A sense of nostalgia hung over the track on Dec. 31, 2022, the last day of dog racing at Southland in West Memphis. Greyhound races had been run there since Sept. 7, 1956.

Mildred Hill was among the original six employees at Southland. In April 2018, when she celebrated her 63rd anniversary as a Southland employee, Hill said: "In the early days, it was open on both floors with no glass windows and packed with 10,000 people. There was no air conditioning. That was something to see."

"We were the only game in town," greyhound trainer Chuck Mullen told an interviewer several years later. "Everybody who was anybody in West Memphis or Memphis came here."

Another trainer, Darby Henry (who ran a kennel from 1956 until 2002), said: "On the ground floor, you would see nothing but heads. They wou

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