Great Western/Trail Prospect

Alma was incorporated in 1874 and the economy was largely agricultural until the introduction of the canning industry. Today, the city claims the title of " Spinach Capital of the World". In his book Washington Goes to War, David Brinkley described Alma's participation in the World War II effort: In the town of Alma, Arkansas (population 776), one-fourth of the girls in the 1944 high school graduating class signed up to leave for Washington, and several of their teachers cast aside their low-paying jobs and went with them, all of them climbing aboard a Pullman car for their first train ride, looking for more money and excitement than they had any reasonable expectation of finding in Alma.