By Pamela Hill

FIRST AIR RIFLE PRODUCED IN CITY WAS BUILT ON JUNE 26, 1958

ROGERS - Before there was Wal-Mart and before there was J.B. Hunt Transport Services, there was Daisy.

The 126-year-old Daisy Outdoor Products has been an economic force in Northwest Arkansas for 50 years.

"It's incalculable," Rogers Mayor Steve Womack said of the impact Daisy has had on Rogers, not the least of which is a national identity for the town and a wealth of community leaders.

The first Daisy air rifle produced in Rogers was built June 26, 1958, shortly after the company moved from Plymouth, Mich. To celebrate the milestone, Daisy dubbed this week its homecoming, with events Thursday, Friday and Saturday for current and former employees, Daisy collectors and the public.

At a banquet scheduled for today, corporate officers are expected to announce the issuance of a commemorative Daisy Red Ryder BB gun celebrating the 25th anniversary of the classic Hollywood movie, "A Christmas Story," in which the lead character famously asks his parents for a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.

They also were to announce a posthumous donation from Mike Jennings, a writer and promoter who, together with shooting instructor Lucky McDaniel, convinced the U.S. Army to teach instinctive shooting skills with a sightless Daisy BB gun. Per Jennings' wishes, his children are donating his personal journals, which he was turning into a book manuscript, to the Daisy Airgun Museum. Womack said to begin to understand Daisy's impact, people must consider what Rogers was in the mid-1950s.

"It was a wide spot in the road, basically," Womack said. The town was mainly a farming community trying to find its way in the industrial revolution post World War II, he said.

"Daisy became the basis from which Rogers was able to grow from an industrial perspective," the mayor said. "It was then and for long time, the cornerstone of the industrial base in our community."

When Cass Hough was looking for a place to relocate his Michigan-based company, Rogers' residents courted him. The Rogers Industrial Development Corporation loaned him $300,000 to secure the company's move, an effort that ultimately cost $752,000, and took 38 railcars and 71 truckloads.

Raymond Burns, Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce president, said many Rogers merchants signed promissory notes to help purchase land for the factory.

"Mr. Hough was very appreciative and that spoke volumes (about the character of Rogers' residents)," Burns said. "The process of Daisy relocating was the beginning of the community working together. That's carried on through today. The focus of Rogers has been people working together."

Daisy was the impetus for industrial development in Rogers, Burns said. The opening of Daisy, along with the damming of the White River, gave Rogers and Northwest Arkansas the ability to grow. Other giants - Walton, Tyson, Hunt - soon made it big, as well.

Daisy moved its BB-gun assembly plant to Neosho, Mo., in 1997 but returned to Rogers last summer. Daisy's corporate offices remained in Rogers during that period.

"Last year, it all fell together that we could get it all under one roof again. Our (management) team's legacy is that we brought it back to Rogers. It's good for the community, good for Rogers, but it's good for Daisy, too," said Joe Murfin, Daisy vice president of marketing.

Being able to go into the plant and talk with employees makes the work environment easier and better for both laborers and management.

"It's always better face-to-face," Murfin said.

Similar face-to-face interaction led to the company landing in Rogers all those years ago.

"He fell in love with the area," Murfin said of Hough.

High taxes, rival companies in town, an unstable work force and aged factory buildings - some of which still had steam-powered machinery - were factors in Hough's decision to leave Plymouth, Mich., Murfin said.

Hough liked the weather, access to transportation via the Frisco Railway and the people in Rogers. He felt he could get an "honest day's work for an honest day's pay" from Rogers' residents, according to Hough's 1976 book, "It's a Daisy."

Hough, grandson of company founder Lewis Hough, brought 95 Plymouth families with him to Rogers, which had a population of about 4,000 at the time.

Murfin said the Plymouth families immediately affected the local economy. Housing, restaurants, schools and churches all felt the impact.

"A lot of amenities that grew up in the 1960s, grew because Daisy brought those 95 families here," Murfin said.

In a concrete showing of the company's arrival in Rogers, Hough first paid his employees in silver dollars so Daisy employees - and the company's impact - would be easy for longtime residents and business owners to spot.

The company started in 1882 as Plymouth Iron Windmill Co. By 1888, the board actually voted to file bankruptcy, but one board member, local inventor Clarence Hamilton, showed up at the meeting with an airgun he'd made.

In an effort to boost windmill sales, Hamilton suggested they give away one of the air rifles free with every windmill purchase. Marketing industry insiders consider the windmill company one of the first - if not the very first - to use a premium item as a promotional tool, according to Murfin.

When founder Lewis Hough shot the airgun, he reportedly exclaimed, "It's a daisy," Hough's expression of approval. By 1889, the company had a patent on the name.

The promotion saved the windmill company, but only temporarily, Murfin said. When a salesman in 1891 took 10,000 orders for the airgun after displaying it at a retail market show, it wasn't long before the company changed its product line.

And that product is instantly recognizable today.

Womack said Daisy put Rogers' name on the national map, from a business perspective.

"Daisy is a household name, particularly to those who grew up in that era because every real American boy's dream was to own a BB gun," Womack said. "...That kind of public relationship, you can't purchase. It's priceless."

The families who moved from Plymouth to Rogers also shaped the community.

"When you go down the list of names of people who came with Daisy, you have to examine not just the business impact, but to look at it in terms of leadership in the community. We have the fingerprints of Daisy business people on our community and they will be there forever. They invested themselves in leadership. We have facilities in our community named for executives of the Daisy company," Womack said.

The mayor spoke about several former Daisy employees and their civic accomplishments before stopping.

"It's dangerous to name names because for each name I give, I'll probably omit a dozen who had a similar impact on the community," he said.

But what does the next 50 years hold for Daisy?

"It's hard to talk about what's in the future. The culture of the young generation has changed," Womack said. "Will there always be a market for the air rifle? That's unknown. You have to be willing to change."

Burns, whose mother worked 25 years for Daisy, said, "I still see that product being very viable."

Burns said airguns have always been a training tool to teach gun safety before moving on to more powerful firearms. He expects it will continue to be used as such. He also sees competitive shooting, which is an Olympic event, also will continue to be a factor in the company's success.

"The way they manufacture and the way products are used may change some, but there'll always be something nostalgic about a BB gun," Burns said.

Murfin said the current management team is always conscious that they've inherited a great brand. "It would be difficult to launch a new airgun company today. Daisy is not a large company, but it is a 'superbrand.'"

Murfin said a superbrand is one that is recognized by most people when associated with a certain type of product, such as Coca-Cola with soda, Kleenex with tissues.

"We are lucky to be who we are. We have recognition and a history," Murfin said.

Murfin said the corporate staff continually looks at the company's successes and failures and discusses those highs and lows with former employees to help determine what might work in the future.

"It all boils down to doing what we do well and looking for new markets," Murfin said. They also want to maintain the youth market, with whom air rifle sales remain popular. "It's not about resting on our laurels."

Murfin likes the description of Daisy as a 120-year-old new products company. Daisy constantly develops new airguns, targets and accessories and looks for fresh promotion ideas. The company also launched a subsidiary seven years ago, First Nature, which it continues to develop.

First Nature's products include bird feeders in decorative colors.

"We were looking for something that would complement the seasonality of airguns," Murfin said. Airguns sell best in summer when people spend a lot of time outdoors, in fall during hunting seasons and at Christmas. Bird feeding is popular in the spring when people start to get outside after the long winter, Murfin said.

"Daisy Outdoor Products supports people getting out as a family, having fun in the yard. Feeders fit into that," Murfin said.

Murfin declined to disclose how much Daisy Outdoor Products invested to launch First Nature in 2001. Daisy is a private company and not required to release financial information. He did say startup was simple and inexpensive because the management, sales and marketing teams in place for Daisy also handle First Nature.

Daisy also has the exclusive government contract to make drill rifles for the U.S. Army and Navy.

In addition to widespread retail distribution, Daisy products also can be purchased at the Daisy Airgun Museum, a non-profit operation in a 112-year-old building in Rogers' historic downtown.

"As a mayor, I recognize the impact of Daisy on our community," Womack said. "I see it everywhere I go."