The Civil War in Sharp County

Evening Shade began as a tangle of nicknames. Locals called the settlement Shanty until about 1850, and for a short time it was Hook Rum, a name tied to an 1851 incident in which a man was cheated while drunk. The present name probably comes from the afternoon shade cast by tall pines near the post office, opened in 1847. At the war's start the town held about 100 people, three stores and a saloon. It was incorporated in 1870, two years after it became seat of the new Sharp County.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Independence Regional Museum — 21 mi
  A Batesville museum in a 1936 WPA sandstone National Guard armory, telling the story of the twelve counties that once formed Independence County, with a research wing for local records.

More markers nearby

• Site of Lacrosse Collegiate Institute — 12 mi
• Wild Haws in the Civil War — 12 mi
• Izard County First Courthouse — 16 mi
• Capt. Wiley C. Jones — 18 mi