By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer
In 1970, Cabot had just started to grow as people from Little Rock and military personnel from the air base in Jacksonville moved in. It had picked up almost 1,600 new residents for a total population of about 2,900. Ten years later, it had grown to 4,800. In between, on March 29, 1976, the town was hit with several F3 and F4 tornadoes that killed five people.
Thirty-five years later, the signs of the devastation are still there, but not in what can be seen. The destruction shows in what is missing.
Although Cabot was settled in 1873, it has no historic downtown; no empty stores with tall ceilings covered with metal tiles and unlike nearby Beebe, no need for ordinances to help bring an old downtown back to life.
Although the tornadoes took lives and destroyed property, they didn’t destroy the spirit of Cabot residents who rebuilt and then in the fall of 1978, celebrated with a festival they called, Cabot: We’re Back,” a festival now known as the annual Cabotfest.
Bill Cypert, the new mayor of Cabot, which has now grown to 23,776, credits that storm with showing Cabot people the strength they have within themselves.
“Most people probably don’t even know about the tornado,” he said. “But it was probably the turning point for revitalization and growth.”
According to a history of Cabot, “During the rebuilding of the city, it was decided to build a new city hall, municipal courtroom, library (since relocated), and police station on the site of the debris-filled dividing point between the east and west sections of Main Street, creating City Plaza.
“Highway 89, which follows the same path as West Main Street in Cabot, was redirected around City Plaza along one block of Second Street, to continue its path along Pine Street just south of the Cabot High School campus.
“In the past 35 years, Cabot has not only grown in population; it has big-box stores and boutiques. Large grocery stores and family entertainment like the bowling alley and movie theater.”
The enrollment at Cabot schools is now more than 10,000 and park facilities are growing with the population.
In recent years, city leaders have tried to create a feeling of downtown, especially in December with holiday lights and celebrations at the city hall that was built after the tornado.
The new health clinic could have moved to the newer parts of the city, but it was built behind city hall to help maintain the vitality of the older part of the city. And Centennial Bank has built a branch that looks on the outside like the original Bank of Cabot.
To be fair to Cabot’s new mayor, questions about the 1976 tornadoes caught him off guard. He said he has had traffic on his mind, how to make it flow better and why the patterns seem to change inexplicably.
But if he had to think about the lack of an historic downtown, then he thinks Cabot is doing just fine without it.
“Obviously, the trade area evolves as the city grows,” Cypert said. “Look at Little Rock. Everything used to be on Broadway. That’s all there was. No, I don’t think this is significant for Cabot.”
