the National Register of Historic Places. She began the research in 2018, resulting in the cemetery sections being officially recognized in 2020.
Maryanne Edge is also the compiler-editor of two earlier books on behalf of the Historical Society, Was it Murder? The Dark Side of Baxter County History: Volumes 1 and 2, comprising a collection of all the news accounts of murder cases in and around Baxter County from the late 1800s until the late 1990s. The Was It Murder? Books have been best-sellers for the Historical Society.
