Stamps Mural (2018) and Bodcaw Bank (est. 1903)

The Stamps Mural is located at the corner of Main and Thomas streets. Commissioned by the mayor and city council in 2018, the mural depicts three significant attributes of the Stamps community: Lake June, Dr. Maya Angelou's connection to the city, and the history of the Bodcaw Lumber Company, which operated lumber mills in Stamps from 1898 to 1931. As the mural notes, the Bodcaw Lumber Company's facilities in Stamps were, at one time, reputed as producing more yellow pine than any other lumber mill in the world. Bodcaw Bank was founded in Stamps in 1903 by the Bodcaw Lumber Company to serve the financial needs of the Company's employees. Today, the bank has three branches, including this one in Stamps on a lot bounded on three sides by Main, Thomas, and Church streets. It may be the last part of the Bodcaw Lumber Company's various businesses to be operating under the "Bodcaw" name; however, today it Is owned not by International Paper, who acquired Bodcaw Lumber Company, but by a company called "Bodcaw Bancshares."

Lake June was created in the late 1880s to serve as the log pond for the Bodcaw Lumber Company's sawmills in Stamps. Today, it is owned by the City of Stamps and has a fishing pier and a boat launch for small boats. Alongside the lake is Dr. Maya Angelou Memorial Park, the only city park in Stamps.

Dr. Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Together with her brother, Bailey Johnson, Jr., she lived in Stamps from 1931 to 1941. She chronicled her experiences in the town in her first memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). She made numerous contributions across many genres of art, including dance, theater, film, and poetry, but she is perhaps most well known for her sequence of seven memoirs, of which I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the most well-known.

Along with Lake June, Bodcaw Bank is one of the most tangible reminders of the Bodcaw Lumber Company's presence in Stamps today.

"About Us," Bodcaw Bank. Accessed February 10th, 2024. https://bodcaw.bank/about-us/.

Clift, Zoie. Visiting the Town of Stamps, Childhood Home of Maya Angelou, Arkansas.com. May 2021. Accessed February 10th, 2024. https://www.arkansas.com/articles/visiting-town-stamps-childhood-home-maya-angelou.

"Korey Keith and Jeff White named to management of Bodcaw Bancshares," Magnolia Reporter.com. February 23rd, 2018. Accessed February 10th, 2024. http://www.magnoliareporter.com/news_and_business/lafayette_county/article_10e3f90a-1676-11e8-947d-1fa2732bb86e.html.

Schnedler, Jack. ARKANSAS SIGHTSEEING: Black History Month recalls Arkansas’ racist past, efforts to end ignorance, hatefulness, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. January 29th, 2024. Accessed February 10th, 2024. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/jan/29/arkansas-sightseeing-black-history-month-recalls/.